Is HDMI a scam is this true?

[bladeaku]

http://boardsus.playstation.com/play...read.id=828972

So there is no picture quality improvement between a lead that costs 10 quid and one that costs hundreds?.

[Dave2]

Originally Posted by bladeaku

http://boardsus.playstation.com/play...read.id=828972

So there is no picture quality improvement between a lead that costs 10 quid and one that costs hundreds?.

Its all digital all the way , 0`s and 1`s . the only benefit would be lack of interference and the signal would keep full strengh . with a 3m hdmi you will probably never get any of the above .

[nwgarratt]

I have seen perfectly ok cables at 1.5m for just £5 and 2.5 for £10. In fact Play.com are doing a decent 2.5m cable for £9.99.

[alpine101]

None of this means that HDMI is a scam of course. It's simply certain of the cable suppliers, used to selling their fabulously snake-oiled analogue cables are up to the same tactics with HDMI cables, where different criteria apply

[gixxerman]

Sadly some people find the most incredible 'security' in a great big price tag.

[nehalem]

What I heard was that if you start getting really long cables unless they have been put together properly then you may experience some issues, but I'm not sure what the tipping point would be maybe over 10 meters or something. Certainly 1 or 2 meter cables would be fine. But happy to be proven wrong on this.

[Nic Rhodes]

Yes if you are running long leads or 1080p then more care is necessary in the leads. For 2m then the well engineered Molex are fine for everyday use.

[dUnKle]

I have tried a fair few small HDMI leads - ranging from free with a DVD to a mates £75 job and could see no real difference

However for the 15 meter lead to the back of the room I replaced a cheap £40 lead with one of the forum deals better cables cable and the difference was apparant - less sparkles and better colour

[jsgreen89]

Originally Posted by dUnKle

I have tried a fair few small HDMI leads - ranging from free with a DVD to a mates £75 job and could see no real difference

However for the 15 meter lead to the back of the room I replaced a cheap £40 lead with one of the forum deals better cables cable and the difference was apparant - less sparkles and better colour

Less sparklies - yes you would expect that.

Better colour - this can't possibly happen. The chances of every coloured pixel accidently being transmitted and read out as having more saturation (for every frame) would be infinitessimally small. It just can't happen. Better colour, contrast etc. could only happen with an analogue connection.

With digital if there is a problem and data is lost, it is lost randomly. It's not possible to lose specficially all the bytes of data that result in colour saturation. Hence the random white sparklies.

So yes I'd agree overall. Go for the cheapest cable you can get. If you get sparklies, either the cable is damaged, or the quality of the cable is too low for the length of run required.

[dUnKle]

Originally Posted by jsgreen89

Less sparklies - yes you would expect that.

Better colour - this can't possibly happen. The chances of every coloured pixel accidently being transmitted and read out as having more saturation (for every frame) would be infinitessimally small. It just can't happen. Better colour, contrast etc. could only happen with an analogue connection.

With digital if there is a problem and data is lost, it is lost randomly. It's not possible to lose specficially all the bytes of data that result in colour saturation. Hence the random white sparklies.

So yes I'd agree overall. Go for the cheapest cable you can get. If you get sparklies, either the cable is damaged, or the quality of the cable is too low for the length of run required.

With the cheaper cable everything appeared too red - with the more expensive it did not - it did happen - why would I make it up

[JohnWH]

Well the cable was already exhibiting sparkleys by your own statement so it was clearly not working properly. What people are questioning is that a failure modes where subtle effects occur such as sharper images etc are simply impossible. However its very unlikely a £40 lead would work over 15m and you don't seem to be describing something subtle, so its probably just terminology, besides the bettercable solution is a pretty solid buy at that distance.

What was the make of the £40 cable by the way so that other people can avoid it?

Cheers,
John.

[Jeff]

I bought one for around £20 and it has the odd problem.

[Rich777]

I've seen a striking difference
Never seen any sparklies

runs and hides

[ianh64]

Just guessing, but maybe that colour difference comes down to one cable being used in HDMI mode and the other in DVI mode.

Say one cable was a decently manufactured and specified cable that could support HDMI over the distance required, then this would beable to use the HDMI colour models, YUV etc and YUV->RGB decoding was done in the display.

However, if a lesser quality cable was having problems, then maybe the transmitter would fall back to DVI compatibility mode, in which case, only RGB was available and YUV to RGB conversion would be done in the source and the display had to re-encode everything. HDMI and DVI mode may also be user selectable on some sources.

There are quite a few things that may cause a colour shift, like differences in HD and SD colour space. Its not unheard of a display receiving an HD signal but using SD colour space conversion - if I remember correctly, this results in a green shift.

IMHO, if an HDMI cable is of correct specification, I have yet to find any way of a colour shift happening - unless the HDMI connection was suffering from errors in which case it would be seen as random sparklies. A colour shift implies a uniform error.

[Bachstrad]

Even the bundled HDMI cable supplied with the Sky HD box is ok!

Up to lengths of 5m, there is no point in spending a fortune on a digital cable. They don't suffer from the signal degradation that occurs with an analogue connection. They either work correctly or are faulty, spend your hard earned cash on something else!

When was the last time you upgraded a bundled USB lead for your computer????

ATB

Max