Do I need new HDMI cables for 3840 x 2160 UHD?

Belenus

Thanks everyone for your helpful comments and suggestions.

Belenus

Deleted_User said:

You need one of these cables, if you don't buy one, you are missing out on the best picture quality:

https://www.futureshop.co.uk/nordost-valhalla-2-4k-uhd-hdmi-cable

• Velocity of Propagation: 86%

For £3,370 I would demand that a cable used tachyons that travel faster than the speed of light and let me hear my music before I even press play. 

facade

Belenus said:

Deleted_User said:

You need one of these cables, if you don't buy one, you are missing out on the best picture quality:

https://www.futureshop.co.uk/nordost-valhalla-2-4k-uhd-hdmi-cable

• Velocity of Propagation: 86%

For £3,370 I would demand that a cable used tachyons that travel faster than the speed of light and let me hear my music before I even press play. 

So, simply having the current and voltage travel above the surface virtually unimpeded by insulation doesn't cut it then?

why does it even need silver plated oxygen free copper in the first place if the current & voltage are above the surface?

MattMattMattUK

facade said:

Belenus said:

Deleted_User said:

You need one of these cables, if you don't buy one, you are missing out on the best picture quality:

https://www.futureshop.co.uk/nordost-valhalla-2-4k-uhd-hdmi-cable

• Velocity of Propagation: 86%

For £3,370 I would demand that a cable used tachyons that travel faster than the speed of light and let me hear my music before I even press play. 

So, simply having the current and voltage travel above the surface virtually unimpeded by insulation doesn't cut it then?

why does it even need silver plated oxygen free copper in the first place if the current & voltage are above the surface?

To allow the signal to travel at the speed of marketing.

Belenus

I have bought my first UHD Blu Ray. A 2016 recording of Verdi's opera Un Ballo In Maschera filmed in 4K Ultra HD according to the blurb on the rear cover.

Ironically, the production has a very dark set and it oftens appears to be almost black and white so not ideal for showing off the UHD picture. No matter as I bought it primarily for the music and singing which is outstanding. I bought it second hand in as new condition for under £10.

It plays perfectly on my new UHD Blu Ray Player and UHD TV which are connected using my very old unmarked 1 metre HDMI cable. I have a 2 metre cable marked High Speed and a 5 metre unmarked cable. I have tried both of those cables with no noticeable difference between the 1 metre cable. That all suggests that I don't need a new cable although I may buy one anyway as £10 is a tiny percentage of what I have spent on equipment and several hundred Blu Rays.

I have taken some pictures of the playback information and would welcome comments. Does everything look as it should be?

1 is a HD Blu Ray, 2 and 3 are the new UHD Blu Ray, 4 is the Player Settings and 5 is the HDR10 Metadata while playing the new UHD Blu Ray.

I have noticed that the video Mbps (top right) varies from under 10 to over 30. I presume the encoding varies according to the amount of detail in each frame and/or the change from frame to frame.

The HDR10 Metadata is all zeroes. Is that normal?

[Deleted User]

It plays perfectly on my new UHD Blu Ray Player and UHD TV which are connected using my very old unmarked 1 metre HDMI cable. I have a 2 metre cable marked High Speed and a 5 metre unmarked cable. I have tried both of those cables with no noticeable difference between the 1 metre cable.

So according to your screenshots, the HDMI is connecting at 4k/50p but changing the source from YCbCr 420 10bit to 422 12bit is confusing me but suggests your HDMI cables are minimum v2.0 as the previous v1.4 only support 420 subsampling at that resolution.

That all suggests that I don't need a new cable although I may buy one anyway as £10 is a tiny percentage of what I have spent on equipment and several hundred Blu Rays.

Yes, but if you do buy one get HDMI 2.1 spec.

I have noticed that the video Mbps (top right) varies from under 10 to over 30. I presume the encoding varies according to the amount of detail in each frame and/or the change from frame to frame.

So this is the source data rate before decoding, once it is decoded and sent down the HDMI it will be a flat rate probably around 10Gbit/s for that resolution.

The variation in bit rate is more about the rate of change from frame to frame. Video compression codecs will encode only the changes since a "keystone" frame, if little changes, the bit rate is low, if there are more changes the bit rate is higher. If the frame totally changes a new keystone frame is encoded and the process starts again.

The HDR10 Metadata is all zeroes. Is that normal.

The source is SDR so yes, it won't show anything up in the HDR10 data.

You can tell it isn't high dynamic range (HDR) because the source data says SDR/BT.709

debitcardmayhem

My question to the OP how does it sound on the TV speakers or are using an external sound system using equivalent HDMI cables or perhaps Optical ? Just playing the devils advocate of course

Belenus

I don't use the TV speakers. I use the two channel RCA sockets on the Blu Ray player to connect to my Cambridge Audio Azur 651a amplifier.

The Blu Ray player does have balanced audio outputs and a HDMI audio output but my amp does not have either.

Many years ago when we had a large 18 x 18 living room I had a Meridian 501 pre amp and a Meridian 557 Power Amp and Ruark Solstice floor standing speakers. The pre amp had balanced audio outputs which I used. It sounded fantastic.

12 years ago we moved to a house with a smaller living room which was too small to justify keeping that set up so I sold it and replaced it with the Cambridge integrated amp and smaller Mission floor standing speakers. It is no match for the previous set up but still sounds good to my ageing 70 year old ears.