What A Difference HDMI Makes!

VIRII · 27 Mar 2007 at 09:55

Psycho Sonny said:
well i got my hdmi cable with my ps3 plus 3 games and a bluray disc for £525 i think it was, i think graphics are on par with xbox 360 on my hdtv but its only a 720P screen will really need to save up and buy that sammy 46 incher 1080P that costs £1800 currently, so looks like ill be saving until christmas with my current credit cards all maxed out and no money in the bank

Someone posted a chart recently that shows that to truely be able to physically see the difference in resolution you'd have to sit within about 6 feet of a 50" screen.
I think I'll leave 1080p till I get a projector.

Kreeeee · 27 Mar 2007 at 10:17

EVH said:
My qualifications:

Bsc (Hons) Sound Technology
MSc Acoustics of Performance Spaces and their Design

Whilst I don't claim to be any sort of video guru, I do however work for a sound, lighting, and audio visual company. However unjust it seems that's the way it is.. if you don't believe me;

I don't doubt your knowledge on analogue signals, but on digital ones...

VIRII · 27 Mar 2007 at 10:33

Kreeeee said:
I don't doubt your knowledge on analogue signals, but on digital ones...

1100110110001111000011111!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :eek:

V4NT0M · 27 Mar 2007 at 10:34

Looks good when you go from composite to HDMI/VGA doesnt it?

I'm still waiting on my xbox vga cable, god the composite looks horrible on a 32" LCD :eek:

Kreeeee · 27 Mar 2007 at 10:47

VIRII said:
1100110110001111000011111!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Error: Malformed binary. Your binary code is must be divisible by 8.

Kamakazie! · 27 Mar 2007 at 11:01

msmalls74 said:
So basically is the general consensus don't get a real cheap HDMI lead or an overly Expensive one unless you need a long cable! Something about the £20 mark will suffice. On another note, surely the Sony PS3 HDMI cable must be fine for the PS3 (its about £18) or else why would Sony sell it if it made the output a bit naff ?

I'd say £18 is in the £20 odd range. I mean you can get decent cables for £10... it was just a rough guideline.
Put it this way, if i had just spent £425 on a PS3 "because it is a cheap Blu-Ray player" then i wouldn't be skimping on a £5 HDMI cable.

VIRII · 27 Mar 2007 at 11:04

Kreeeee said:
Error: Malformed binary. Your binary code is must be divisible by 8.

Syntax error.
Shutting down.
Detonation sequence engaged.
10
9
8
7
.....

Kreeeee · 27 Mar 2007 at 11:05

VIRII said:
Syntax error.
Shutting down.
Detonation sequence engaged.
10
9
8
7
.....

Someone set us up the bomb!

spudstudios · 27 Mar 2007 at 11:29

EVH said:
I believe it does.

Improved screening, better quality metals.. they all add up to an overall improvement if you were to use cheaper components. It's common sense

I work as a sound, lighting and AV engineer and I believe it does.

erm...no, as the signal passed to the screen is digital no analouge.. no frequency issues to consider.

HDMI is much sharper and colour saturation is superb. It's like DVI over VGA. Ask any graphics house and they will tell you the difference for colour proffing.

Sclodion · 27 Mar 2007 at 12:25

spudstudios said:
erm...no, as the signal passed to the screen is digital no analouge.. no frequency issues to consider.

Think you need to research how signals are carried on a cable before you make statements like that. Frequency is all important.

Frequency is the speed at which you can pump voltage changes down the cable. Cables have electrical properties which can limit the speed at which you can make the state change from 1 to 0 and the distance that the cable will keep the signal intact for. These are classed as reflection, resistance, attenuation, inductance and crosstalk. All of these factors limit the frequency and cable length your signal can pass before it deteriorates to the point where it is either unrecoverable or requires significant error correction.

Put simply, a better quality cored, better shielded, lower resistance cable with a constant measured impedance will enable a signal to pass a further distance with less probability of distortion to a cheap one. The bond between the cable core, shield and the plug are of vital importance here and generally accounts for the cost of high v low quality cables.

I do agree that for a 1 Metre runs at the back of a TV if kept away from Mains, pretty much any HDMI cable will do for getting a PS3 onto an HDTV, but there is a rightful place and benefit for high quality cabling

Kreeeee · 27 Mar 2007 at 12:42

Sclodion said:
I do agree that for a 1 Metre runs at the back of a TV if kept away from Mains, pretty much any HDMI cable will do for getting a PS3 onto an HDTV, but there is a rightful place and benefit for high quality cabling

I think we've all always agreed that in certain circumstances such as long distances cable quality matters but as you said we are talking about a very short cable and a cheap £5 cable will do fine.

