HDMI Cable help.

[suarve]

Hi,

I've just purchased a nice new 1080p 32" panny TV. I double checked that a HDMI cable was included in the box and it wasn't

I asked the sales person what cable they would recommend and they recommended me an £85 cable! £85 for a cable - is this normal?

What they said about the spec of the cable matching the spec of the TV (E.g. cable should be 1080p, 24 bit compatible, 100Hz etc.) made sense - cheapest cable I could find in store matching those specs cost £65.

Do I really need such an expensive cable to link my tv and blu ray together, "to get the most out of my tv" as they put it?

Thanks

EDIT: have also thought noticed my blu ray can accept a conenction via component - now I have a component cable from from xbox 360 - will the quality of blu ray disks be worse using component over hdmi?

 

[^TANK^]

Ebay no more than a £5 for a quality HDMI cable! Monster, Chord etc are a cheap cable with a big brand stamped on them, no different to a cheap one.

 

[hooFlungDung]

HDMI = digital signal, so it's either 1 or 0.

So, the cable either works, or not. Get a cheaper cable and it will work just the same mate.

Signal degradation only really occurs over long distances.

 

[suarve]

Just done a quick google about these cables. Loads of debate over if a more expensive cable is better. Think I'll try a cheaper one first - no way I'm £80 without 100% It's better!

Sounds like the pitch the sales guy just spoted me was in fact bull :/

Looks like all the feratures like 24p and 100Hz are handled by the TV alone and the quality of the cable has nowt to do with it.

Have seen a 24k gold plated for £18, which at the min looks like adecent compromise.

 

[^TANK^]

Just done a quick google about these cables. Loads of debate over if a more expensive cable is better. Think I'll try a cheaper one first - no way I'm £80 without 100% It's better!

Sounds like the pitch the sales guy just spoted me was in fact bull :/

Looks like all the feratures like 24p and 100Hz are handled by the TV alone and the quality of the cable has nowt to do with it.

Have seen a 24k gold plated for £18, which at the min looks like adecent compromise.

Let me help you out, I fell hook line and sinker for the Chord what hi fi snake oil BS a while a go! My Sky HDMI cable for free is identical in picture quality to my £89 Chord silver plus HDMI lead and I'm runing it through a Pioneer LX6090.

 

[kylew]

A digital cable will produce the same image as another digital cable. They only sell these expensive ones because they have such high mark ups. They don't make as much from TVs, so they try to recuperate it by ripping you off with overpriced cables.

It's funny how you never see this with computer cables!

All my HDMI cables have been cheapos, and they work just as they should.

The worst I've see to date are GOLD PLATED OPTICAL cables! Seriously, an optical cable that doesn't use metal to transport the data, what use is gold plated connection at the end going to do?

Gold plated connections on cables that use metal for the electric signal is bad enough and a rip off.

 

[suarve]

Right, I'm looking at a cable costing £4.98 - I'll give that a bash first

 

[DreXeL]

Have seen a 24k gold plated for £18, which at the min looks like adecent compromise.

No, you don't need to 'compromise', as stated a £5 ebay HDMI lead will give EXACTLY the same picture as one of these stupidly overpriced cables.

 

[^TANK^]

Right, I'm looking at a cable costing £4.98 - I'll give that a bash first

Good man, another wallet saved from the fat cats.

 

[suarve]

Surely something like this then is mis-selling? How do they get away with it?

 

[hooFlungDung]

Surely something like this then is mis-selling? How do they get away with it?

The same way that alien monkeys selling pc components can charge ridiculous prices for sub-par equipment.

Most people don't think to research like the OP.

 

[-Ad-]

As posted before so well by others and Tank, get the cheapy.

It isn't quite as simple as 1 and 0, but avforums in their tv section has a 4 part video on HDMI from a testing company in America. Very technical but overall states that there is no difference in picture quality, noise levels, contrast etc between the cables. It is impossible to affect certain parts of the signal like this, and no matter who you hear saying there is a difference in XYZ with certain cables, they are talking out of their behind.

/Simples

 

[hooFlungDung]

As posted before so well by others and Tank, get the cheapy.

It isn't quite as simple as 1 and 0, but avforums in their tv section has a 4 part video on HDMI from a testing company in America. Very technical but overall states that there is no difference in picture quality, noise levels, contrast etc between the cables. It is impossible to affect certain parts of the signal like this, and no matter who you hear saying there is a difference in XYZ with certain cables, they are talking out of their behind.

/Simples

Didn't mean it quite as simple as that - only meant that there is either a signal or not, so digital cable is not as susceptible to interference or signal degradation as analogue.

 

[-Ad-]

Didn't mean it quite as simple as that - only meant that there is either a signal or not, so digital cable is not as susceptible to interference or signal degradation as analogue.

It's a good simple way though to explain to people who might not understand it and are blinded by marketing and 'WTF-Hi-fi-sound and vision'. I doubt I can into much detail without having a good read up on the interface and subject.

Hell even I don't understand it all

 

[suarve]

Right, all is setup now and working great, just have a little question blu ray disks.

Have just watched the dark knight on blu ray. Some scenes used the full area of the screen, but the majorty of the movie was in a kind of letterbox. Is this normal?

 

[hooFlungDung]

Some scenes were filmed in IMAX - hence the adjusted resolution. The first 6-8 minutes with the bank heist, and some panoramic shots were the IMAX parts iirc.

This is not normal procedure, and i've only seen it on the Dark Knight blu-ray.

 

[suarve]

Well just watched hellride and had the same letterbox here too...are blu rays supposed to full the whole screen of a 32" 1080p TV?

 

[Kenai]

are blu rays supposed to full the whole screen of a 32" 1080p TV?

No, most will have a letterbox.

It's something that always bugged me about the fact we still describe everything in vertical resolution terms even though most of the time stuff is actually limited to (or by) the horizontal resolution.

1080p stuff will almost always show at 1920xsomething (assuming a FullHD res screen etc.), that something will depend on the aspect ratio of the video in question. That is unless the video is 4:3 or 5:4 or something, in which case it will be somethingx1080 but that's rare these days.

 

[madmaxx]

My Sky HDMI cable for free is identical in picture quality to my £89 Chord silver plus HDMI lead and I'm runing it through a Pioneer LX6090.

Echo that sentiment here - with my Z series Sony 40" TV and bluray player, I swapped the Sky HDMI cable back and forth between the player a few times - my other HDMI lead was £50 - and in a blind(ish!) test my mate couldn't tell the difference, and neither could I. So save your cash, and buy some more disks