Looking for HDMI cables for your big screen TV?

[89911]

Don't let them talk you into spending $200 for a 6 foot cable at Best Buy. Read this:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,121777-page,1/article.html

[Moneyguy1]

COX Cable wanted $200 for a cable it would sell to the COX suckers willing to buy....(oops...customers)

[RickM]

I agree with the article. I choked @ Bestbuys when I saw HDMI cables started at $129.

I went to Walmart and picked up a nicely made Phillips 6 footer for $30.

Starting price at Radio Shack was around $65....and I think that was for a 4 footer.

[stevepaa]

This where I bought several cables, HDMI, and DVI-VGA

http://www.mycableshop.com/3rd_Level/DVI_Cable_HDMI_Cable.htm

[scottmandue]

Target has them too for $20-$30

[BlueSkyJaunte]

I despise Monster Cable and everything they stand for.

[David]

That they even sell a high dollar cable for digital data blows my mind. Is the cheaper cable going to lose some 1's and 0's?

[Dave L]

I just bought a LCD, HDMI DVD player and cable. Amazingly they were able to "throw in" the $140 cable. The DVD player was $75, but the cable $140????? I have been buying monster cables at Xcess Cargo a clearance place for $8.

[scottmandue]

I also bought a bunch of A/V cables for work from these guys:

http://www.hififorless.com/categories.php

[89911]

Originally posted by scottmandue
I also bought a bunch of A/V cables for work from these guys:

http://www.hififorless.com/categories.php

Even these prices seem high compared to the websites listed in the article. From what I read in the article, if it is less then a few meters, any cable will due. It either works or it doesn't.

[snowman]

There is no reason to buy high priced cable. Unless your constantly hooking and unhooking cable, like say a traveling rock band, or you are using a test station to test 100's of devices all day long, ypu don't need good cable.. Good cable is made by a company called W.L. Gore, not monster cable. A 6' gore cable with connectors can cost $2000 ea. Something like this may be used on a submarine mast for the microwave antenna connection.

Whats the difference between good cable and bad cable? Primarily two things, connectors and shielding.

An unsuitable cable usually scrimps on shielding, just not enough copper to cover the center wire. A good cable has good shielding, maybe even double shielding.

Connectors are of vital importance. Almost no consumer cable, even the highest price ones have good connectors. Rock bands and commercial people use military or military type connectors.

What makes a good connector? All good connectors AND their mating contacts MUST be gold plated. Preferably with a min of 50 to 100 micro inches of gold. A flash of gold (typically 1 to 5 microinches) dosen't cut it.

The first big problem is that almost NO equipment has gold plated contacts, and even if it does its just a flash of gold, almost useless. Same for even the big buck cables.

So if your budget dosen't allow for $100 to $500ea connectors, you aren't going to have good connections.

So you settle with gold flash, and try real hard to have it on your equipment as well. What happens is that the connection will degrade over time, hopefully a couple of years or more. Then you unplug and plug everything back in and your good for a couple more years.

Want examples? computer memory with tin plated contacts. After a short time you start having computer problems that can be solved by banging on the box..

THE ULTIMATE proof, Lucas electric, the prince of darkness. Take ANY old MG. Nothing works unless you wiggle all the electrical connectors. Seems that tin plated contacts are NOT the way to go.

Gold to gold is the only known contact that will not degrade over time. worse is dissimular metals, like gold and tin.

So either solder all your connections. choose connectors with a mil spec, or wiggleyour connectionsannually

monster cable is a total ripoff. Any reasonable quality cable will do the job. Connectors are very importrant, and good connectors are like AN fittings, very expensive.

I skipped over mechanical propertys. Once you are dealing with very goodcable and connectors you may need to consider mechanical properties, but thats wayyyyy beyond the scope of the typical cable needs.

[Vipergrün]

I do not see the benefit of HDMI with a "theater system". HDMI pipes the sound through too, right? So you do not get to take advantage of your 5.1 system and you'll get the sound thru the TV speakers. Unless I am missing something... Is there a way to break out the sound?

[adamred]

You run the HDMI through a receiver, it then pushes the audio out to the 5.1 speakers. You can't get surround sound without a receiver anyway...Best to get a receiver that processes sound and video, that way just one connection to the TV....

Just bought a 50 foot HDMI for $90 someodd dollars through cablewholesale.com

[89911]

Originally posted by bb80sc
I do not see the benefit of HDMI with a "theater system". HDMI pipes the sound through too, right? So you do not get to take advantage of your 5.1 system and you'll get the sound thru the TV speakers. Unless I am missing something... Is there a way to break out the sound?

HDMI=DVI in video quality, just has sound. The only advantage is it saves a connection for those that use the TV as a sound system also. For home theater, newer receivers have HDMI inputs that simplify the connections, instead of running a optical cable. The biggest gripe I have is the need for several switching remotes to change the sound and video, where as before, the Onkyo receiver handled everything. I have yet to find a remote that can handle everything the the separate remotes handle, (mainly DVR functions and on demand programming). Unless someone has found one that they like? Suggestions?

[masraum]

Originally posted by adamred
You run the HDMI through a receiver, it then pushes the audio out to the 5.1 speakers. You can't get surround sound without a receiver anyway...Best to get a receiver that processes sound and video, that way just one connection to the TV....

Just bought a 50 foot HDMI for $90 someodd dollars through cablewholesale.com

I would say that putting an extra device inline would be bad. No reason to run the video thru an audio receiver, but I guess with digital data it shouldn't be a problem. I believe that analog however will take a hit. Anything introduced into the circuit will attenuate the signal and/or increase the noise which will degrade the picture, but I think that should only be an issue on analog.