HDMI cables?

thescouselander

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

They'll be made to the 1.3 HDMI spec, regardless of a £5 or a £50 cable (assuming its a 1.3 cable of course).

http://www.hdmi.org/learningcenter/faq.aspx#27

All that means is that the cable either meets or exceeds the 1.3 HDMI spec. I do think that some of the expensive cables could potentially exceed this specification. Of course exceeding the specification is pretty pointless since you only need to meet the specification to have a working system which is why the cheapo cable is the one to go for.

GeoffX

Anyone who wants to know more about this should listen to this podcast:
http://twit.tv/htg11

The guest is the business development manager of HDMI licensing and, when asked about cables, can't make a case for expensive ones.

Sowilo_2

18 months ago Curry's charged me £15 for a lead to go with the printer I was buying off them. Didn't realise until I got home it was a simple usb lead of which I already had 2 spare. Get what Curry's, I just bought a new laptop from Comet and a new vac.

sillywilly

CHR15 wrote: »

I think that sums it up quite well. Play are not going to sell at a loss so you can see the markup Play were making on them.

It would be nice to see people who have paid £40+ for a HDMI lead take a punt on one of these £3 jobs and see if they can really tell the difference.

There are, of course, differences in quality, the same as audio leads, but if you are "into" these things, then you will already know what you are looking for and pay accordingly.

For the layman, a cheap lead is just as good.

I know what you mean. Sometimes I am truly amazed at the prices Play sells stuff for especially considering the fact that everything has free delivery. They must be one of the Royal Mails biggest customers.

The leads we got were advertised on Play for £3.49 with an "RRP of £14.99" but we bought them off a seller doing the same leads for £2.99 delivered.

There is no difference whatsoever between the £3 lead and the Offiicial Playstation 3 lead that cost about £20!!

I would challenge anyone to take "the Pepsi challenge" over the image and sound on the leads.

Obviously I can taste the difference between Pepsi and Coke but that was just a figure of speech!

Basically, unless you have a home cinema system costing £3000 plus - there is no need, and no point in spending out a load of money on HDMI cables. A three quid cable will do the job of a £40 one and you will be very hard pushed to see any difference in terms of quality.

That is one of the main benefits of HDMI. Whereas with scart a 99p jobbie will not be as good as a plated fully wired cable. The same goes for speaker cable.

sillywilly

Sowilo wrote: »

18 months ago Curry's charged me £15 for a lead to go with the printer I was buying off them. Didn't realise until I got home it was a simple usb lead of which I already had 2 spare. Get what Curry's, I just bought a new laptop from Comet and a new vac.

Guess what - if you had bought them on the internet you would have got them even cheaper!!

John_Gray

jimbms wrote: »

...clean the ends with a fine womens nail emery every 12 months

I won't ask where you can obtain this "fine woman" but suggest instead that a hard eraser be used on the contacts, with the rubbery bits that result being carefully cleaned away before re-insertion.

trets77

ssparry wrote: »

Morning all.

I apologise in advance, but I don't have a clue about these cables we need.

Basically have bought a 50" plasma, PS3 and home cinema system. My boyfriend, after having lengthy chats with the guy in Currys seems to think we need to spend £40 per lead, x 4 (1 for Sky, 2 for surround sound and 1 for the PS3). Not sure if this is correct, but just wanted to double check with one of you saving experts. Do we really need to spend £160 on cables?!

okay your post does not actually make sense ??

2 HDMI cables for surround sound ? . HDMI cables are capable of carrying sound and vision . i'm assuming you have a Home Cinema Amp that also acts as a HDMI Hub .

plumb your Sky HD HDMI direct into the TV and use the Optical out for surround ( good ones can be had for less than £10 ) that way you don't need the Amp on while you are watching TV .

Assuming you have a DVD player / Blu Ray player with HDMI then plumb that and your PS 3 into the Amp then HDMI from Amp to TV . you will then get sound and vision via one HDMI lead , though you will need the Amp on when watching a Blu ray or playing PS3 (or are you using your PS3 as a Blu ray ?? if so the you need a maximum of 3 £10 HDMI leads ).

You can only get HD sound ( providing your Amp can decode it ) via HDMI . Sky HD does not have HD sound just standard 5.1 so a optical lead does just fine if you don't want your Amp on everytime you watch Sky , but do want surround sound for some Movies and shows ect .

Toxteth_OGrady

http://www.audioholics.com/education/cables/long-hdmi-cable-bench-tests

:cool:

TOG

aliEnRIK

thescouselander wrote: »

Indeed, the expensive cables are most probably a better spec than the cheapo ones however, the specification of an expensive cable is usually well in excess of what is actually required for the average application.

Absolutely, but some of the cheaper ones arnt upto spec regardless of whats been printed on the sheathing. And length REALLY comes into it when comparing a decent cable to a poor one

Strider590

I know that PCW were charging £90 for a Belkin HDMI cable which they buy at just £6 a piece..... That's £84 profit on one cable!!!

This whole digital TV business has really given retailers a license to print money.....