HDMI leads?

magpiesnest

hi there moneysavers. please excuse my ignorance on this one. i am about to connect a laptop to my lcd tv to use as a media centre as well as a normal laptop when required. is it best to connect them via an hdmi lead and if so are they all the same . any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

geewhiz

It's unlikely your laptop will have an hdmi slot but if it does then yes, that would be best. As a general rule these are all the same so the cheaper the better unless you have an unlimited budget !

You are more likely to be able to use a DVI or S-Video cable from laptop to pc, any of these options will be suitable though.

If your stuck you can post your laptop and tv models for more advice !

magpiesnest

thanks geewiz my new laptop does have a hdmi connection as does my tv. so from your advice i guess that is the best way to go. but are they all the same as some are very expensive, i would like a good quality lead but don't want it to cost the earth.

geewhiz

You are unlikely to notice any difference between a £10 cable and a more expensive one so I would suggest spending less !

I bought this one last week for my PS3 and I'm happy with the results, it's also a decent length for the price they charge

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/3360630/HDMI-v1-3-Professional-Quality-2-4M-Cable/Product.html

magpiesnest

thanks again geewiz but sold out will heed your advice though.cheers:beer:

mjhmjh2

Supposedly becuase HDMI is a digital signal it will not suffer the same losses as an analogue cable. I bought the cheapest cable I could (at the time) to run from my AV amp to projector (20 metres) for £100. the only problem I have with it is that it's not as snug a fitting as possible so needs to be supported by cable tie at the projector end rather than having the weight of the cable on the plug. apart from that its as good as any other connection I've seen.

Buy as cheap as you can find, if it doesn't work as well as you like then you've not lost much.. spend £200 and you've lost £180!

Matthew

BexTech

Don't spend lots of money on HDMI leads, don't worry about gold plating unless both the laptop and the TV has gold plated sockets, don't worry about oxygen free copper, etc etc. It's all snake oil.

Just look for a decent build quality.

Over short distances of a few metres you aren't going to notice any difference.

Yes, you can get some really poor leads, but that's going to be hard to find them, virtually all are fit for the purpose.

Yes, HDMI is digital, but if you have really really poor leads then the 1s and 0s can get dropped and if the system has to error correct constantly then the picture will suffer from small errors, but the chances of that on short cable from virtually all sellers is very slim.

You can get HDMI - HDMI leads on eBay from around £5 for 2metre ones.