High quality HDMI cables

[azazl187]

Hi all.

I've recently bought an LG OLED C8 tv and it's great.

The only issue I seem to have is that when watching SKY TV I get 4 bands of barely detectable almost light bleed that run top to bottom on the screen. The issue is impossible to see unless the screen goes black and you are in a dark room.

I suspect the HDMI cable as if I play a vid on you tube though the tv you don't see the issue.

Does anyone have any advice on a decent HDMI cable that I can buy in an attempt to eliminate this very slight issue? I've tried looking myself but everyone claims that they have high quality HDMI cables that range from a couple of quid to 100 quid. Its a bit of a minefield to say the least.

 

[azazl187]

I'm going to be picking up a couple of these (google these): KabelDirekt 1m 4K Ultra High Speed HDMI cable for my LG C8.

I need 3m and I can't seem to find these in that length

It sounds like you've got a faulty HDMI cable.

Just grab one from amazon, they have an amazon basics range:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AmazonBasics-High-Speed-HDMI-2-0-Cable/dp/B014I8SIJY/

or indeed this one, slightly better customer ratings:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01IP1Q4B4/

These things are supposed to adhere to a certain spec so ratings can only really reflect people having problems with faulty cables... so the thing to do is to look at the ratings, given you've got thousands of customer ratings available on the likes of Amazon then you can get reasonable idea of your chances from there.

Ok cool. I'll look at the Amazon basics cables. Thanks

 

[azazl187]

I'm going to have to vote against Amazon Basics - only because I've definitely had a faulty cable from them. When I made the move to 4k last year, I also wanted to make sure all HDMI cables would support 4k/HDR. Purchased Amazon Basics and I was getting small "sparkles" on screen. Diagnosed as bandwidth issues.

I decided to look at "Premium Certified" cables - this is an independent certification that guarantees the cables are up for 4k etc.
Sure they were a little more expensive, I think I paid around £7 for the shorter cables, £8 for the longest I needed - Ugreen branded. These have been 100% reliable since purchase and all 4k issues I was experiencing went away.

You cannot argue with the number of people happy with the Basics - just thought I'd throw in the "Premium Certified" option. They really aren't silly money and they are guaranteed to provide the required bandwidth for everything 4k.

That's an interesting point. I also have a cable that creates sparkles on the scree from the sky box. How would one know if a cable was "Premium Certified" short of it being called that

 

[azazl187]

I've ordered the Onyx cable from Amazon. I'll feedback if the issue disappears

 

[azazl187]

OK so I've now installed the cable in the wall and checked the sky TV picture with a black background and...... Those lines are still there!!!

The only way I can describe them is that when you watch a programme such as The Planets with a black scene, you can see these very light lines from top to bottom of the screen. When you get really close it looks like a some of the pixels are just not switched off like they should be on a black scene.

 

[azazl187]

OK so I've worked out what it was.... The brightness setting was set to 60 instead of the default setting of 50 in the "brightroom" picture setting.

When I lowered this the banding went away. Shame that it happens but at least I know now.

Only slight side note is that I spent almost 30 quid on a lead I didn't need. Oh well, it should last and it gives me the best picture I can hope to expect

 

[azazl187]

That sounds like a fault with the screen itself.

I believe it's a common thing with C8 OLEDs and is covered quite extensively over the Internet.

https://www.avforums.com/threads/lg-oled-c8-brighter-right-side.2187342/

Some suffer from it more than others. Im in 2 minds about whether it's a fault and clearly need to look into it further. It only happens at around brightness level 50 - 54 and that's bright enough really. You can't see it during the day and only at night in a pitch dark room. Lower the brightness to 50 and even then you can't see it.

Anyone else with C8s experience this?

 

[azazl187]

you can send the cable back ?
in rerospect we should have realised banding is not a sympton of bad hdmi cables, but followed your hdmi lead .... sparklies, or, just no picture, are the hdmi lead symptoms afaik

Its ok, I wanted a decent cable anyway that was a bit longer. It was a bit of a knee jerk reaction tbh but I'm feeling a bit better anyway now I know I can get rid of the "banding". Some people get it worse than on my TV.