HDMI Cable?

[akaM2]

I just bought my parents an HD-DVD player for xmas, was wondering if someone can shed some light on the difference of HDMI cables.

 

For my tv, I have 2 Monster HDMI cables which I know I overpaid for, so I dont think there is that big of a difference.

 

I looked on Amazon and I see 3 dollar HDMI cords and 75 dollar.

 

Im sure anonymo could shed some light on this.

 

 

BTW I got the Toshiba HD-A30 1080p player if your interested, only 223 on amazon right now (with 10 free HD-DVD's)

 

 

 

edit: looks like the 10 free hd-dvd's has expired and its just the normal 5 free with mail in rebate now.

[boiler]

from what I have read, I think you will only notice a difference from the cheaper ones to the more expensive HDMI cables when you are getting into the longer cords - 6'+. I think that if you only need a short one with your components close together that there will be a pretty negligible difference in image and sound quality. The more expensive ones are shielded a little better and lessen the drop in signal quality with cord length.

 

Hopefully Mo can confirm or refute this as I'm not 100% certain.

[NOFX]

no difference at all between the cables. Its a digital signal 01010100110. If you lose a bit, you don't have any picture. If all your bits come across successful, then it will look the same no matter what meda(cable) they came across.

 

boiler is correct with the distance thing, When going like 50 feet or so, some cables *may* not be able to carry the data that far.

[anonymo]

Yep, basically either you get the signal across or you don't, there's no in between.

 

Longer cable runs are just like long cat5 runs, at a certain point the signal needs amplification (although HDMI can't make it nearly as long as cat5 can, only about 10-20' on a single un-amplified run). If your HDMI run is too long your image will start to flicker and go out of phase (it's hard to describe).

 

The only advantage that Monster cables have over normal bargain bin cables is in their shielding. HDMI is not that susceptible to interference but in long runs it is a factor. I highly doubt, however, that anyone will run long enough HDMI to see airborne interference, hence why most industry experts will tell you monster cables (for HDMI) are a complete waste of money (most of their cables are, as you can find them for much cheaper).

 

I will note that there are actually 3 types of HDMI.

 

A- what we commonly use now, basically the same as DVI-D

B- upgrade of type A, supports HD resolutions of up to 3200x2048, not readily available but it is out there (don't buy it)

C- basically HDMI mini, this one is fairly obvious as it's physically smaller than A and B

[shep48]

bought all my cables from newegg.

[[LaW]Maverick]

it should be noted that the original HDMI cables won't work for 1080p output

 

you need the "high-speed" version of it.

 

I ended up buying a sony cable for my HD-DVD player because it was the cheapest I could find without having to wait to order it from NewEgg (I was impatient). It works 90% of the time for 1080p, but every once in a while I get an error that says "incompatible video signal." The first HDMI cable I bought (RCA) didn't work at all at 1080p.

 

So just make sure you get a "high-speed" cable or 1.3 (I believe). It's still a heck of a lot cheaper on NewEgg.

 

Also, if you want a really long cable, then you probably do want to spend the extra money for something like Monster. Why? Well, the resistance of the wire is important for a clean signal, and you may get glitches more often with a cheap cable than an expensive one (such as my "incompatible video signal" error).