|  Accell Corporation has been manufacturing affordable high quality A/V cables for years and we have been following them from the very beginning. Their product line includes a wide selection of both analog and digital cables designed for the best performance for the dollar. We previously reviewed their impressive 25-meter Ultrarun 1.3 HDMI cable that offered amazing performance while still being affordable. Along with their full line of HDMI cables, Accell has recently introduced the AVGrip™ Pro Locking High Speed HDMI cable. Unlike many of the standard HDMI connectors that can be susceptible to popping out of the mating connector, the AVGrip™ Pro has HDMI connectors that are designed to lock and deliver up to 12 pounds of retention force. The result is a cable that works just like any other HDMI cable, but one that also provides locking benefits.
 Locking Mechanism
On the surface, this cable look like any other HDMI cable with a slim backshell design that allows it to be installed in tight areas. Many of the multi-port HDMI components have the mating connectors close to one another, making it difficult to access. A large backshell on the HDMI cable can make it difficult to mate and de-mate in tight areas. Accell designed the AVGrip™ Pro Locking connectors so that it easily fits into these tight areas. Mating the connector is as simple as any other connector with no special handling required. To de-mate the connector, simply pull on the backshell and the spring-loaded housing removes the locking feature allowing the connector pull out of the HDMI connector. It is really easy to use and still provides all the benefits of a locking HDMI cable. There are no special buttons to push or mechanisms to turn making this cable an ingenious design. In fact, intuitively one would pull on the back connector to remove it and this is the release feature designed into this cable.
 Performance
The AVGrip™ Pro Locking HDMI Cables support Deep Color™ and x.y.Color™ technologies, DTS-HD or Dolby True-HD high-definition (HD) digital audio formats and automatic audio and video "lip sync" capability. The cables support all HD resolutions and formats including 1080p, 4K and 3D with an overall bandwidth of up to 10.2 Gbps (340 MHz).
We connected a 2-meter sample (B104C-007B) of the AVGrip™ Pro Locking HDMI Cable between an OPPO BDP-83 Blu-ray player and a Denon AVR-5308CI A/V receiver. The OPPO offers some of the best performance we have seen in a BD player and the Denon provides excellent audio performance. Video was sent to a reference quality Anthem LTX-500v LCos (D-ILA) video projector using the Accell 25-meter Ultrarun 1.3 HDMI cable. Video quality was as good as any we have seen with this system and the AVGrip™ Pro Locking HDMI Cable provided excellent performance. Both audio and video quality were flawless on this system.
Conclusion
Accell's AVGrip™ Pro Locking HDMI Cables not only performs well, but offer users with a robust locking mechanism for reliable operation of their A/V system. The cables are available in 1, 2 and 3-meter lengths starting at $39.99. No longer do you need to worry about cables coming loose and causing problems with your A/V system. The Accell AVGrip™ Pro Locking HDMI Cables provide the confidence and performance one could expect with quality cabling. -
Kevin Nakano | 
