Yep, the margin on tellies is very low, sometimes they are even loss leaders, it's the heavily marked up cables and crap they try to force on you that makes the profit.
5m HDMI lead - worth spending a little more than the cheapest?
- Thread starter valve90210
- Start date
Yep, the margin on tellies is very low, sometimes they are even loss leaders, it's the heavily marked up cables and crap they try to force on you that makes the profit.
Fixed.
It's a conspiracy which your brother in law is completely oblivious to. It's most definitely a set up by the managers. They've hidden it from the floor staff so they believe in the product themselves so they can sell it better.
RE: Ghosting - it's definately happening with the longer cable in place. I may not be accurately describing 'ghosting', mind. It's a bit blurry and washed out. Definately due to the cable though, as I've tried both side by side. It's an LCD. 15m cable btw, not ten.
No idea why - I gave up on the "but it's digital" arguement a long time ago after a brief spell getting confused as hell over timing errors, jitter, etc.
No idea why - I gave up on the "but it's digital" arguement a long time ago after a brief spell getting confused as hell over timing errors, jitter, etc.
Soldato
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I always buy dirty cheap HDMI cables.
I paid about £5 for my 10m one and it has never given any problems.
I paid about £5 for my 10m one and it has never given any problems.
Caporegime
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Do this.
Something like this
http://www.amazon.co.uk/BlueRigger-premium-v1-4-cable-Meters/dp/B003XM73P2/ref=pd_sim_sbs_ce_5
It won't break the bank and it's not going to break.
Soldato
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RE: Ghosting - it's definately happening with the longer cable in place. I may not be accurately describing 'ghosting', mind. It's a bit blurry and washed out. Definately due to the cable though, as I've tried both side by side. It's an LCD. 15m cable btw, not ten.
No idea why - I gave up on the "but it's digital" arguement a long time ago after a brief spell getting confused as hell over timing errors, jitter, etc.
That's because the cable is not appropriately made. There's no reason another cable at the same cost wouldn't work perfectly. Of course, if you pay a little more, you'll get a better cable, but once it's gone past the point of working, you're not paying for anything of benefit. For example, if the manufacturer scrimped on the shielding, which might cost 2p more for the cable, it might cure the problem.
Another few sites here - http://www.avforums.com/forums/hdmi...good-quality-hdmi-cable-reasonable-price.html
This website has a range of decent looking, reasonably priced cables for example, this looks a decent bet, or the one Raymond posted looks ideal
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Soldato
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To be honest the floor staff have got to be completely retarded if they cannot tell the difference between an HD film on SCART against HDMI. The SCART would be such a low resolution and no to mention looking behind the TV would reveal all. Only a complete moron would be able to be told that a TV using SCART is actually a cheap HDMI cable.
Soldato
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Soldato
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I live in hope the hifi mags all go out of business (I don't understand how there are so many in circulation given it's a fairly niche thing):
Silly priced analog cables = load of ****
Silly priced digital cables = load of ****
Silly priced power cables, conditioners etc = load of ****
Hifi racks contributing to sound signature = load of ****
Cable risers = load of ****
Interconnects costing 10% of the rest of your system = load of ****
Hifi mags getting leaned on by companies who pay them to advertise in their mags to write positive reviews (and receive review samples in the first place) = fact
What a coincidence that most of those things are items which don't cost much, if anything to produce!
Silly priced analog cables = load of ****
Silly priced digital cables = load of ****
Silly priced power cables, conditioners etc = load of ****
Hifi racks contributing to sound signature = load of ****
Cable risers = load of ****
Interconnects costing 10% of the rest of your system = load of ****
Hifi mags getting leaned on by companies who pay them to advertise in their mags to write positive reviews (and receive review samples in the first place) = fact
What a coincidence that most of those things are items which don't cost much, if anything to produce!
Soldato
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Has anyone read a review from a hi-fi magazine which came to the conclusion that a set of products are acoustically transparent? i.e. they either make no difference, or are perfect? Funny that everything always does something for these folk.
Yeah, The difference is £90 which could be spent on better things by someone with some actual common sense.
I occasionally do AV installations that involve sending HDMI signals over 30 metres between source and display. To do this, I use 2 x Cat 6 cables and a couple of converters (~£30 a pair). So, for not a lot of money, I'm sending a HDMI signal over a longer distance than a normal (even expensive) HDMI cable could achieve. I would have thought that the resulting picture would be "washed out, unsaturated, low contrast and ghosting etc" if the "experts" in the electrical retailers and magazines were to be believed. However, I see no such problems, just good Hi-Def pictures, the same if I were to connect with £80 1m HDMI lead.
