I’m looking to link my laptop to my (not-smart) TV. I need about 7m of cable to do this if I’m going to hide the cable out of sight. There seem to be loads of cables to choose from out there. Is it a case of you get what you pay for?

It’s a digital medium so it either works or doesn’t – don’t be fooled into buying anything fancy because it comes in a fancy box or has goldie lookin’ ends.

They all have to pass the same HDMI spec testing if they have the HDMI logo on them.

is it a case of you get what you pay for?

No. Any will be fine

Blimey- a consensus, here on STW. What has the world come to?

Better disagree then. Yes it is digital but its not quite that simple. For a longer lead you do want a better quality cable. I’ve found that you lose the ability to send a high quality signal over a cheap and long cable. It’ll do 720 but not 1080 or not be able to do the higher refresh rates. 7m is at the longer end of cables so worth spending a little more (although not megabucks, just not poundland)

I would suggest a generic 9meter hdmi cable, just to be safe.

By all means pay extra for a more structured sheath if you plan on tunnelling it under the patio.

Why 9m?

why settle for second best?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Audio-Quest-Diamond-HDMI-Cable/dp/B003CT08IA/ref=sr_1_14?s=electronics-accessories&ie=UTF8&qid=1492455893&sr=1-14&keywords=hdmi+cable

sales twit in cambridge audio tried to convince me I should spend 10% of the cost of my new TV on an hdmi cable if I wanted to do it justice for bluray 😯

Holy Moly- I’ll get two. It’s always good to have a spare.

What you want is some of that really expensive gold plated HMDI stuff that’s on the internet…

…just kidding.

make sure you get the right directional cable.

If you’re not spending at least 73% of your monthly disposable income for the next 18nmonths on a cable you’re wasting your time

The way I do it is to find the cable with the biggest price reduction which now costs under £5. You know a cable from Amazon marketplace which used to £400 but now reduced to £2.99 has to be quality…

Gold plated plugs and directional cables, and you’ll be sorted.

Why 9m

No reason really.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AmazonBasics-High-Speed-HDMI-2-0-Cable/dp/B014I8TC4E

look at reviews on amazon, at that sort of distance you can have problems especially at 4k

I’ve used a 5m eBay cheapy in the past. Worked fine.

I like the QED ones

I have Neet cables buried in various walls through the house. Works fine.

I have got a 10 meter one I had to buy for a presentation.

I can post it to you and if your happy with the quality you can send me a small fee of 6 quid. If not just post it back and I will stick it on eBay or something.

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But 15mts and over it will struggle to push 4K/ultra even more so if it’s into a spliter.