Do better HDMI cables matter?

[Lee]

Does the construction such as the connectors help?

I bought a new Blu-Ray player (Sony BX-57) and the picture looks great with a $20 Belkin cable.

Would I get anything at all with a nicer cable?

 

[Nicholas Bedworth]

Yes, HDMI cables can make a huge difference, especially wiht respect to the audio portion of the program. Basically many players, HD cables, etc., have very high levels of jitter, and certain cables can go a long ways towards improving the situation. With video, you can get away with murder in terms of noise and compression; audio is a lot harder with respect to fooling most of the people most of the time.

Check out HDMI offerings from WireWorld and AudioQuest. Yes, they'll cost more than the junkola ones from Mongolia, but if you have a decent sound system, there could be considerble improvement.

 

[Jay_S]

If the source player already has a high level of jitter how can a cable improve things?

 

[FrantzM]

If the source player already has a high level of jitter how can a cable improve things?

One has to wonder

Anyhow to answer the question... The picture would have look good with any properly constructed HDMI cable.. As in anything in life there are those (rare) cables that are improperly constructed... Same with the sound

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

If the source player already has a high level of jitter how can a cable improve things?

It can't, but jitter coming from the cable is reportedly unusually high in HDMI. Is it audible? Probably not in most cases. The best reason to buy good HDMI cables is build quality, particularly shielding. Audioquest makes a well-built, well-sheilded cable. Their entry level line, Forest, at $45 for a meter, does the trick. Less expensive than Monster and better. Everything above that is speed that can't be used with current technology. And don't pay attention to the silly little arrows. Directional HDMI cable is nonsense.

Tim

 

[RBFC]

In the HDMI vs. coaxial thread here:

http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?2667-HDMI-vs.-Coaxial-Digital-Interconnects

We had a great discussion about cable construction, length, signal integrity, etc. Perhaps something in there can help to answer your question. It may be that cable length and termination quality can affect the sound over HDMI. Shielding from RFI, etc. certainly can be a factor as well, from what I gather.

One caution is the weight of an HDMI cable..... since the connectors are notoriously easy to dislodge, the heavier cables have been reported to unseat themselves when left hanging free from the connector.

Lee

 

[amirm]

HDMI uses twister pair connections with separate clock. For this system to work, all the cables need to be exactly the same length and have the same twist. Thickness of the wire is secondary (although there is a 5 volt signal that can get weak and cause some problems). For video, as long as you don't get sparkles or video blanking at the highest resolution and frame rate you are interested in, you are good to go.

Since the HDMI video clock is used for audio, its quality on the wire can have an impact on audio fidelity. How much I can't say as I have never measured it. Since short cables are not too expensive anyway, I tend to get a decent one.

 

[Lee]

Yes, HDMI cables can make a huge difference, especially wiht respect to the audio portion of the program. Basically many players, HD cables, etc., have very high levels of jitter, and certain cables can go a long ways towards improving the situation. With video, you can get away with murder in terms of noise and compression; audio is a lot harder with respect to fooling most of the people most of the time.

Check out HDMI offerings from WireWorld and AudioQuest. Yes, they'll cost more than the junkola ones from Mongolia, but if you have a decent sound system, there could be considerble improvement.

Thanks Nicholas. I will look for them.

 

[Ethan Winer]

Would I get anything at all with a nicer cable?

Not according to these tests CBC did:

http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2008/02/20/packing_the_deal/

--Ethan

 

[amirm]

Not according to these tests CBC did:

http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2008/02/20/packing_the_deal/

--Ethan

Well, let's put that in context. A "video engineer" at a broadcast facility doesn't have a whole lot more testing ability than any casual tester. HDMI is not used in broadcast and hence, hooking up the cable and seeing video come out of it is about all their engineer could do. Testing cables running at such high speed requires specialized test equipment and a ton of knowledge about TDMS signalling and HDMI logical layer which I very much doubt their engineer possessed.

FYI, I used to work for companies selling broadcast equipment to TV networks and post production studios .

So in essence all they did was repeat what I said: if you see proper video with a cable, your job is done as far as video is concerned.

 

[Lee]

Amir,

At CEDIA this year, Monster Cable used a device to show the "eye pattern" on data transmission via different quality cables. It seems that the eye pattern for the Monster brand was quite nicely defined. Does that classic data test hold water for HDMI cable differences being measurable?

 

[amirm]

It certainly a sign of good cable that has good eye pattern. That said, you need to have more than that as I noted. The cable pairs all need to be the same length and terminated the same. Low-end cable's don't pay attention to any of this.

For those not following what an eye pattern is, this is what it looks like per Monster: http://www.monstercable.com/hdmi/the_facts_on_hdmi.asp

 

[es347]

Since my FP is fed via 30 feet of generic HDMI cable pulled in the wall and ceiling, the point is moot.

 

[amirm]

Since my FP is fed via 30 feet of generic HDMI cable pulled in the wall and ceiling, the point is moot.

Not always. The issue with HDMI is not just the cable but the way the transmitter and receiver is built. A weak implementation at both end may work with certain configuration and not others. We have had totally working systems stop when the customer replaces their Blu-ray player or the TV and all of a sudden, we lose video or the system only works intermittently.

Here is the net of it. Using HDMI in longer cable configurations is a bit like gambling in Las Vegas. You never quite know if you are going to "win" (have things working). And sadly in t his case, the problems don't stay in Las Vegas!

 

[es347]

My setup has always worked flawlessly with the Best Deal HDMI cable...well built with locking connectors.

 

[Lee]

My setup has always worked flawlessly with the Best Deal HDMI cable...well built with locking connectors.

This may be true, but without trying better cables, you may not know what could be possible.

 

[es347]

To try better cables would involve cutting drywall. Like I said, a moot point.

 

[Lee]

To try better cables would involve cutting drywall. Like I said, a moot point.

I see your point.

 

[Ethan Winer]

A "video engineer" at a broadcast facility doesn't have a whole lot more testing ability than any casual tester.

It's been a while since I watched that video, but I remember for certain that they used a testing device that compared bits sent versus bits received. All the bits arrived perfectly intact at the far end of the cable with both the cheapest and most expensive brands.

--Ethan

 

[amirm]

I had the same expectations when the video and report first surfaced but then was disappointed that it was nothing more than what I described. They had some fancy shots of their broadcast signal generators and such. But ultimately from what I recall, they simply fed video signals to different TVs. As I noted that is to be expected as they really have no need to have test equipment to measure HDMI cable performance.