Cheap Hdmi Cable

[Gluestick]

Anyone know where to get cheap HDMI cables that are of ok quality?

[lothda]

Anyone know where to get cheap HDMI cables that are of ok quality?

I don't think there is such a thing. The one that came with my DVD player looked cheap and didn't work. I spent 1,800 baht for a better one at Fortune, gold-plated contacts, oxygen-free. Works fine.

[moo9]

paid 600 baht for 5 m, no gold, but works just fine.

[Gluestick]

I bought the Sony HDMI cables. One died and the other is fine. I just switched them cuz only the PS3 really needs HDMI. I'd like replace the one for the dvd/reciever but it's not important. If there are cheap cables here, then cool. If not, I'll just wait for some family member to come over to bring a cheap HDMI cable.

[Crushdepth]

I got a Samsung LCD TV delivered a few weeks ago. While they were setting it up the technician offered to sell us a high quality cable. We tested it and the picture was noticeably clearer and colour was better than the one that shipped with the TV. Might be a case of you get what you pay for.

[filingaccount]

Just get any HDMI cable. Brand doesn't matter. Digital is digital.

I have a 240 baht run-of-the-mill chinese made with gold plated connectors and it performs just as well as any other "brand name" cables.

In Bangkok IT Mall (Zonelink) is your best bet for decent enough cables.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product....=1&format=2

That's the real price... anything more is pure profit for the reseller/manufacturer.

[namoo]

Just get any HDMI cable. Brand doesn't matter. Digital is digital.

Agreed. These Gold Connectors, High Quality. Shielded marketing nonsense when it comes to HDMI cables is a SCAM.

If you get a picture on the screen then the DIGITAL signal is as good as it gets. Gold, Shielded, Branded etc. WILL NOT make a difference. 010100111011101

[Crushdepth]

I don't agree - a bad cable can mess with your signal, digital or not, and there was a marked difference in picture quality between the two cables we looked at or we wouldn't have bothered. Anyway, here's some interesting tests.

Edited June 10, 2009 by Crushdepth

[nikster]

I don't agree - a bad cable can mess with your signal, digital or not, and there was a marked difference in picture quality between the two cables we looked at or we wouldn't have bothered. Anyway, here's some interesting tests.

Interesting - didn't know cable quality mattered. But truth be told, they only had issues with the 50' cable, that's 15m. I can't imagine any setup that would require a 15m cable??

And battlemodo recommends going with cheap and good first, and against Monster. Everyone hates Monster cable for their ridiculous prices and mostly false claims. But the test also showed that the cable does matter, at least once you go past a certain length.

[namoo]

I don't agree - a bad cable can mess with your signal, digital or not

It does not matter. Your DVD sends 01001 from the HDMI OUT to HDMI IN on your TV. If your TV receives 01001 through the HDMI cable it will display the correct picture media.

If your tv recieves anything other than 01001 it wont. There is no such thing as a higher quality 01001 than a lower quality 01001. The data is the same no matter how it gets there. It either gets there or does not. Manufacturers of cabling will lead u to believe otherwise. Thats why there is so much hatred of Monster Cable company on the net amongst other reasons.

Analogue such as Component/S-video/VGA/Composite - is a whole different ball game and will benefit from higher quality cabling.

Length of cable could effect it - but if you are using standard 1m-10m which i think 99.9% of people do there will be no difference. Longer lengths are subject to resistance rather than quality of the cable.

Google Monster cables.

Quality will only make a difference 10-15m lengths + due to resistance.

Edited June 10, 2009 by namoo

[namoo]

Also watch out for the 2 scams regarding this:

2 identical TV's next to each other in the store one connected with the so called high quality HDMI and the other the sales guy tells u is an inferior quality. The higher quality looks much better to your eyes - because the other tv is actually connected with either composite/svideo/component cable and not a HDMI at all.

Second scam in home installation guy sales. He says look at the picture with the inferior cable does this first out of the box - looks ok. Then he changes the HDMI to the "Higher" quality one while holding the remote or his colleague does and while distracting u or waits until u are not looking he selects one of the TV picture enhancements from the remote.

