Is there a difference in which HDMI cable I buy?

Question

I just bought a 32" LCD TV with an HDTV tuner through Comcast. I spent all this money on a TV and the HDTV box so it would be a total waste if I went cheap-o on the cable. But I have heard from several sources that it doesn't matter if you spend $5 or $150 on the cable as the picture is going to be the same either way. Can I get the cheaper cable without losing any quality in picture?

Answer 1

There are 2 camps on this. There's one camp that thinks that high quality cables, like Monster Cables, deliver a better picture quality, and then there's the other camp which thinks that it doesn't really matter.

I tend to go with the latter camp that it doesn't make a difference. Monster cables costs so much more because of the name and the material used to make the cables (usually silver or gold plating instead of copper wiring). The only advantage of having silver or gold plating is that silver and gold are less resistant to corroding. You're home is going to stay at a relatively stable temperature, humidity, etc. so the copper wiring is not going to be affected that much by those conditions.

Now that being said, I still wouldn't buy the cheapest cables that I can find because you do get what you pay for, and the cheapest cables are usually inferior quality to the other name brands. I would just go with a trusted name that sells their cables for a reasonable price.

Answer 2

The difference in cable prices comes down to three factors: connectivity at the connection points, loss through the cable, and shielding. Gold-plated connectors are the best for connectivity, because they don't corrode and gold has the least loss for a physical connection. Bad connections cause bad transfer of signals, which could result in picture and sound problems. Gold-plated connections are more expensive than copper or aluminum. So, you would pay extra for that. Loss through the cable is dependent on how well the cables are made (mostly consistency throughout the conductors). Excessive losses can cause the signal to not get to the receiver at a high enough level, resulting in picture and sound problems. Consistency requires better quality controls during manufacturing. So, you would pay extra for that. Shielding prevents outside transient RF signals from being picked up by the cable and being transmitted to the receiver. If these spurious signals are felt by the digital receiver, this could cause bit errors (the receiver thinks that a spurious RF spike is actually a bit of data). This causes high bit error rates, which could lead to video and audio problems. Better shielding requires better design and manufacturing. So, you would pay extra for that. That said, I would go with the recommendation someone made to get the cheaper cable and see how that works for you. If you have no problem with it, great. You save $180. If it causes some of the problems described, then go with more expensive cables. Then when someone on Yahoo! Answers wants to know if they should get a $20 or $200 HDMI cable, you can answer with experience what they should get, you can put as your source your own personal experience, and you can get the 10 points for the best answer.

Answer 3

The cost of HDMI cables is realy crazy in the common market place. THe HDMI cable provides a pure digtial connection for audio and video. Unlike copper bound wires that can be affected by the environment around it, a digital cable really won't be affected. I would make sure you just get a good quality wire, perhaps something that is gold plated on the ends, but there's no need to buy $100 monster wire. Buy HDMI wires online until companies stop making you spend way too much money..

Not to confuse ya, but HDMI inputs will have an update in the upcoming year to what's called HDMI 1.3 - Current HDMI wires allow for millions of colors to come across, while HDMI 1.3 will allow billions of colors to be transfered for richer picture. There's also a ton of other benefits. Even though your TV input doesn't support this yet, buy wires that will so you won't have to switch out wires for future television sets.

Google... or in this case yahoo HDMI 1.3 for more information.

Answer 4

the signal being passed along the wire is digital , how ever wire is also an antenna that can collect and pass along RF and em interference the more expensive cable shield out and don't pass that to your device so aches cable could work but in areas with lots of RF or em go with better cable

Answer 5

go to walmart and get a phillips hdmi cable...

I have used an $80 Belkin cable and the $30-35 Phillips cable and noticed no difference...

Answer 6

Don't ask Moster Cable, they'll tell you there's a huge difference, but there really isn't. Nowadays, more and more people are getting wised up to the knowledge regarding "Specialty Cable Manufacturers". Overpriced, but functional.

Answer 7

If you see a picture at all through the HDMI cable, that is as good as it gets, whether the cable cost $1 or $100. You can find good low cost HDMI cables here http://www.ehdmi.com/ or here http://www.monoprice.com/home/index.asp

Answer 8

I also belong to the second school of though on the subject. There really isn't a difference and if there is, you'd have to be a real videophile to notice it. Don't spend any more money than you need to.

Answer 9

You certainly can. The only thing a more expensive cable will do is make its manufacturer wealthy.