HDMI cable specification and cost

cracker

Hi

I am buying an av receiver (onkyo 605) and dvd player (denon 1904) and I was looking at the hdmi cables to link them. But there seems to be a large range in prices, is it necessary to spend a lot on one of these. Does it make much difference over a short distance? Also, the receiver is hdmi 1.3a compatible, do I need to look for a cable which is labeled as 1.3a.

Thanks

Dave

mathias

At short lengths, get the cheapest one you can , they are all the same signal wise,
Shops will try to rip you off on this , some are labelled as 1080p vs 1080i , some are labelled as 1.3 vs 1.2 , this is all opportunistic price gouging , dont fall for it , there is no difference in the final picture or sound.

HDMI 1.3 is what the appliance interface electronics are capable of , it has nothing to do with the cable , dodgy salesmen will try to tell you different , especially in Dublin , but I guarantee you its rubbish.

HDMI is all digital , so at the lengths needed there is no such thing as " better signal quality " cable , that only applies to analog. ( Scart , component , and the like ).

byte

That makes me think of those mentally expensive Monster cables.

stevenmu

It's crazy, I was looking at HDMI cables recently in a few shops, the very cheapest were nearly €40. Most were much closer to €100. Picked one up for a fiver on ebay that works aswell as any

viperirl

mathias wrote: »

At short lengths, get the cheapest one you can , they are all the same signal wise,
Shops will try to rip you off on this , some are labelled as 1080p vs 1080i , some are labelled as 1.3 vs 1.2 , this is all opportunistic price gouging , dont fall for it , there is no difference in the final picture or sound.

HDMI 1.3 is what the appliance interface electronics are capable of , it has nothing to do with the cable , dodgy salesmen will try to tell you different , especially in Dublin , but I guarantee you its rubbish.

HDMI is all digital , so at the lengths needed there is no such thing as " better signal quality " cable , that only applies to analog. ( Scart , component , and the like ).

I work in HDMI chip design and I'd agree with all of the above. Another thing to note is that HDMI1.3a is a Standard that allows transmission speeds of up to 3.4GHz. In the current market out there, chips are only need to operate at 1.9GHz even to achieve full 1080p with 8-bit colour. HDMI1.3 also provides for 'Deep colour' with is 10 or 12-bit colour I think and this would drive up the requirements to around 2.25GHz. However there are little or no applications out there in the consumer market that have Deep Colour support.

So yes all this HDMI1.3 cable marketing is nonsense. Maybe it means that that cable has been tested at a particular length to successfully pass signal at 3.4GHz but with current applications/electronics you dont need this capabilty. A cheaper 'lower grade' cable will suffice.

Also the HDMI receiver chip capability in your TV/projector has a HUGE say in how cheap a cable you can use but this is far too detailed (and boring) for me to get into here. :-)

At 3.4GHz speeds, cheaper cables do have their short comings with signal attentuation, noise, skew etc even at lengths just over 5 metres. But by the time that applications/electronics fully utilize these speeds I'm sure that the chip designs can handle it better by then.

Fingers Mcginty

got mine in power city ...15 smackers

colmranger

€7.49 in Argos:D

GrumPy

http://www.shopallmonster.com/nav/monster/productdetails.aspx?pin=3831&pid=26811



Although I sell tv's for a living, and anytime asked about cable quality I always tell them any hdmi lead <5 metres will do same job as an expensive one. But it is really hard to believe a cable of 1m like the one linked above is not better than one in argos for €7. Surely there is some difference? cables I have are all 3metre ones and would prefer shorter ones to reduce clutter, but the retarded part of my brain tells me too buy an expensive one

Opinions?

FrankGrimes

there's your skywalk! $10 delivered ain't bad.

You'd be mad, nay retarded, to pay any more for a HDMI cable - its digital, so either the signal gets there or it doesn't. And it does. Buy it, test it, and only if you're convinced its not giving you the best signal for some reason, should you consider spending crazy money on a HDMI cable.

mathias

Monster should be arrested , I'll step through these to point out the lies !!

For those who demand the best in high definition home theater—now and in the future
Durable gold-plated internal connector shield.

Gold makes no difference , at the volume of material used the change in conductivity is tiny , there is no advantage to using gold or gold plating in av cables

Heavy-duty internal dual strain relief for long-lasting performance

These cables are installed , typically once , why would it need such strength.

High-density triple-layer shielding for maximum rejection of RFI and EMI

Because of the balanced line setup of HDMI shielding is not as important as it would be on an analog cable so this is pointless and will make no difference to the final picture and sound , even at long lengths the problem is attenuation and not interference.

