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Use www.monoprice.com for your cabling needs, both computer and home theater.  The local chain stores will charge you $30 or more for a HDMI cable that you can get for about $4 from monoprice.com.  They have decent length Ethernet cables for under $1 too :-)

HDMI has its own issue - devices have to trust each other, usually by being on continuously or turned on in the right order. It particularly affects PCs brought out of sleep mode before the TV is turned on (resolution is wrong or display won't come on without a hard restart). I also ran into it with a TIVO that crashed when I ran the HDMI cable through a receiver instead of straight to the TV.

Took me a year to discover there's an answer. If you need it, look for a $150 device called an "HDMI Detective Plus" from Gefen. It blasts a replica of the HDMI handshake at a device coming to life, even if the display device at the other end isn't awake yet. Instantly my media center PC was stable - sleeps and wakes up contentedly.

Rocket science looks easy compared to living room devices these days . . .

I ran into a somewhat related issue about a month after getting a Sony PlayStation 3 with a brand new *SONY* (yes, really) 50" LCD TV last year.

One day I went to use my PS3 after using it successfully for several game sessions, and the TV just wouldn't show any video from the side-mounted HDMI port that the PS3 was plugged into.  It just detected "no signal".  It was totally infuriating to no end to think that a manufacturer wouldn't think to test compatibility between their own products.  In Sony TV's, CEC is controlled by Bravia Sync, but I even had the option turned off and it still didn't work.  After looking at the back of the TV, I noticed a USB port labeled "service port".  At first I just dismissed it, and then I decided to look on Sony's support site.  After finding an article describing the problem with (whaddya know...) side HDMI ports not picking up a signal, I noticed they had a fix.

Here's the clincher:  The TV needed a firmware update via USB stick in that aforementioned service port!

So I grabbed a 2GB stick that I had, put the firmware on it, plugged it into a powered-down TV, powered the TV on and waited about 3 minutes for it to go through the motions.  After that, everything worked fine.

Your issue seems to be more about DDC support not being up to snuff.

On a related note: I have a Mac Mini with an Asus VH19-something monitor connected via miniDP-to-VGA, and the Mac won't pick up the resolutions after wake-up from sleep.  The highest resolution it offers is 1024x640.  This isn't the first time I've seen this issue with a Mac system though.

"Use www.monoprice.com for your cabling needs, both computer and home theater.  The local chain stores will charge you $30 or more for a HDMI cable that you can get for about $4 from monoprice.com.  They have decent length Ethernet cables for under $1 too :-)"

If your HDMI cable only costs $4 then you will probably have a lot of problems. HDMI is a very high speed digital signaling medium and with all such mediums it requires quality ( certified ) cables. Would you use a cheap cat5e or cat6 cable in your network ? Also pay strict attention to maximum length just like you would in your network.

That being said I wouldn't buy chain store cables either because cost is not an indicator of quality. I wouldn't trust them to not sell a cheap quality $4 cable for $30.

Home theater hookups are no harder than LAN networking IF you do all of the proper reading and research. As with networking it just comes down to experience.

Again that being said these are the early days of this technology and not all of the companies have learned how to implement the technology properly and to the specifications. Once they do it will become easier.

@Dean

"Would you use a cheap cat5e or cat6 cable in your network?"

Why would anyone pay $10 for standard CAT5 6' network cable when you can buy a box of 1000ft of insulated CAT5e indoor/outdoor cable, with a crimping tool and a big bag of ends for about $100 and build any length you want?

The quality of the cable is no different.  Sometimes the ends are custom molded, but that makes no difference in the connection.

HDMI is no different either.  You want to look for UL rated, HDMI 1.3a support, and lifetime warranty at the very least.  Everything else is gravy.  That said, you can buy those on eBay less than a dollar each from China or Hong Kong, and pay nothing for shipping.

Joe,

    Can you crimp the ends on to your own HDMI cable ? I don't think so. Therefore your analogy ( Why would anyone pay $10 for standard CAT5 6' network cable when you can buy a box of 1000ft of insulated CAT5e indoor/outdoor cable, with a crimping tool and a big bag of ends for about $100 and build any length you want?) doesn't hold up. And even if you could crimp your own ends on, the majority of consumers would not and could not. And only a handfull of people are really good at crimping ends onto Ethernet cable reliably time after time. If you mess up and don't realize it you will have intermittant problems that you will never find. Plus why would any consumer want to buy 1000ft of HDMI cable ? Therefore the vast majority of HDMI cables will be purchased pre made.

"HDMI is no different either"

As I said, when you are dealing with very high speed digital connections the quality of the cable can make a huge difference in the reliability and quality of the connection. Especially as the length of the cable gets closer to the maximum length of the specification.

This is what is going to eventually cure all of our as outdated as core memory copper cabling problems.

www.theregister.co.uk/.../integrated_silicon_photonics

Think of not having to deal with metal wires any more. No more properly crimped ends. No more proper number of twists per inch. No more length limitations. No more quality hassles. No more silver coated, oxygen free, single crystal $499 per meter and a half Ethernet cables.

www.usa.denon.com/.../3429.asp

The cheap fiber from China for .001 cent per meter might really be as good as the $1 per meter stuff from BestBuy.

Now what I don't understand is why the %@##@$@#@#@ it's going to take Intel until THE MIDDLE OF THE NEXT DECADE to get this tech to market. How about the middle of THIS decade Intel.

This is what is going to eventually cure all of our as outdated as core memory copper cabling problems.

www.theregister.co.uk/.../integrated_silicon_photonics

Think of not having to deal with metal wires any more. No more properly crimped ends. No more proper number of twists per inch. No more length limitations. No more quality hassles. No more silver coated, oxygen free, single crystal $499 per meter and a half Ethernet cables.

www.usa.denon.com/.../3429.asp

The cheap fiber from China for .001 cent per meter might really be as good as the $1 per meter stuff from BestBuy.

Now what I don't understand is why the %@##@$@#@#@ it's going to take Intel until THE MIDDLE OF THE NEXT DECADE to get this tech to market. How about the middle of THIS decade Intel.