Unless you are running a 50 foot cable, you aren't going have any problem with a cheaper cable. At larger distances they can lose data, which shows as a sparkle effect.
"As we make the cable longer and longer, the difficulty of reconstructing the bitstream increases. At some point, unrecoverable bit errors start to occur; these are colloquially described in the home theater community as "sparklies," because the bit errors manifest themselves as pixel dropouts which make the image sparkle."
I found out the hard way that the cheaper cables are (i know how obvious this sounds) not as good as some of the more expensive. The difference is in the protection that the company puts into the cable. A cheap cable is not insulated as much as the more expensive cables and the way you position it is important. IE If the cable is left curled and alot of pressure is put on either side then its more likely to rip a cord inside. This happened to my first hdmi cable that i bought for 20 bucks. I went a little better next time but the thing I made sure of was that it wasnt put under too much strain.
Usually - no, but if you have ALLOT of electronics and electrical items around then it can. The higher priced cables have better sheilding to electrical intereference. If you only have your TV and PS3 then the cable quality probably wont matter much. If you have a TV, PS3, 360, DVD player, stereo, and a cordless phone all in the same vacinity for example then you may benefit from a better sheilded cable to block intereferance.
So - there is a difference - it's just a matter of whether it would benefit you or not - and if not then it's a waste of money.
I found out the hard way that the cheaper cables are (i know how obvious this sounds) not as good as some of the more expensive. The difference is in the protection that the company puts into the cable. A cheap cable is not insulated as much as the more expensive cables and the way you position it is important. IE If the cable is left curled and alot of pressure is put on either side then its more likely to rip a cord inside. This happened to my first hdmi cable that i bought for 20 bucks. I went a little better next time but the thing I made sure of was that it wasnt put under too much strain.sthbytesN
HDMI cables are different from other audio/video cables. If you search google there are numerous tests that say a $5 cable is identical to a $150 cable. All your paying for with an HDMI cable is the brand name & packaging. I bought mine from ebay for £1 with £1 postage. Do not be ripped off with an expensive one.
[QUOTE="sthbytesN"]I found out the hard way that the cheaper cables are (i know how obvious this sounds) not as good as some of the more expensive. The difference is in the protection that the company puts into the cable. A cheap cable is not insulated as much as the more expensive cables and the way you position it is important. IE If the cable is left curled and alot of pressure is put on either side then its more likely to rip a cord inside. This happened to my first hdmi cable that i bought for 20 bucks. I went a little better next time but the thing I made sure of was that it wasnt put under too much strain.greenhell11
HDMI cables are different from other audio/video cables. If you search google there are numerous tests that say a $5 cable is identical to a $150 cable. All your paying for with an HDMI cable is the brand name & packaging. I bought mine from ebay for £1 with £1 postage. Do not be ripped off with an expensive one.
That's not entirely true - regardless of who said it they need to educate themselves. What those articles are talking about is specifically digital throughput - but there are still differences. The difference is in the amount of electromagnetic sheilding that the cables have. If you have allot of electrical and electronic devices all in the same area - especially cordless phones running on the 2.4ghz bandwidth - then a higher priced cable with better sheilding may make a difference for you. Many people using lower end cables with allot of other devices around experience screen distortion or artifacts.
USUALLY though most people won't notice a difference in performance - but there are people who will in rare circumstances where electromagnetic intereference is involved. Then you need a cable that has good sheilding - which will cost you more.
I agree. You don't have to buy the most expensive, but don't try to get the absolute cheapest either. I have an Xbox 360, PC, Playstation 3, cordless phone, speakers, and sirius satellite radio all in one small area. I purchased the Psyclone 1.3 HDMI cable from Wal-Mart for my PS3. $30 or $40 I think. No problems so far.
I actually had a big laugh regarding this a couple of weeks ago. My friend (who has the same hdtv as I do) was telling me how his ps3 looked a lot better than mine because he got this Monster cable for $80. Given the fact that my cable was 6 bucks, he thought it actually made a difference. The look on his face when he saw Ninja Gaiden lookin awesome through a 6 buck cable was priceless. Save your money, cables are the same.
Mine came free with the PS3. I thinks its a sony one anyway, and its only a meter long, works fine :D I drooled when I seen motorstorm opening for the first time....
Current HDMI cables (most of them, at least) are all the same performance at 6ft and under. Monster only dominates at around 50ft. Don't buy $20-$30 cables at retail places, since their quality is lower than a cheaper Monoprice.com cable. Monster beats monoprice, if you have the money.
Yeah guys the cable does matter, how well its protected from electrical interference does matter. Im running my LED Monitor through a DVI to HDMI cable and it gets it power from a UPS so no electrical fluctuctions should affect it. Yet when someone turns off/on a light or the fan the monitor signal goes off for a few seconds.
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