HDMI cables

[Guest m&pc9]

My wife got me a blue ray disc player for Christmas. So I was looking for a HDMI cable I found some at partsexpress.com a 16 foot cable for $8 and $8 shipping. Walmart and radio shack and a few other were $50 to $100. So if you got a HDTV and need a cable they look like good deals. http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2007/2/19/7116

That website helped explain about the cables and why you dont need a $100 monster cable.

[NuTcAsE]

Mine are from Parts Express, and they work great. Got a wall mount and cables for less than what 2 cables would cost at BB or CC.

[Sean]

I got mine from www.Monoprice.com. I think I paid $5 for a 10ft cable.

[Guest m&pc9]

Is that not insane (BB or CC prices) I would have probably paid the price if I hadnt of found that website

[TGO David]

Blue Jeans Cables has great pricing also. But if you're in a pinch and you have a SAMS Club membership, you can get 1080p compatible HDMI cables there for fairly cheap. I think I gave $16 for my last 8ft cable from them.

[TripleDigitRide]

I buy all of my audio/video cables from Blu Jeans Cable. The quality, customer service and prices are top notch!

I've called with technical questions, and almost always get the owner (Kurt) on the phone. On more than one occasion he has saved me money by being honest with me. He could have just as easily let me spend more money on a product that I thought I needed, but no, he told me that I could go a cheaper route without sacrificing quality.

As long as they are in business, I will never buy audio/video cables from anyone else.

[Guest utarch00]

All of my cables are Dayton Audio from Parts Express. I have friends that are using the ones from Monoprice. You can not tell the difference from the more expensive ones.

[Guest bluecanary25]

psssst......

Big Lots has audio/video cables............ affordable.

I ain't sweatin' about skin effects for home entertainment cables.

[Guest Astra900]

I have my blueray and my 360 hooked up on HDMI cables. They came from Walmart, 8ft long, they were either 16 or 18 bucks a piece. I bought the cheap ones:D They had some that were higher, but I can't seee that they could work any better. On a 52" Samsung, it's like being at the movies:)

[jdogvol]

I got mine from www.Monoprice.com. I think I paid $5 for a 10ft cable.

+1 on www.monoprice.com. I buy all my cables there.

[Guest abailey362]

i'm sure i'll catch grief over this one, but there are differences in hdmi cables. I've seen spectrometer readings from many cables from multiple manufacturers. and there is a big difference in signal transmission. a lot of the differences aren't going to visible to some watching a poor source. If you are trying to do CEC whith a 1080p signal passing both ways, there will be drop off if you aren't using a 1.3 spec cable.

The biggest reason to not use the $3 cable for most consumers will be the connectors. The silver tips or thinly gold plated ones will oxidize within a year or two in normal household enviroments, which will cause signal degridtation and can damage the connections on the source and display.........

[Guest Astra900]

You sound like the salesman at Best Buy.

....J/K:D

[TripleDigitRide]

i'm sure i'll catch grief over this one, but there are differences in hdmi cables. I've seen spectrometer readings from many cables from multiple manufacturers. and there is a big difference in signal transmission. a lot of the differences aren't going to visible to some watching a poor source. If you are trying to do CEC whith a 1080p signal passing both ways, there will be drop off if you aren't using a 1.3 spec cable.

The biggest reason to not use the $3 cable for most consumers will be the connectors. The silver tips or thinly gold plated ones will oxidize within a year or two in normal household enviroments, which will cause signal degridtation and can damage the connections on the source and display.........

Some of what you say may be true, but that doesn't mean quality cables can't be found for a reasonable price. You do NOT have to pay $80-$100 for a 4'-6' HDMI cable, when a cable of the same quality or better can be had for 1/4 of the price.

[Guest m&pc9]

i'm sure i'll catch grief over this one, but there are differences in hdmi cables. I've seen spectrometer readings from many cables from multiple manufacturers. and there is a big difference in signal transmission. a lot of the differences aren't going to visible to some watching a poor source. If you are trying to do CEC whith a 1080p signal passing both ways, there will be drop off if you aren't using a 1.3 spec cable.

The biggest reason to not use the $3 cable for most consumers will be the connectors. The silver tips or thinly gold plated ones will oxidize within a year or two in normal household enviroments, which will cause signal degridtation and can damage the connections on the source and display.........

Did you read this link. http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2007/2/19/7116

I made alot of sense to me.

[Guest abailey362]

i've seen many articles like this. one way to tell the difference is to cut it open and see what gauge of wire is inside them. most of the cheapies are 28 guage which can create loss and distortion of signal.

refer to hdmi.org and the stickies on the hdmi section of avsforum if you want to get technical.

this feels like it will go the same way a discussion of THD would go

[Guest m&pc9]

FOUNDERS: HITACHI PANASONIC PHILIPS SILICON IMAGE SONY THOMSON TOSHIBA

These are the founders of HDMI Licensing, LLC

They all sell the expensive cables.

[DaveTN]

Like everything else; it’s application driven.

Anything and everything can effect transmission. Length of cable, shielding, the wire itself, the type of connectors and how the connections are made.

The problem is that buying the most expensive doesn’t mean they are necessarily the best.

[Magiccarpetrides]

I had some "cheapie" HDMI cables I bought at Target. Connecting my LCD to my PS3 and the problem I had was if they barely moved at all I would lose picture and they didnt fit snug to either source. I replaced them with a 800 series Monster Cable and now have no wiggle and no picture loss. The Best Buy salesman actually told me to avoid the rocketfish cables like the plague (which had the same specs but were cheaper), but he also told me since my TV was 60hz and not a 120hz that I didnt need to spend the extra money on the 1000 series Monster Cable which I appreciated. He told me the biggest difference was the Monster Cables will last as long as you want to keep them due to quality control and materials where-as the Dynex, Rocket Fish, and other "cheap" brands degrade pretty quickly over time. He said even the Best Buy installers would not use Rocket Fish and would actually use the Dynex brand first(even though Dynex makes rocket fish for best buy).

[Guest utarch00]

If you read AVSForum, they are all over the Dayton Audio cables from Parts Express. The guys are snobs when it comes to their gear and if they like them, it is good enough for me. There is a cost per performance and the performance difference compared to the expensive cables is not worth the extra money.