Corrosion-resistant 24k gold contacts

Why for heavens sake , again no difference to the results.

Ultimate picture and sound from larger HDTVs, advanced projectors, and high definition AV sources

The picture and sound will depend on your source and your screen , the cable will have nothing to do with it. Thats the beauty of digital.

Monster’s highest speed HDMI cable (10.2 Gbps) for the sharpest picture, deepest color, and smoothest video

Now this is deliberate mis-advertising , Deep color has to be implemented in the content and in the source player and the screen , the cable only has to have the bandwidth to carry it and can in no way add it , and all HDMI cables regardless of maker have the bandwidth to handle anything thats out there.

Deep color is highly unlikely to be implemented on any device in the near future as standards have been pretty much set.
No existing or future device or content has any current plans to implement deep color.
The cable most certainly cannot add it.

10.2 Gbps. Large gauge high-purity copper conductors with Precision-wound DoubleHelix™ construction and Nitrogen gas-injected dielectric for optimum signal strength.

10.2 Gbps is the theoretical maximum throughput of any HDMI cable and there is no content in existence , or planned to be in existence that will reach this maximum.

In short its all Pure nonsense , whatever hope this crowd had of fooling the analog generation with this nonsense it has absolutely no bearing on digital signals , any copper will do when it comes to digital as its a code travelling down the cable , and the final picture or sound cannot possibly be coloured in any way by the materials used in the cable.

Get the cheapest cable you can , they are all the same , Monster have made a business from audiofoolery , convincing non technical people to spend extortionate amounts of money on cables with dubious engineering claims , with the advent of the digital age , it can safely be said that you can ignore all this nonsense and buy any HDMI cable, they all perform identically as long as they are mechanically sound.
( by mechanically sound I mean no broken wires ! Thats all )

masterK

Wow! $699 for a 22 metre cable.

Zonda999

mathias wrote: »

Monster should be arrested , I'll step through these to point out the lies !!



Gold makes no difference , at the volume of material used the change in conductivity is tiny , there is no advantage to using gold or gold plating in av cables



These cables are installed , typically once , why would it need such strength.


Because of the balanced line setup of HDMI shielding is not as important as it would be on an analog cable so this is pointless and will make no difference to the final picture and sound , even at long lengths the problem is attenuation and not interference.


Why for heavens sake , again no difference to the results.


The picture and sound will depend on your source and your screen , the cable will have nothing to do with it. Thats the beauty of digital.



Now this is deliberate mis-advertising , Deep color has to be implemented in the content and in the source player and the screen , the cable only has to have the bandwidth to carry it and can in no way add it , and all HDMI cables regardless of maker have the bandwidth to handle anything thats out there.

Deep color is highly unlikely to be implemented on any device in the near future as standards have been pretty much set.
No existing or future device or content has any current plans to implement deep color.
The cable most certainly cannot add it.



10.2 Gbps is the theoretical maximum throughput of any HDMI cable and there is no content in existence , or planned to be in existence that will reach this maximum.

In short its all Pure nonsense , whatever hope this crowd had of fooling the analog generation with this nonsense it has absolutely no bearing on digital signals , any copper will do when it comes to digital as its a code travelling down the cable , and the final picture or sound cannot possibly be coloured in any way by the materials used in the cable.

Get the cheapest cable you can , they are all the same , Monster have made a business from audiofoolery , convincing non technical people to spend extortionate amounts of money on cables with dubious engineering claims , with the advent of the digital age , it can safely be said that you can ignore all this nonsense and buy any HDMI cable, they all perform identically as long as they are mechanically sound.
( by mechanically sound I mean no broken wires ! Thats all )

I bet some idiots (mostly in america) are stupid enough to pay it.I got a 1.5 metre gold plated one(i know it dont matter but i'll brag anyway) in tesco for a tenner.Delivers a gorgeous picture.May need another one soon and i'd say i'll get the 7euro one in argos

http://www.argos.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=30001&langId=-1&catalogId=1500001101&productId=1500206969&Trail=C%24cip%3D1500012579.Sound%2Band%2Bvision%3EC%24Brands%3DMikomi.Mikomi&categoryId=1500012579&clickfrom=name

beolight

http://ukhdmi.com/

go here top quality some half price with free shipping on orders over £10

311

I was able to get a 2M+ Hdmi cable for €15 in marx-computers.
They didn't have any on there site ,but I phoned them and they had them.

Actually not bad quality either:)