HDMI CABLES - PLEASE HELP, ITS A MINEFIELD !!!!!

[APB77]

Hi

I am looking to purchase an HDMI cable (required length between 1.5m and 3m) to link my TV (Sony 37W5500) to SKY HD.

I've been looking at the reviews on the site which have been very helpful and narrowed down my search to the following HDMI cables -

Chord Company Supershield (3m @ £62.92) / Van Den Hul Flat Cable (1.5m @ £76.50)

I would be most grateful for your opinions on these cables, or maybe there are better cables available for similar cost/length.

thanks in advance

 

[scene]

These are both good cables, and both very expensive. See below, I've got a 1.5m ThatCable - click - linking my Sony BDP to my Kuro TV and it does a superb job - for £4.99 (inclusive of delivery!). I'm going to get one to connect my cable box to my TV when I move it as well. Try one of these, before you splash out £60-80 on another one...

 

[nads]

scene:
Try one of these, before you splash out £60-80 on another one...

+1

it is not like it is transferring 1080p signal anyway it will be 720p or 1080i and only stereo sound.

 

[Anonymous]

I have been using Mark Grant's HDMI's for years, even at 10 metres the pictures look fantastic, have about 7 dotted around. No point in spending more than you have to for any cables is there?

 

[Anonymous]

Personally I have 3 expensive chord hdmi cables. I have never tried any other cables so I cant compare

However I bought my mum and dad two thatcable hdmi cables to connect their sony 32v5500 (or something like that) to their humax freeview box and their sony bdp-s360. A tenner for two cables & the picture is lovely.

 

[bretty]

I agree with the other posters. Don't waste your money on the expensive HDMIs.

I bought a £50 HDMI cable when I first got my plasma and there was no difference between it and the one I already had that cost a tenner.

By the way, i'm not a cable sceptic. I believe there are differences in interconnects, speaker cables and scarts, for example, but my experience has shown me that HDMIs are all the same, some just look prettier than others!

I've just bought a cable for my media player. Cheap as chips. Have a look for yourself:

41U%2B-VWjLcL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41U+-VWjLcL._SL500_AA280_.jpghttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Duronic-HDMI-Goldspec-Speed-Cable/dp/B002JDPSSK/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_2

 

[sheehanjuk]

barnsleydave:
Personally I have 3 expensive chord hdmi cables. I have never tried any other cables so I cant compare

However I bought my mum and dad two thatcable hdmi cables to connect their sony 32v5500 (or something like that) to their humax freeview box and their sony bdp-s360. A tenner for two cables & the picture is lovely.

From personally experience Id have to disagree. Ive tried £5 1.3b Synn HDMI cables from play.com, Maestro, Chord Supershield and the Chord Active. There was a step up in quality on each cable but after buying and viewing each for at least 60 hours each Id say the Chord Active is EASILY the best and for me the most obvious winner. The picture is so much cleaner and the colours well thats what you notice from the Supershield to the Active.

If you have the cash buy the Active if on a budget get the Supershield, I own both.

 

[Anonymous]

i just bought a tesco hdmi cable , 1 metre long for e6.95 here in ireland , ive tried it on my blu-ray player and it looks fantastic , just the same as my freebie cables to my eyes ..

although ive never tried an expensive one , i would be surprised if it would be any better ..

 

[Dave_]

maxflinn:
i just bought a tesco hdmi cable , 1 metre long for e6.95 here in ireland , ive tried it on my blu-ray player and it looks fantastic , just the same as my freebie cables to my eyes ..Out of interest what's the build quality like of the Tesco cable compared to your freebie cable?

Because looking on the Tesco's website,they appear to be nothing more than freebie cables in Tesco packaging-Yet there charging a tenner for it!!!!

 

[Anonymous]

sheehanjuk:barnsleydave:
Personally I have 3 expensive chord hdmi cables. I have never tried any other cables so I cant compare

However I bought my mum and dad two thatcable hdmi cables to connect their sony 32v5500 (or something like that) to their humax freeview box and their sony bdp-s360. A tenner for two cables & the picture is lovely.

From personally experience Id have to disagree. Ive tried £5 1.3b Synn HDMI cables from play.com, Maestro, Chord Supershield and the Chord Active. There was a step up in quality on each cable but after buying and viewing each for at least 60 hours each Id say the Chord Active is EASILY the best and for me the most obvious winner. The picture is so much cleaner and the colours well thats what you notice from the Supershield to the Active.

If you have the cash buy the Active if on a budget get the Supershield, I own both.

First its worth pointing out I am no cable sceptic. I even have upgraded power cables!

When i bought my home cinema kit I bought 3 chord silver plus cables at a cost of about £80 each. A few months ago I got the free (but rrp of £110) chord acive hdmi (with whsv subscription). I'll be honest I can see no difference at all between the active and the silver plus. I don't know if I would see a difference if i stuck a thatcable hdmi cable in. I may do. But not sure it would be a £75 worth of difference. As the OP telly was very similar to my parents I was just remarking that the £5 thatcable cable was perfectly up to the job.

 

[Anonymous]

if you have a lot of interference in your home, poorly protected cables will act like an antennae and pick up noise.

Because you are not dealing with full HD data, you should be fine with the Chord cable. I get better picture from the VDH flat, than the better Chord Active.

 

[Anonymous]

daveh75:maxflinn:
i just bought a tesco hdmi cable , 1 metre long for e6.95 here in ireland , ive tried it on my blu-ray player and it looks fantastic , just the same as my freebie cables to my eyes ..Out of interest what's the build quality like of the Tesco cable compared to your freebie cable?