HDMI signals are "1s" and "0s". As long as they reach their destination, they produce the same image quality, whatever the quality of the cable they travel through. As a few others have said, it is worth spending a few extra quid to get better quality construction, but spending extra to get cables that have been manufactured in a zero mavity environment and blessed by Wayne Rooney is a waste of money (unless you believe that you are seeing a better picture).
BTW. Gold plated contacts are another myth. More often than not, the sockets on AV equipment are not gold plated (mostly nickel plated, I believe), so it could be said that having two different metals making the connection might have a negative impact on electrical performance.
If you have spent £loads on HDMI leads, I hope you're happy with them, I'm sure the retailer/manufacturer will be.
Just remembered a job I did that required SKY HD to be sent from living room to kitchen, via nearly 40 metres of cable (and a HDMI splitter near the SKY box to send HD to a nearby bedroom). I decided to do the job with normal HDMI cables. I knew that even 20 metres was at the limit for a HDMI cable, but I'll give anything a go (within reason). SKY Box > 1m HDMI Cable > HDMI Splitter > 20M HDMI cable > HDMI repeater > 20m HDMI Cable > TV. Signal sent @ 720P, no visible issue with the picture in the kitchen. The 20M leads were nothing special, I think they cost about £20 each at the time.
HDMI signals are "1s" and "0s". As long as they reach their destination, they produce the same image quality, whatever the quality of the cable they travel through. As a few others have said, it is worth spending a few extra quid to get better quality construction, but spending extra to get cables that have been manufactured in a zero mavity environment and blessed by Wayne Rooney is a waste of money (unless you believe that you are seeing a better picture).
BTW. Gold plated contacts are another myth. More often than not, the sockets on AV equipment are not gold plated (mostly nickel plated, I believe), so it could be said that having two different metals making the connection might have a negative impact on electrical performance.
If you have spent £loads on HDMI leads, I hope you're happy with them, I'm sure the retailer/manufacturer will be.
Just remembered a job I did that required SKY HD to be sent from living room to kitchen, via nearly 40 metres of cable (and a HDMI splitter near the SKY box to send HD to a nearby bedroom). I decided to do the job with normal HDMI cables. I knew that even 20 metres was at the limit for a HDMI cable, but I'll give anything a go (within reason). SKY Box > 1m HDMI Cable > HDMI Splitter > 20M HDMI cable > HDMI repeater > 20m HDMI Cable > TV. Signal sent @ 720P, no visible issue with the picture in the kitchen. The 20M leads were nothing special, I think they cost about £20 each at the time.
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For a 2m cable, I spend about £5
So for a 5m cable, I'd be looking at around £5-10
I've had 2x 99p cables stop working with my PS3 (had artefacts on screen at 1080p)
It's only a few quid more and worth the knowledge that they're not made of cheese
So for a 5m cable, I'd be looking at around £5-10
I've had 2x 99p cables stop working with my PS3 (had artefacts on screen at 1080p)
It's only a few quid more and worth the knowledge that they're not made of cheese
Associate
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The only reason I end up paying a bit more for my HDMI leads is because of the terrible design of my TV meaning I need to get ones with rotatable connectors, other than that, so much fail in this thread.
Well, except the one time I got an el-cheapo ASDA connector head stuck in my gfx card because I moved the PC, the cable got tugged and the head just came off. But again, the picture quality the cable gave (whilst attached, anyway) was spot on.
Well, except the one time I got an el-cheapo ASDA connector head stuck in my gfx card because I moved the PC, the cable got tugged and the head just came off. But again, the picture quality the cable gave (whilst attached, anyway) was spot on.
That's not exactly true though is it.
Despite the interface being digital the cable actually transmits in plain old copper which is an analogue medium.
By the time the signal goes even a few millimetres it will have degraded from the perfect digital square wave into something resembling an open eye. Equipment is of course able to work out these distorted signals as it's always going to happen.
A long cable, or a poor cable will have a potentially worse waveform than a short cable, or good cable. Whether or not the equipment will notice though is another thing.
Soldato
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Possibly, but I'd really like one of the so called experts at what hi-fi to explain to me quite how the odd 0 turning up as a 1 and vice versa could possibly turn out to consistently produce different colours/sharpness to another cable!
You sir, are unfortunately for yourself, their favourite kind of customer.
I think I need their 2m printer cable at 29.99 - Dig its radical features
Its like the extended warranty con on a new level.
