5m HDMI Cable 10 EUro Gold Plated ends.

zaphodbeeb

Seems like a great deal - just found it on the Marx Computers site.

http://www.marxcomputers.ie/

Capt'n Midnight

They don't need to be gold plated because the D stands for digital.


For analog gold plating is not recommended unless the equipment also has gold plated contacts. Dissimilar metals means more corrosion and thermoelectric effects and stuff like that.

beanhead

Dissimilar metals means more corrosion normally but gold doesn't react as it is inert, so I think steel or alloy connectors against a gold hdmi cable is just dandy actually

beanhead

think about it, why does gold-plating not turn into a big pile of rust?

- because there is no reaction

Sagat06

Christ is it going to have to be mentioned EVERY time some finds HDMI connections with gold plated contacts!

Good find OP!

abapchad

Nice find

Soarer

Would you get away with a "cheap" 5m hdmi cable, or would you be better off with a branded one given the distance?

thorbarry

Soarer wrote: »

Would you get away with a "cheap" 5m hdmi cable, or would you be better off with a branded one given the distance?

yea the "cheap" one will work just as good as the branded ones, only difference being that if you buy the branded one, your a sucker

Soarer

thorbarry wrote: »

yea the "cheap" one will work just as good as the branded ones, only difference being that if you buy the branded one, your a sucker

I realise that's the case over short distances.
But isn't there a case for buying "better" cables when going over long distances? Pretty sure there is.

Rsaeire

Soarer wrote: »

I realise that's the case over short distances.
But isn't there a case for buying "better" cables when going over long distances? Pretty sure there is.

Yes there is. There's an excellent article here on the subject.

Saadyst

Soarer wrote: »

I realise that's the case over short distances.
But isn't there a case for buying "better" cables when going over long distances? Pretty sure there is.

The article does seem to sum it up well (I just went to the conclusion). In my experience I've been running a 10m HDMI cable (no name, not branded, cost me £12) and it's worked perfectly fine for 720p.

lucernarian

Rsaeire wrote: »

Yes there is. There's an excellent article here on the subject.

Did you even read it? The conclusion of the article was that for today's needs, any old 20 metre mediocre cable will deal with today's uses perfectly.

Also, gold plating has nothing to do with standardisation. I can't back it up conclusively, but the chemistry points to gold/nickel contact being even inferior to nickel/nickel contacts! So one way or another, the gold plating makes little difference. It definitely shouldn't be a selling point of any cable unless the cable itself is made to a high spec for customers who need more than ordinary?

Who here uses more than 1080p, standard 8 bit chroma/luminance values etc?? Well you're in the wrong forum:p

Rsaeire

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Did you even read it? The conclusion of the article was that for today's needs, any old 20 metre mediocre cable will deal with today's uses perfectly.

You clearly didn't.

Audioholics wrote:

At long lengths (over 10 meters) you really need to pay attention to the manufacturer if you don't want to risk running into potential problems with 1080p and future formats such as Deep Color. With that said, just about any cable at or under 10 meters will pass 720p/1080i and nearly everyone will pass 1080p at 8-bit color as well.

beerbaron

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

They don't need to be gold plated because the D stands for digital.

the D stands for Definition.

mancduff

Today at lidl Silvercrest HDMI connector cables 2.0m gold plated €6.99 picked up 2 working great for me so far.

Lucifer

Dont forget delivery on top of this so if you are only buying one cable its €17.50

Capt'n Midnight

beerbaron wrote: »

the D stands for Definition.

LOL

lucernarian

Rsaeire wrote: »

You clearly didn't.

Ok then, you asked for it... A large chunk of the conclusion.
[quote=www.audioholics.com[/quote]
I have to come away saying that most cables under 4-5 meters will pass just about anything in today's arsenal of 1080p - and that's likely to include Deep Color if and when it ever makes an appearance (not likely soon due to current Blu-ray limitations). For cables over 5 meters it's a good bet that you'll want to stick with trusted manufacturers who deliver on their specs. For long cables, Blue Jeans Cable, DVIGear, MonoPrice, Monster Cable 800HD, and WireWorld seem to be the best bets of the cables we tested - however the price variance between these cables is revealing. We're sure there are also other cables we didn't test which are also likely to perform well. Some of the other manufacturers, such as NGHP, RAM Electronics, Sewell Direct, and Tributaries also showed themselves to be great performers at <7.5 meters, however they either didn't have longer length cables or they didn't supply them in ~10 meter lengths for our testing.
Your take-away from all this should be the following:

