Hi Otto, sorry but that doesn't make sense because I have seen the difference in picture options the different speed cables give first hand.
I agree with you that nothing should be moving inside the cables other than electrons and that the cables are just a conduit to pass information back and forth but all the different speed cables give different results when attached in exactly the same way to the source and TV output ends. I have definitely seen this, but as described, I've yet to find any solution which gives me the 4K 60Hz HDR10 4:4:4 picture I want. Not even the 48Gbps cables give me that on my devices, but I think that's because the HDMI 2.0 ports are maxing out well below the cables performance potential.
I imagine when you attach a 27Gbps or a 48Gbps HDMI cable to HDMI 2.1 setup then you will see 27Gbps and 48Gbps speeds being attained.
I mean 48Gbps is the newest v2.1 standard and 18Gbps is the old v2.0 standard so it must be possible to design a cable to perform to 21Gbps, 23Gbps, 27Gbps, 30Gbps, 35Gbps 40Gbps and everything in between.
There is definitely a lot of false marketing going on in the area of HDMI cables though because I have purchased so many cheap 18Gbps cables that do not even play 4K 60Hz and look more like the older v1.4 HDMI cables. People are probably getting away with this false advertising because the older v1.4 cables do play 4K 30Hz and well most 4K content is only played at 4K 24Hz, so most people don't realise they've been ripped off until they start seeking out better quality content. This better quality 4K 60Hz HDR10 content is readily available now and it's with this content that having a cable that performs above 18Gbps works better, at least for me in my setup anyway, but data is data and the amount of data to give a 4K 60Hz HDR10 4:2:2 picture will be the same no matter which device a person is using.
I think someone needs to do a real world side by side test of all these false cables to advertise to people which cables simply do not perform as advertised so that people can start making informed choices, because HDMI cables are a really confusing area.
I saw a HDMI cable the other day for 159 GBP which is insane, it wasn't even a 48Gbps cable LOL but a 27Gbps cable with a bit of carbon fibre on it. The brand name was Monster LOL and well that's just very expensive for a cable.
I think the only thing going on inside the cable is limited to the flow of electrons and the electromagnetic effects associated with that flow of electrons. There's probably more complicated stuff like eddy currents etc going on as well but that's probably a topic for a different type of forum than this. But if anyone knows this science stuff I would be very interested to learn more
As far as sharp bends and stress on inputs, as long as a good electrical contact has been established on each of the HDMI pins at either end of the cable then the electrons should flow just fine. I imagine the data flow has got to be a function of the resistance of the cable and the resistance to outside electromagnetic interference, so I guess the higher speed cables must be made of something similar to high speed internet, so coaxial cable or potentially also glass fibre :/
I was interested to see that the very expensive glass fibre cables are only rated to 18Gbps though... I didn't buy one LOL