This futuristic 990-foot HDMI cable is going viral. Here’s the catch

Twitter’s next hot cable solution might be the ultimate future-proofed desktop cable — but, most likely, a waste of money.

The vast majority of cables snaking back and forth between devices on your desk conceal copper cables inside. Ditto for any cables connecting a mini PC or console to your television in the living room. It’s been that way for decades, and it works just fine.

The next evolution of cabling, however, is swapping electrons running down copper for photons traveling over optical cable. That’s the basis of Ruipro’s 8K HDMI cable: It uses photons for most of the length of the cable, but terminates in a small (detachable!) connector that converts the optical signals into electrical ones. Otherwise, this Ruipro Armored 8K HDMI Cable is just an “ordinary” HDMI 2.1 cable for your desktop gear.

So why consider it? There’s a single reason: cable length. Most high-speed cabling that you use is considered to be “passive,” where signals are sent from one end of the cable to the other. Over that distance, the signal degrades. However, the signal doesn’t degrade so much that it’s indecipherable to the device at the other end, which is why the cable is rated at a certain specification. Optics don’t generate heat, though the connectors might.

The problem is that many cable standards now traverse multiple generations of performance, which is why buying the best USB-C cables and similar items matter. Most passive cables are rated for a meter or so of length; 8K HDMI 2.1 cables top out at about 10 feet before signal attenuation and crosstalk make longer distances unreliable.

But fiber optic cables don’t suffer from the same problems. Ruipro’s cable can be bought in lengths of 3 feet all the way to a whopping 990 feet. An HDMI cable!

The length isn’t the issue

The problem is that the cabling length doesn’t seem to be the gating factor: It’s the removeable connectors on the ends of the cable, which theoretically can be replaced with future heads that support HDMI 2.2, an upcoming specification. To be fair, we haven’t seen any displays or PCs that support that spec yet, and for good reason: The output allows up to 8K video at up to 240Hz or 10K video at up to 120Hz or 4K video at up to 480Hz. The latter sounds possible, but the former seems out of reach. Ruipro will also have to ship those heads, too, which will be an additional cost.

But that length comes with a price: 3 feet is $116.42, and 100 feet is $153.99, on up to 990 feet for $505.99. There’s not much difference in those “midrange” prices. An ordinary 10-foot HDMI 2.1 cable costs $14.24, with the slightly riskier 33-foot cable (because of the signal issues) priced at about $43.

I’ve never used these cables myself, either — and I’m a little concerned about the cable connector holding on to the HDMI terminus. Will the weight of the cable drag on the connector? I honestly don’t know. But a commenter on the original viral post seems to agree.

Still, for the vast majority of desktop users, even a 10-foot HDMI cable can be overkill, needing some cable management to avoid cables snaking this way and that. Living-room setups do have some leeway; 30 feet does get eaten up when running the cable along the periphery of the room. Some users certainly might want to play “PC” games at a desk, but also run the cabling to another room to play other games on a big-screen TV.

I’d call the latter scenario a niche setup. But Ruipro’s cabling solution does allow this to become a reality. Of course, there’s always the risk it becomes an obsession: Maybe then you start routing fiber optic cables around your home and use them as replacements for mesh networking or to run internet connectivity to an outbuilding. Where does it stop???

But for most people, the internet’s latest discovery isn’t something that you need to spend money on. Don’t get me wrong: Fiber is cool, and if you’re custom-building a house, it might be a consideration to work into the design in some way. Otherwise, it’s simply a nerdy addition to your home that might just be money you can assign to other tasks.