Just upgraded all the home cinema stuff; new TV, 5.1 Surround Sound Amp and speakers, PS3 as a Blue-ray player. I got a few HDMI leads on line for about £7 each. Everything sounds and looks great. What extra do you get by speading £40 on an HDMI lead? Is it worth it?

Nothing, No.
It’s a digital signal, either it’s there or it isn’t.

Some people claim that at the high frequencies involved, the digital signals can interfere and cause artifacts and errors. However, these claims backed up with obscure diagrams and overly technical phrases demonstrating how an expensive cable is better, while completely avoiding any measurements relating to the real-world application of the cable – ie, what you can see or hear.

The experts will be along to fight this one out, but from what I’ve read, the signal going through an HDMI lead is what counts – the lead itself is immaterial unless you’re cabling huge lengths.

Definitely. Though to be fair, £40 is naff all for such an important cable.

If you don’t spend at least £200 there will be ghosting and artifacts. It will be like a Mummy movie but worse.

If you’re cabling for an install, it could be worth paying extra for a better quality cable mainly from a view point of it being better constructed and if it ends up plastered in its worth it being more durable, and if its a long run (I’ve got one run at 8m another at 15m) it can be worth it then to avoid issues with handshake or signal drop-out.
Other than that if the HDMI’s you have now work, I doubt you’d notice any difference paying for really expensive cables.
IMHO of course.

What Scuzz said.

It’s worth paying a few pence extra for one that’s not going to fall apart, but that’s all. I think most of mine are Tesco Value cables.

Why scrimp when you can get directionals for £20/sq metre?

It’s your funeral.

£20/sq metre?

where can you buy cable measured like flooring? does it mean I can put my speaker anywhere and it’ll just work?

I got them cheap from the Michael Jackson video. They light up as well.

where can you buy cable measured like flooring? does it mean I can put my speaker anywhere and it’ll just work?

You bloody idiot. It’s really thick cable.

The ones I have look pretty well made, and I won’t be putting them in the walls and plastering over them, so I’ll stick with what I’ve got. All looks and sounds pretty amazing with what I have.

Cheers for the advice.

So, round to yours at 8 for a movie, then?

Bring the beers 😆

Yes the more expensive cables are better than the cheap ones, it stands to reason, as anyone who uses gold-plated telephone, USB and network cables can attest 😉

to be fair, people buy expensive stems and bars which have the same benefits as an expensive hdmi cable

You bloody idiot. It’s really thick cable.

Either that, or it’s laid flat 😉

At about 5mm thick max, £20/sq metre seems very cheap.

(that’s about 200 linear metres of HDMI cable for £20 )

Linear is yesterday, dude.

Con.tem.por.ise……

Anyone who knows what they’re talking about buys Hi-Fi cabling by the cubic metre.

The one I bought recently for my Mac Mini was a £7 jobbie from Wilco’s, the one I bought for my Cambridge Audio DVD99 came from the Pound Shop. They didnt have any when I bought the Mac, so I had to pay 7x more.
Bu99er the extravagance!

Worth spending a bit more than the very cheapest just to make sure its of a good enough build quality. But the expensive Monster etc are just a rip off. I remember when we were buying our telly, the sales guy in Comet was trying to convince us that if we didn’t buy the Monster cable, our colours would be dull and the image would be pixelated.

I think it makes a difference over longer runs of cable but for the average home setup you’ll probably have cables of 1m and under anyway.

Last time I saw them in the £1 shop I bought all they had left (10 )

They are only short, but long enough for me. Not fussed about build quality really as I they never get moved

(and I have 7 spares!)

£7 jobbie from Wilco’s

You got a jobbie to transmit HDMI signals?
😯

This is the one I got

£5.99, says it was £29.99, but I’m not sure I believe that for a second. Looks and feels solid though.

Built quality is the only difference, it’s all about ones and zeros intit

Poundland sell them too. I’ll let you guess how much

“Back in the day” the only cable where I noticed any real difference was with a decent scart cable.
But HDMI is digital so should make no difference, I buy Belkin cables off ebay, decent build quality and not that expensive.
Belkin HDMI

Poundland sell them too. I’ll let you guess how much

I refuse to shop there as I find their pricing structure unnecessarily complicated.

Snake Oil, get your Snake Oil here, only £70 for 5ml, rub it into your HDMI lead and it’ll cure all known problems………..

to be fair, people buy expensive stems and bars which have the same benefits as an expensive hdmi cable

Seriously? How can you use an HDMI cable as bars or a stem, can I see some evidence please? It has to be written and no matter how obscure as long as it’s not wiki.

It’s clearly nonsense, I’ve tried and tried and I simply cannot get a decent picture using a set of handlebars.

Go here:
http://www.audioholics.com/education/cables/long-hdmi-cable-bench-tests

I get dirt cheap ones from here:
http://www.thatcable.com/category/HDMI-Cables/sub

Even the 10m run I have under the sofa and past lot of hifi boxes gives no detectable noise whatsoever.

Ebay 3.99 job done.

Or be a plum and buy this

http://www.russandrews.com/product.asp?lookup=1&region=UK&currency=GBP&pf_id=2729&customer_id=PAA1642124611750KMTNRSYEHOTHUUVT

Drac – Moderator
to be fair, people buy expensive stems and bars which have the same benefits as an expensive hdmi cable
Seriously? How can you use an HDMI cable as bars or a stem, can I see some evidence please? It has to be written and no matter how obscure as long as it’s not wiki.
POSTED 2 HOURS AGO #

Reigns. Innit.

Just remember to use them the right way ’round 8)

Or be a plum and buy this

http://www.russandrews.com/product.asp?lookup=1&region=UK&currency=GBP&pf_id=2729&customer_id=PAA1642124611750KMTNRSYEHOTHUUV

I hope you don’t need the 10m version – it’s over £800!

I wonder how many of those are actually sold?#

Ridiculous paying that much. There are plenty of people out there with more money than sense. My whole set up wasn’t much more than that.