HDMI Cable doesn't cost me a fortune

[PowerFalcon]

What is the best HDMI cable I can get, that won't cost me $50 or higher ?

[jman98]

Amazon sells some that have worked great for me and cost mere dollars. This one is $5.79 US plus shipping. I would be shocked if they can't ship to Canada or perhaps Amazon CA has something similar. I use these cables and have had no problems.

http://goo.gl/O4bqzd

[aedipuss]

monoprice has a decent selection. price depends on what features you need and the length. the redmere cables are probably a good choice.

http://www.monoprice.com/Category?c_id=102&cp_id=10240

[turk690]

What is the best HDMI cable I can get, that won't cost me $50 or higher ?

Most Dollaramas and Dollar Trees in Canada have HDMI cables, Philips and unbranded. $2 for 1.8m. Nothing fancy. Yes, they handle 3D content and shit pretty well. $50 for a 1.8m or even a 3m cable is just so much snake oil.

[fritzi93]

Another vote for monoprice.

You want HDMI 1.3 Category 2. Marketed as "High Speed" HDMI cables.

If you buy a $50 cable from Monster, you're a sucker.

[PowerFalcon]

What is the best HDMI cable I can get, that won't cost me $50 or higher ?

Most Dollaramas and Dollar Trees in Canada have HDMI cables, Philips and unbranded. $2 for 1.8m. Nothing fancy. Yes, they handle 3D content and shit pretty well. $50 for a 1.8m or even a 3m cable is just so much snake oil.

That is where I'll get the cable, I forgot they had them before writing the post

[sanlyn]

Amzon - monoprice - Dollarama - CablesToGo - Monster - BestBuy - etc. etc. etc. etc. = recycled industrial waste.

World's best cheap HDMI: http://www.thatcable.com/product/HDMI-Male-to-Male-Cable-Type-A-%28Standard%29-Version-1-3BHDMI-1.3b . I even tried the longer ones. They rock. Good audio, too.

World's second best cheap HDMI cable: http://www.thatcable.com/product/High-Speed-HDMI-Cable-With-Ethernet-V1.4 . Audio nice quite as clean, but image OK.

Foot the overseas shipping (it's not that much) and enjoy something that makes the other brands look like the crap it is.

Or do yourself a favor and go with some really nice stuff:
3.5 feet: http://www.amazon.com/AudioQuest-Pearl-Digital-Ethernet-Connection/dp/B003MDUM82/ref=s...dioquest+pearl
6.5 feet: http://www.amazon.com/AudioQuest-Pearl-Digital-Ethernet-Connection/dp/B003ME9CZ0/ref=s...dioquest+pearl

Many Audioquest dealers in Canada as well.

[bbwizard]

If you can't find what you want, try http://www.pchcables.com/ They have all you could want in cables. Of course, I can walk into the store here, but they are great for ordering over the net. Prices are good, too.

[aedipuss]

Amzon - monoprice - Dollarama - CablesToGo - Monster - BestBuy - etc. etc. etc. etc. = recycled industrial waste.

World's best cheap HDMI: http://www.thatcable.com/product/HDMI-Male-to-Male-Cable-Type-A-%28Standard%29-Version-1-3BHDMI-1.3b . I even tried the longer ones. They rock. Good audio, too.

World's second best cheap HDMI cable: http://www.thatcable.com/product/High-Speed-HDMI-Cable-With-Ethernet-V1.4 . Audio nice quite as clean, but image OK.

Foot the overseas shipping (it's not that much) and enjoy something that makes the other brands look like the crap they are.

Or do yourself a favor and go with some really nice stuff:
3.5 feet: http://www.amazon.com/AudioQuest-Pearl-Digital-Ethernet-Connection/dp/B003MDUM82/ref=s...dioquest+pearl
6.5 feet: http://www.amazon.com/AudioQuest-Pearl-Digital-Ethernet-Connection/dp/B003ME9CZ0/ref=s...dioquest+pearl

Many Audioquest dealers in Canada as well.

If you buy a $50 cable from Monster, you're a sucker.

True.

hdmi transmits DIGITAL video and DIGITAL video. a cable either works or not. there is no such thing as better.

