HDMI cable

[Deadude]

as far as i was aware the case of it being 1s and 0s is correct obviously there would need to be quite a few of them

Transition Minimized Differential Signaling (TMDS) on HDMI carries video, audio, and auxiliary data via one of three modes called the Video Data Period, the Data Island Period, and the Control Period.[57] During the Video Data Period, the pixels of an active video line are transmitted.[57] During the Data Island period (which occurs during the horizontal and vertical blanking intervals), audio and auxiliary data are transmitted within a series of packets.[57] The Control Period occurs between Video and Data Island periods.[57]

Both HDMI and DVI use TMDS to send 10-bit characters that are encoded using 8b/10b encoding for the Video Data Period and 2b/10b encoding for the Control Period. HDMI adds the ability to send audio/auxiliary data using 4b/10b encoding for the Data Island Period.[57] Each Data Island Period is 32 pixels in size and contains a 32-bit Packet Header, which includes 8-bits of BCH ECC parity data for error correction, and describes the contents of the packet.[58] Each Packet contains four subpackets and each subpacket is 64-bits in size including 8-bits of BCH ECC parity data allowing for each Packet to carry up to 224-bits of audio data.[59] Each Data Island Period can contain up to 18 Packets.[60] 7 of the 15 Packet types described in the HDMI 1.3a specifications deal with audio data while the other 8 types deal with auxiliary data.[58] Among these are the General Control Packet and the Gamut Metadata Packet. The General Control Packet carries information on AVMUTE (which mutes the audio during changes that may cause audio noise) and Color Depth (which sends the bit depth of the current video stream and is required for Deep Color).[61][62] The Gamut Metadata Packet carries information on the color space being used for the current video stream and is required for xvYCC.[63][64][65]

^^^ extract from wikipedia

 

[bobbydigital]

I just use cheap hdmi cables myself, so basically from reading what everyone else has said buy a cheap cable and if you have any problems you can buy a more expensive cable (which may not solve any problems.) Or it is your hardware at fault

Oh and the £100 cables are probably just sold, for people who have the cash to spends 1000's on a home cinema and not think twice about it

 

[ChrisLX200]

C*rrys, D*xons, C*met and the like make more profit out an expensive HDMI cable than they do from selling you the TV in the first place.

It's a scam, pure and simple. You may as well buy a £50 gold-plated mains lead with multi-cloured 3-pin plug.

 

[J.B]

There was a huge thread on this in graphics I think.

I would spend around 5 or 10 quid on a DVI cable. No more than that!

 

[Jimmy1983]

Jesus, what have I started!

Went for a 6quid jobby from Tescos in the end.

 

[vertica]

It's a scam, pure and simple. You may as well buy a £50 gold-plated mains lead with multi-cloured 3-pin plug.

Actually a good mains cable with 'cleaning' circuitry is one of the most cost effective upgrades possible.

Unfortunatley our mains power is so noisey its unreal. This results in not only random EM field fluctuations, but similarly random voltage spikes/droops in your kit.

Audiophiles swear by them, and having myself compared two identical 26" tv sets on identical sources, you do get far less noise on the image with a cleaner mains feed.

But again whether you have the budget/can see the difference is the key issue.

i did read an interesting paper though that had some good evidence poor mains fidelity coupled with cheap PSUs is one of the main causes of pcs crashing!

 

[jellybeard999]

Actually a good mains cable with 'cleaning' circuitry is one of the most cost effective upgrades possible.

Unfortunatley our mains power is so noisey its unreal. This results in not only random EM field fluctuations, but similarly random voltage spikes/droops in your kit.

Audiophiles swear by them, and having myself compared two identical 26" tv sets on identical sources, you do get far less noise on the image with a cleaner mains feed.

But again whether you have the budget/can see the difference is the key issue.

i did read an interesting paper though that had some good evidence poor mains fidelity coupled with cheap PSUs is one of the main causes of pcs crashing!

So the miles and miles of cheap, 50 year old cable underground is cancelled out by the expensive mains lead

If i use Nordost speaker cable does that cancel out the fact i used damp shoelaces for the rest of the system

 

[wonko]

Actually a good mains cable with 'cleaning' circuitry is one of the most cost effective upgrades possible.

Unfortunatley our mains power is so noisey its unreal. This results in not only random EM field fluctuations, but similarly random voltage spikes/droops in your kit.

Audiophiles swear by them, and having myself compared two identical 26" tv sets on identical sources, you do get far less noise on the image with a cleaner mains feed.

*Some* audiophiles may swear by them, but others will argue that if a mains filter makes a difference then the power supply of the equipment it's feeding is badly designed, as it should be able to sufficiently filter out the noise on the mains itself. In my experience of following this argument over the years people seem to fall into two camps: the 'believers' who believe cables, mains filters, etc. make a significant difference but won't or can't prove what they say is obvious, and the sceptic/engineer who expects claims of difference to be statistically proven with ABX tests.

I admit to being in the latter camp, but to be honest I don't mind if people spend £100s or £1000s on cables etc. if they get enjoyment from buying them. What does annoy me though are the unproven pseudo-scientific claims by people in the audio/AV world who make a profit by persuading people to spend their money unwisely.

But again whether you have the budget/can see the difference is the key issue.

Agreed, but with my engineering hat on I'd again argue that if you have to spend lots of money on special cables and filters to get the most out of the kit, then it implies a design fault and that you'd be better off buying kit without the design fault. I think a lot of the problem with all this stems from how easy it is to be convinced (or to convince yourself) that tweak X makes a difference when it actually makes no discernable difference at all.

i did read an interesting paper though that had some good evidence poor mains fidelity coupled with cheap PSUs is one of the main causes of pcs crashing!

Now that I can well believe!

BRs