Sale of high quality HDMI cable done.

Edited June 10, 2009 by namoo

[Gluestick]

HDMI cable for $.70. Too bad Thailand doesn't have an amazon.com. Might just order this and have someone ship it over.

http://www.amazon.com/HDMI-meter-foot-cabl...P/dp/B0002L5R78

[saintofsilence]

i bought mine from the ipod shop because I use it with my ipod classic and I found out the new ipod classics wont work with a standard HDMI cable

[Crushdepth]

Google Monster cables.

I did - check out the link I posted above which is about testing different cables, including Monster ones. The conclusion is that cable does matter, particularly for long cable, although the expensive ones aren't necessarily the best.

[namoo]

Google Monster cables.

I did - check out the link I posted above which is about testing different cables, including Monster ones. The conclusion is that cable does matter, particularly for long cable, although the expensive ones aren't necessarily the best.

Is the conclusion from your above link that it does not matter with standard length cables as the cheaper ones can keep up with monster cables and there is no need to pay a premium unless you are in excess of 10m HDMI.

Reference this part of your link

Grand Finale

[filingaccount]

I don't agree - a bad cable can mess with your signal, digital or not, and there was a marked difference in picture quality between the two cables we looked at or we wouldn't have bothered. Anyway, here's some interesting tests.

It matter only with ANALOG cables. VGA, component, composite, SVDO.

DIGITAL cables send only 0's and 1's.

If a 1 is sent, then a 1 is received. It is not stronger nor weaker, it is simply 1.

There are several scams regarding the sales of higher priced cables, and these are taught by the company selling these cables. I personally have attended 2 of these "upsale" teaching classes.

The gist of the matter comes down to manipulating the settings on the TV using presets done in advance - a click on the remote and the TV looks horrible because the preset is done with low saturation, low contrast and high light settings - and using unshielded analog cables that are overly long to degrade the signal, tune in to standard antenna Thai TV and at the same time talk about the benefits and how the investment of your new expensive TV shouldn't have to suffer because you do not want to invest "just another couple of grand" which in the big scheme of things does not matter. You want the absolute best, don't you?

Then they bring out the very shiny, gold plated, expensive looking cable and talk about how the retail price is 9000 baht, but they are willing to help you out by giving you the price of 5300 baht, the cost of the cable and that they normally wouldn't do sell it so cheap. But you have been so nice to us (you have given them water, no?), so we will give you this special price (don't tell anyone though). If you mention the price is expensive and you dont want it, they will convey a message of disapproval, make a phone call or 2, talk amongst themselves a little, and come up with the new, never before heard of price, 3400 baht. They will look suprised, excited and even talk about they themselves buying it if you do not, because they can easily sell it to anyone else for more than 5300 baht. Good profit.

So of course you will go ahead and buy the cable, and voila perfect picture quality. Of course now the presets have changed to the optimal settings and all of a sudden you are watching a channel on UBC and you think, wow, this cable is great.

[phazey]

I got two cables, an expensive one with my 360, and a cheaper one with the Ps3 - the cheaper one shows a far poorer picture - even when swapping them around i can replicate the same degradation on each console.....

[Crushdepth]

DIGITAL cables send only 0's and 1's.

If a 1 is sent, then a 1 is received. It is not stronger nor weaker, it is simply 1.

Yes but the issue is that the 1's and 0's don't always get through - not all cables can transmit data at the same rate. Anyway, I give up. The links are above if anyone has the energy to check out the tests.

[sysmaster]

Sorry to contradict some of the posters but cable quality does make the difference......

And the statement "If a 1 is sent, then a 1 is received. It is not stronger nor weaker, it is simply 1."

only holds partial truth.

The correct statement would be: " if a "1" is sent and remains a "1" and in sync with the clock signal, then a 1 is received, otherwise it is anything"

For the technical versed : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Definiti...media_Interface

There you can see the wiring layout of the connector thus also cable "content".

The cable contains 4 shielded cable pairs ("Data-0", "Data-1", "Data-2" and "Clock") and a few loose ones.

Each "pair" consists of a positive signal strand and a negative signal strand, around them a shield.

When a "1" is send, the positive line will have Positive voltage compared to ground, the negative line will have a negative voltage compared to ground.

At the receiving end both wires end up in a comparator, and if the positive signal does not match the negative signal, the "1" is discarded. (same when a "0" is send)

At the receiving end, the level (1 or 0) at the comparator output is only processed when the clock "tick's"

(same technology is used on CAT-5 Ethernet cables, however shielding is different)

The four mayor groups all apply the same "signal quality" technique.

and this with frequencies up to 340 Mhz.

What each of those pairs is carrying is now irrelevant, key factor is that whatever data is transmitted has to remain in synchronization with the "Clock", and remain valid at the receiving end.

"low-cost" cables might produce more signal drop-outs (differential signal at receiving side no longer valid) than so-called "high-end" cables.

Factors like strand diameter, shielding quality, equal length, soldering/crimping quality are all factors that will reflect on the signal.

- Diameter: is the core of a strand to thin, the inner resistance will slow down the transmission of the bit...

- Shielding: is the weaving to coarse, stray signals from the other groups and or adjacent equipment may disturb the data stream,

mostly by generating unbalanced differential signals in one or more groups

-Eq. Length: even a few millimeters of difference in length of the inner wires can, with the applied frequencies, cause timing glitches.

-Soldering: bad soldering or crimping will increase the inner resistance and (see diameter).

An additional factor for the low-end cables is the QC and final test, since they want to keep the production costs low, testing will be at the utmost minimum, cables will be tested for their electrical quality (does each wire carry the signal over), but rarely for signal quality and timing.

For mid to high-end cables, signal quality testing will be applied, those who "pass" barely are mid-range, and those who pass with flying colors are the very expensive high-end cables.

So when you have to decide what cable to buy, low cost is a gamble, most mid range cables will do within a certain length, do you need long cables then probably only high-end will do a proper job. this assuming you only accept first class image quality.

One thing, before I forget it.... all image/audio/control signals are transmitted serial, thus data for each pixel comes as a chain of 1&0's then these chains are cut in to proper length, stacked on top of each other, the same is done for the other data, and when all information for 1 pixel and audio for that moment in time and position on screen is received, it is put on screen and speaker(s).

Think about that!!!

Edited June 28, 2009 by sysmaster

[Tywais]

Quality will only make a difference 10-15m lengths + due to resistance.

That's not quite correct. It's the impedance and balance of the lines that will have the most effect. Cheaper cables with lesser shielding, unbalanced pairs will attenuate the signal (digital or not) more and worse over distance. This can cause "missed" bits due to rise/fall time signal slewing or thresholds not being reached and results in noise on the screen aka quality.

[Crushdepth]

And some manufacturers will inevitably make cables that do not meet the spec.

[Benjie]

I run a home cinema company here in Thailand and can attest that with a HDMI cable you can quite easily use a cheaper cable and receive exactly the same picture quality in most cases.

Cheaper cables will not be as high quality so may not last as long, connectors may break etc...

It has to be of a certain quality, I have seen cheap HDMI cables that have been able to do 720p but not 1080p. You will know out the box whether or not the cable will work, it will either simply not pass a picture or sometimes will have what we in the business call sparklies. These are random pixels that appear on the screen in random places and is very noticable.

I would suggest going with cheap but brand name cables, not necessarily any of the big names but a company that has a website and some background etc...

HDMI has a lock-on and handshake protocol, a very poor quality cable may see problems with losing the HDMI signal.

If you are after some of the more advanced features of HDMI (like Deep colour, auto lipsync etc..) you will need to make sure the cable conforms to the 1.3 version of the HDMI spec. The box should state this (most likely 1.3b).

I wouldn't advise anyone to spend more than say 500 baht a metre on HDMI cable.