Poll: Do expensive HDMI cables actually make a difference?

[Icehearted]

No, they make no difference, this poll is silly, about 4 minutes of google should tell you all you need to know. Engineers that work with Cnet have spoken on this, and they're trained eyes scrutinizing the things many of us would generally disregard. Expensive cables bare no improvement at all.

 

[BlackStar42]

It most definitely and absolutely makes no difference at all what brand of HDMI cable you use. The signal is digital- it will either work perfectly or not at all. Anyone telling you you need more expensive cables to get better quality is trying to sell you a sack of shit, and on no account should you ever do business with them.

 

[Goro]

It sure does make a difference, if you buy an expensive cable, then you can't have lunch in the food court.

 

[Marter]

The only real difference I've seen is that the more expensive cables are more durable -- but their quality is the same as the cheap cables when it comes to image/sound quality.

 

[genj_wales]

Expensive cables are a tax on the idiots. Unfortunately the market seems to be big because people think, Gold=better signal.

 

[Johnson McGee]

Using hdmi cables that are too long can degrade the signal, but it's usually very noticeable when it happens. I try to stick to the shortest lengths I can and in doing that the quality of the cable doesn't have much, if any, impact.

 

[Username Redacted]

Just looking at the sites that I've purchased HDMI cables from I'd hazard that if you're paying more than $2 per foot of cable (should be closer to $1/foot for longer cables) that you're being ripped off.

 

[Otaku World Order]

Expensive cables are a tax on the idiots. Unfortunately the market seems to be big because people think, Gold=better signal.

True. I've seen Rocketfish HDMI cables that go for over $100 at places like Best Buy. If you pay that much for an HDMI cable, you are a moron.

Buy a cheap one for ten bucks and use the savings on something useful.

 

[demolisher360]

as far as i've heard, better quality cables only make a difference if your screen is massive. with a normal TV it shouldn't make a difference.

 

[Mafoobula]

Welllll... as is true with a lot of products, not all items of the same kind are the same quality. Component integrity aside - fancy talk for the life span of the product - it's possible to have products that seem like they should be of the same quality... not... be the same quality. Taking the HDMI cables as an example, if the wiring inside is of a different quality, it might carry the signal better or worse than an HDMI cable of a different brand. The same goes for the quality of connector - a gold-plated connector conducts electrical signals a smidgenly bit better than your standard aluminum/whatever-plated connector.

That said, just because one brand/model of a product is more expensive than another, that doesn't mean it's going to be better. In fact, it's not all that uncommon to find products that are better quality than their more expensive counterparts. For example: Monster's Beats earphones are nice, but cost an arm and a leg. However, spend enough time researching high-end earphones, and you'll find a number of brands that are less expensive, yet provide better sound quality, with better tech.

Bottom line: It's well worth doing your research, even on things that don't seem to require it. Like HDMI cables.

 

[darron13]

As far as picture quality on a normal HD TV goes, it makes no difference.
Where it DOES make a difference though is on 3D TVs (which require HDMI cables with higher bandwidth) and internet-ready TVs (which can use HDMI Cables with Ethernet).
Other than that though, they're all the same.

 

[Spritzey]

HDMI does 1080p? I dunno. HD-dif cables mean you can stream higher quality videos, but considering that the Xbox and PS3 both transmit in shitty 720p, it really doesn't make much difference.

Also, HDMI cables aren't expensive. They are actually dirt cheap, what you are thinking of is a Xbox/PS3 Component cable, which are damn expensive, because they are console exclusives.

Fairly sure you can use any old hdmi cable with the ps3 and that it isn't console exclusive.

 

[Raijha]

I can't say anything definitive for certain. All I can say is that when I had my Xbox and PS3 hooked up side by side, one with a cheap cable and one with a more expensive one (both HDMI) whichever system I had hooked up to the internet would cause the other system to have this weird, loud high pitched hum if it had the cheap HDMI cable hooked up. But if I moved the more expensive cable to the system that wasn't connected to the net, it didn't happen.

My friend said it was something about interference and the shielding on the cables, iunno, I thought it was hilarious, especially when I would have headphones on one tv playing a game on one system while the wife tried to stream movies through the other, and she was getting the hum on all her movies

 

[MGlBlaze]

No. It's digital; data is carried through high and low voltage representing 1s and 0s. The signal will either get there or it won't. It doesn't matter how 'well' it gets there. Besides, material quality has greatly improved over the years anyway, so even if quality did matter, you would still get the requisite quality through cheap cables as long as the manufacturing process was not grossly incompetent.

 

[enriquetnt]

it was the TV settings, most likely you plugged the ps3 on a differente input port and the brightness, contrast, especial filters settings were different, the ONLY difference between cheap and brand cables are manufaturing quality, branded wont break at the terminals, and some truly look awesome (mine are wrapped in fabric tipe finishing whit a clear plastic overcoating) as far as quality of image, nope there is NO difference, unlike analog where, gain, bandwhith and interference shielding are serious issues.

 

[Jfswift]

I did some reading and found that at extreme distances it mattered but otherwise it doesn't really.

 

[CCountZero]

Is the whole 'it's digital so it doesn't matter' thing a bunch of bull?

No. It's true that, the signal being digital, it either comes through perfectly, or not at all.

However!

The quality of the cable can still be a factor if it is a long cable.
The meter and a half from your PS3 to your TV doesn't require a quality cable, but if you wanted to build a large home theater, and needed to transfer the signal eighteen meters from a media center PC to a projector, then it could be necessary.

I speak from experience, as I was in that scenario, building a theater room for my nerd club, just a couple of months ago.


But as for normal household purposes, the standard cable is fine.

 

[Mebulous]

They sure do make a difference... To your banking account. Also gold plated cat5's are better for your Internets.