lol even cheap HDMI cables are the same as uber expensive ones :D

*cringes*

What a gimmick.

I can't believe they're trying to suggest that a 'high grade' HDMI cable increases the 'life-likeness' and picture quality.

Anyone with sense knows when you use a digital cable, you either get a picture, a broken picture, or no picture at all. :rolleyes:

I wonder how much they're going to add to the price of the card for a cable that has no benefit over a standard one except looking nicer.

kylew*cringes*

What a gimmick.

I can't believe they're trying to suggest that a 'high grade' HDMI cable increases the 'life-likeness' and picture quality.

Anyone with sense knows when you use a digital cable, you either get a picture, a broken picture, or no picture at all. :rolleyes:

I wonder how much they're going to add to the price of the card for a cable that has no benefit over a standard one except looking nicer.

at least it beats HIS' dinky little screwdriver set

nflesher87at least it beats HIS' dinky little screwdriver set

The screwdriver set sounds more useful/practical, and it comes free. These aren't exactly free, just bundles with a little discount.

I wouldn't overlook the quality of HDMI cables...There is a bit a difference when it comes to cheap ones and good quality name brand ones.

jbunch07I wouldn't overlook the quality of HDMI cables...There is a bit a difference when it comes to cheap ones and good quality name brand ones.

hdmi is a digital cable. either it works or it doesnt. there is no signal degradation.

jbunch07I wouldn't overlook the quality of HDMI cables...There is a bit a difference when it comes to cheap ones and good quality name brand ones.

There's quality of the cable, as in build quality, and there's image quality.

I do agree that you should get a cable with good build quality if it's going to be constantly connected and disconnected as some of the cheaper ones can wear quite easily or break at the terminal, but image quality, there's no difference.

As wizard said, there's either a picture or no picture. If your cable doesn't work properly, you'll get digital break up or artifacts, but if the cable is fine then the picture will be the same no matter what cable you use.

Throwing in a $5 HDMI cable and upping the price $50 doesn't sound like a good deal to me. I'd rather just buy the card and a $5 cable.

Good idea, but they need to make it cheaper for the combo than I can get it seperately.

kylewThere's quality of the cable, as in build quality, and there's image quality.

I do agree that you should get a cable with good build quality if it's going to be constantly connected and disconnected as some of the cheaper ones can wear quite easily or break at the terminal, but image quality, there's no difference.

As wizard said, there's either a picture or no picture. If your cable doesn't work properly, you'll get digital break up or artifacts, but if the cable is fine then the picture will be the same no matter what cable you use.

how often do you connect and disconnect your cables? my hdmi cable for my 2 year old plasma was plugged in once so far ... i expect another unplug operation in about 3 or 4 years. if hdmi is not obsolete by then it may see another round of pluggings.

my most used cable, is the one used for vga reviews. it's a high-quality analog vga cable with a dvi adapter on it (from some old old ati card). my educated guess is that it has been plugged/unplugged several thousand times so far .. connector is like new but one color signal wire is broken inside the cable where the shortest bend is, close to the plug.

W1zzardhdmi is a digital cable. either it works or it doesnt. there is no signal degradation.

I wasn't talking about signal quality but more so the actually quality of how well it is put together.

My buddy bought a cheap hdmi cable for his ps3 and the things stopped working in like a week because the head came loose. Sorry for the confusion.

I have a cheap HDMI to DVI connector for my PS3 when it is upstairs, and a cheap HDMI cable for when the PS3 is downstairs. I move it at least once a week so we can watch movies on my TV in the living room, and both were the cheapest of the cheap cables available(under $10).

I will say that you can certainly tell there is a build quality difference between the cheap and the expensive cables, but if the expensive cable is 10x more expensive, I'll just keep buying the cheap cables. In the year I've had my PS3, I've never had a cable issue anyway. Even if you break one cable a year, it would take 10 years of replacing the cheap cables to pay for one expensive one, which probably wouldn't last 10 years either...

I have a $15 6 feet DVI to HDMI cable for connecting HTPC to 50" Sony TV and $6 HDMI cable to connect my gaming pc to 22" LCD. Both are cheap brand ones and they are gold type connectors (not neccessarily tho). Both work great, no issues.

I would say quality lies in component video cables and audio cables not much difference in HDMI cable.

around christmas, my dad came home with a 52 inch samsung lcd hd tv 1080p. They told him he would need an hdmi cable, and being ignorant to technology in general, he went ahead and bought an 80 dollar hdmi video cable. After grabbing a few from monoprice for under 20 bucks, my dad returned the 80 dollar one and went off on the manager and the salesperson.

Bottom line, places like best buy have no shame, and will tell an unknowing customer that the 80 dollar hdmi cable blows away the 7 dollar one.

I think eventually (hopefully) word will get out as to the level of BS that goes with buying cables. Everything is going digital and companies like monster cable hate that. They used to boast being the best when it was analog and signal could be degraded, but now that you have optical cables and HDMI cables, they are showing their true colors: BROWN.

There is no point, HDMI is a digital, the quality is perfect or "no signal".

W1zzardmy most used cable, is the one used for vga reviews. it's a high-quality analog vga cable with a dvi adapter on it (from some old old ati card). my educated guess is that it has been plugged/unplugged several thousand times so far .. connector is like new but one color signal wire is broken inside the cable where the shortest bend is, close to the plug.

I agree with you!
I using 3 DVI -> D-Sub adapter to test the customers PCs and its working fine for 2 yers (20-30 plug-unplug/day... and stil working :toast: )

csendesmarkThere is no point, HDMI is a digital, the quality is perfect or "no signal".

I agree with you, but the statement is not exactly true. With a digital cable (and signal) there is a point where interference is sufficient to cause data loss. It's not unlike a ethernet network cable... poor quality cables or very long cables or significant EM interference will cause data corruption, reflection or loss and hence reduce data speeds. Similarly, damaged cables are more prone to signal degradation, reflection, and loss.

Ethernet is good at fixing data loss. It will recover by resending damaged packets. HDMI is also good, and its encoding mechanism is pretty robust. But IF there is bit error and data is lost, you cannot retransmit the data stream with HDMI (not unless you want to PAUSE the film and play that bit again. Or in slow motion. LOL).

There is a long way between "some inference" being present, and causing a poor picture, and "no signal". However, in practice, 99.99% of cables under 5 meters length in the normal home would NEVER encounter this problem. But try running a long cable and you will have all sorts of problems, esp. if you use HDMI splitters.

HDMI @ 1080p is getting pretty close to bandwidth saturation. It isnt able to deal with a higher resolution/framerate. Just like DVI has its limits: want a higher refresh rate, or want ultra high resolution, and you need dual link DVI. Similarly, there are dual link HDMI products.

For you and me though, cheap HDMI cables are more than enough for a short run modern TV. There is no reason to buy expensive cables for the home. The only occasion for expensive cables is in very specialist situations. Example: data projector/beamer with cable length run significantly more than 5 meters. Or when there is (cant imagine when) very significant local EM interference. (Perhaps a modern digital X-ray or MRS scanner? complete guesswork).

Well gold plated connectors dont help at all if the plug in they are going in isnt gold plated either so that thing with Monster and stuff being 80 bucks is stupid. Monster makes some damn fine equipment but the price isnt justified. I mean I appreciate the cables but if the price goes up as much as suggested ($50) then that is just retarded.

it is depend on HDMI cable quality , i see an HDMI cable priced at 60$ and other one 5$