• At lengths less than 4 meters you can just about use silly string (OK, not really) and get HDMI to pass at any current resolution. At less than 3 meters you'll even extend that to 12-bit color and possibly the next crazy idea HDMI Licensing decides to throw at consumers. Don't spend a lot on these cables and if you want to save money you won't let anyone at a big box store talk you into buying from them.
• At long lengths (over 10 meters) you really need to pay attention to the manufacturer if you don't want to risk running into potential problems with 1080p and future formats such as Deep Color. With that said, just about any cable at or under 10 meters will pass 720p/1080i and nearly everyone will pass 1080p at 8-bit color as well.
• If you have an existing HDMI cable and are running into problems, we'd suggest at least attempting the insertion of an active component at the sink (display) side. This is going to be far cheaper than ripping out your walls and re-running new cables - and likely just as effective.
• HDMI has proven to be a moving target and there is no telling what crazy (likely unnecessary) format they will try to push down the cable next. Due to this, it's always good to "overbuild" your cable install, especially if it's a longer distance and going to end up behind drywall.
• If you're not prone to upgraditis and think 1080p will be your maximum resolution for the life of your install, don't sweat it...

[/quote]
As we are talking about 5 metres, that would suggest that any old cable will do for it. Your point about longer cables is valid, but we're talking about 5 metres here.

Iguana Bob

Maby mod should do a stickey on this we all know hdmi cables are cheap as **** these days. and most of us know the major points about gold plating and lenth dont matter that much. and besides that there is about 2 bargain alerts a week about hdmi cables.
just an idea i might be wrong thoe

Rsaeire

Soarer wrote: »

I realise that's the case over short distances.
But isn't there a case for buying "better" cables when going over long distances? Pretty sure there is.

Rsaeire wrote: »

Yes there is. There's an excellent article here on the subject.

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Ok then, you asked for it... A large chunk of the conclusion.

I have to come away saying that most cables under 4-5 meters will pass just about anything in today's arsenal of 1080p - and that's likely to include Deep Color if and when it ever makes an appearance (not likely soon due to current Blu-ray limitations). For cables over 5 meters it's a good bet that you'll want to stick with trusted manufacturers who deliver on their specs. For long cables, Blue Jeans Cable, DVIGear, MonoPrice, Monster Cable 800HD, and WireWorld seem to be the best bets of the cables we tested - however the price variance between these cables is revealing. We're sure there are also other cables we didn't test which are also likely to perform well. Some of the other manufacturers, such as NGHP, RAM Electronics, Sewell Direct, and Tributaries also showed themselves to be great performers at <7.5 meters, however they either didn't have longer length cables or they didn't supply them in ~10 meter lengths for our testing.
Your take-away from all this should be the following:

• At lengths less than 4 meters you can just about use silly string (OK, not really) and get HDMI to pass at any current resolution. At less than 3 meters you'll even extend that to 12-bit color and possibly the next crazy idea HDMI Licensing decides to throw at consumers. Don't spend a lot on these cables and if you want to save money you won't let anyone at a big box store talk you into buying from them.
• At long lengths (over 10 meters) you really need to pay attention to the manufacturer if you don't want to risk running into potential problems with 1080p and future formats such as Deep Color. With that said, just about any cable at or under 10 meters will pass 720p/1080i and nearly everyone will pass 1080p at 8-bit color as well.
• If you have an existing HDMI cable and are running into problems, we'd suggest at least attempting the insertion of an active component at the sink (display) side. This is going to be far cheaper than ripping out your walls and re-running new cables - and likely just as effective.
• HDMI has proven to be a moving target and there is no telling what crazy (likely unnecessary) format they will try to push down the cable next. Due to this, it's always good to "overbuild" your cable install, especially if it's a longer distance and going to end up behind drywall.
• If you're not prone to upgraditis and think 1080p will be your maximum resolution for the life of your install, don't sweat it...

As we are talking about 5 metres, that would suggest that any old cable will do for it. Your point about longer cables is valid, but we're talking about 5 metres here.

If you read my original post, where I linked to the Audioholics article in answer to soarer's question, as posted above, which was "But isn't there a case for buying "better" cables when going over long distances?" you would see that my subsequent posts have all related to longer cables, i.e. those over 5m, specifically, given the parts of the Audioholics article I have linked to, over 10m.

lucernarian

What about the part where real life tests were carried out, and with two cables joined together for a total of 30 metres only then were display issues observed. That was my reference behind "any old cable will do for up to 20m". The 5m thing was from a strictly technically compliant at all possible modes of operation view, in the conclusion.

Rsaeire

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

What about the part where real life tests were carried out, and with two cables joined together for a total of 30 metres only then were display issues observed. That was my reference behind "any old cable will do for up to 20m". The 5m thing was from a strictly technically compliant at all possible modes of operation view, in the conclusion.

I'm not going to repeat myself endlessly. What I'll say, finally, is that the article's conclusion is what consumers should take heed of.

lucernarian

Picking and mixing your "advice to consumers" I see.