HDMI Cable

gozzy

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My Samsung SP46L3HX comes tomorrow :D
So I've been looking at some cables, got plenty of Gold scarts
But it looks like I'll need a HDMI cable at some time, now why do we have to get ripped of in this country (UK) the cheapest I've seen is £30 from Maplins, but if I go on e-bay its £6.99 + postage :eek: (Bloody rip off britain :mad: )

Anyway
Am i right in thinking that I only need a HDMI yo HDMI if I had a dvd etc that had one ?
I would need a Hdmi to DVI to connect to the graphics card on my computer (it has DVI out)

Anyone know where the best place to get one ??? :lease:
 
my SP50L3HX came with a HDMI-DVI cable, and the dvd player with a DVI-DVI cable.
 
but i would still buy better quality cables the 1s that u get free are usally not very good so i would defin upgrade your leads
 
If you're going to replace your cables, I think that the Samsung DLPs utilise DVI-A connections. Hence there will be signal loss over distances of around 2.5m, but you probably won't notice with shorter distances, unless the cables are horribly shielded and weren't crimped right. As if! Prove me wrong if you want!

On the other hand, iff they utilise DVI-D cables (i'm highly doubtful of that seeing the overscan problems the samsung's suffer from when connected to my pc), then the bit error rate on the cable is dependent on cable length and the transmission speed. In this case, if you're planning on using cables over 2.5m in length I'd advise dual link DVI cables. This will reduce the total transmission rate, allowing better signal quality for longer cables. But they don't, so the discussion is moot.
 
Wouldn't be over 2m in length
 
I know I am opening a can of worms, but do cables carrying a digital signal matter? As long as the connection and cable are mechanically sound, what is put in one end should come out the other. After all it is only carrying 0 and 1.
Or am I being stupid?
 
apparently digital DVI cables are only used for the computer and a few other devices; HDTV uses analog DVI cables. Go figure why they'd want to do that...
 
Are you sure about that? DVI and HDMI are digital only connections. DVI is video only, HDMI is audio and video. So as I said, cable quality should make no differance to the picture or sound.
 
best way get a cheap cable and a expensive one im sure you will see the different the thing they say when you buy kit u need to spend about 10% of the price on your leads the other thing why do people wanna buy good expensive gear then by cra***y leads to connect it up and then moan the picture is bad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
kourosh said:
best way get a cheap cable and a expensive one im sure you will see the different the thing they say when you buy kit u need to spend about 10% of the price on your leads the other thing why do people wanna buy good expensive gear then by cra***y leads to connect it up and then moan the picture is bad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I still don't understand this with a digital connection, you don't see people buying better 'IDE' cables to improve the transfer to a harddisc, analogue I can accept, but a digital nope, unless there is something wierd gong on with timings and error correction and I can't see that

Dave...
 
well ive read a lot of posts here people saying when they have bought better hdmi leads there pictures have improved and there is no way a £6.99 hdmi cable is gonna give u the same picture as a £80!!!!! i will find out on thurs ive just phurchased a tosh dlp with pani s97 dvd and just spent £60 on a hdmi lead so we can only wait and see
 
HDMI/DVI cables at under 2m will not make a difference, there was a cable test done with different brands, on the Meridian forum I think it was, and no one could tell the difference.
Put the money towards a better player, if you spend more than a tenner on a 2m or shorter dvi/hdmi cable you are nuts. I have tried a few and can't tell a difference at all.

Component cables will make a difference, but I would not say that the more expensive one will be better, I have a van damme 5 bnc to 5bnc cable that was nearly £100 and a cheap £10 cable from maplin that I bought for my xbox, the cheap one is better.
 
Ooops!! was not having a pop at you kourosh, I started typing that before your reply and then got caught up with something, came back an hour later and you had posted that you had bought a £60 hdmi cable.
 
HDMI cables have to be made to a specification, you can not deviate from that specification, and after speaking with Meridian all the cables have to be made with the same cable and connector, you can add different sheathing and platic/gold surrounds to the plugs to make them look fancier but that is it, therefore all cables should be the same.

You may get some cheapies coming out of the far east that are not made to the correct spec. but you would be very unlucky to get one of those.
 
Digital cables will subject to differances in quality in the same way as analogue, and will be affected by impedence, inductance and resistance. The higher quality will reduce digital data drop out and jitter which will subsequently will meen an easier job for the digital processor and cause less reliance on any error correction that will be required. If digital data was not able to be corupted all cd transports for hi-fi would sound the same (they don't), all digital hi-fi co-ax, and optical cables would be the same and companies like QED, Chord, Black Rhodiam and Nordost would be out of business. All of these companies offer a range of digtal cables, Nordost in particular
making basic digital audio interconnects the wrong side of a thousand pounds, all with rave reviews both sides of the atlantic.
As a final thought if digital is either ther or not, which must be the case if you argue that digital cables make not differance, how come you get blocking and digital artifax on Sky and Freeview before you loose the picture to bad weather?
If you want more information on digital data transfer down cables I can recommend
looking at Nordosts website or see if you can find a copy of the Genisis report on line from Audioquest another cable manufacturer...... Read and enjoy!!!
 
