[Dr.Rock]

I am going to buy a HDMI cable and wondered, for a digital cable, does picture quality drop according to cable length? I'm thinking of opting for a 3m cable rather than a 1.5m cable, to cover me for different situations, though I never buy this length for analog cables because of the signal loss with length. But I wouldn't expect this loss with digital cables because the purpose of digital is that the full quality image is rebuilt at the decoder end.

Am I right with this sort of thinking, or does a 1.5 metre cable really give better performance than 3 metre?

[Abbeygoo]

The consesus of opinion would be that, at those distances, it would make no difference.

[Mark 1971x]

Yes it does, a longer cable will have a higher resistance factor, and can lead to issues of picture quality, go for a lead with a high KPBS rating then you know you are ok.

[Abbeygoo]

Originally Posted by Mark 1971x

Yes it does, a longer cable will have a higher resistance factor, and can lead to issues of picture quality, go for a lead with a high KPBS rating then you know you are ok.

I don't agree. You should not have any difference in performance between a 1.5m and 3m HDMI cable. I accept that over longer runs, say 10m or above, a higher quality HDMI cable would be more prudent but at those shorter lengths any lead will do. My opinion of course.

The OP specifically mentions "signal loss" - this is simply not an issue with the lengths being considered.

[Dr.Rock]

Originally Posted by Mark 1971x

Yes it does, a longer cable will have a higher resistance factor, and can lead to issues of picture quality, go for a lead with a high KPBS rating then you know you are ok.

What's a good kbps to go for, and would a cable's kbps value be specified on the packet?

[Blu Ray]

I agree with Abbeygoo on this one, 3m is nothing. Don't go overboard on spending silly money on this cable. I have a range of size HDMI from 1m thru 3m and they're all the same.

[un1eash]

This is covered so many times, anything under 5m a cheap cable will do. I use a £5 5m cable of ebay for 1080p signals and it works perfect. The signal is digital and you'll only start to run into problems with very cheap cables at 5m plus, having said that a £10-15 10m cable will most likely work fine.

[alchemistkevin]

As long as it conforms to HDMI 1.3 or 1.1 (whatever you're looking for) - you'll be ok, you don't need to worry about signal loss issues for 3m if it says it conforms to HDMI specs.

For peace of mind buy from a place you can return to if it doesn't work.

It will either work flawlessly or you'll get handshake errors or nothing or a jagged images if its not working properly.