will quality suffer if you dont get the official Hdmi cable?

[ibby!]

its just £17.99 seems a lot on top of a £425 bundle

where did you lot get your Hdmi cables from?

 

[Battle]

makes no difference as its all digital (there is a portion of the population who seem to think spending 100 quid on a HDMI cable will give you a better picture but I aint one of them)

I got mine from Game for £12.99 (I had some trade in stuff so it only cost me 3 quid) but you can get them cheaper - Lidl were doing one for a fiver a while ago - Im sure someone else will point you in the direction of an even cheaper one

 

[ibby!]

i found one an amazon for 50p

and there are a good 8 reviews saying its 5*

may go for that before ordering my ps3 then

ive heard that when you get over 10m hdmi cables, you need to start paying more or quality does suffer?

 

[dognosh]

it's digital and as long as you stick to 10m or less then you'll be ok.

i got mine for £5 each,3 of them,from amazon
they were 1.8m long
I also bought 2 at 5m each from eBay for £8 each

 

[Battle]

i found one an amazon for 50p

and there are a good 8 reviews saying its 5*

may go for that before ordering my ps3 then

ive heard that when you get over 10m hdmi cables, you need to start paying more or quality does suffer?

Dont forget that there will be postage on that of £4.50 as all cables at amazon are not sent from Amazon themselves but from the Marketplace.

 

[angelislington]

Seriously, where DO you lot get the idea that "it's digital" so there are no differences in quality?

You still need to get those 1s and 0s to the other end in EXACTLY the same order that they left the source device. The cable plays a part in making sure this does (not) happen.

 

[ZebraheadDude]

its just £17.99 seems a lot on top of a £425 bundle

where did you lot get your Hdmi cables from?

got mine free with my bundle from BlockBusters. Venom brand, but can't notice a single difference between it and my XBox 360 Elite's bundled HDMI lead

 

[cliveuk]

paying huge amounts of money is a waste of money, just get a cheaper one which doesnt have the sony name.
this discussion has been had many times on the skyHD forum with people swapping the supplied cable for the really expensive ones only to find no diffrence what so ever.

 

[mmcg]

A HDMI cable is a HDMI cable.

Every HDMI cable will give the same picture quality.

 

[angelislington]

A HDMI cable is a HDMI cable.

Every HDMI cable will give the same picture quality.

On what basis do you form this enlightened opinion?

 

[Nokmondoo]

Seriously, where DO you lot get the idea that "it's digital" so there are no differences in quality?

You still need to get those 1s and 0s to the other end in EXACTLY the same order that they left the source device. The cable plays a part in making sure this does (not) happen.

Because there isn't.

 

[angelislington]

Because there isn't.

Ok, lets please understand the difference between opinion and fact. Your comment is your opinion, it is not fact. My opinion is that there are differences to be had with various HDMI cables, I've seen them with my own eyes. Your experience is obviously different and I respect that. I'm not suggesting that a £100 cable is always better than a less expensive one but you seem to be completely ruling out the possibility that this could ever be the case and that to me is wrong.

 

[Naqv]

Richard T, you are wrong. There will be no noticeable difference between different HDMI cables under 10m. The picture is transmitted digitally, therefore, you will either get 100% of picture (quality) or 0% and the 0% will be noticeable through a black frame (if it lasts a frame). There is not 80% quality or 50% quality.
In terms of Blue Ray, the issue of HDCP comes into play. I think the picture has to be broadcast fully and if it is not, the film will not be played.

Do you have freeview? What happens when you get signal interference (even for like 1 second (25frames)? The picture you see freezes. Now if you record a film of freeview (like I have done), in one instance I had the picture freeze for 1 second or so (or less than a second). Later on, as I was recording the film, I used projectx to correct errors, and it found that (yes you've guessed it) at that exact point where I physically saw the film, about 200ms (milliseconds, 1/5th of a second) of video data was missing, therefore the picture viewed froze.

As I have said before, you will either get 100% quality or 0 %.

I may be wrong on some technical points, so please correct me if you see any.

btw Under your username, it says retailer. Are you a retailer of hdmi cables? That would explain a lot!!! Please excuse me if you think I am being rude, as I have no intention to be.

 

[Reuben.F]

Seriously, where DO you lot get the idea that "it's digital" so there are no differences in quality?

You still need to get those 1s and 0s to the other end in EXACTLY the same order that they left the source device. The cable plays a part in making sure this does (not) happen.

Yes, there are differences between digital cables.. i wonder how many people here have actually compared lets say a £5 to a £50 cable on a decent size TV.

I've just replaced a belkin PureAV cable with a £10 job and regret it already, the only reason i did was that the belkin wasn't very flexible and was putting too much pressure on the delicate HDMI ports.

With a £425 blu-ray-dvd-games machine and a £700- 1500 ? TV set i don't understand why anyone would not want to get the best out of it, a £40-50 cable is reasonable IMO.

 

[Naqv]

Yes, there are differences between digital cables.. i wonder how many people here have actually compared lets say a £5 to a £50 cable on a decent size TV.

I've just replaced a belkin PureAV cable with a £10 job and regret it already, the only reason i did was that the belkin wasn't very flexible and was putting too much pressure on the delicate HDMI ports.

With a £425 blu-ray-dvd-games machine and a £700- 1500 ? TV set i don't understand why anyone would not want to get the best out of it, a £40-50 cable is reasonable IMO.

