[Phil Hinton]

We meet Jeff Boccaccio from the Digital Performance Level program, who fully test and certify HDMI cables. He explains what issues you may encounter and why, with HDMI. Part two of three.

We hope you enjoy this production from the AVForums team. Please reply with your comments.
Options to view:

• Click the image below to begin playing now (requires Flash player installed on your computer)
• Via our TV productions home page at Home Consumer Electronics Videos from AVForums.tv
• Via our YouTube home
• Via our iTunes home
• or download a Windows Media Video here .

Also you may subscribe to the MP4 (for your video iPod etc.) by clicking this button:

[loz]

good video. Thanks

DPL sounds like a good initiative.

However,
1. their website is awful http://www.dplrating.org/
2. they have tested very few products anyone has heard of, if any. At least in the UK
3. there is no way to compare the results of different products

[IAN P]

I think Phil wanted to say What HIFI when he mentioned magazines.

So basically,and i agree,any mag that states they see a difference is full of crap.

Category 2,high speed cables are the best cables at the moment.

[namuk]

good vid

so Category 2 means hdmi 1.3a yes..

[IAN P]

It does mean exactly that.

[Andris L]

Originally Posted by loz

2. they have tested very few products anyone has heard of, if any. At least in the UK

Aye, I was hoping to see some UK brands listed but obviously there is none.

[Phil Hinton]

Originally Posted by Andris L

Aye, I was hoping to see some UK brands listed but obviously there is none.

Ethereal will be coming to the UK, as that was the reason for the event taking place. I just wanted to stay away from plugging product and get to the information in the videos, but there should be more manufacturers hopefully signing up for this type of testing in the future, or at least you would hope that they see it as worthwhile.

[namuk]

Good to here

[loz]

Originally Posted by Phil Hinton

Ethereal will be coming to the UK, as that was the reason for the event taking place.

well with prices like $897 for a 1mtr 'Platinum Series' HMDI, I would tell them not to bother....
Ethereal

[Andris L]

Originally Posted by loz

well with prices like $897 for a 1mtr 'Platinum Series' HMDI, I would tell them not to bother....
Ethereal

If you don't believe that product will make any difference and is not worth the money or simply you can not afford to buy such a product doesn’t mean that there will be no market for products like that.

I could say the same about cars... Why people bother buying, let's say, Jaguar if they can save a lot of money and buy Ford instead as at the end of day it's just a car and will do exactly the same job. I hope you get my meaning .

[loz]

Originally Posted by Andris L

If you don't believe that product will make any difference and is not worth the money or simply you can not afford to buy such a product doesn’t mean that there will be no market for products like that.

But what possible difference would anyone expect to see over just 1mtr between this and any other cat 2 HDMI cable costing a fraction of the price?

Yes there's a market, because there will always be gullable people.

[Andris L]

Originally Posted by loz

But what possible difference would anyone expect to see over just 1mtr between this and any other cat 2 HDMI cable costing a fraction of the price?

None, because it was clearly explained that video signal will be there (most of times) and difference in video quality will be very little to none so you won't see much difference. It's been mentioned on several occasions that difference will come to build quality and material used in build process to maintain high standard and to make sure that not only video and audio is present and functioning as it should but also other process involved is functioning correctly i.e. correct voltage is sent, control works as it should, etc.

It was mentioned in other thread that £5 cable from Tesco works perfectly fine so the question is why everyone should bother paying more? Well, after watching these videos it makes me believe that there is quite an effort involved to manufacture a good quality cable that will give you a good performance across the board (I’m not talking juts about video here) so it kind of makes sense to invest in better quality cables (and once again by quality I don’t mean video signal as such). On other hand it again comes down to every individual’s preference and to whatever they believe in.

In overall, I think, it’s still quite gray area when it comes to HDMI. Once we get more brands tested and results freely available for general public only then we will be able to draw some lines and make constructive conclusions.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Andris L

If you don't believe that product will make any difference and is not worth the money or simply you can not afford to buy such a product doesn’t mean that there will be no market for products like that.

I could say the same about cars... Why people bother buying, let's say, Jaguar if they can save a lot of money and buy Ford instead as at the end of day it's just a car and will do exactly the same job. I hope you get my meaning .

That is a very bad analogy.

The Jaguar will be: faster, more comfortable, quieter, etc. and you know what real benefits the more expensive car gives you. Can you really say the same about expensive HDMIs ?