HDMI cable quality - please help me out
 

Hello,

I want to get an HDMI cable to go from my V1 to my new HD monitor as well as a future Intensity card, and my friend says "You can buy a $5 cable or a $500 cable, digital transmission is lossless so you will not see any difference in quality in the different cables you can buy.

Another friend who works at an electronics store says he's pretty much right and that expensive cables are what he's told to sell the most of because of the huge mark-up and hence, huge profits, but all the garbage they write on the package is simply sales tactics that are rarely accurate.

So does anyone else have any info on this - I don't want to buy the cheapest cable I can find to discover it looks crappy, and I don't want to be conned into making a purchase I shouldn't have.

Any advice? Anyone know what the differences are?

Buy a cheap cable. Digital signals are either perfect or noticeably flawed with dropouts. You will know immediately if the cable is flawed. I bought a 15' cable and it is fine. If you are skeptical, buy two cheap ones and then you have a spare.

Perfect! Just the answer I was looking for. eBay, here I come!

I might also point out that the expensive heavy cables can cause their own problems.

When I got my HD TIVO installed, the tech took off my "Monster" brand HDMI cable and put a light weight less expensive cable that came with the unit. When I asked him why, he said that the heavy cables don't bend as easily and put a lot of strain on the connectors they are hooked to. He said he had seen many units damaged by the heavy rigid cables.

Mike

Sub question: How about the 1.1 vs 1.3 issue?

How do I know if I'm buying a 1.3 cable?

Or is there any difference in cables?

Is it the case that a 1.3 connection is the only one capable of transferring a progressive signal?

Or is this all hogwash as well and any old $3 HDMI cable will suffice?

There is a new "Category 2" HDMI cable. The difference is that it is rated for much higher data throughput. ~10Gbps as opposed to "Category 1" at ~4.9Gbps

The only reason you need this is if you are working with the "Deepcolor" features or if you are using a resolution higher than 1920x1080p.

HDMI 1.3 and 1.3a also introduced some new connector types, but these are intended for camcorders and other devices where space is at a premium. They offer no technical advantages.

All other HDMI 1.3 and 1.3a features are available using any el cheapo HDMI cable.

In my opinion, as of this writing, if you need "Deepcolor" or greater than 1080p resolution for production work, you should get a display with HD-SDI inputs, or Dual Link HD-SDI. Like a Sony BVM series.

Consumer HDMI based monitors have all sorts of "enhancements" that make them unsuitable for that level of detail in production. Basically the HDTV will "lie" to you about the colors and details you are looking at.

Of course, if you are just trying to watch a nice picture, then by all means. It makes sense to get HDMI 1.3 all the way from your sources through to your display. Just be very wary of using these features for production.