Any recommendations without spending a small fortune :lol:
Freesat stuff is coming next week and I am going to use the HDMI connections for these - currently have one cable which came with the Blu Ray player but with the re-configure it's not long enough.
Any thoughts good or bad most welcome.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Depends on length... anything over around 8-10m is when you should spend decent money on a cable but up to that point there is very little to tell between a £2 cable and a £50 cable.
I use a HDMI switcher for my kit and all devices are on £6 cables with a £100 10m cable taking that to the TV, looks spot on.
So basically, don't be fooled into sending silly ££ on a cable if it's not that long.
I use QED for all my HDMI connections, can't go wrong, and they do cables to match most budgets.
If this is any help, pretty reliable reviews
http://www.whathifi.com/Reviews/Accesso ... s-Reviews/
No joke these are perfect, I read somewhere that HDMI is HDMI regardless of cost of cable the picture is not affected it's just the ''construction'' that you pay your money for.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/1-8M-HDMI-Cable ... 986&sr=8-1
Did a test with my mates cable, he paid 60 odd quid and I paid less than £2 the difference was zero...... :lol: ....he wasn't best pleased
Check costco out they had a 2 pack for a tenner looked quite decent but i can't recall the make.
Here is a link if you want some actual tests
http://gizmodo.com/268788/the-truth-abo ... -upusually
Not all HDMI is created equal buy those that carry the official logo and you won't go far wrong.
All the info you need is here http://www.hdmi.org/
HDMI cables have to be pretty good quality to perform in the first place and are all pretty good at short lengths. If you need a longer run, its worth investing a bit more......Russ Andrews has quite a bit of info on his website...but you might be shocked at the prices :o (If your big into hifi it definitely WONT shock you). The costco ones are fine for short runs though and work at 1080p, for about £15 for two :lol:
Being digital, it will either work or it won't. Any drop outs will be so obvious.
You only need to spend more than a fiver once you get above a couple if meters. And you can get 5-10m cables for about £1.50/meter which work great
Yep.....can see what you're saying about they either work or they dont, but if you get into high res video there are differences (relating to resolutions and 1080i and 1080p) and losses over length. When you pay a premium price for the cables you get a premium product!!!Originally Posted by Jabes
A 99p digital watch tells the time.....but, well I'll leave you to finish that sentence. :blackeye:
I've paid thousands of pounds for my hifi speaker and interconnects....they are just wire, but they do make a difference.
You pays your money and all that....but I dont want to diss anyone, as I'm new to this forum :)
Just trying to give a little advice :|
Don't worry about voicing your opinion on here. :wink:
I believe we have a hi-fi specialist on here (Rod) and I'd be interested to read his take on the subject .
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Nice reminder buddy - paging Rod, paging Rod..........Don't worry about voicing your opinion on here. :wink:
I believe we have a hi-fi specialist on here (Rod) and I'd be interested to read his take on the subject .
R
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Bloody hell this forum sounds right up my street :lol: ......most forums I've been on you have to be respectful of older members, when your new
Stu
That is what I am worried about - I have had some serious audio setups in th past and I am trying to resist spending big money on cables if there is a sensible (but good) alternative.Bloody hell this forum sounds right up my street :lol: ......most forums I've been on you have to be respectful of older members, when your new
Stu
I have found a couple of good ones that review well in the press for sensible money and welcome any experiences.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Chris
Well I spent £220 on 10m of hdmi cable from russ andrews, in an attempt to hide the cable!!!!
I cant say I've noticed anything special about it.....but then again, I've not tried 10 metres of anything else!!!!!
If its digital it shouldn't make a difference, but there is a minimum standard to go for....I just cant remember the standard code to look at.....I'll try and dig out some info and get back to you (it relates to the quality of the cable and once you reach it, you should be okay).
