HDMI cables question

u01jet4

I am going to buy an HDMI cable to connect my Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop to my Philips LCD TV after the helpful advice from others on a different thread. Now I am looking at the price of the HDMI cables and they seem to vary from £5-£40!

What is the big difference?

Here is the link I am looking at as I will be going to Tesco shortly and will just pick up a cable there:

http://direct.tesco.com/q/N.2000059/Nr.99.aspx

Any suggestions on the best one to get? Length doesn't matter as my laptop will be right next to my TV.

juliescot

u01jet4 wrote: »

I am going to buy an HDMI cable to connect my Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop to my Philips LCD TV after the helpful advice from others on a different thread. Now I am looking at the price of the HDMI cables and they seem to vary from £5-£40!

What is the big difference?

Here is the link I am looking at as I will be going to Tesco shortly and will just pick up a cable there:

http://direct.tesco.com/q/N.2000059/Nr.99.aspx

Any suggestions on the best one to get? Length doesn't matter as my laptop will be right next to my TV.

The one at £4.97 will do just fine

DKLS

I have tried QED cables and cheapie £5 cables, and saw no difference what so ever.

u01jet4

brilliant, glad to hear it so do I just plug it in and whatever is on my computer will show on my telly? I'm assuming it also makes the sound come from the tv speakers too?

kwikbreaks

I'm convinced that most of the expensive cables sold (HDMI USB, etc.) are catch pennies. This is especially the case where the cable is for digital transfers (HDMI USB) because digital either works or doesn't - there is no concept of degredation (although there could be errors that have to be corrected or frames dropped if video).

On that basis there could be an advantage in using expensive SCART cables because they are carrying analogue data. Even there though I've always used cheapo and not had any problems.

One place where good cable does beat cheap cable is with coax.

Anyway I've just put my money where my mouth is on this. I've just bought an HD LCD TV and will need 3 5meter HDMI cables. As it happened Comet were doing a good deal on the one I selected and their email confimation of the reservation offered me £25 off their "monster" 4m hdmi cable so their bargain price was £64.99. I turned down their generous offer and got 3 off ebay for just over £5 each delivered. They should turn up today so if they don't work I'll return here and say so.

DKLS

I have heard that some cheap HDMI cables can pick up on interference from other kit, but haven't experienced that myself.

The only cables I dont scrimp on are speaker cable, and the phono interconnects for the various bits of kit.

kwikbreaks

Speaker cables need to be heavy guage if you want loud but apart from that are not especially critical imo - I certainly wouldn't subscribe to the oxygen free con.

All other low level audio cables need good screening and that may well mean expensive. I gave up on chasing HiFi when my ears got too ancient to appreciate the difference between top notch and reasonably good.

almillar

See my response in your other thread. Some people will say that you don't need high quality cables 'because it's digital' and therefore 0s and 1s and how can that become degraded?
Anyone with dodgy freeview reception could answer that one. However, plenty of people have had problems with 'handshaking' between HD kit, messed up colours, blank screens, 'jumping' pictures etc. I think a gold-plated HDMI cable is a waste of gold for what it's worth though!

duncansby

Try these cables http://www.thatcable.com/
as recommended by what hifi http://www.whathifi.com/Review/ThatCable-HDMI/

They get glowing reviews and are only £5. However, having said that I play my dell through my plasma tv , especially BBC iplayer and picture and sound are fine using a cheapo HDMI, and save the good cable for bluray

kwikbreaks

Thanks - they will be my next port of call if the eBay cheapos don't work properly.

JasX

I have some ebuyer.co.uk ones I picked up for about £4 each that work perfectly well. basically any cheap reasonable quality cable will be as good as any other more expensive one. -Just watch you don't try to push it too cheap (<£3, bit more for a long one) or you might find they've skimped on basic build quality (eg minimal amount of copper, dodgy connections etc) and you will have problems.

buying from a 'reputable' online retailer will be safer than ebay type jobs......