High end HDMI cables - Are they worth it?

nag

So I've been given a quote by an electrician to wire my new HE system. It includes running a considerable length of HDMI cable which he has quoted quite a high price for. Turns out he uses QED cable which is supposed to be the best of the best. However, I've read an article from CNET that claims that these expensive cables with gold plated this and that are nothing more than marketing nonsense and that you should get the cheapest cable you can find.

What are people's thoughts? Is CNET right? I mean, they would be the people to know about this kind of thing, right? If they are it means I could source the cable myself for a fraction of cost my electrician is quoting me for and save myself around €250!

nag

nag wrote: »

So I've been given a quote by an electrician to wire my new HE system. It includes running a considerable length of HDMI cable which he has quoted quite a high price for. Turns out he uses QED cable which is supposed to be the best of the best. However, I've read an article from CNET that claims that these expensive cables with gold plated this and that are nothing more than marketing nonsense and that you should get the cheapest cable you can find.

What are people's thoughts? Is CNET right? I mean, they would be the people to know about this kind of thing, right? If they are it means I could source the cable myself for a fraction of cost my electrician is quoting me for and save myself around €250!

Yeah,its a complete rip off.

I built a home cinema for a friend and we used these guys

http://ukhdmi.com/hdmi-ivuna.php

The longest cable we used was 20m and in total we bought 6 cables,they were all fine.

Gold plating is actually bad because the connectors inside the tv arent gold and they corrode but its become such a money spinner its nearly impossible to get one without it these days.
All the hdmi cables are sending are 1's and 0's,this means the signal will either get there or it wont.

HOWEVER,if you are getting any anolgue cable,such as component,speaker cable or scart cable then its worth buying expensive.

subway

over short distances, cheap as you can get,
i think that over longer runs the signal can get degraded so higher grade cable is more important. degraded signal means you can have blocky picture, picture cutting out or no picture at all.

for really long distances there are also other options to HDMI, such as wall plates that will run the HDMI signal over CAT5.

subway

subway wrote: »

over short distances, cheap as you can get,
i think that over longer runs the signal can get degraded so higher grade cable is more important. degraded signal means you can have blocky picture, picture cutting out or no picture at all.

for really long distances there are also other options to HDMI, such as wall plates that will run the HDMI signal over CAT5.

Very true I should have mentioned that but the ones I listed above are fine,I ran a 20m one and all was fine.

nag

subway wrote: »

over short distances, cheap as you can get,
i think that over longer runs the signal can get degraded so higher grade cable is more important. degraded signal means you can have blocky picture, picture cutting out or no picture at all.

The longest run I'll have to make is 15m. According to CNET (page 4, same article), they've made runs of 65ft before with 'few problems'. The Ivuna cable Fletcher Fast Potassium linked to is apparently guaranteed up to 20m so I reckon I'll go with that.

Idleater

nag wrote: »

Turns out he uses QED cable which is supposed to be the best of the best.

I take issue with that statement. They are good, but are in no way best of the best. I've seen Nordost for cheaper, and at least they have a very high end Brand name to stand behind (they're no Kimber mind).

Everything else here is basically correct. Personally I'd pay something to get decent copper in long cable runs, mainly because I've no interest in digging up floorboards to replace cables when 1080p is "old hat". 4k was already debuted at CES and make that 3d within a year.

akaSol

I am only going to point to my sig on this one. HDMI on short run's usually work with the cheep natty cables.
However I have never stop looking at this issue, and am sorry to say its going to get messy , esp. with profile 1.4 being shifted for Sony+Samsung's 3D TV starting from 13 Gbps.
Which means the only cables certified to handle this bandwidth are the

MONSTER

cable company(to date)
Further to the QED I have seen with my own eyes a QED REFERENCE cable shudder and brick* the 2009 Star Trek ,running a 1M from a DMPBD80 to a KDL50W5500 - so expensive does not equal the best

>Sol -
Owner of 3 1000M HDMI series cables from the above company and 2 QED Signature
( *Bricking : when the Enterprise was dodging the debris from the rescue vessels above Vulcan )

nag

akaSol, the whole 3D TV thing wont really come into force for at least another year with only a handful of movies being released in 3D in 2010 and the same going for hardware. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe none of my current equipment will support HMDI 1.4 so installing 1.4 cable now is a futile exercise as I'll have to install 1.3 alongside it anyway to be able to run what I already have. If I decide to go 3D in the future, I'll just rewire again.

cdb

A lot of avforums users swear by Mark Grant hdmi cables.