You into rebreathers too? by the way (i'm not there yet....but can see it coming :? )
I am (was big time a while ago) - how did you know :wink:
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
HA HA HA......Goes without saying really looking at your little montage :lol:
I'm begining to think I'm getting predictable........Motorbikes, HiFi, Scuba, Watches.........next on the list.......probably a Porsche and a 24 year old girlfriend :D
God I must be getting to middle age......coz this sounds like a crisis :)
Now where my leopard skin thong......Hey Stringfellow....put that girl down :bounce:
Just had a quick look at russ andrews site....regarding the hdmi cable.....you need to look for V1.3 standard (I cant believ I coudn't remember that!!!!) for the cable to be any good.....once your at that standard, it depends on the length!!! So to speak. I wouldn't go above this standard, coz you then get into quality of fittings and finish (and snob value). Like you say it IS digital, but you need to reach a certain standard, all the same, if you want to be at 1080p level :D
Hope this sheds a little light on the matter
Stu
I second that. I'd just go for a cheap one. You won't notice any obvious differences with a price hike, unlike the old SCART and Co-ax leads.
Thank you all for the wise words.
I have (for the moment :lol: ) decided on these.
http://www.whathifi.com/Review/ThatCable-HDMI/
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Well you can't go wrong for a fiver :D
More of an issue with longer cables :? Nice to join the forum anyway :bounce:
He's right about the scarts though :!:
Stu
Very wise 8)
You should have a look at Mark grant cables. They are all hand made and no where near the price of the more expensive brands (Van Cen hul, Chord etc). i found him an AVForums and he's a top guy, very helpful to a home cinema numptie like me :)
Another recommendation for Mark Grant. I have a 10M HDMI cable running behind the wall and ceiling to my projector. Having said that, for a short run just buy the cheapest you can find. Despite What Hi FI repeatedly describing picture quality differences with different HDMI cables, they completely failed to demonstrate these differences when they brought some readers in house for a blind demo.
An HDMI will either work at the length it is, or wont. There is a very fine line at which you will get a picture with speckles but its such a rare case. It happens when right on the cusp of the signal degrading too much over the length. I have cheap HDMI all round, and have lots of 1m cables feeding my AV amp, and then a 7m flat cable off to the projector feeding 1080p content. Works absolutely flawlessly. Most (including the 7m cable) were off somewhere on eBay, and cheap.
We have ThatCable supplied cables in the office and they are fine. The review is a load of bollocks though, as they are no better than the ones in the box. The ones in the box either work, or dont (unless they are on that very fine borderline with speckles I mentioned).
Thats because there is no difference :D
What HiFi and a load of the other publications have to talk bollocks, in order for their advertisers to sell their snake oil
Yep, when you understand how the digital transmission of picture data works then there is no earthly way that a cable can cause "a slight dulling of bright colours" (to quote a fairly recent review). Analogue cables do sound different, but that doesn't mean that expensive ones are any better.Thats because there is no difference :D
What HiFi and a load of the other publications have to talk bollocks, in order for their advertisers to sell their snake oil
Without wishing to get into hifi willy waving, my 5.1 system runs well into 5 figures. Speakers, interconnects and the analogue side of the system - you get what you pay for.
Hdmi - not so much. Cheap really is just as good as long as it works at all there will be no difference.
I am a huge fan of spending as little as possible on cabling especially hdmi ones the end connections are often where you might find a difference but the cable itself over relatively short run then don't spend 50 quid it won't make a difference
Blimey I'm not into willy waving either....more of a wiggle for me :lol: :lol: :lol:Without wishing to get into hifi willy waving, my 5.1 system runs well into 5 figures. Speakers, interconnects and the analogue side of the system - you get what you pay for.
Hdmi - not so much. Cheap really is just as good as long as it works at all there will be no difference.
I know what you're saying about cables....my analogue cables run to £5k :roll: ( check out Cardas Gold Ref i/c and speaker cables....You'll be lucky to find a price list!!!!)
