Do better quality HDMI cables make a difference?

Se7ven

Se7ven

Se7ven

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For years ive had the standard HDMI cable for my PS3 and standard HDMI cable for my Sky+HD

and I always see stuff like "Gold Plated HDMI to HDMI cable" and always wondered would they make a big difference?

I just bought myself a new 32" LED tv so I thought if they do make a difference might as well get the best picture I can.

Views?
 
From what I understand a digital signal is a digital signal. So it'll either work or it wont.
You'll always get people who justify that it does improve quality. If you think you can see a difference then I guess it'll be worth it but on paper it technically looks the same.
 
The only time it really makes a difference is on long runs, but in the main digital is digital so buy the cheapest well made lead you can. You don't buy a super duper USB lead for improved print quality do you? :)
 
The main difference, having seen a bunch at work that we use to scare people into buying the expensive ones, is the sleeving and insulation. That's it really. Even the gold plated ones looked oxidised to me so I'm wary of them myself. SCART leads are a different matter though, THOSE are usually bulked up with bits of string and have no insulation whatsoever.
 
ive recently thought the same thing and have been advised so long as they are 1.3 HDMI certified then theyre a winner. its mostly due interference as others have mentioned
 
Gold plated plugs aren't much use if the socket they plug into isn't gold. (And how often do you see a gold plated socket?)
 
I bought a Panasonic cable for £12 ish off the rainforest website. That's 1.3a HDMI certified. Not that I know what that means, I just didn't fancy the £2 "OMG VALUEEEZ" range.
 
Nope as long as its well built and has good solid connections anything will do, I just got myself a cable from thatcd and its probably the best built cable i've ever purchased. Not bad for a fiver.
 
I've always seen the HDMI cable thing as a con, a mate at work kept going on they do make a diff as in the takaway shop had 4 tvs running the same channel with different range of HDMI cables.

cheap £10 cable had poor quality while the £65 was mint HD quality.

So then i mentioned "Ever thought 4 TV's 4 DVD/Blu Ray Players etc - the "cheap cable is running a downsampled DVD, while the way over priced cable is running the 1080p BR disc of the same etc"

all you do is ask them in the shops to swap cables over to prove it if they do you will see the same or get "im sorry sir we cant do that, the cables are welded into the back of these TVs""
 
My optical cable has gold plated connectors so it MUST be better.

HDMI cables don't really fail, they just get sparklies / image degradation. Over 1 metre I think you could probably use a fistful of unfurled coat hangers and it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference.
As you start getting to ~10 metres, the quality matters a bit more - so long as the cable is certified for a proper level of HDMI, then it'll be fine. :)
 
Raymond Lin said:
Of course it does, my USB cable is gold plated with Diamond tips, my word documents definitely look better.
Click to expand...

Well my HDMI cable was blessed by the pope and uses hair from the queen as shielding, the picture quality looks sooooo much better :D.

On a serious note, Belkin do well built cheap HDMI cables :).
 
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