What HDMI cable???

pault123

This kind of topic always opens a can of worms!

Unless you have a huge telly and a long cable run, i personally cannot tell the difference in a 37-42" when using a £3 cable or a £60 monster cable. (I've seen this setup side by side)

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pault123 wrote: »

This kind of topic always opens a can of worms!

Unless you have a huge telly and a long cable run, i personally cannot tell the difference in a 37-42" when using a £3 cable or a £60 monster cable. (I've seen this setup side by side)

That can of worms just doesn't seem to go away even though there are plenty of facts on the technology on how these so called improvements are impossible. The problem is the people who apparently see all these differences through their eyes ignore the evidence and expertise out there and club together to form some little cult

The human mind is a powerful and deceptive thing

inspace

Yep Ive got a dearer one 19.99 and a cheapo from ebay both full HD.

ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE

If your running your Ps3 now on the old cable youll love when you add a HDMI - just get a good cheap one and away you go.

nitr02007

pault123 wrote: »

This kind of topic always opens a can of worms!

Unless you have a huge telly and a long cable run, i personally cannot tell the difference in a 37-42" when using a £3 cable or a £60 monster cable. (I've seen this setup side by side)

I think its partly snobbery and partly embarassment that they've wasted money on these expensive cables and try to justify it by seeing improvements that just aren't there.

Although I'd cut AlienRik some slack as his £5 cable isnt exactly expensive..:D

kwikbreaks

nitr02007 wrote: »

Oh come on. Its a digital signal - as long as the 0s and 1s leaving your blu-ray or whatever arrives at your TV in the same state the cable has done its job. Surely you can see that you can't get a better 0 or a better 1?

No it really is more complex than that. A lot more. ADSL is only 0 and 1 too but the length and quality of the phone line have an impact on how fast it will go.

That said I use a cheap cable rather than the bargain half price only £70 I was offered when I bought my TV and to my eyes (ok maybe tired and old) it looks just fine and that's with 4m cables.

aliEnRIK

Ive seen a coax digital cable MEASURED to make a difference to such an extent that it actually affects the DAC (meaning it does actually sound different). JITTER was the common factor that affected them (More so on the cheaper cable). Not only that but it was MEASURABLY different from one way to the other (Meaning digital cables can actually be directional)

Ill post the link when I can find it again (And the lengths are short ~ under 2meters)

A hdmi isnt a coax cable, but it IS a digital cable

nitr02007

kwikbreaks wrote: »

No it really is more complex than that. A lot more. ADSL is only 0 and 1 too but the length and quality of the phone line have an impact on how fast it will go.

That said I use a cheap cable rather than the bargain half price only £70 I was offered when I bought my TV and to my eyes (ok maybe tired and old) it looks just fine and that's with 4m cables.

ADSL is trying to make the best of an old voice network for data transmission, covers large distances, lots of noise.
HDMI was designed to carry a HD signal, short distance, no noise.

You can't improve on a perfect data transmission between your blu-ray and TV - which in most cases even the cheapest HDMI cable will provide.

Its like ethernet cables (also data cables) - I don't hear people saying they gotta be gold plated & oxygen free because it makes your downloaded MP3s sound better... oh hang on..
http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/lans/2008/061608lan1.html

incredible!

phillh79

aliEnRIK wrote: »

Ive tried quite a few and my personal viewpoint is theyre NOT all the same

Here we go again Rik lol.

I've done quite a bit of research into HDMI when I got my HD setup. I was a total newbie at 1st but what I've learned is that a cheaper cable may give the same picture quality over a short run as a more expensive cable but will the cheaper cable have the same build quality?

Imagine if you are wall mounting your tv and want to hide all the cables behind the plasterboard. You spend £100's on redecoration making your room look amazing and then the cheap HDMI cable connections break. It's easily done, anyone with kids or animals will know that.

A cheap cable may break and you could replace it many times over for the cost of a more expensive cable.

I spent £40 on a 1m IXOS cable, you might think thats pricey but I move my blu-ray player between rooms quite a lot so I want a cable thats going to be durable enough to last.

kwikbreaks

nitr02007 wrote: »

Its like ethernet cables (also data cables) - I don't hear people saying they gotta be gold plated & oxygen free because it makes your downloaded MP3s sound better... oh hang on..
http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/lans/2008/061608lan1.html

incredible!

An even closer analogy would be computer monitor cables - you can even play HD on those. I really CBA to dig out a link to where somebody claims they need to be oxygen free copper possibly plutonium cored and aged for six months before they deliver best performance but I'm sure if I looked hard enough I'd find one.

almillar

Rik is kindof right guys. The problem is the bandwidth that a cable is capable of carrying. It might not be so much of a problem now even with the cheapest of the cheap, but if a cheapo (or expensive) cable hasn't been tested as capable of carrying a full 1080p signal, don't buy it. You'll get away with a perfect picture with 1080i low (relatively) bandwidth from your Sky box, but when you play a full HD game (not many of them, not ones that are upscaled from the start) on the PS3 or play a Blu-Ray (more than twice the bandwidth) your unbranded, untested HDMI cable MIGHT NOT be able to cope. You MIGHT get choppy playback, momentary loss of picture, jumping picture, all sorts of niggles. You might blame the disc, player or screen, but it'll be the cable.
Go ahead and buy a cheapo one off eBay though and make sure to read the specs, you're likely to get away with it.
Please, anyone who has had problems and fixed them by replacing the cable, post here to show we're not making this up!