[Wayne]

1s and 0s. It is a simple as that.

 

[JamesK]

Let me say this first...THERE IS A DIFFERENCE

Crap cables will always provide poor performance. However, once you get to decent quality, there's little reason to spend more.

 

[gzink]

1s and 0s. It is a simple as that.

As long as the 1s and 0's from the cable one over don't leak in. or the 120's at 60hz.

 

[audacity]

Let me say this first...THERE IS A DIFFERENCE. I had a friend watch with me just to make sure my eyes didn't deceive me. We started out with the Wally World one and ya it was a good picture don't get me wrong. But after looking at it hooked up with the Audiphiles HDMI we both immediately looked at eachother and said holy S*#t. The picture was so much crisper, cleaner, and more vivid, it seemed. We hooked up the cheap one again and it was like night and day to me. Everything seemed flat and dull. I am sold that it DOES matter which HDMI you have.

And I am sold that fools will continue to be parted with their money.

What you are describing is impossible, unless you were using a different input source with different display settings on your TV (and weren't technically astute enough to realize that display settings on a TV are usually per-input).

Over HDMI the data transmission will be perfect, and if you degrade the cable so that the signal doesn't come through (i.e. it starts losing data), it will simply stop working. There is hardly any middle ground here - not like analog signals.

Your testimony of how you saw a significant difference in video quality won't be convincing to anyone who actually knows how this technology works.

As long as the 1s and 0's from the cable one over don't leak in. or the 120's at 60hz.

Please explain how this works. I'm especially interested in how 1s and 0's "leak in". But the "120's at 60hz" should be pretty amusing as well.

 

[Wayne]

My analogy is SATA cables for hard drives. We now have SATA data rates of 6 Gb/s and no one is looking to sell you a $100 SATA cable to gor from your hard drive to your mobo. If there were bad bits you would know this right away as your PC won't boot or your programs wouldn't run. But all you need is a $1 SATA cable.

 

[Jake]

Please explain how this works. I'm especially interested in how 1s and 0's "leak in". But the "120's at 60hz" should be pretty amusing as well.

Pretty sure gzink was being sarcastic.

Wayne, I like your analogy with SATA (or ESATA). I think I will use that the next time I hear someone talk about their exotic cables.

 

[Wayne]

or the 120's at 60hz.

What do you mean by this? The frequency of the display has nothing to do with the cables. The cables carry digital data from the source to the TV. The highest that you are going to get today is 1080p which means 1920x1080 resolution at 60 frames per second. Your display may be 120Hz or 240Hz or 2400HZ for all I care but what does that have to do with the cable that is moving the 1s and 0s from the BluRay player to your TV?

 

[Francois Caron]

Doesn't look like a proper double blind test was conducted using multiple cables. Just randomly testing a couple of cables simply isn't enough.

 

[NeilN]

I haven't had to buy HDMI cables for a long time. Monoprice generic still the way to go? No high end setup here. Just replacing my parents' non-HDMI receiver with a Sony STRDN860. They have a non-4K TV, PS3, Chromecast, and some no-name Blu-ray player.

 

[ExDilbert]

Monoprice cables are probably as good as any. The main catch is shipping cost, especially for a single inexpensive cable.

Careful shopping on eBay can net a good cable for about the same money and cheap or free shipping. Avoid the 99 cent cables with free shipping. They may work but the quality will be low and they won't meet the latest specs.

Amazon is another place to look. Prices are higher than eBay but shipping is often free when combined with other items to make the order over $25. I bought a BlueRigger HDMI cable on Amazon a couple of years ago. The price was a little higher than the generic cables but the quality is better.

 

[Inglewood]

I have always bought the super el-cheapo HDMI cables from Asia on eBay - you can get a dozen for around $10-$15 U.S. - when they start to crap out, or in my case the cat chews through them, toss it and plug in a new one you have on hand...when you get down to a few new cables, buy another dozen...

I use to love it when the commissioned sales guys at Future Shop would try and upsell the $100+ cables that looked the same as the el-cheapo cables I had.

 

[NeilN]

Thanks. Two BlueRigger 6.6" 2-packs at $15 each look to do the trick. I'd rather pay a bit more than have my parents say nothing when issues crop up, assuming they're doing something wrong.