HDMI leads - is it worth spending...

[qooqiiu]

...more than £20 one?

[H18 ENF]

Personally, I wouldn't... I'd be looking at ebay for them...

[freecar]

1-10m - No

10m plus - Yes

[Agoogy]

Similar theme to the 'speaker cable' thread within this forum...I'd say not...
Getting VFM off the high street is tough! Richer Sounds and Comet both demand big bucks for their offerings...even Maplin try and fleece you...

I have just ordered these...
Up to date, good saving off RRP....

http://www.tvcables.co.uk/cgi-bin/tvcables/1m-hdmi...

[Stu R]

It makes absolutely no difference whatsoever. I can't tell the difference between a £15 'amazing' one and a £2 Amazon one, nor did I expect to be able to.
Utter guff to part suckers from their cash, much like high end speaker cable.

Edited by Stu R on Tuesday 4th January 13:49

[Great Pretender]

I paid £90 for a 3m Chord cable

[itsnotarace]

Stu R said:

It makes absolutely no difference whatsoever. I can't tell the difference between a £15 'amazing' one and a £2 Amazon one, nor did I expect to be able to.

+1

I have one of these http://markgrantcables.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_p... and a £5 quid one from Sainsburys and there is absolutely no difference

[blugnu]

Stu R said:

It makes absolutely no difference whatsoever. I can't tell the difference between a £15 'amazing' one and a £2 Amazon one, nor did I expect to be able to.
Utter guff to part suckers from their cash, much like high end speaker cable.

Edited by Stu R on Tuesday 4th January 13:49

I can hear the difference with decent speaker cable - certainly replacing the bell wire on mine with half decent copper stuff made a difference. It's an analogue signal, so mentally I can cope with it having an effect.

HDMI cables just carry binary data though, and they either carry it, or they don't. The Amazon basics ones look a good bet, but I've not tried one as my only HDMI source came with a cable.

[Stu R]

blugnu said:

Stu R said:

It makes absolutely no difference whatsoever. I can't tell the difference between a £15 'amazing' one and a £2 Amazon one, nor did I expect to be able to.
Utter guff to part suckers from their cash, much like high end speaker cable.

Edited by Stu R on Tuesday 4th January 13:49

I can hear the difference with decent speaker cable - certainly replacing the bell wire on mine with half decent copper stuff made a difference. It's an analogue signal, so mentally I can cope with it having an effect.

HDMI cables just carry binary data though, and they either carry it, or they don't. The Amazon basics ones look a good bet, but I've not tried one as my only HDMI source came with a cable.

I can hear the difference between bell wire and proper speaker cable. I can't hear any difference between £5/m cable and £50/m though.

[blugnu]

Stu R said:

I can hear the difference between bell wire and proper speaker cable. I can't hear any difference between £5/m cable and £50/m though.

Absolutely - meant to say something to that effect but got distracted by a customer!

[Great Pretender]

blugnu said:

Stu R said:

It makes absolutely no difference whatsoever. I can't tell the difference between a £15 'amazing' one and a £2 Amazon one, nor did I expect to be able to.
Utter guff to part suckers from their cash, much like high end speaker cable.

Edited by Stu R on Tuesday 4th January 13:49

I can hear the difference with decent speaker cable - certainly replacing the bell wire on mine with half decent copper stuff made a difference. It's an analogue signal, so mentally I can cope with it having an effect.

HDMI cables just carry binary data though, and they either carry it, or they don't. The Amazon basics ones look a good bet, but I've not tried one as my only HDMI source came with a cable.

Indeed, but as an audiophile chap explained to me, the quality of the cable depends on how 'much' binary data gets transmitted.

For example, there's a noticeable difference in sound and picture quality between the standard Sky supplied HDMI lead and my Chord lead. Perhaps not £90 worth, but its definitely better with the latter.

[GregE240]

Great Pretender said:

I paid £90 for a 3m Chord cable

You got properly stiffed there mate!

[TEKNOPUG]

£2.49

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fisual-Install-latest-desi...

Works perfectly

Edited by TEKNOPUG on Wednesday 5th January 11:09

[qooqiiu]

After a few hours researching i think i know all i need to know about HDMI.

I went for 3 of these: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1m-HDMI-Cable-Lead-SKY-Virgi...

I needed the "1.4" as the 1.3's and lower don't support 3D TV.

[Ruttager]

Its DIGITAL how can there be a diference in quality? The signal either gets there or it doesn't. Buy the cheap ones.

[Deva Link]

You'll regret not buying one of these: http://www.futureshop.co.uk/wireworld-platinum-sta...

...and you can save more than even a quite expensive HDMI might cost!

[IforB]

Ruttager said:

Its DIGITAL how can there be a diference in quality? The signal either gets there or it doesn't. Buy the cheap ones.

Wrong I'm afraid. However, I'm so bored of correcting people on this that I can't be bothered to go into it fully. It's to do with error corrections and missing bits of data. HDMI isn't just a single pipe.

For a short run of say 1.5m then buy the cheapest cable you can. For longer runs then quality does start to matter more, but don't pay stupid money, just buy something half decent.

This sort of thread rolls around with great regularity and the answer is always the same.

[OldSkoolRS]

I've run a 12 metre cable from the front of my room to the back to a projector. The first one I bought wouldn't carry 1080p it just gave random flashes. The second one (only a bit dearer at about £50-60 I think 3 years ago) works fine on 1080/60p the highest current data rate. Recent testing a 1080/60p 12 bit deepcolour confirms it works properly at this setting, so may even work with 3D if I go that route eventually.

I think it's just a question of getting something suitable for the use it's going to be put to and if it's going to be buried like mine, then check it first. I don't believe it's worth paying £100 or whatever for a 1 metre lead though.

[stueys]

When I was buying my TV on Monday, the guy in Comet was talking about a HDMI lead with fibre optic cable. Is there such a thing? Seeing as I was splicing fibre cable in the telecomms game nearly 20 years ago and I work with kit using fibre every day I thought he was trying it on. It would need an electrical to optical converter each end for a start. I fit these kinds of devices on a daily basis, and I'm not sure it could be small enough to fit in an end connector. Also, if the cable was bent at too tight a radius the signal would degrade significantly. Were they trying to bend me over? I got a £10 lead for connecting between my PS3 and TV and it seems to work fine thanks :-)

[HOGEPH]

Poundshop one. Works fine on my Xbox.