Question on Home Entertainment systems

[Slick Fork]

Originally Posted by mark

Marketplace $12 to $200+ cable the same (comparison around minute 7).

If I was running a projector and had a really long run back to the player might consider a higher end cable.

Thank you very much for the link. That really does say it all.

As far as the comment made about spending large on a tv and a reef so just pay what they want for "good" cables... I don't earn huge money so like most people, I budget. I don't mind spending money on high quality things when I can or should, but I save wherever I can. Quite often you get the same quality at a fraction of the price if you just do a little research. This TV is the only one in the house younger then 10 or 11 years so you can say we've been saving for a while. For me, a blu-ray player is affordable only if I don't spend hundreds of dollars on cables. Fortunately, now I know I don't need to!

As an aside, I've got the DVD hooked up with S-Video and watching the BBC planet earth series as I type this and WOW, what a difference moving up 10 years in picture technology makes. I think I'll leave the connections as is for now until we fork out for a blu-ray player!

Thanks!!

[Treebeard]

I have Planet Earth on Blu-ray, and it is spectacular on my 50"!

Originally Posted by Slick Fork

As an aside, I've got the DVD hooked up with S-Video and watching the BBC planet earth series as I type this and WOW, what a difference moving up 10 years in picture technology makes. I think I'll leave the connections as is for now until we fork out for a blu-ray player!

Thanks!!

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

My TV is also 1080p and 120hz and I did notice a huge difference when using a better cable. I know people are saying (someone even bet) that you will not see the difference but in my case it was like night and day. I actually used the cheap one for like 5 months and a friend was over watching a DVD and thought my TV was 720p. He was the one who said the cable was probably the problem and it was. Best Buy probably sold me an overpriced cable (monster) but I am happy and besides the packaging was also nice

[RSM]

Xs cargo believe it or not has cheap (price) HDMI cables. Memory express and computer rack are good for these cables as well. Stay away from s video if you can. Its hard to compare different brands because its a digital signal you cant really tell. Your paying for the name and usually better connectors on expensive cables, but how often do you disconnect and reconnect your blu ray or dvd? Never! Go for the cheapest its digital. My 2 cents.

[bullit67]

Plane and simple DONT BUY CHEAP CABLES now that is not saying you have to spend 150 on a 6 foot cable but 20 buck cables from super store or crappy tire just dont cut it. A good example is my sub cable i was running a middle of the road monster cable to it sounded OK but it was realy missing the Mid bass as it is a PSB sub sonic 7 with a 15 inch driver I went out a spent some money on a Good Monster cable made for a sub and man what a differance np more lack of mid base I had to turn down the volume on the sub. I probably have a $1000 in cable hanging behind my system. I use my wife as a test subject when I do any upgrades as she isn't swayed by the price of the cable As I dont dare tell her So she dosent think it sounds better just because it cost more.

If you spend any time on any A/V sites or forums you will find this is a big on going topic and it will be going on for a long time

[midgetwaiter]

Originally Posted by GreenSpottedPuffer

My TV is also 1080p and 120hz and I did notice a huge difference when using a better cable.

Because your signal is 120hz you are moving twice as much data down the cable. Little imperfections that don't show up at 60hz are huge at 120hz. Most people don't have TVs that do 120hz

[mark]

120Hz refers to the refresh rate of the monitor.

[hillegom]

Truebeard, I bought my HDMI cable from monocable as you did. I have a bravia xbr and find the quality of the signal excellent

[Matt]

<rant>There is so much snake oil and superstition and subjective testimonial around cables, it is just ridiculous. I once read an audio review where the writer enthused about the difference that gold contacts on his DIGITAL connections made the sound "aura" more distinct. Do you know there are people selling power cables for hundreds with the promise it will make your audio sound better? That's right, after running over utility transmission lines, then through the cheap power lines in your house, you can pay hundreds for the last 3 feet. And somehow, through magical thinking, it will make your system perform better.

The pseudo-science vocabulary the hucksters use would be laughable, if it weren't draining so much money from people's pockets.

Buy decent-quality (but not necessarily expensive) cables. The cheapest junk can corrode or have weak contacts. Solder breaks can be annoyingly common in the really cheaply made cables. Monoprice sells very nicely made cables at VERY fair prices. I recommend them highly. Buying Monster cables is almost morally wrong. They are ordinary-quality at semi-premium pricing. They look OK, and aside from reports of overly-tight RCA connectors, they probably work fine... but the hype and price is horrid.

Most of you with 1080p televisions don't have a 1080p source; for most sources, you are upconverting at the set -- and if you aren't nose-to-screen, you probably can't see the difference between 1080p and 720p anyway (apologies in advance to the eagle-eyed and expensively modern in the crowd).
</rant>

[midgetwaiter]

Originally Posted by mark

120Hz refers to the refresh rate of the monitor.

Yes but to support this you need twice as much data. This is where signal attenuation comes in to play, a cable that can pass data at a lower transfer rate may fail at the higher frequency used when you refreshing twice as fast. IIRC the frequency on the cable is something like 330mhz.