[sanlyn]

I tried the crap listed earlier by monoprice, et al, and about 20 others. You haven't tried my suggestions. Until you do, your comment is irrelevant, inaccurate, close-minded, and has nothing to do with the connecting wire, which doesn't know nor care if its signal is digital or not.

[usually_quiet]

Monster is a waste of money. I have purchased several inexpensive Monoprice 28AWG High Speed HDMI cables with ferrite cores, an Aurum Ultra Series high speed HDMI cable from Amazon, and an inexpensive no-name HDMI cable from Walmart, and had no trouble whatsoever using any of them for connecting run-of-the-mill TVs, PCs, a DVD player, and a Blu-Ray player.

All these HDMI cables were either 3 foot or 6 foot cables. People tend to have more problems when using inexpensive HDMI cables if they have to use longer cables, over 10 feet. I have never had to switch out a cable because it didn't perform correctly. That being said, some people find their devices won't work with a particular HDMI cable and they have to try more than one to find the right match. Sometimes switching to a different HDMI port or changing which end of the cable is connected to each device can correct a problem.

[sanlyn]

Agree with that, and odd you should mention reversing the cable. I thought that was myth, but in fact a friend had a QED with occasional sputtery noise (you couldn't see it from more than 2 feet away, looked like vague thin horizontal streaks, and it was intermittent). His other copy of that cable didn't have a problem. Just for a lark, he reversed the cable. Voila. Clean as a whistle (are whistles that clean? I wouldn't think so). We all know that digital is digital, but wire and connectors don't care about that. Like any wire or plug, they aren't perfect.

Whether you you like Monster's characteristics or not, they are poorly constructed, overpriced, and have a terrific markup that Monster forces down dealers' throats.

[jagabo]

I have purchased several inexpensive Monoprice 28AWG High Speed HDMI cables with ferrite cores, an Aurum Ultra Series high speed HDMI cables from Amazon, and an inexpensive no-name HDMI cable from Walmart, and had no trouble whatsoever using any of them

Yes, those companies have such good quality control that they can make their crap cables exactly equally as bad as one another. So they all look alike. If you had bought the cables sanlyn mentioned you would see the obvious difference good cables make. /sarcasm

[sanlyn]

You haven't tried them. Likely you haven't tried these guys either:
QED
Chord
Audioquest
Vivanco
VanDenHul
Cardas
ThatCable
Cambridge Audio UK
Ecosse
Wireworld
ProfiGold

Yuk-yuk about something you ignore from the get-go is not valid criticism. On the other hand, almost any wire will "work". But some people will watch anything, and they usually do.

[aedipuss]

i spent $5 and get all the 0's and 1's to where they need to go. you spend $50 and get exactly the same 0's and 1's to where they need to go. ??????

[sanlyn]

No, I think about $35 is the most I've spent. I did spend $200 once. It was garbage. Very noisy, Jello colors, boxy audio. RMA'd within 24 hours.

I said nothing about "missing" any 0's and 1's. That's your concept, not mine. Mine is this, that the two digital streams below are not alike:

0101011110000010101111010001
010101 111000001010111101000 1

For all I know, your cable is a sterling achievement. But I wouldn't know. I haven't tried yours. That's more than you can say about mine.

[usually_quiet]

You haven't tried them. Likely you haven't tried these guys either:
QED
Chord
Audioquest
Vivanco
VanDenHul
Cardas
ThatCable
Cambridge Audio UK
Ecosse
Wireworld
ProfiGold

Yuk-yuk about something you ignore from the get-go is not valid criticism. On the other hand, almost any wire will "work". But some people will watch anything, and they usually do.

Oh right. So now you are back to you usual tactic. All of us who think special HDMI cables are unnecessary are blind and deaf or can't tell good from bad.

Personally, I think it is likely that the over-priced over-hyped gear you own is overly sensitive to some minor electrical variation in the signals it receive via HDMI and has to have a cable that makes up for its manufacturing defects and design flaws.

[sanlyn]

Who said mine was overpriced? $11 is over priced? Is it your personal experience with the gear I mentioned that leads you to believe it's over-hyped? In what way? Have you some specific problem with someone recommending a product with which you have no experience? I really can't criticize your choices, so if I referred to them as less than stellar then I must apologize and retract entirely because, after all, I don't know what you use and it hasn't been described. For all I know you have keen visual and aural perception that rivals the best of NASA's astronauts, or you could be the typical consumer who keeps Monster and monoprice in business, or maybe you just don't care. I don't know.