I bought a couple from his website over the years and found them to be excellent, no issues and very well made. I'd consider them to be a step up from budget cables but not overly expensive either. Its another option to consider anyway.

akaSol

@ NAG
Yes you are correct there are only a few NEW movies available in 3D - Allot of TV's projectors and palyers from March. However there are palyers available now that will support 3D in 1080i , but that was covered in another thread.

I would look at profile 1.4 capable - minimum 10Gbps esp if your going to tuck all your cables away. Again not nessaraly brand related HDMI but make sure it will take any fourth coming load.

>Sol

nag

Is 1.4 cable backwards compatible?

akaSol

hdmi.org
Are HDMI 1.4 devices going to be backwards-compatible with older HDMI (v.1.0 - 1.3) devices?
Yes, devices built to the HDMI 1.4 specification will be fully backwards-compatible with existing HDMI devices and their features.

Can older HDMI (v.1.0 - 1.3) devices be firmware-upgraded to take advantage of the new features introduced in HDMI 1.4?
Probably not. Most of the new features introduced in HDMI 1.4 will require a new HDMI chip to enable, and cannot be upgraded via firmware

>Sol

nag

So I've been thinking. Instead of installing 1.4 cable in order to future proof myself, would it not be better to just do HDMI over CAT6 and that way, I'd be covered for anything that might possibly come after 1.4?

andy1249

So I've been thinking. Instead of installing 1.4 cable in order to future proof myself.....

There is no such thing as 1.4 cable , this is the same for all HDMI versions , the cables have always been category 1 or category 2 and now with the 1.4 interface the cables are category 1 or category 2 with ethernet.
Every time a new number or letter gets added to the spec unscrupulous cable sellers go into a frenzy trying to part unsuspecting customers from their money. Labelling cables as any HDMI 1.x version is against the rules from HDMI.org.

The only thing changed about the cables for 1.4 is the addition of ethernet over the cable , if this is not a requirement for you , then the cables you have will be fine.

Also , there is no additional bandwidth added to either the interface spec or the cable spec for HDMI 1.4 , the bandwidth is still at 10.2Gbps and is likely to stay that way for a long long time as there is no format either planned or in existence that will use all of it.

2K res will run at 24fps and as such requires no more bandwidth than a 1080p 60hz signal , likewise with 3D , this is a dual 1080p 24hz signal and again is only the equivalent of a single 1080p 50hz signal. 1080p 60hz only uses 75% of the available bandwidth , and this format is rare , most content is 1080p 24hz or less.

Check here for information on HDMI ,

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

http://www.avforums.com/forums/hdmi-cables-switches/900577-hdmi-event-avforums-tv.html

And heres an excellent video on HDMI 1.4

http://www.avforums.com/tv/index.php?videoid=121

To sum up ,
You do not need to replace your cables for HDMI 1.4 unless you want the ethernet function , what you have will work fine with any video formats out there and this will stay that way for a long long time.

" High end " HDMI cables are only worth it if you are after a sturdy build to bury in a wall or something , they will do nothing to improve picture or sound , thats impossible.

nag

Thanks for the links andy. However...

andy1249 wrote: »

The only thing changed about the cables for 1.4 is the addition of ethernet over the cable , if this is not a requirement for you , then the cables you have will be fine.

I'm not looking to replace cables, I'm about to install HDMI into the wall so therefore, I'm looking to get the latest, most up-to-date cable that's out there. I currently have no use for the ethernet feature but who knows, in the future, I might.

What I think I'll do is lay some bog standard 1.3 but alongside it run a few CAT6 cables so in the future, if the 1.3 standard becomes obsolete, I should still be able to convert the signal and run it over the CAT6 cable instead.