HDMI Cables

gjchester

leeroy2009 wrote: »

you can use a standard 99p hdmi cable off ebay, anyone who tells you different does not have a clue what they are talking about - fact.

Sort of.

I agree that marketing hype sells a lot of cables, but at the cheaper end of the market the actual build quality may suffer to hit the price point.

A 99p cable will probably have cost less than 25p to make, components will be anything useable and can cause issues if the wire , I would not recommend the really expensive cables, but spend a bit more than 99p on a cable and you get a better build quality, which means the end device does not have to correct the data as much.

poppasmurf_bewdley

gjchester wrote: »

Sort of.

I agree that marketing hype sells a lot of cables, but at the cheaper end of the market the actual build quality may suffer to hit the price point.

A 99p cable will probably have cost less than 25p to make, components will be anything useable and can cause issues if the wire , I would not recommend the really expensive cables, but spend a bit more than 99p on a cable and you get a better build quality, which means the end device does not have to correct the data as much.

How can you be sure that the £6 or £12 HDMI cable is any better built than the 99p one?

Knowing the way most companies work, they charge what they think they can get, not what the item costs them.

Which is how Halfords can charge £6.99 for an identical item which sells for 99p post free on the internet.

wenger08

leeroy2009 wrote: »

you can use a standard 99p hdmi cable off ebay, anyone who tells you different does not have a clue what they are talking about - fact.

Please don't listen to this advice..this guy doesnt know what he is talking about!

Much of the crap coming from china is sold on ebay and i have had 3-4 HDMI cheapo cables fail on me...buy a half decent one from a reputable brand. It might cost you a few £ more but in the long run its worth it!

wenger08

gjchester wrote: »

Sort of.

I agree that marketing hype sells a lot of cables, but at the cheaper end of the market the actual build quality may suffer to hit the price point.

A 99p cable will probably have cost less than 25p to make, components will be anything useable and can cause issues if the wire , I would not recommend the really expensive cables, but spend a bit more than 99p on a cable and you get a better build quality, which means the end device does not have to correct the data as much.

Spot on....

Johnny_Dangerously

Definitely. As I said in my post, it's all about ensuring it is a licensed cable. If it is, you should have no problems. However, it's very possible for cheap imported cables to be fraudulently labelled as no one is going to enforce it. Like I said, both my sky HD cables were terrible over time.

I wouldn't buy a 99p cable. But I've also never spent more than £15 on one.

wenger08

Johnny_Dangerously wrote: »

Definitely. As I said in my post, it's all about ensuring it is a licensed cable. If it is, you should have no problems. However, it's very possible for cheap imported cables to be fraudulently labelled as no one is going to enforce it. Like I said, both my sky HD cables were terrible over time.

I wouldn't buy a 99p cable. But I've also never spent more than £15 on one.

Yea i dont think there is a need to spend a great deal but it annoys me when people hand out rubbish advice like leeroy2009. He was so sure that the 99p cable is just as good as a £40 one....and that is total crap

Those 99p china cables are rubbish. Even the poundland ones are only 1 metre in length and thats useless most of the time. Plus i have had the connectors break on one of those as well......

almillar

Again, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A HDMI 1.3 OR 1.4 CABLE.

I said there was an HDMI standard, not an HDMI cable standard. And there is. And if a cable is labelled that it conforms to this standard, then you can expect certain things of it (3D, ARC, 4K etc) that you could not expect of it if it didn't boast such things.
Do you have a link to show what you mean?

Johnny_Dangerously

Just for everyone's info. The 5 types of cable that cover the two 'speed' variants:

http://www.hdmi.org/consumer/finding_right_cable.aspx

As stated already, the 1.3a, 1.4 etc is the hardware spec that relates to what features are supported (3D, audio return etc). For example, my old Onkyo receiver is 1.3a I believe. No matter what cable I put in it, it can't send 3D from my blu ray to my TV even though they are both 1.4.

gjchester

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

How can you be sure that the £6 or £12 HDMI cable is any better built than the 99p one?

Knowing the way most companies work, they charge what they think they can get, not what the item costs them.

You can't, however "Proper" brands have a quality control process behind them, some of the cheap ebay sellers may well be selling a cable off the same line as say Belkin just cheaper, or it may be they cut corners by lowering the spec, or using very cheap components and simply branding it as belkin to fool customers. It going back in time but I've bought SCART connecters bought cheaply in the past, and they have the bare minimum of 5 wires connected. Spend more and you get everything wired and the cable is screened. Makes a difference to analog but I'll come to that below.

If you look at the Poundland type cables the diameter of the wires are pretty small, and if fully wired the core diameter must be tiny, and probably not screened. They are fine for short runs when there nothing else around. I have one for the Xbox and Raspberry Pi to my monitor. However they are fragile, I've had one fail when bent too much and the connector fell off it. Leave them alone and they are fine, just don't move them much, or plan to have a spare or three (and yes at that price that's a viable option)

HDMI is digital, it works or does not, but poor quality cables can make the receiving system have to error correct more, More error correction leads to softer images as the data in interpolated.
It will still work, you may not even notice the difference if its only a few bits, but think about TV, you get times when it goes weird colours or all blocky for a moment or two due to transient data loss and the system error correcting.

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

Which is how Halfords can charge £6.99 for an identical item which sells for 99p post free on the internet.

I know there is a difference between physical shops and the web, but remember that Halford have a store, offer advice, have to hold stock in store and pay taxes, whereas many ebay seller just don't bother.

To use the Halfords example, when your car bulbs or fuses go at 7pm on a dark Friday night and you have to get home, where else will you get a replacement?

wongataa

almillar wrote: »

I said there was an HDMI standard, not an HDMI cable standard. And there is. And if a cable is labelled that it conforms to this standard, then you can expect certain things of it (3D, ARC, 4K etc) that you could not expect of it if it didn't boast such things.
Do you have a link to show what you mean?

There are HDMI cable standards - standard & high speed. See http://www.hdmi.org for all the details. The HDMI website categorically states that cables cannot be labelled with version numbers.