Joebob · 27 Mar 2007 at 13:02

I actually have three HDMI cables of varying qualities. I bought one for about £7 and another for about £12 from the bay and a decent one (gold plated etc) for about £25 from a store. I have three because I used one from PS3 and nother from DVD player to go into a HDMI switch box and then one from HDMI switch box to TV.

I have tested all three in my PS3 directly into TV and can honestly see no difference whatsoever, although I do completely understand and agree with the quality of components versus bandwidth as I have a gigbit network at work and needed to use Cat6 rather than cat5 or cat5e. I guess I was just lucky on the cheaper cables tbh.

Joebob · 27 Mar 2007 at 13:03

Kreeeee said:
I think we've all always agreed that in certain circumstances such as long distances cable quality matters but as you said we are talking about a very short cable and a cheap £5 cable will do fine.

Actually, I can see it making a difference if anyone is playing in 1080p, but how many people are?

squiffy · 27 Mar 2007 at 13:06

Joebob said:
Actually, I can see it making a difference if anyone is playing in 1080p, but how many people are?

My DVI-HDMI £5 cable was used for 1080p screen/rez. No sparklies, no ghosting.

TALON1973 · 27 Mar 2007 at 13:38

if your using a £5 cable on a screen that can do 1080p then your wasting the screen imo.

get expensive cabling and do it justice

squiffy · 27 Mar 2007 at 13:41

TALON1973 said:
if your using a £5 cable on a screen that can do 1080p then your wasting the screen imo.

get expensive cabling and do it justice

lol.

Tony Williams · 27 Mar 2007 at 14:06

I personally don't understand why people insist on buying DVI/HDMI cables for so much I saw in a shop them being sold at £79.99 it's digital, works or doesn't, for a PS3 I don't see many people having it 15M>, the only bad point I've seen on really cheap DVI cables is the connecters are very hard to screw in compared to a branded one. Anyone who spends so much on such cables is crazy that money could go towards games which is probably just as important.

I have a half decent dvi/dvi cable that's 2 metres long, I now use a cheap 10 metre one which plays my hd content just as good BTW this is from my computer to TV.

As for the component vs hdmi, I am not sure on what the PS3 ships with but I'd use that and save the money. hdmi is good for the convience and if you've already tied up your component-in on your TV it's probably easier. In terms of quilaty the difference should be minimal. Digital > Analoge isn't always the case although hdmi will probably be slightly better I doubt it's going to be noticable to the untrained eye. However both cables would eat composite, spit it out and eat it again.

One other point I am not sure about this so please no flaming

but I heard the PS3 can't play movies over component at 1080p due to the HDCP has anyone tried this?

Due to how simple HDMI is and conveint it's probably going to become more and more popular in the future, now is when I wish I had HDMI.

Demon · 27 Mar 2007 at 14:23

Sclodion said:
Think you need to research how signals are carried on a cable before you make statements like that. Frequency is all important.

Frequency is the speed at which you can pump voltage changes down the cable. Cables have electrical properties which can limit the speed at which you can make the state change from 1 to 0 and the distance that the cable will keep the signal intact for. These are classed as reflection, resistance, attenuation, inductance and crosstalk. All of these factors limit the frequency and cable length your signal can pass before it deteriorates to the point where it is either unrecoverable or requires significant error correction.

Put simply, a better quality cored, better shielded, lower resistance cable with a constant measured impedance will enable a signal to pass a further distance with less probability of distortion to a cheap one. The bond between the cable core, shield and the plug are of vital importance here and generally accounts for the cost of high v low quality cables.

I do agree that for a 1 Metre runs at the back of a TV if kept away from Mains, pretty much any HDMI cable will do for getting a PS3 onto an HDTV, but there is a rightful place and benefit for high quality cabling

Nice reply...

It's worth pointing out that the side effect of a poor cable (poor does not always mean cheap) will be lost data, this is normally very obvious in this case as you do get 'sparklies' appearing, or no picture at all if it's too severe..

And when it comes to Audio, cables and component quality can make a noticeable difference to compressed formats sent 'digitally'..

Dutch Guy · 27 Mar 2007 at 14:33

EVH said:
Paid £59.99 for my HDMI cable.

...and yes, the quality is superb when using HDMI

HDMI is digital so there is no difference between a 5 quid one and a 60 quid one :confused:

Jonnycoupe · 27 Mar 2007 at 14:35

EVH said:
EDIT: Lets not flame me and question my job title (quite offensive tbh), it's my decision to buy expensive gear for my personal usage.. doesn't mean I don't understand the workings of HDMI, or in fact if I would use such a quality cable in an install (which I wouldn't)

If you're still bothered about my skills as an engineer I can provide you with a reference and my CV

Yep, you offended me.