HDMI cables

WiffWaff

WiffWaff

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West Yorkshire
Just received my new Panasonic Freeview telly box from Amazon. Also ordered a HDMI cable for the grand price of £1.49 (inc postage) which isn't due to arrive for a few days yet.
Went into Curry's today thinking I might pick up an HDMI cable... instant gratification for the purpose of... and keep the Amazon one for spare when it arrives.
The cheapest Curry's offering was £14.99... ten times the price... so I've decide to wait for the Amazon one and try it out first.

My understanding of digital technology may be flawed... but I thought, for the transmission of digital information... it either works 100% or doesn't work at all.
Let me know if I'm wrong on this...
 
The main problem with HDMI cables are poor connections.

With regards to the TV, the weight of the cable itself can pull pressure on the connection causing them to snap and therefore losing your picture, so it's better to spend a little bit more just get better made connections.

As long as the cable is correct standard, 1.3 (or 1.4 for 3D) then all cables should be the same. Shielding can degrade the signal and it's a problem with optical cables in that they can leak through the shielding, so again this can be an issue with cheaper cables but doubtful this will be an issue over a run of a metre or 2.

Most digital transmission will have parity checks to ensure what was sent is received comeplete BUT in some case if 99% is sent then it may let it through.

Most modern digital TVs have upscalers in which will guess at any missing pixels and fill the gaps in so you WON'T actually notice whether anything has been dropped.

You will notice if a serious gltich occurs as it will block up quite badly - something which happens with my Freeview signal cos it's crap.

Don't forget that digital signals are made of millions of bits - not just a single 1 or 0 so not all of the signal maybe received so it's not as simple as saying it's on or off or 100% or less.

the capacity of HDMI is huge compared to what is actually sent on a TV signal.

Personnally I tend to look for HDMI around the £10 mark and just double check the quaslity of connections and shielding.

My Humax Freesat box came with a HDMI cable and it's perfectly ok.
 
Griffo said:
Shielding can degrade the signal and it's a problem with optical cables in that they can leak through the shielding
Click to expand...

Shielding is just that - it PROTECTS (shields - hence the name) the signal conductor from exterior interference. Insufficient shielding can be an issue in the wrong situation or a good thing (they use special "leaky" cables in tunnels to provide FM radio for example) - a reasonable standard cable will be fully shielded (possibly multiple layers - a copper/aluminium mesh with an optional foil layer). Retail price is no definitive guide to the construction.

As for optical cables leaking through the shielding - an optical 'cable' is an optical fibre transmitting *light* - so unless there's light leaking through the metal/foil shielding there is no loss that way... of course a true optical cable has no shielding at all - it doesn't need it - only the physical protection of the plastic sheath plus any armouring that might be needed for the particular application. However there is a loss in fibre due to the fact it has a refractive index greater than 1. That loss is proportional to the length of the cable and not usually a problem below 500m plus some termination junction losses at each end of the cable where it plugs in).

HDMI cables - as long as it's reasonably constructed there is no benefit in paying more.
 
Thanks for the quick replies.
Sounds reasonable to hang on until the cheapy cable arrives and see how it compares (ie to the direct HD freeview signal)... then maybe consider a mid-priced cable from Amazon (£5-ish). The Curry's price seems outrageous. I suppose people go in to buy TVs and boxes and buy the expensive cables... along with extended guarantees and the like.

And guess what... I've got a box full of every cable under the sun here... analogue and digital... the only one missing is the hdmi cable!
 
Head down to the nearest pound shop if there's one convenient and pick up a cheapie if you want to give it a lash straight away.

We have a place call Dealz here in Ireland... picked up a couple for €1.49 each recently. Handy to have.
 
I think there's been a lot of good advice given about cables in this thread already so I won't repeat it.

I guess most people think digital cables transmit either on or off so what's the point in paying more. As I understand it, a transition of 1 to 0 should be instant (like a square wave) but imperfections/impurities in the cable and connections can lead to a degradation of the signal so that the "corners" of the square wave start to distort into "curves". In severe cases this could lead to the odd bit being dropped and the parity checker detecting this and having to work around it (maybe treating the data as invalid or requesting it to be resent depending on the device etc.)
However I doubt short cables would suffer from this unless in really poor shape. I reckon most people would be hard-pressed to notice a difference.

I remember somewhere some advice that you should spend at least 10% of the price of your equipment on your cables, to give you confidence that it's not your cables that are letting down the rest of your system.

The thing about cables is that they should last a lifetime. When you replace your old kit you don't need to replace the cables (provided HDMI is still used in the future of course) so you can feel a bit better about spending a bit more on them.

I think the more expensive cables are better constructed to last than cheaper ones, but mainly I agree with WiffWaff that the high street prices are outrageously high and reply on customers believing that a very expensive cable will noticeably deliver better results.

I tend to use the same theory as my wine choosing skills; the second cheapest one is the one to go for. (BTW: Statistically that's how most wine is chosen.)
 
Theres a reliable ebayer called Plusbee that I use, good enough product and seems to be able to get cable out to me by the next day.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HDMI-SCART-RCA-DVI-VGA-SVGA-DB9-HD-Cable-Adapter-1080P-AV-1M-2M-3M-5M-10M-20M-UK-/320933807330?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item4ab92544e2
 
These are awesome.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=HD%20ZONE&index=electronics-uk&search-type=ss

I've now had Optical, Coaxal and HDMI leads from them and the quality is second to none.

Pete
 
SAINT12661 said:
These are awesome.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=HD%20ZONE&index=electronics-uk&search-type=ss

I've now had Optical, Coaxal and HDMI leads from them and the quality is second to none.

Pete
Click to expand...

The price looks reasonable and the reviews are excellent... also I can get a 1m length, which would be perfect with no extra cable hanging around.
Saved this on my wish list. The cable I ordered turned up today... and it does look a bit skinny and cheap (what do you expect for less than £1.50). I 'll give it a try first, though.
 
SAINT12661 said:
These are awesome.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=HD%20ZONE&index=electronics-uk&search-type=ss

I've now had Optical, Coaxal and HDMI leads from them and the quality is second to none.

Pete
Click to expand...

I have one of those vert cables bought from Amazon on my Blu-Ray Player and I can't fault them. The connection was nice and snug and they are well made. I have always went down the road of not the cheapest but not the ones made of unobtainium that are ludicrously priced.
 
Just connected the box up using the cheap cable. Doing direct comparisons (HD on the telly and HD via the box) I really can't see any difference in picture quality (and my next eye test is over six months away). So that's that... for now. Maybe spend the money saved on some Ladas blades.

Big night tonight then... I can pause "Strictly Come Dancing" in HD while I have me tea... how good is that?

PS... thanks for all the replies and advice
 
I have a van den hul ultimate hdmi in my living room, I also have the same hdmi in the bedroom. cables make a hellva difference, They cost me £200 for each for 2 metres and that was cheap. You should budget 10% of your money when buying a tv on a hdmi cable? Would you run a Porsche on supermarket fuel?
 
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