But now that you mention it, there are many people who don't have very good visual or aural discrimination. I don't know if you belong to that demographic. I'd think not, or you wouldn't be spending time in this forum. But I'm surprised that you spent $5 on a cable, when there as some that are "just as good" for less than a silver dollar widely sold. But maybe the five included shipping. I really don't know. I would say that the best way to approach this is to say that more than likely (but not for certain) I have probably tried your $5 item along with a great many other under-$10 items, and found it falling short of digital technology's promise. Again, you might have a $5 gem I overlooked. I'm willing to give yours a try.

[usually_quiet]

Who said mine was overpriced? .

I thought my statement was clear enough but apparently not. The devices you are connecting with the HDMI cables are over-priced and over-hyped.

[sanlyn]

Not only is that your opinion, but you speak from ignorance. You have no experience with the items I mentioned. Your opinion is invalid.

[turk690]

I would say that the best way to approach this is to say that more than likely (but not for certain) I have probably tried your $5 item along with a great many other under-$10 items, and found it falling short of digital technology's promise.

I'm just curious but how exactly did you "find it falling short of digital technology's promise"?

[usually_quiet]

Not only is that your opinion, but you speak from ignorance. You have no experience with the items I mentioned. Your opinion is invalid.

If the HDMI cable used makes as big a difference as you say, and its not easy to find one that works correctly, not only are your electronics over-hyped and over priced, they are also either poorly designed, or defective with respect to HDMI. Apparently nobody else in this thread is seeing anything like jello colors using a variety of cheap cables.

[sanlyn]

Apparently nobody else in this thread is seeing anything like jello colors using a variety of cheap cables.

Don't you think you've put up enough of this typical-consumership horseshit ? Go seek your own level. Don't **** with mine. I don't **** with yours.

[jagabo]

What's "jello colors"?

[usually_quiet]

Apparently nobody else in this thread is seeing anything like jello colors using a variety of cheap cables.

Don't you think you've put up enough of this typical-consumership horseshit ? Go seek your own level. Don't **** with mine. I don't **** with yours. It appears that in your case, spending $5 was over-hyped and priced far above your peformance preferences.

Since nobody else participating in this thread shares your point of view thus far, it seems you are in the wrong forum, not I.

[PowerFalcon]

Suppose I'm willing to spend $20-$30, what can I get that is good for that price ?

[sanlyn]

Depends on how long you want. Amazon Basic HDMI has a snappy image, even if you'll probably have to tame contrast and saturation on your TV a bit, and the audio is a bit brittle for cheap speakers but ought to sound OK on a typical LCD TV (and who expects great sound from LCD speakers, anyway?). You should be able to get sufficient length at that price range. Meanwhile ThatCable's longer cables have been used with good results, and its image looks accurate with good contrast and no transmission noise on my plasma. Almost everything in that price range is going to give you pretty much the same thing. The price you mention will get you a couple of 6 foot cables or one longer one.

My own take on monoprice is that their cables throw a soft and lame image, and one of theirs showed signs of ghosting. That's been my experience with their stuff, anyway. For budget cable, Amazon Basic seems popular, and I've tried it myself.

[sanlyn]

Since nobody else participating in this thread shares your point of view thus far, it seems you are in the wrong forum, not I.

Maybe they suspect they'll catch the same flack I'm catching if they openly disagree with the herd. What makes you think many others aren't reading this thread?

This is a great site because there's good and often essential and unique info about push-button apps and the mechanics of video processing. VH and doom9 are excellent for those aspects of video and graphics. High concepts of "aaarht" are all well and good and can be discussed elsewhere, but one needs the basics from a site like VH to get you there. You can't do the work without the tools and the knowledge found here. So I'd say I'm in the right forum...but probably in the wrong discussion.

[budz]

Monoprice.com nuff said.....geez, buy what you can afford.....next......

[usually_quiet]

No ghosting or soft picture or lame picture here with Monoprice HDMI cables. They have been excellent for me. A bad HDMI cable will produce "sparklies", or no picture, or causes no signal/intermittent signal on broken wires, but an HDMI cable CANNOT make a picture soft or cause ghosts. Digital signals do not work that way. A bad analog cable can cause those effects, but they carry an analog signal.