Because looking on the Tesco's website,they appear to be nothing more than freebie cables in Tesco packaging-Yet there charging a tenner for it!!!!

well its made in china , and it looks grey , bleak and nasty to be honest ...

 

[unfocused]

Well I think you can tell there are those who think that an 'upmarket' cable makes a difference and those who don't. See if you can borrow one from a dealer or a friend and make your own choice as obviously you're getting both sides of the argument here but no conclusion.

Personally for me I have a Sony KDL-37W500 like yorself. I bought a That's cable to get connected when I got the TV. Last week I bought a Chord HDMI Supershield just to see for myself if there would be a difference. I think has made a noticeable improvement to my picture from my DVD player. .

 

[Anonymous]

I was using a cheap HDMI when i changed it with a philips HDMI motion got better edges, then i changed to a monster(OEM) cable very thick shield and looks much better, and moition got even better, some migh say there is no difference in colour but with motion sure there is.

 

[Anonymous]

for sky hd i would use a cheap hdmi as the other posters have quoted

blu-ray is different, i have used 3 different cables chord silver plus active 1.3b - chord silver plus v1.3 - and qed quinex perfomance. the clear winner was and is the chord silver plus active 1.3b, the picture is in a word is breathtaking. the qed i noticed some picture judder so i changed it to the silver plus which got rid of the judder, i had a problem with the silver plus so i sent it to chord ( who by the way have a fantastic customer service dept ) and within 7 days they sent me a brand new chord silver plus active 1.3b, this cable is amazing the colours are better, the blacks are better and it really is a truely excellent cable. hence the ***** from what hi-fi.

 

[Anonymous]

my tesco cheap bleak nasty scummy awful ugly repulsive and just down right disgusting £5 hdmi cable is

sensational , mind alteringly amazing , its incredible , smooth motion , no jaggies or judder , speech is fantastic , colours vibrant , wondrously excuberantly astonashingly ubergood , just warps my mind how good the picture is , spectacular immense incredible , incredulous , incrediulousdable

tesco have customer service that is so good that its magnitude just cannot be appreciated , its unwordly , nothing can describe how good it is ..

 

[Anonymous]

ah dam you whsv forum posters. I just performed a little exercise on my fairly standard set-up

I have 3 hdmi cables one going from sky box to amp, one from blu-ray to amp and then one from my amp to my tv. I originally had my chord active going from my sky box to amp. With chord silver plus doing blu-ray to amp & amp to tv.

I just swapped the hdmi active so that it goes from the amp to the tv.......and errrr hate to say this but there is a noticable improvement.

Dam. That now means I'm going to have to get another active cable to go from blu-ray to amp. Wonder if i could p/x my chord silver plus for a chord active?

 

[Anonymous]

I'm relying on memory, because the system is gone, but I too thought more expensive cables made a difference when I replaced some cheapies with them. Can't remember the brand. Both colour and edge definition seemed to improve, with less edge shimmer to which my Philips LCD seemed to be prone.

 

[sheehanjuk]

maxflinn:
my tesco cheap bleak nasty scummy awful ugly repulsive and just down right disgusting £5 hdmi cable is

sensational , mind alteringly amazing , its incredible , smooth motion , no jaggies or judder , speech is fantastic , colours vibrant , wondrously excuberantly astonashingly ubergood , just warps my mind how good the picture is , spectacular immense incredible , incredulous , incrediulousdable

tesco have customer service that is so good that its magnitude just cannot be appreciated , its unwordly , nothing can describe how good it is ..

yup there is a difference, even noticeable from Chord Supershield to Active, what i notice between the two is colour reproduction is so more alive on the Active and depth of picture is better.

anyways its the eye of the beholder.. i cant help it if people are.. blind hehe

 

[pete321]

For HDMI cable sceptics who connect via HDMI to an AV amp before it goes to the TV, connect your HDMI lead direct to the TV from source, I bet you'll notice an improvement in picture (sharper & less noise). The digital signal gets there with both connections, but when it goes via the AV amp noise and interference is introduced. To me, that indicates that a better constructed HDMI lead with improved shielding will do a better job than a freebee HDMI.

 

[Anonymous]

hi,i would agree with scene the hdmi cable from that cable is superb i have spent £40 on hdmi before then read a review of thatcables hdmi in whsav so thought for the money got nothing to lose.hooked it up and couldn't tell any difference between that and my more expensive cable.

 

[APB77]

Now I am even more confused, surely there should be a difference in picture and sound between a £5 cable over a £70+ cable otherwise the whole thing is farcical. Why would manufacturers bother producing these so called super duper cables, is it one big rip off ?

I can understand why the £5 cable got 5 stars as you are getting good value for money however it makes it even more confusing when you are trying to compare that to a more expensive cable that has also got 5 stars. I haven't got a problem shelling out £70 as long as the cable I decide to purchase has a considerable difference over the £5 cable.

I would be grateful for any views/opinions from the What guys ?????

 

[Anonymous]

Im afraid it's 'swings and roundabouts' with that question.

 

[Clare Newsome]

As with any potential upgrade, you've also got to consider the impact it could have on your particular system. The larger/more sophisticated your TV/projector/surround sound system, the more obvious any changes in performance are likely to be.

 

[Anonymous]

In thatcable I trust.

Got a set of 3 and I swore blind you could not tell a difference.

Changed all my cheap 99p ones and the sky tv guide was all of a sudden full of more color and it was smooth.

I am a beliver, I still would not spend 100.00 on a cable as feel the 5.00 ones from thatcable are very good quality.

I even got a subwoofer cable from them and its amazing