Chord Active hdmi cable

readingfan

Established Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2013
Messages
156
Reaction score
11
Points
59
Age
64
Does anyone know how many active cables needed to connect sky box to av amp , then TV
I already have everything connected using chord silver cables
Do I need two or will it be fine to use 1 active between amp and TV
Or 1 active between sky and amp
Or both ?? Not sure if you need the chipset at all points between source amp and TV?????
 
The sky box sits over the amp 0.75 and the TV is about 1.5m
 
That's partly my question, the cable revues and the chord website suggest the chipset in the active give picture and sound improvement over chord silver.
I need an expert view before parting with more money
Also if HDR and 4k can this cable cope
Or will silver be good enough???
 
Any properly labelled and certified high speed hdmi cable will give the exact same picture as any other .

Spend about £5 on the two cables and you will have no loss of quality .
 
Thank you, I have a good picture with the silver cables and wondered what advantage the Active could give! But TV calibrators are always talking about crushed blacks, lack of shadow details and poor contrast and I hoped the active chipset could improve this.
I'm waiting on more room friendly size OLED ( I can't fit 55") but with HDR coming , I can't find much to upgrade, and I'm waiting to see if ATMOS or DTS:x win the format war!
So money burning a hole in my pocket but it's all too soon to upgrade ! Lol
 
Well certainly don't waste it on expensive hdmi cable , save it for something worthwhile .

Ignore the marketing hype
 
Thank you for your advice, I clearly wasn't convinced hence the query , but I appreciate the confirmation.
Roll on HDR
Do you know if, apologies if this is as stupid as it sounds, but the new standards for UHD etc refer to HDMI 2
But somewhere I read this had the same bandwidth of HDMI 1.4

Do I presume I'm going to need new cables again lol or is there a slim chance the 1.4 can do the job , is there more to this than bandwidth??
 
Ignore version numbers and look at features.
Version numbers are for the manufacturers of the chips and shouldn't be used in marketing specifications. (i do realise that they are widely used)

Cables dont and never have had version numbers.
 
That's really interesting! I didn't know that. I was led to believe that 3d needed 1.3 cables etc . Interesting to know the cables should work whatever.
Thanks mate you have most likely saved me a load of money in the future , I will need a new amp at some points and obviously a new screen, so if I can use all my current cabling I can put more money into the other components :)
 
The numbers don't refer to the cables but the hardware at each end. High speed cables will be fine.

http://www.hdmi.org/manufacturer/hdmi_2_0/

" HDMI 2.0 does not define new cables or new connectors. Current High Speed cables (Category 2 cables) are capable of carrying the increased bandwidth."
 
And keep in mind any 'active' cable is likely to be a problem with HDR as they are unlikely to be able to pass an HDR signal.

Cable 'reviews' which mention enhanced/improved video or audio quality should be ignored!

Joe
 
That's a very good point , I hadn't properly considered that the chipset in the active cable might not allow HDR pass through or at all!
Anyway I have decided to leave well enough alone! And save the money to get a DTS:x amp when they become more readily available
My Onkyo 875 has been brilliant to now, but doesn't have an ARC channel so I'm using an optical lead to the amp and that was fine but with UHD and 3d sound formats, it may be outdated soon.
I am really debating wether to just update the display and "struggle" on with the Amp lol
 
ARC supports the same range of 'lossy' codecs as Optical or Coaxial - there is no support for the Lossless formats HDMI can support.

Joe
 
I guessed as much which is why I suspect I will carry on with my Onkyo for the foreseeable future,
It also provides additional central heating in the winter, but added to the unbearable warmth of the last two days
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom