HDMI (and other) cables

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milomak

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So I just bought myself some Ellies HDMI cables for R170. I saw some other HDMI cables for R850. These would be the gold plated types. I’ve seen these gold plated type cables for other type inputs/outputs. Do you think your average joe would see/hear the difference between the generic type cables and these uber cables?
 
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HDMI uses a digital signalling system and not an anologue system as most other cables therefore there can be no degradation in picture/sound quality between cables. The only thing that can happen is if a cable is of really poor quality then you will get major artifacts and breakups in the picture/sound as the tv struggles to decode the poor signal it is receiving.
 
I agree do not waste your money with expensive HDMI cables.
I have a Van Den Hul HDMI Flat http://www.hificables.co.uk/11627/Van-Den-Hul-HDMI-Flat.html and one of these http://www.hdcabling.co.za/18-meter...ory-2-cable-28awg-black-gold-plated-p-16.html that cost only R89 and I really cannot see or hear the difference. I would not buy expensive HDMI cables again.

Oh and if your tv is mounted against the wall then you really should get some of these port savers as well http://www.hdcabling.co.za/hdmi-male-to-female-adapter-hdmi-port-saver-90-degree-p-119.html
Because I have very little clearance at the back of my tv I already damaged one HDMI cable but with these port savers this is no longer a problem as the ports now point down ;)
 
You cant connect a R30 000 Blue-ray player to a R150 000 Amplifier with a R170 cable...

It's against the audiophile code of ethics... if its expensive, it works better.

I think once a cable has sufficiently thick copper strands to cope with the digital signal throughput required... and good quality contact heads... the rest is "Home theater penis size".

Agreed, in the analogue cables, signal degradation per meter is a factor. So you'd need extreme low resistance wire, thick as hell, plenty strands, oxygen free this and that... etc etc etc.

But with the digital cables... you got cheap, decent and overpriced.

You want a cable that has the gold contacts, thick enough to handle the digital signal throughput and well insulated to prevent interference. The cable must also be well made... you don't want the joints by the head to start coming loose.

The standard issue cables you'll get with a cheap DVD or Blu-ray players are good enough, but they'll get crusty around the heads after a few short months.

Ellies is cheap cable... if you're using a HDMI interface for both audio and video between two High-end components, you might notice a slight degradation in sound quality since its prone to interference coz of the thin individual strands.

Labgear is good cable... thick enough, gold contacts so you don't "lose quality" if your appliance has gold contacts too. and its well made.
I bought a 5m HDMI cable off the shelf from STAX at R370. That is not a bad price...

I don't see the justification in paying more for a digital cable... really.
 
I have posted information on my company website on how to choose HDMI Cables for the type of equipment you are using depending on distance between source and display and bandwidth requirements - http://www.hdcabling.co.za/Choosing_the_correct_cables_hdmi_how_much_bandwidth_is_needed.php

For best signal transfer cables should have gold plated connectors and for optimal bandwidth it should conform to HDMI v1.3 Category 2 Specifications (340Mhz, 1600p tested opposed to 75Mhz tested for HDMI v1.3 Category 1 Cables tested up to 720p/1080i). Width of a cable is a very good indication of the quality and in general as shown on the customized hdmi cable pictures on our website for 1 - 5 Meter 28AWG (7mm width) cables will transmit a 1080p signal with Dolby Master Audio or Dolby TrueHD Audio without any signal loss. > 5 meter up to 8 meters 26AWG (9mm width) and from 10 meter and above up to 18 meters which is the maximum for 24AWG without signal loss the cables has a 11mm width to conform to HDMI v1.3 Category 2 specifications. Our manufacturers are currently producing 36 meters 24AWG which consists of 2 x 18 Meter HDMI cables with an Inline HDMI Active Equalizer between the 2 cables to ensure signal is regenerated and transmitted without any quality loss.

If you take general bandwidth usage for example of current Blu-ray players (Which uses either MPEG2 or MPEG4 compression (Blu-ray players bandwidth are maxed out on 36Mb/s for Video) any HDMI v1.3 Category 2 cable will be capable of displaying current and future video since they are rated for up to 8.16Gbit/s Video = 1.02 GBytes/s which is more than what is required for uncompressed 1080p at 48-bit color, 60 Frames per second = 711.91 Mb/s --> 1920 * 1080 * 48 * 60 / 8 / 1024 / 1024. If you check how much bandwidth most Blu-ray discs actually use it will be in the region of 20Mb - 25Mb/s since of the MPEG2 or MPEG4 compression since current Blu-ray players cannot handle uncompressed 1080p video.
 
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HDMI cable matters.

But only over long lengths, I myself order in. For shorter stuff, I'm perfectly happy with tartancable.com stuff, but for decent cable, and longer length stuff, I also have bought bluejeanscable.com HDMI cable. I promise you, you have not seen this kind of build quality at these prices. beautiful. shipping's cheap too.
 
It is the length that matters with more expensive HDMI cables. I have run up to 15 metres successfully. Above that, you can get sparkles on the screen due to bandwidth problems. But paying anything more than R80 for a 1 or 2 metre HDMI cable is a waste.

For long runs, use a HDMI extender with 2 x Cat5e network cables and all the problems will be over. Ellies sell quite a good extender, although the one from HD Cabling is a bit better
 
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