A good cable makes all the difference, digital or otherwise. These are great value for budget setups.
Digital cables rarely drop digits, but the presentation of the video/audio can vary as found in my own tests (mainly with SPDIF audio in the past). I think this more down to the clock sync than the data itself. SPDIF audio uses an analog clock so will control jitter and data presentation accordingly. So yes, the data gets there okay for simple cables, but for it to be perfect, and less jitter prone, we need a good cable for the clock to be spot on. Shielding helps, which is a plus in this design.
I bought one of these as I was having difficulty persuading my Panny plasma to accept input signal via HDMI sockets 1,2, & 3. I don't know why, but this cable fixed the problem!
Zeatrix - there's a good reason for your skepticism. A digital HDMI cable can't make any difference at all at that distance. And over long distances, they either work or they sparkle horribly at the extremes of their performance capability range or you get no picture.
Just think how significant one incorrectly transmitted bit can make if it represents a highly significant number (128 out of a 1-255 range for example). Anyone claiming they see a difference with this cable is in fantasy land, but at least they're only coughing up a perfectly reasonable fiver, not £100 for a ripoff cable.
All this talk of stability, richer colours, better contrast, clearer sound - it's all placebo.
I just don't get this cable milarchy. BBC capture sound digitally at the RAH and sends it as a Dolby Digital data stream, along with the HD video, all the way from the hall, via satellite to my satellite receiver. The same, unprocessed DD data stream passes to my AV receiver over HDMI cable which decodes the DD data stream into 5.1 audio. The AVR passes the unprocessed HD video signal to my HD TV via another HDMI cable.
This signal has been passed over PCM links and satellite spread spectrum links over thousands of miles. You think that 1.5 m of HDMI cable is going to make any difference to the quality?
Got this cable today in super fast time. I was going to have it as a spare but decided to give it a try against my more expensive cable that I paid �60 for. To my surprise it is definitely better and I can't believe it, as it was only �5! I don't have the best audio set-up but in terms of picture quality, the colours are far more vivid and the black is more solid. Great, thanks ThatCable and What Hi Fi.
i purchaesd a 5m version of this cable to run from ny denon avr to my tv, but thought i would audition it against ny existing cable £10worth from hong kong off "flea-bay". Well to say it blew me away with the differance is an understatement. I used the opening battle scene in Gladiator,my hong kong cable made every thing a blue grey colour. where as that cable made the colours especialy the reds, blues and blacks, come to life with more contrast to boot. The sound differance was also greatley improved being clear and crisp in comparison to the muted dull tones of hong kong cable. In short you dont have to look far for a good budget hdmi cable, just visit thatcable.com
Like you, I can't understand why one cable is likely o be so much better than another, but everyone I have "blind tested" the cable on has judged the picture better than with the Sky supplied lead. I guess the quality of shielding must have something to do with it - our DVD player was picking up a shadow image of the Sky output with the original lead.
Best £5 I've ever spent (in connection with AV equipment, anyway!).
I bought two of these to replace ones I bought before from Morrisons, also �5 (Which I gave to my Dad when he finally got a HD set up). Well I haven't noticed that much difference but I didn't do any side by side comparisons. So all I can say is...they work great!
For a fiver you cant go wrong,good well made cable not too heavy so it dont pull on your hdmi socket.
As for picture quality it is very good,clear crisp pictures ,if they are any better than the many others cables ive used i cant tell no difference ,ive got cables costing 99p with postage up to a cable that cost �30 and i cant tell a scrap of difference between any of them,my equipment isn't cheap rubbish either ,ah i know i haven't got the special eyes to see the difference ,thats what people tell me who reckon they can see a difference and ive got 20/20 vision!!!!!
I bought 2 of these as soon as I read the article. I noticed on my OPPO 981 there was some flickeing. I have just installed my OPPO BDP 83 and the cable wouldn't work at all. I was baffled. wiggled it etc nothing. I thought my OPPO might have been damaged on the flight from the US. I replaced it with a cheapie from Argos now works fine No problems at all.
The 2nd cable attached to my sagem freeview PVR I replaced that today as there is some flickering on that too. New HDMI cable no more flickering.
Quality cables can effect bit-error-rate and therefore the probability that you'll see really glaring data loss. Any use of adjectives like "vivid," "sharp," "punch," or any of this lot is purest fantasy. Digital cables don't work that way.
Test it properly: do double-blind tests of the entire range of HDMI cables. You'll find they're identical.
Comments
A good cable makes all the difference, digital or otherwise. These are great value for budget setups.
