Cheap HDMI cables are just as good... Don't waste your money.

[darkalley]

I got into an argument with the guy at bestbuy regarding hdmi cables and happened to see this tonight. Given that CNET evaluates TV's every day, I take their real world testing over the snake oil salesman.... Also, check out
http://www.monoprice.com/products/su...08&cp_id=10828 tv wallmounts that are about 3-5 times cheaper than bestbuy......


http://reviews.cnet.com/hdmi-cable/?tag=mncol;txt
What HDMI cable should I buy?

Let's cut to the chase:

CNET strongly recommends cheap HDMI cables widely available from online retailers instead of the expensive counterparts sold in your local electronics store.

Here's why:

Expensive cables aren't worth it
If you walk into your typical electronics store to buy an HDMI cable, you're likely to see prices upward of $50 with promises of better performance and faster speeds. Do you really need to spend that much money on a single HDMI cable?

Absolutely not--those cables are a rip-off. You should never pay more than $10 for a standard six-foot HDMI cable. And despite what salesmen and manufacturers might tell you, there's no meaningful difference between the $10 cable and the $50 cable. Unless you see something obvious, such as dropouts or a flashing screen, the digital information transmitted by both cables is exactly the same--no cable can make the picture any better or any worse. We've used cables from many different companies in the past--such as Belkin, Accell, Monoprice, Monster, and SimplayHD--and have not run into any consistent issues with any brand of cable. With working cables and solid connections, we've seen no dropouts and "sparklies"--just consistent, dependable, high-quality audio and video. It's that simple.
Even a heavy-duty, high-end Monoprice cable cost us less than $20. But feel free to buy a cheaper one for a standard home theater.

The editors at CNET are so confident that cheap HDMI cables offer identical performance, we've been using inexpensive Monoprice HDMI cables in the CNET Home Theater Lab for more than a year with no issues. That's saying a lot, especially when you consider that our video experts are constantly swapping in new products and changing configurations, which means our cables take much more abuse than they would in a normal home theater. We're also accustomed to making long cable runs, and many of our cables from Monoprice are 15 feet long. We also use even longer 20-foot cables from a generic maker with no appreciable loss in video quality. If cheap HDMI cables are good enough for the eagle-eyed video professionals at CNET, we're betting they're good enough for your home theater.

And don't get hung about other cables that offer a lifetime guarantee, protecting you in case your cables are technologically obsolete in the future. If in a few years there are consumer video products that output higher-than-1080p video signals (an admittedly unlikely scenario), you can always buy another cheap $10 cable online that can handle more data. And you've still saved yourself $30 over that $50 cable in the store.

Cheap HDMI cables sound great! Where can I get them?
The best way to score a cheap HDMI cable is to order over the Internet. Here are a few of our favorite resellers, all of which offer solid return policies in case you do get a bum cable.

Monoprice.com sells all other kinds of quality AV cables at very reasonable prices. As we mentioned before, we use Monoprice cables in CNET Labs, and several CNET editors use Monoprice in their personal home theaters as well.

Amazon is especially convenient if you're already buying electronics from them and just want to "add to cart" an HDMI cable. We've done hands-on testing with a $2.10 HDMI cable from DVI Gear and haven't had any issues. Return policies vary by reseller, however, so do your research first.

Newegg.com, another online retailer with whom CNET editors have had good experiences, has several HDMI cables for less than $10.

CNET itself lists numerous inexpensive cables as search results for the term "hdmi cable"--as long as you sort the results properly (lowest price first). Again, return policies vary by reseller.

[2kaccordocoupe]

+1

Companies like Monster Cable push there products via marketing and pretty packages. An educated consumer would never buy it.

[darkphantom]

*nods*

just got an ethernet coupler at fry's = $2

a "best buy" coupler does the same shit, $10...

[walsh]

if you have an expensive tv that refreshes at 120Hz and you buy an HDMI cable that is not capable of 120Hz than you just wasted on that money on a big fancy tv. I'm not saying you need to buy particular brands but certain specs of the cables are important such as the frequency and what materials are used.

[walsh]

The bandwidth demand placed upon the cable is a function of the bitrate flowing through that cable. The bitrate, in turn, is a function of the resolution, frame rate, and color depth of the picture. The argument here is obvious enough... 120Hz signal has double the frame rate of 60Hz signal, and therefore needs double the bandwidth. So if your source is putting out signal at 120Hz and your cable can only handle 60Hz your going to loose some of your quality. Granted not all tvs refresh at 120hz and not all soucres are going to put out a signal at 120Hz but there are some instances where this is this case. I do agree that the normal everyday person can do with any old HDMI cable though.

[walsh]

explain otherwise if you know better...

[skierman64]

Originally Posted by bwalshy99

The bandwidth demand placed upon the cable is a function of the bitrate flowing through that cable. The bitrate, in turn, is a function of the resolution, frame rate, and color depth of the picture. The argument here is obvious enough... 120Hz signal has double the frame rate of 60Hz signal, and therefore needs double the bandwidth. So if your source is putting out signal at 120Hz and your cable can only handle 60Hz your going to loose some of your quality. Granted not all tvs refresh at 120hz and not all soucres are going to put out a signal at 120Hz but there are some instances where this is this case. I do agree that the normal everyday person can do with any old HDMI cable though.

