HDMI leads - is it worth spending...

[Road2Ruin]

BMWBen said:

Deva Link said:

I suppose it's similar to the pixelating you get on Freeview/

Not exactly - freeview is MPEG2 which is a compression algorithm designed to handle data loss. The more information that is lost, the progressively worse the picture becomes, but the format the data is transmitted in is taking care of it. On HDMI there is no build in error correction and the information is literally, 24bits per pixel on the screen IIRC, so the error correction will come from the TV doing its "image improvement" thing.

Yes, it's exactly the same. MPEG2 is a lossey compression algorithum just like H.264. The loss is only taken into account when it is originally compressed. If there is then further loss due to the reception of the signal being poor then, to a point, the picture will still be displayed but the quality will suffer. The 24bits you reffer to is probably the colour depth, which will not change.

[LoftyD]

I was originally in the camp that thought there wouldn't be a noticeable difference between entry level cables and more expensive varieties.

However when purchasing some other items I thought what the heck and bought a different cable for about £20-30 to replace the cheapy cable. Same length and spec etc.

I could immediately tell there was a difference in picture quality when viewing games, movies and even freeview via the ps3 - the typeface of overlaid tv schedule menus was much clearer on PlayTV.

The girlfriend came in later and without knowing that I'd swapped anything around, immediately asked what had I done to the TV, as the "picture was much better".

Seems a few have also experienced operational issues with budget cables, such as Viera Link/Bravia Links not working correctly. This week I gave my old cable to my parents for their new bluray player and out of the box it's suffering from random sound cut out on both bluray playback and BBC iplayer. I purchased exactly the same player at the same time and have no issues at all. Going to try a different cable tonight and I'm half expecting it to solve the issue rather that it being a fault with their player.


There's still no way I'd pay big money for hyped cables though! But I've settled on QED Performance-E cables for my own home cinema which I picked up for a semi-reasonable £28. I thought if I'd spent a considerable amount on the equipment I may as well give it a fighting chance of performing at its best!