HDMI Cables from Dixons

[ald0]

Bought my new LG 200Hz LCD from Curry's over the weekend.
I Also for the deal I got these thrown in for £20, bear in mind that these are £69.99 from in their shops and on their website.
Currys - Shop for TV & Audio Leads & Accessories - Belkin Black Series 1.5 Metre HDMI Cable
But what do I find when I come home, but these here:
Belkin Pure AV Black Series 1.5 Metre HDMI Cable Male: Amazon.co.uk: Quigleys
So I have actually been ripped off!!!!

I will be returning the above cable, but now considering what is the best cable to buy?

From what I can see there is a huge debate on whether it is better to pay lots for a cable or a reasonably priced cable like above will do the same job.

 

[andy1249]

From what I can see there is a huge debate on whether it is better to pay lots for a cable or a reasonably priced cable like above will do the same job.

Read here ,

http://www.avforums.com/forums/hdmi-cables-switches/831330-hdmi-cables-just-facts.html

Its not a debateable subject , no cable can change the bitstream to produce better picture or sound , if it works it works , so get the cheapest one you can , the only situation you could be in that might require a more expensive cable is for a specialist install , where the cables are either very long ( 10 meters + ) or buried in a wall.

 

[bloodynora]

I wonder if it's a pricing error and should say £6.99 on their website??

 

[mbell]

I wonder if it's a pricing error and should say £6.99 on their website??

Currys always charge well over the odds for cables, and for Belkin ones in particular.

 

[ald0]

Thanks Andy.

No pricing error, they are literally ripping off customers. Made me so angry making me think I am getting a good deal for £20.
I feel sorry for the people that don't bother to check the deals they get. I got a refund for that cable but think of all the unsuspecting people that have bought one, it's probably built in to their sales talk

 

[Trollslayer]

I wonder if it's a pricing error and should say £6.99 on their website??

In their favour...

 

[Foulkes]

whilst it's easy to think that digital signals cannot degrade it's not actually true.

just look at your Sky box's signal strength and quality dials...when both are below half you begin to see the little tell tale signs of a poor digital signal - squares on the screen, disjointed dialog - pops and crackles. Now this is what you see when a digital signal degrades to a point when your sky+ box cannot fill in the gaps with it's clever error correction circuitry and software...

poor/long HDMI leads do exactly the same but to a much lesser extent. Your TV is at it's crystal clearest best when it is supplied with a clean digital signal, when this begins to degrade the TV starts to fill the gaps, losing resolution until if things get really bad you will start to see the same squares, pops and crackles you get with a poor quality Digital TV or Sky signal.

I agree that you won't see much difference but if you are going to spend a grand or more on a 46" plasma and assoc blu-rays, films, etc then invest £75+ on a decent cable to get the signal from the player to the TV...you should definately hear and see the difference

 

[Matt_C]

LOL, I'd never pay £20 for a digital cable! The only reason I paid £6.19 for the Philips branded one I bought from Tesco is cos they were out of the £5 Tesco branded ones!

 

[Matt_C]

whilst it's easy to think that digital signals cannot degrade it's not actually true.

just look at your Sky box's signal strength and quality dials...when both are below half you begin to see the little tell tale signs of a poor digital signal - squares on the screen, disjointed dialog - pops and crackles. Now this is what you see when a digital signal degrades to a point when your sky+ box cannot fill in the gaps with it's clever error correction circuitry and software...

poor/long HDMI leads do exactly the same but to a much lesser extent. Your TV is at it's crystal clearest best when it is supplied with a clean digital signal, when this begins to degrade the TV starts to fill the gaps, losing resolution until if things get really bad you will start to see the same squares, pops and crackles you get with a poor quality Digital TV or Sky signal.

I agree that you won't see much difference but if you are going to spend a grand or more on a 46" plasma and assoc blu-rays, films, etc then invest £75+ on a decent cable to get the signal from the player to the TV...you should definately hear and see the difference

Absolute tosh - there is NEVER a reason to spend that much money on a digital cable!

You obviously have more money than sense. Please forward me that £75 as punishment for misleading info!

 

[andy1249]

just look at your Sky box's signal strength and quality dials...when both are below half you begin to see the little tell tale signs of a poor digital signal - squares on the screen, disjointed dialog - pops and crackles. Now this is what you see when a digital signal degrades to a point when your sky+ box cannot fill in the gaps with it's clever error correction circuitry and software...

I agree that you won't see much difference but if you are going to spend a grand or more on a 46" plasma and assoc blu-rays, films, etc then invest £75+ on a decent cable to get the signal from the player to the TV...you should definately hear and see the difference

As said above this is tosh , and Im going to explain why ....

Digital signals have a logic level trigger , a very definite one , above such a value and you get a 1 , below and you get a 0 ... in the case of HDMI its actually better than that in that the line is balanced , so above a certain positive value you get a 1 , below a certain negative value you get a 0 .... so degradation doesnt matter until you reach the trigger level , then you get catastrophic breakup , there is never a case where you get a slightly inferior signal ,

For HDMI the real clincher is that there is no error correction whatsoever , this is what makes nonsense of the part in bold above , so any missed data stays missed , it starts with sparklies , which for all intents and purposes can be said to be blank or no data pixels , and quickly deteriorates from there , so really , it either works as well as it can do , or it doesnt work at all.

Its worth repeating , that no simple wire can change a bitstream in any meaningful way , it most certainly cannot change the code to make a better picture , at worst all it can do is lose the data , as this effectively means the cable is broken , then you can say that all working cables are the same in terms of picture and sound quality , so premium HDMI cables do nothing except lighten your pocket.

 

[Perrioli]

I'm glad I read the above. I was thinking of getting a 'better' therefore more expensive cable as I'm not particularly happy with the pic I'm getting from my sonybdp360. I'll give it a miss now.

 

[nickfrog]

The only people who defend expensive HDMI cables as giving better sound or picture quality are the ones who have been ripped-off.

 

[MarkTaylor]

The only people who defend expensive HDMI cables as giving better sound or picture quality are the ones who have been ripped-off.

Let's avoid debating the people rather than the subject.

I would prefer to say that those who take that point of view have convinced themselves of the merits of their investment despite the technical evidence to the contrary.

In the end what matters is that everyone is happy with the results they percieve and while I will always try to make sure that people are not mislead on topics like this I will always try to respect those who feel they are seeing/hearing soimething different as long as they remain in the area of perception and do not claim differences as 'fact'.