This makes no sense whatsoever. The 120hz processor is internal to your TV and only effects the refresh rate of your TV picture. The HDMI cable supplies a signal to your TV at whatever rate the supply machine (cable box, satellite receiver, DVD/Blueray player) puts out. The cable has no effect on the rate (hertz) of the input signal. Your 120hz TV will still refresh the screen at 120hz regardless of the input source.

The hertz is a rate of refresh and processing, there's no bandwidth changes.

You've been sold a bill of goods my friend.

[Spool]

yeah fack Best Buy...i got HDMI cables on new egg for 7.99 and they work just fine, picture and sound are crisp

[walsh]

Well I actually don't own any expensive ones... i bought the cheap ones... i was just trying to make a point

[ideliver]

cablesforless.com ...fast shipping, great prices, wide selection...

[skierman64]

Originally Posted by bwalshy99

... i was just trying to make a point

Your logic is flawed.

[SlammedR8]

funny you brought this up, my girlfriends father told me about this and when I bought my Sony LCD a couple weeks ago, I bought 5 no name HDMIs (but I made sure that they supported 120hz as my TV required).

[silvergray545]

yep i got my HDMI cable from amazon 8 buck...i found a better use for the other 52 dollars that best buy wanted.

[walsh]

its not... i just wasn't getting into all the details the Hz rating of the cable os directly related to the bitrate of the cable... i know that the tv does the processing internall. So if your cable is rated for 10.2 gbps then your tv will process that to a 120Hz refresh rate. Now if you have a cable with with a slower bitrate you wont get the same quality with the refresh rate. Theres other reasons why certain cables are better than others and certain advantages but I don't feel like getting into it because i know it will turn into one of those threads where one person ends up fighting a large number of people... not fun

[tom @ eas]

Originally Posted by ghettoblaster

Monster is the devil. Anyone who has patronized them is a danger to humanity and should executed.

Anything less than a 50' run and you'd be a fool to buy anywhere other than Blue Jeans Cable or Monoprice.

Lordamercy.

You'll love this article then:

Do Coat Hangers Sound As Good Monster Cables?
http://consumerist.com/362926/do-coa...monster-cables

After 5 tests, none could determine which was the Monster 1000 cable or the coat hanger wire. Further, when music was played through the coat hanger wire, we were asked if what we heard sounded good to us. All agreed that what was heard sounded excellent, however, when A-B tests occurred, it was impossible to determine which sounded best the majority of the time and which wire was in use. Needless to say, after the blind folds came off and we saw what my brother did, we learned he was right...most of what manufactures have to say about their products is pure hype.

As for HDMI, a cable is a cable is a cable.

[e92phreak]

I just bought the HDMI 1.3a compliant cables from Amazon, sold by Amazon, for $9.99 with free 2-day shipping. They work fine.

Maybe we need scalbert to do some tests and hook them up to a scope to see the signal loss between Monster and cheap ones.

[RonJon]

Originally Posted by e92phreak

I just bought the HDMI 1.3a compliant cables from Amazon, sold by Amazon, for $9.99 with free 2-day shipping. They work fine.

Maybe we need scalbert to do some tests and hook them up to a scope to see the signal loss between Monster and cheap ones.

The CBC (Canadian Brodcasting Corporation) performed the exact test as you you mentioned and their techncians saw no loss of information of any kind between the $10 eBay cheapy, $25 "store brand" and the $60 Monster.

It truely is a rip off because its a digital signal which is composed of logical high (1) and logical low (0). If the siganl was an analog then the cable would play a big role in the quality, but digital signals only have two states, unlike analog.

[e92phreak]

Originally Posted by RonJon

The CBC (Canadian Brodcasting Corporation) performed the exact test as you you mentioned and their techncians saw no loss of information of any kind between the $10 eBay cheapy, $25 "store brand" and the $60 Monster.

It truely is a rip off because its a digital signal which is composed of logical high (1) and logical low (0). If the siganl was an analog then the cable would play a big role in the quality, but digital signals only have two states, unlike analog.

I was just kidding about the scalbert test (only because he's doing the tests on the tuners).

Yup... rip off.

[SES_D]

+1 on this topic. The cables juts look more high end and expensive.

[- Paul -]

I'll add my nod (+1) to this - cheap all the way. It's digital!!!!!

[snipersix]

when it comes to hdmi cables all hdmi cables are the same. Cables only matter for like RGB cables, optic cables and other audio cables, if quality is a must for you.

[FStop7]

Originally Posted by bwalshy99

The bandwidth demand placed upon the cable is a function of the bitrate flowing through that cable. The bitrate, in turn, is a function of the resolution, frame rate, and color depth of the picture. The argument here is obvious enough... 120Hz signal has double the frame rate of 60Hz signal, and therefore needs double the bandwidth. So if your source is putting out signal at 120Hz and your cable can only handle 60Hz your going to loose some of your quality. Granted not all tvs refresh at 120hz and not all soucres are going to put out a signal at 120Hz but there are some instances where this is this case. I do agree that the normal everyday person can do with any old HDMI cable though.

shhhhhh.