Cheap HDMI Cable v1.3 spec 1.5m

[Northern_Dragon]

From 7DayShop.com

How much of a bargain depends on how many you buy;

1 = £2.49
2-3 = £2.29 each
4+ = £1.99 each

Being digital HDMI cables are much of a muchness but these are v1.3 which will do everything but ultra high res and 3D and are gold plated. Personally I don't think you can go far wrong and since I have a new TV and amp to hook up so needed three I've plumped for four (a spare for an effective extra £1.30 seemed a good deal).

Plus of course free shipping, which is always nice.

[philatio]

£89.99 instore at Currys

get em whilst stocks last

[B33K34]

I love the premium HiFi cable woo. This is just a fantastic thread

http://community.whathifi.com/forums/t/361053.aspx

"Funny thing mains cables, theirs lots of controversy and debate around whether they make any difference or not? However,having spend thousands of pounds on my hi fi system, I decided it made
sense to use the best mains cables with them"

"dct allows the electrons to move faster through the wire by removing restrictions this allows the equipment to function more efficiently as more power is getting through - a bit like what happens when you remove a kink from a hose "

What a business to have where your customers only require your goods to be expensive and will convince themselves that they are better.

[B33K34]

and this is just fabulous
http://www.usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3429.asp

[GAmbrose]

I know, it's madness isn't it.

It's simple science. 1's and 0's either get through or they don't....the signal doesn't degrade!

[Nixdorfer]

Just bought a 1m v1.3 one off an ebay seller for £1.54 delivered. Gold plated and looks decent enough, arrived within 24hrs so no complaints.

Suprised how cheap these things are compared to scart

[thescrounger]

Originally Posted by GAmbrose

I know, it's madness isn't it.

It's simple science. 1's and 0's either get through or they don't....the signal doesn't degrade!

Well digital signals will degrade over very long lengths. Have you never seen a digital picture or sound break up?

I'm not making an argument for expensive cables, the cheap ones seem to work just fine. But the myth that a digital signal is somehow flawless and either works or doesn't is incorrect. There are ' in between' symptoms of a faulty cable/signal like sound lag, sparklies.

[Paul Moran]

From Which? magazine, March 2010, page 4:

We compared a £5, £15 and £60 Scart lead as well as a £10, £20 and £100 HDMI lead to see whether premium leads could improve DVD or Blu-ray picture quality.

The answer is no for HDMI leads. Amazingly, our expert viewers saw no difference at all in the picture quality when using the £10 Tesco Value lead, the £20 John Lewis lead or the £100 Belkin lead, with our technical tests confirming identical performances. We passed data through all our HDMI leads at 6.2Gb per second – a data rate more demanding than Blu-ray – without a single error occurring.

However, it is worth spending a bit more on a Scart lead. Critically, the individual wires in the £5 Tesco value lead weren’t screened for interference – which may cause picture problems. Our experts did note that up close they could just detect minor improvements with the £60 Belkin lead compared with the £15 John Lewis one, but there was no perceivable difference at normal viewing distance.

Which? technology editor Matt Bath said: ‘A £100 HDMI lead could cost as much as your new Blu-ray player, but it’s totally unnecessary to spend that much – buy the cheapest available. Pay a bit more for Scart leads, but avoid the most expensive as you’re unlikely to get a noticeable improvement over a mid-range one.’

[lochwinnoch]

perfect - been after a couple of cables for my growing collection of tech bits. Thanks OP!

[eye__writ]

Planning on getting Sky HD in the near future, so might as well have four of these and update all my cabling.

Cheers!!

[Northern_Dragon]

Mine arrived yesterday - look good and work well.
Spent a pleasant hour properly setting up my av amp, TV and PS3

[sgibson]

Originally Posted by GAmbrose

I know, it's madness isn't it.

It's simple science. 1's and 0's either get through or they don't....the signal doesn't degrade!

It isn't transmitted as 1s and 0s though, it is still, ultimately, an analogue signal that represents digital information. If the signal degrades enough by the time is reaches the other end and the receiver mistakes a 1 for a 0 or vice versa then there will be a mistake it has to either error correct or that will cause an error in the picture or sound. Enough of these and you get blocking, sparklies and sound dropout. With digital signals they don't degrade in the same way as analogue ones where you see a gradual degradation in quality as the signal gets worse, but a poor connection will give you digital artefacts.

Of course, the great thing is that a digital signal is much more robust to degradation than an analogue one. So what you're saying is essentially true, if the cable is sufficient to get the signal from one piece of equipment to the other without significant errors, then it is impossible to get a "better" signal no matter how much money you throw at a cable.

There are other benefits to more expensive cables such as quality of construction so the fit is better, the wires are more solidly connected to the terminators etc which are all good if you need to move things around or are prone to kids knocking the cables at the back of the TV etc. I think the last lot I got were about a tenner and are a really good job.

TL;DR: Adequate cables are all you need.

[nwgarratt]

Originally Posted by sgibson

There are other benefits to more expensive cables such as quality of construction so the fit is better, the wires are more solidly connected to the terminators etc which are all good if you need to move things around or are prone to kids knocking the cables at the back of the TV etc. I think the last lot I got were about a tenner and are a really good job.

TL;DR: Adequate cables are all you need.

I have been saying that for years I and get told I am wrong "because it is all 1 and 0's" all the time like I am mad. I have HDMI cables that cannot even do 720p without sparklies. One cable even makes the picture all pink. Put them at 576p and they were ok. They couldn't handle the extra data for the extra resolution.

It is worth spending some money just don't get overboard and pay silly money. If a cheaper cables works then great but don't expect all similar cables to be like that.

I paid £20 for a 1m (that quite a bit for me for a cable) purely because the connectors was better suited for the socket it had to go in. All my other cables were so loose that they would fall out and stop the signal. The £20 cable is rock solid and fits perfectly. £20 is nothing considering it is going into a £200 Blu Ray player and a £800 1080p projector.

I have a £5 cable on my TV but that is only running at 1080i.

[Manymovies]

Thanks brought a couple

[Farley Flavors]

Originally Posted by thescrounger

Well digital signals will degrade over very long lengths. Have you never seen a digital picture or sound break up?

I'm not making an argument for expensive cables, the cheap ones seem to work just fine. But the myth that a digital signal is somehow flawless and either works or doesn't is incorrect. There are ' in between' symptoms of a faulty cable/signal like sound lag, sparklies.

I've got a fairly long HDMI run from my rack to my projector. A cheap HDMI cable just wasn't up to the job. There were small sparklies all over the screen. Spent a small fortune on a decent HDMI cable and the picture improved markedly.

For small runs I imagine a cheap cable will do the job fine - for long runs, you really need to spend a bit of cash.