I know all that, and I can hear differences between digital cables, even on my meridian transport which does a few clever things before it leaves the digital output so there reall should not be much difference at all, well certainlt less than using other transports, but there is.

All I was saying is this, from the different hdmi cables I have tried I can see sod all difference, I can hear a difference between a Black Rhodium Allegro and a Black Rhodium Oratorio, and again the difference by putting a VDH digital cable in, but with hdmi I can not see a difference.

Do you honestly think that a £60 digital cable will make a £200 dvd player that much better??
 
well thats the whole issue but im sure they would be better than the £6.99!! and at the end of the day if 1 person cant see the difference then dont spend the money, but don't deny that other people with better equipment can't see or hear a differance!!its all about whats right 4 u cause as i said before if the high end cables never made a difference why do these company make them an even better sell lots of them the best way for people is buy the cable and try it 4 your self
 
gozzy said:
My Samsung SP46L3HX comes tomorrow :D
So I've been looking at some cables, got plenty of Gold scarts
But it looks like I'll need a HDMI cable at some time, now why do we have to get ripped of in this country (UK) the cheapest I've seen is £30 from Maplins, but if I go on e-bay its £6.99 + postage :eek: (Bloody rip off britain :mad: )

Anyway
Am i right in thinking that I only need a HDMI yo HDMI if I had a dvd etc that had one ?
I would need a Hdmi to DVI to connect to the graphics card on my computer (it has DVI out)

Anyone know where the best place to get one ??? :lease:

http://www.cableuniverse.co.uk/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=148&products_id=958

9 quid

I've got it connected to a Samsung hd745 and the same TV as you, seems to work ok for me.
 
kourosh said:
As a final thought if digital is either ther or not, which must be the case if you argue that digital cables make not differance, how come you get blocking and digital artifax on Sky and Freeview before you loose the picture to bad weather?
If you want more information on digital data transfer down cables I can recommend
looking at Nordosts website or see if you can find a copy of the Genisis report on line from Audioquest another cable manufacturer...... Read and enjoy!!!

Not saying here that digital is there or not, but with Sky and freeview you are talking about much more extremes of signal loss that a 2m cable. I still go back to the concept of IDE cables, you don't see swapping these out etc.

If effects like jitter and bit loss were occuring I would expect to see them manifesting in odd ways, I'm not sure what the bitrate is passing along the HDMI cable to considering it's got to handle a HD signal I would expect it to be rather high, unless you are suffering a major problem on the cable would you ever see it?

I'll certainly go and have a look and the website and cheers for the link, but it still has the feeling of snake oil ;)

Krgds
Dave...
 
I don't think it's very bright spending £60 on cables that might not make any difference without a demo. :nono:

Might be worth it for the placebo effect though :devil:
 
parnassus said:
if you're planning on using cables over 2.5m in length I'd advise dual link DVI cables. This will reduce the total transmission rate, allowing better signal quality for longer cables. But they don't, so the discussion is moot.
I have used a 20m YES 20m HDMI cable that worked fine with some very high end kit you can see a difference (i have been reliably informed), the big thing is poor (not necassarily cheap) cables at around 8m+ when you can get sparklies etc.
And yes its digital "1" and "0" but these are still carried as an analogue voltage on a cable and its not what you send that matter but what you receive that really counts.

But still not seen DVi-D/HDMI out perform Analogue video (Pio TV plasmas accepted as the exception)
 
From what i've read if you need distance with HDMI you have to get expensive cables that are designed for it .For most people with a short run cheap & cheerfull should be fine.
 
kourosh said:
well thats the whole issue but im sure they would be better than the £6.99!! and at the end of the day if 1 person cant see the difference then dont spend the money, but don't deny that other people with better equipment can't see or hear a differance!!its all about whats right 4 u cause as i said before if the high end cables never made a difference why do these company make them an even better sell lots of them the best way for people is buy the cable and try it 4 your self

In the medical profession they call it the placebo effect . They advertise a lot as well.
I'm not denying some analouge cables are better than others but in my experience spending money on cables gives the smallest improvement for the money spent. :devil:
 
oh well ive just ordered 2 Qed hdmi (£75) people are always telling me i waists my money :suicide:
 

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