HDMI cables Eeeek
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Topper said:They got to be kidding! 89.99 for a 2 meter cable??????? An the horror is, some poor fool will pay thati'm thing a 1 meter cable off ebay costing 5.00 will do a pretty similar job?
Yes, the data sent down HDMI is digital. You either receive a perfect picture or nothing
.Meatball said:Yes, the data sent down HDMI is digital. You either receive a perfect picture or nothing
Well its not nothing, its corrupted pictures with pixels sparkling etc,
I agree though no point in expensive cables at short distances, definately needed at longer distances like 10m
sid
Does anyone know where to get a cheap 3m HDMI cable on the High Street? I really do not want to pay more than £20 (seeing as it's only connecting a £50 Toshiba SD-370E) and all the shops that I thought would be cheap (Richer Sounds, ****** etc) seem to be charging an arm and a leg!
Ideally, I'd like to buy one over the weekend. I think I might be able to get one in Victoria or else I will have to cycle up to Tottenham Court Road and try to play all the retailers off one another. That is unless anyone else is aware of any decent buys in Central London?sid said:
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Don't have any links, but I've read it's possible using dual cat5e or better cables, you'll need cat6 or cat7 for full bandwidth though, considering 1080p at 60fps is 2.9Gb/s cat6 is probably needed. I think the difficult thing was soldering the connectors on.
Not strictly true. Whilst the HDMI signal is digital a lot of cheap cables use crap connectors. There is also shielding from RF and other interference to consider. Don't buy a cheap cable but no need to spend a fortune either. Take a look at our Belkin range here.
I think 30 quid is too much for such a short distance. You can get a variety of decent quality cables that will do the job just as well for cheaper.
I got a 10 meter long HDMI cable the other day for £50 that has no trouble with 1080p - it's just as good as a cable that cost over £300.
I got a 10 meter long HDMI cable the other day for £50 that has no trouble with 1080p - it's just as good as a cable that cost over £300.
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Spie is right, although digital is digital (0 or 1) dirt cheap cables tend to have bad connectors which I recently discovered, I wouldn't normally see this much of an issue with HDMI.
I recently bought a cheap 10m DVI cable, getting it to work was actually a challenge it didn't seem to work unless I could screw both sides in tightly (one in my TV and the other in my computer) the side-screws were a little short which upped the difficultly level from hardcore to insane but once it was in properly I got my expected picture. Something so simple became challenging.
So was it worth paying less for the added challenge? Too right it was!!
Note also that a £120 cable would probably carry the signal further than a £1.20 cable.
I recently bought a cheap 10m DVI cable, getting it to work was actually a challenge it didn't seem to work unless I could screw both sides in tightly (one in my TV and the other in my computer) the side-screws were a little short which upped the difficultly level from hardcore to insane but once it was in properly I got my expected picture. Something so simple became challenging.
So was it worth paying less for the added challenge? Too right it was!!
Note also that a £120 cable would probably carry the signal further than a £1.20 cable.
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Tony Williams said:Spie is right, although digital is digital (0 or 1) dirt cheap cables tend to have bad connectors which I recently discovered, I wouldn't normally see this much of an issue with HDMI.
I recently bought a cheap 10m DVI cable, getting it to work was actually a challenge it didn't seem to work unless I could screw both sides in tightly (one in my TV and the other in my computer) the side-screws were a little short which upped the difficultly level from hardcore to insane but once it was in properly I got my expected picture. Something so simple became challenging.
So was it worth paying less for the added challenge? Too right it was!!
Note also that a £120 cable would probably carry the signal further than a £1.20 cable.
Best trying the £1.20 cable first though as you will know instantly if it works or not.
Energize said:I wouldn't pay more than £5 for any hdmi cable, the signal gets there or it doesn't, and with distances of 2m or less it's going to get there.For long distances I would just use cat cable anyway.
As I've posted already, its not that black and white. The signal is composed of 0s and 1s. Due to interference (other electrical fields etc) and poor quality connectors, not all the signal will reach. This is not like transferring network packets, where if it doesn't get through, it is resent.
These missing 0s and 1s will create sparklies on the screen.
Having said that problem is going to be worst at 10m+ 1080p.
Personally I have a £7 2m HDMI-DVI and haven't seen any problems at all with it.
sid
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sid said:
Sparklies and picture breakup are instantly recognisable though.