As far as HDMI is concerned, I'm pretty open minded (I only spent £220 on a 10m cable), but I think you pay for quality...be it perceived or real. If digital is digital....why does a £100 CD player sound different to a £4k player (I know about DAC's and sample rates etc). A cd is a cd is cd......dvd is a dvd is a dvd.......blueray etc :twisted:
Stu :) :)
Unfortunately HDMI is based on DVI which was already a crap standard.. They're digital yes, but the data is not "packetized" or anything, it is just clock-synced streams of pixel data with each color component (R,G,B) in it's own stream and a fourth clock stream. Might have seemed like a good idea at the time, moving from parallel analogue color signals to parallel streams.. Well it's not. As a parallel data transmission mechanism it needs thick cables and is still prone to errors. And yes the errors will usually be more visible than an analogue signal degradation, such as sparkling or snow etc. But you still easily lose bits on DVI which CAN effect only a single color component and the whole cable scheme was designed for very short distances.
And because DVI (and thus HDMI) use this stream approach, they also have "free space" in the signals because they've also carried over the line and frame blanking intervals from the analogue world (where they were needed for the cathode ray to keep up and to maintain a desired framerate). This is good in a sense because we got audio in HDMI, as it's been stuffed into those blanking intervals. But as a concept in a "modern" standard it's pretty ancient stuff. It also means that if you want to run audio that needs space (like 5.1 uncompressed PCM), you need to also run a high resolution on it, to have enough space in the blanks!
The broadcast world went with HD-SDI, which is a serial transmission standard running in a SINGLE coax cable (compared to 4 pairs of wires inside a DVI cable) can easily do 100m without any special tricks on a normal cable. Oh and the connector is round, you can't put it in "the wrong way", and it locks securely into place. LOCKS. You can hang your TV on the wall from the cable ffs..
I simply can't understand why consumer electronics standards have to be such UTTER CRAP. And whenever the "pro" standards are brought into home theater stuff etc, the price goes through the roof. Look at what preamps, amps and processors with XLRs and balanced outputs cost.. fffffff... At the same time I have an active studio crossover with a crapload of the same connections and it costs peanuts. Don't get me started with AES/EBU vs SPDIF, they dumbed down the SPDIF because it's a consumer version, removed balancing from it and instead of 100m on AES/EBU, you're lucky to get 10 meters on an SPDIF. Toslink? Tosserlink more likely, visible red light?! WHY?! We need LASERS!
Ok rant over :D HDMI is crap but we're stuck with it :D Oh and I once managed to buy a 1m HDMI cable which didn't work at 1080p.. Didn't have the HDMI logo on it though, so my mistake... As everyone said, if it's short buy the cheap ones that work, if it's long you're hopefully only going to have one of those so drop a few more notes on it.
What you do with the bits matters - and how accurately you can read them from less than ideal media. And DACs can vary in quality for sure. But does a transport make a difference? I would argue not.
Disagreement is the thing that drives the hifi industry though!
Blimey I'm not into willy waving either....more of a wiggle for me :lol: :lol: :lol:Without wishing to get into hifi willy waving, my 5.1 system runs well into 5 figures. Speakers, interconnects and the analogue side of the system - you get what you pay for.
Hdmi - not so much. Cheap really is just as good as long as it works at all there will be no difference.
I know what you're saying about cables....my analogue cables run to £5k :roll: ( check out Cardas Gold Ref i/c and speaker cables....You'll be lucky to find a price list!!!!)
As far as HDMI is concerned, I'm pretty open minded (I only spent £220 on a 10m cable), but I think you pay for quality...be it perceived or real. If digital is digital....why does a £100 CD player sound different to a £4k player (I know about DAC's and sample rates etc). A cd is a cd is cd......dvd is a dvd is a dvd.......blueray etc :twisted:
Stu :) :)
MMMMMMmmmmmmm Cardas - my fave interconnects.
As for HDMI - A tenner is about all you need to spend.
This, don't pay more for gold connectors, flash packaging or trumped up claims.As for HDMI - A tenner is about all you need to spend.
Probably the only cable where cheap is best.
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