Do you really need to upgrade your leads for a 4K tv ?

No.

True story-

A friend of the wife bought an Xbox one, sales guy said it would run slow unless she bought a 4k TV and special HDMI lead. She fell for it.

I do hope she took it back.

When she told me I said it wasn’t right. She insisted the salesman was correct, what’s a guy to do!?

The theory is that it’s digital so it shouldn’t make a difference but in practice that isn’t quite right. You certainly don’t need £500 gold plated, depleted uranium leads but pound shop leads may struggle especially if more than a couple of metres long. Any reasonable quality lead will be fine

Go for leads with half decent build quality, so not the cheapest with crappy plastic plugs, but something with half decent plugs. A tenner or maybe £15 should be more than adequate.

the reality is there are only 2 types of hdmi lead

normal and “hi-speed”

any hi-speed one from a couple of pounds will be adequate for normal short runs (under 3m)

the reality is there are only 2 types of hdmi lead

Also with & without Ethernet, but yes.

A tenner or maybe £15 should be more than adequate.

£15 is three to four times what you need to spend.

The Amazon ones certainly are better than some I’ve used over the years. My cables box still has an emergency HDMI cable with “no CEC” scribbled down it with a sharpie because somehow CEC (DVD player turning on tells TV to turn on) doesn’t work with it…

There are only four kinds of HDMI cables, High-speed with Ethernet, High-speed without Ethernet, Standard-speed with Ethernet and Standard-speed without Ethernet.
I’m guessing no one is using the Ethernet feature of HDMI and I’m sure you would struggle to buy Standard Speed HDMI leads anywhere these days but to be sure the HDMI leads you need for 4k should be packaged as ‘high speed’ (this will probably not be printed on the cable, only the box it comes in).
There are some other bits and bobs related to HDMI connectors i.e. 1.4 to 2.0 but this should be immaterial for domestic use.

When we all move to 8k in a couple of years time though………

Nope, but you may want to ensure you get hdmi 2.0 depending on what you’re connecting if you want 4k 60fps.

My understanding is that HDMI 2.0 relates to hardware not cable i.e. “HDMI 2.0b does not define new cables or new connectors. Current High Speed cables (Category 2 cables) are capable of carrying the increased bandwidth”?

Ref: HDMI.org

My Sky q wouldn’t work without the right cable. I had to have the latest fastest cable. It is 10m though.

I always used to buy ThatCable but their current standard ‘high speed’ cable is so overbuilt it ‘s shit – rough braided outer that’s too stiff to flex where you need it to and pulls on the plugs…

Using this style with small plugs from ebay. Cheap, easy to tuck away and working on long runs (15m)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50cm-HQ-HDMI-Cable-Lead-10-2-Gpbs-Super-Slim-Thin-ARC-HEC-1080p-Small-Head-flexi-/311412896971?epid=1940434293&hash=item4881a7b4cb:g:PFgAAOSwkNZUdwpE

Aside from Ethernet or no-Ethernet, the cable differences are down to certification. Some may not be certified for high speed use for example, but might work if they’re not too long. Depends on the build quality, shielding etc. Ones that are certified are guaranteed to work (unless they’re fakes from eBay 😉 ).

Wikiwhatsit describes a ‘premium high speed’ cable which is certified to max speed for HDMI 2 and has anti-counterfeiting labels, and then there’s a 48Gbit HDMI 2.1 cable been announced.

I think I paid a fiver or so for the HDMI leads connecting my Sky+ box, DVD player and Mac Mini to my 2007 Bravia, and I’ve yet to see any signal degradation.
None are over 1 metre long, though.

We got Bush hdmi leads from Argos for about a fiver when we bought our 4k telly…
They work fine.

Cheers guys i will try the ones I’ve got and see how i get on.

Can confirm that old leads work, great picture on 4K ultra.