Fusion-HDMI was kind enough to send us their latest HDMI product series for us to review, including three lengths of HDMI cables and two types of HDMI-DVI adaptors.  With the growth of Digital High Definition Television Sets and most HD set-top boxes featuring HDMI only on them, HDMI is the way to go when hooking up High Definition set-top equipment. 

Unlike component video or other analogue connections, HDMI has the major advantage of carrying the video in digital, avoiding the need to convert the signal to analogue from the set-top box, only to be converted back to digital within the TV set.  As HDMI consists of only one lead and can carry digital surround sound audio channels, it also means far fewer cables between set-top boxes supporting HDMI.

Company information

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The following is the company information, which we found at www.fusion-hdmi.com:

Company Overview

Founded in 2006, Fusion is a leading provider of total HDMI solutions to the digital home entertainment market. The Fusion brand of cutting-edge technologies incorporates the most dynamic and interactive applications to bring you seamlessly into the era of digital convergence between consumer and IT products.

Young, digital and dependable with a fresh innovation - that is the image that Fusion represents.

Here at Fusion, we have an ardent vision of the future of our digital entertainment experiences - a complete digital home entertainment system that brings together all your digital media, allowing you to access them wherever in (and even beyond) your home, whenever and however you want.   With our strong passion for all things audio-visual, together with solid background in IT; we focus on developing next-generation products driven by customer feedback and needs. Our team continuously strives to listen to our customers, respond to your needs, and improve.

In the midst of rapidly-evolving technologies, we feel that we can do more than just ride the trends. We here at Fusion believe in pioneering innovation to boost your digital experience and revolutionize your digital lifestyle. 

We are a team with young generation, we try to solve people’s life problem from 20 to 21 century. Lots of new and digital stuff come out and phrase out so soon.

And we try to create a new solution and try to fix the fear of technology.

Special design for aged people, decrease the pain from new technology and build up a real convenient and better quality for life
 

Specifications

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The following specifications are the same for all the cables and adaptors in this review, as found at the Fusion-HDMI website.

Cable & Adaptor Specifications:

• Video: HD Resolutions Supported: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
• Audio: 8-channels, of 192 kHz, 24-bit uncompressed audio
• OFC: Oxygen-Free Copper
• Support video format: NTSC or PAL
• RoHS Green Certified & HDCP supported
• Special design for:
  • Digital TV cable, satellite, and terrestrial broadcasts
  • Digital movies DVDs
  • Digital displays Plasma, LCD, DLP, and LCOS
  • Digital interactivity PVRs, MHP, OCAP
• 10-year Limited Warranty
• Special Design for Playstation 3

What’s inside the box?

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Now let us first start by taking a look at the retail packaging these products came in:

The following image shows the retail boxes these cables came shipped in:

The bundle consists of:

• 1 x 1.5m HDMI male to HDMI male cable retail pack (left)
• 1 x 3m HDMI male to HDMI male cable retail pack (right)
• 1 x 5m HDMI male to HDMI male cable retail pack (middle)
• HDMI female to DVI male adaptor (upper left)
• DVI female to HDMI male adaptor (upper right)

Apart from the cable length, the three cables are identical.  At a first glance, the cables and end-plugs appear as if they were something related to the iPod due to their all-white design. 

Unlike most manufacturers that ship cables in heat-sealed packaging, this packaging opens at the top, which means there is no need to cut or tear apart the packaging, not to mention the high risk of getting cut or injured doing so!  The inside part holding the cable simply slides out and the cable is easily lifted out of the inner packaging, as shown below:

The following image shows a close-up of the front & back of one of the HDMI plugs respectively:

The next image shows a close-up of the plug’s connector:

Even though the cables are all white in colour, interestingly both HDMI to DVI adaptors are black:

The left image above converts HDMI to DVI and the one to the right converts DVI to HDMI, thus allowing a HDMI cable to be connected up to equipment with only a DVI connection or vice versa with the other adaptor.  The next two images show the same adaptors, but with the DVI end of each facing the camera:

Note that while the metal outside is not gold plated, the individual pins that carry the data all have gold plating. 

Conclusion

Features and techniques