Digital cables rarely drop digits, but the presentation of the video/audio can vary as found in my own tests (mainly with SPDIF audio in the past). I think this more down to the clock sync than the data itself. SPDIF audio uses an analog clock so will control jitter and data presentation accordingly. So yes, the data gets there okay for simple cables, but for it to be perfect, and less jitter prone, we need a good cable for the clock to be spot on. Shielding helps, which is a plus in this design.
I bought one of these (5m) and after a few months it stopped working...i don't know what went wrong with it but it was good as long as it lasted...
I bought one of these as I was having difficulty persuading my Panny plasma to accept input signal via HDMI sockets 1,2, & 3. I don't know why, but this cable fixed the problem!
Zeatrix - there's a good reason for your skepticism. A digital HDMI cable can't make any difference at all at that distance. And over long distances, they either work or they sparkle horribly at the extremes of their performance capability range or you get no picture.
Just think how significant one incorrectly transmitted bit can make if it represents a highly significant number (128 out of a 1-255 range for example). Anyone claiming they see a difference with this cable is in fantasy land, but at least they're only coughing up a perfectly reasonable fiver, not £100 for a ripoff cable.
All this talk of stability, richer colours, better contrast, clearer sound - it's all placebo.
As an engineer in computer science I still find it hard to understand how a digital HDMI cable can make such a big difference at such short distances.
If it were much longer cables, say 50 feet, then sure I get it, but at 1.5 m the cable would have to be extremely bad to distort the signal enough.
Nice and cheap!
I just don't get this cable milarchy. BBC capture sound digitally at the RAH and sends it as a Dolby Digital data stream, along with the HD video, all the way from the hall, via satellite to my satellite receiver. The same, unprocessed DD data stream passes to my AV receiver over HDMI cable which decodes the DD data stream into 5.1 audio. The AVR passes the unprocessed HD video signal to my HD TV via another HDMI cable.
This signal has been passed over PCM links and satellite spread spectrum links over thousands of miles. You think that 1.5 m of HDMI cable is going to make any difference to the quality?
Got this cable today in super fast time. I was going to have it as a spare but decided to give it a try against my more expensive cable that I paid �60 for. To my surprise it is definitely better and I can't believe it, as it was only �5! I don't have the best audio set-up but in terms of picture quality, the colours are far more vivid and the black is more solid. Great, thanks ThatCable and What Hi Fi.
i purchaesd a 5m version of this cable to run from ny denon avr to my tv, but thought i would audition it against ny existing cable £10worth from hong kong off "flea-bay". Well to say it blew me away with the differance is an understatement. I used the opening battle scene in Gladiator,my hong kong cable made every thing a blue grey colour. where as that cable made the colours especialy the reds, blues and blacks, come to life with more contrast to boot. The sound differance was also greatley improved being clear and crisp in comparison to the muted dull tones of hong kong cable. In short you dont have to look far for a good budget hdmi cable, just visit thatcable.com
Greetings from fantasy land, Choddo!
Like you, I can't understand why one cable is likely o be so much better than another, but everyone I have "blind tested" the cable on has judged the picture better than with the Sky supplied lead. I guess the quality of shielding must have something to do with it - our DVD player was picking up a shadow image of the Sky output with the original lead.
Best £5 I've ever spent (in connection with AV equipment, anyway!).
I bought two of these to replace ones I bought before from Morrisons, also �5 (Which I gave to my Dad when he finally got a HD set up). Well I haven't noticed that much difference but I didn't do any side by side comparisons. So all I can say is...they work great!
For a fiver you cant go wrong,good well made cable not too heavy so it dont pull on your hdmi socket.
As for picture quality it is very good,clear crisp pictures ,if they are any better than the many others cables ive used i cant tell no difference ,ive got cables costing 99p with postage up to a cable that cost �30 and i cant tell a scrap of difference between any of them,my equipment isn't cheap rubbish either ,ah i know i haven't got the special eyes to see the difference ,thats what people tell me who reckon they can see a difference and ive got 20/20 vision!!!!!
I bought 2 of these as soon as I read the article. I noticed on my OPPO 981 there was some flickeing. I have just installed my OPPO BDP 83 and the cable wouldn't work at all. I was baffled. wiggled it etc nothing. I thought my OPPO might have been damaged on the flight from the US. I replaced it with a cheapie from Argos now works fine No problems at all.
The 2nd cable attached to my sagem freeview PVR I replaced that today as there is some flickering on that too. New HDMI cable no more flickering.
Disappointed!
Quality cables can effect bit-error-rate and therefore the probability that you'll see really glaring data loss. Any use of adjectives like "vivid," "sharp," "punch," or any of this lot is purest fantasy. Digital cables don't work that way.
Test it properly: do double-blind tests of the entire range of HDMI cables. You'll find they're identical.