£1 HDMI cables at Poundland

tombruton87 · 15 November 2012 at 5:21PM

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/376468/is-it-worth-paying-for-premium-cables/3

my god that article is completely wrong on half its points and doesn't tell the full story. He obv hasnt read the HDMI spec like alot of people on here. If he had he would of be aware of how hdmi uses md5!

caroline_2 · 26 March 2013 at 6:52PM

Yep, got my £1 HDMI cable from Poundland, but then bought a 3 metre cable from an Amazon supplier for £2,85 including postage. Much more useful than the short cable from Poundland for watching iplayer off the laptop on the TV.

Skeenfleent · 10 April 2013 at 8:50PM

Hi folks, Poundland-Master here (I live down the road from one).

1) Off-topic but a warning: Don't touch Poundland's stereo cables (minijack to minijack) or similar. I've had three be duff either out of the box or within a day or two - and I look after my kit. They're just too poorly-made to be worth leaving you without music when they break suddenly.

2) Poundland's USB kit can also be dodgy, possibly even USB 1.1 (slowwwwwwww) instead of USB 2.0, which is 2001 technology, so hardly too much to ask...
Again, physically-stronger cables enable this faster speed - the two qualities go hand-in-hand due to the bulkier shielding material used around the circumference of the tube to ensure signal-integrity.

3) HDMI cables are inherently more solid in a sense but your mileage may vary depending on how much data you are actually pumping through it - and Poundland's are hardly likely to be the highest performance HDMI cables (called 'bandwidth', like with broadband).

I use a Poundland HDMI cable on my laptop to an external monitor, and occasionally, it cuts the signal with a blank screen for a second or two, or 'snow' on the image (I assume it's the cable, it happens too infrequently to bother troubleshooting further). This would likely be the point at which I'm over-using the cable's limited capacity. I believe it happens more with games.

I used a cheap ebay one that was longer and a little more expensive, and it died very quickly, too. with nearly-ANY cable, it's worth paying for physical build quality.

Currys Digital (normally over-priced, and the margin doesn't go on staff training) were selling QUALITY, end-of-line HDMI flat reel cables, designed for laptops, but they've probably sold-out now (£2.49! - originally £20-25 I believe). On the packet, the manufacturer claimed that they meet the FULL HDMI specification, so it's generally-correct that quality manufacturers look after their brand. Poundland don't care.

http://www.hdmi.org/installers/eyediagram.aspx

As well, a cable ability to successfully pass an HDMI signal depends on its bandwidth capability. The illustrations below demonstrate how twice the bandwidth (1080i versus 1080p) can affect a cable’s performance.

If you're only running a device at 720p, or 1080i or something, then you'll not notice the difference. Just expect problems if you need to put much physical stress on the Poundland cables or use them with high-spec equipment.

If you can afford the latter high-spec equipment, then you can afford a £15-£25 cable to keep it happy. Save money elsewhere...

kwikbreaks · 10 April 2013 at 9:45PM

Skeenfleent wrote: »

If you can afford the latter high-spec equipment, then you can afford a £15-£25 cable to keep it happy. Save money elsewhere...

I won't comment on the rest of your post but your HDMI cable advice is poor. I've had cheap 5m eBay cables running 1080p for 3 years with no problems at all. There is no justification paying more than a couple of pounds on short HDMI cables. Possibly the Poundland ones are rubbish - I haven't tried them but I have used a 1m one at ~ 99p delivered off eBay and that worked fine too.

neilwoods · 10 April 2013 at 10:16PM

Only real difference is whether they are 1.3 or 1.4 compliant, would assume the poundland ones are 1.3 which is probably why it may may cut out from time to time.

When it comes to 3D blu ray you do need 1.4a hdmi cable, 1.3 just wont cut it

Skeenfleent · 22 January 2014 at 3:40PM

Both the above posters are ignoring the fact that I was merely using these cables to run an external monitor from a laptop, which never gets moved more than ~3cm in any direction, likewise the monitor.

The cables from Poundland were physically-incapable of handling even this pathetically-small amount of physical stress.

I ditched the Poundland cable for a £6 on from Sainsburys (who unlike Poundland, train their staff in the Sale Of Goods Act).

No problems since ditching Poundland's cable.

I know what a digital versus analogue signal is, and the resulting difference in cable specification ultimately required, cheers.

Ebay sellers can INDEED offer better-quality cables for the same money than Poundland do. I buy such cables myself, but they also vary, too. These ebay sellers have less overheads than Poundland, I suppose.

The logic that: 'Seller X can sell quality for a given price, so seller Y's quality must be the same, as their price is the same' is a logical fallacy.