What difference did you notice between the two in terms of picture quality?

 

[Reuben.F]

What difference did you notice between the two in terms of picture quality.
?

"It's just mind boggling that people think they can tell the difference in quality of a digital cable that is £100 and one that is £10....Mind boggling!!!"

I find it mind boggling that people can't tell the difference between MP3 and CD, then again, no, its probably quite simple...

 

[Naqv]

"It's just mind boggling that people think they can tell the difference in quality of a digital cable that is £100 and one that is £10....Mind boggling!!!"

I find it mind boggling that people can't tell the difference between MP3 and CD, then again, no, its probably quite simple...

Off topic, but in the real world, it is difficult to tell the difference between an mp3 and a cd, depending on the bitrate of the mp3
Personally, above 162kbps you can't (well I can't) tell the difference between the two, listening from Sennheiser HD-595 headphones. With lower quality phones, the 162 would probably drop to 128kbps.

 

[Reuben.F]

well.. i dont need phones to hear the difference, but thats me, and my system.

I'm not saying there are huge night-day differences between HDMI cables, and just like audio it is subjective, but from what i've seen the cheaper ones do degrade PQ a bit, most probable reason is that the ones i've used didn't have ferite cores fitted.

BTW, its well known that there are differences in sound quality between digital coaxial cables and even optical cables, why should HDMI be any different.

 

[mrm3]

some real world tests for Richard T ...retailer

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/hdmi-cabl...ale-282725.php

http://pcworld.about.com/magazine/2309p111id121777.htm

Buy cheap HDMI cables !

If they work they are as good as expensive ones !

Reuben.F
There is facts to back up these real world tests.

In fact HDMI Licensing, which oversees the HDMI spec and ensures that companies comply with it, requires that no more than one pixel per billion be lost in transmission.

If you noticed 1 in a 1000 I would be impressed !

Read around the forums and be open minded to the fact retailors and cable manufacturers are here to make money and will make expensive cables if people are prepared to buy them.

This has been discussed loads on this forum. Cheap HDMI cable argument always seems to win in the end due to facts over those that are trying to justify the expensive cable purchase. Well I have been convinced. I have compared 2 cables myself. The picture is the same as far as I could tell and the cheaper one was easier to route around (less pointless thickness) !

 

[Reuben.F]

"Whether you hook up your TV via digital connections, analog connections, or both, you are unlikely to detect any difference in picture quality between a cable with a moderate price and a luxury brand"

I dont disagree with that, i think £35-£40 is moderate and what i'll be spending on my next cable, but thats just me, my preference.

"Read around the forums and be open minded to the fact retailors and cable manufacturers are here to make money and will make expensive cables if people are prepared to buy them."

Thats quite obvious and true of a lot AV products, being open minded should work the other way too.

 

[spergabite]

I used to be a hifi nut and spent a lot of money on cables (speaker, analogue phono leads etc) . Personally I think digital cables have no effect on quality. It either works or it doesnt!. For the record Ive got a £20 cable from Virgin. It looks great and is made very well - Funny thing is its got gold plated connections - whatever next!!

 

[pnangna]

I got two HDMI cables from amazon for 98p each they work just fine.
I do however spend more on analogue cables ive got some expensive cables on my Hi-Fi and dvd player, i have a £50 QED coaxial cable on my DVD player and was just thinking why did i spend that much
I wont buy expensive digital cables though.

 

[menz83]

Spending money on a good scart cable is a wise purchase for the likes of sky or dvd, but I dont think speding a packet on hdmi will give you noticable results.

When I bought my PS3 at launch on midnight at ASDA, I had no choice but to buy their £40 Phillips hdmi cable. It certainly looks fancy but when I compare it to the £5 cable I bought off ebay, I couldnt say I see any difference!

If you look on ebay, there is a guy from the states selling hdmi cables on the cheap, around £5 including postage for a few metres. Shipping is very quick too, only a couple of days so I would highly recommend. I think the guys username/shop is completebuy.

Hope this helps

 

[caz2005]

I ordered a cheapo 11.99 cable and found it very disapointing. After reading what people were saying about all HDMI cables under 10 m being the same I thought how can HDMI be this bad.

The picture was grainy and in dark scenes blocky and the colour was a bit washed. After a bit of sulking I decided to try a more expensive cable. I bought a 60 quid Monster cable.

the picture was exactly the same. I was gutted, although pleasantly surprised that Comet gave me a refund just because I wasn't impressed.

Anyway, unditerred I kept on looking. I eventually bought a QED cable for 37.99 and well, I was astonished. The picture was imensely better. Now I go QED for every cable I need.

 

[Reuben.F]

I ordered a cheapo 11.99 cable and found it very disapointing. After reading what people were saying about all HDMI cables under 10 m being the same I thought how can HDMI be this bad.

The picture was grainy and in dark scenes blocky and the colour was a bit washed. After a bit of sulking I decided to try a more expensive cable. I bought a 60 quid Monster cable.

the picture was exactly the same. I was gutted, although pleasantly surprised that Comet gave me a refund just because I wasn't impressed.

Anyway, unditerred I kept on looking. I eventually bought a QED cable for 37.99 and well, I was astonished. The picture was imensely better. Now I go QED for every cable I need.

There you go, someone with experience !, and thanks for the heads up on QED !