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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | Reputation:  |  Posts: 5,494 |
| | Posted: | | | | Looking at this ad on line for a new type of HDMI video cable that will drastically improve the connection between digital HD box or player via HDMI .. Has any one had any experience with this cable first hand ?? | | | In the 60's, People took Acid to make the world Weird. Now the World is weird and People take Prozac to make it Normal.
Terry |
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| Registered: March 14, 2007 | | Reputation: |  Posts: 820 |
| | Posted: | | | | I am cynical.
The received wisdom seems to be that there is no difference between HDMI cables under 5 metres. I paid about $10 for mine and am very happy with the picture running 1080P. Your mileage may vary. |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 5,494 |
| | Posted: | | | | I bought two gold tipped 3 footers from eBay for $13.00.. ! ... and I am very satisfied with the comparison between componant and hdmi .., HDMI gives bit more of a jump in picture quality over componant on my Sony Wega .. KDF462000E model ..
BUT.. am I missing something even more dynamic ... ?? wouldn't mind renting the set for a week to find out.. | | | In the 60's, People took Acid to make the world Weird. Now the World is weird and People take Prozac to make it Normal.
Terry |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 |  Posts: 810 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting widescreenforever: Quote:
I bought two gold tipped 3 footers from eBay for $13.00.. ! ... and I am very satisfied with the comparison between componant and hdmi .., HDMI gives bit more of a jump in picture quality over componant on my Sony Wega .. KDF462000E model ..
BUT.. am I missing something even more dynamic ... ?? wouldn't mind renting the set for a week to find out.. What could you be missing? Bits is bits! Either the data gets there or it does not. pdf | | | Paul Francis
San Juan Capistrano, CA, USA |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Posts: 811 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting widescreenforever: Quote:
Looking at this ad on line for a new type of HDMI video cable that will drastically improve the connection between digital HD box or player via HDMI ..
Has any one had any experience with this cable first hand ?? snake oil never goes away |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | Reputation:  |  Posts: 2,217 |
| | Posted: | | | | Either Snake-Oil or bad Snake-Oil
I mean, honestly, (most) BD-Players can upscale and have an arsenal of picture-improvers on board, so do the newer AV-Receiver you employ anyways to get the HDMI-Sound and lastly the HDTVs have them to.
Now, is it really a good idea to invest 230USD to introduce a 4th stage of picture enhancement?
The answer for me is a clear: No!
cya, Mithi
PS Assuming that the little box does hold active electronic components. If the cable is just a passive thing I would say those promised enhancements are a clear fraud. | | | | Mithi's little XSLT tinkering - the power of XML --- DVD-Profiler Mini-Wiki |
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| Registered: March 19, 2007 |  Posts: 700 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Telecine: Quote:
The received wisdom seems to be that there is no difference between HDMI cables under 5 metres. I paid about $10 for mine and am very happy with the picture running 1080P. Your mileage may vary. This is what I have recon also... for picture... if you have an very good Audio setup I would concider going a litle bit more expensive one, also if you move your stuff from time to time a more expensive cable will not tear from inside and can take a bend or two and have proper plugs that not break at looks... to say: pQuoting df256: Quote:
What could you be missing? Bits is bits! Either the data gets there or it does not. It's a litle bit on the far side, because if you miss 10% of "bits" what would your picture look like, there are no time to give feedback and get them again.. what you get is what you get and it would result in poorer picture with artifacts, the telly has to take an qualified guess of what is missing... a miss of bits in audio will also result in poorer audio. | | | | We are all at the same age, only at different time... |
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| Registered: March 29, 2007 | | Posts: 410 |
| | Posted: | | | | The only reason you could buy this is: if your HDMI cable need to pass to close of a electrical power so you will need more shielding.  There two way of thinking in audio video cable: cable make no difference or cable make a difference. talk with people on AVS Forum and youll see what im talking about. |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 |  Posts: 2,692 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting widescreenforever: Quote:
I bought two gold tipped 3 footers from eBay for $13.00.. ! ... and I am very satisfied with the comparison between componant and hdmi .., HDMI gives bit more of a jump in picture quality over componant on my Sony Wega .. KDF462000E model ..
BUT.. am I missing something even more dynamic ... ?? wouldn't mind renting the set for a week to find out.. the connection is digital. The bit gets to the other end or doesn't. Don't waste your money. A 'bit' can't be degraded in quality. Stick with your existing HDMI cable. A program on TV in the UK did a comparison between the cheapest cable and the most expensive, playing the same blu ray on two identical sets (with two identical players). Absolutely no difference in quality of picture. | | | | Paul |
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| Registered: March 18, 2007 | Reputation:  | | Posts: 6,463 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting pauls42: Quote:
the connection is digital. The bit gets to the other end or doesn't. Don't waste your money. A 'bit' can't be degraded in quality. Sorry that's only partially true. I agree that the claims that this device makes sound suspicious. For example, to improve picture quality in the way that they claim, you would have to decode the signal,process it, then recode. Kind of unlikely, but certainly possible. A "bit" however can be degraded. The biggest culprit is either a poor quality cable, defective cable, or a cable that is too long. Bits are transmitted as square pulses that can be misshaped by interference. These degraded bits can lead to errors, some of which can be corrected, and some not. When they can't, you may expereince flutter, a complete blackout, protocol / handshaking errors (remember there is a bunch of security and encryption going on along with transmitting the video and audio), or anything in-between. But bits can be restored and re-shaped. HDMI signal boosters are cheap, and usually included in most HDMI switches such as the Oppo. Perhaps even some A/V recievers have signal reshapers built in, so that what is sent to the display head is clean. Depending on the quality of the cable, it is recommended that you "re-shape the bits", every 25-50 feet or so. So, in most home theater installations, any typical cable should produce identical results, so long as it is not defective, and not too long without being boosted. Here is an article I came across. Can't necessisarily vouch for every word in it, but what I scanned breifly was consistent with my understanding. Of course it's always good to check a few sources when it comes to the internet.  | | | Thanks for your support.
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Hey, new product!!! BDPFrog. | | | | Last edited: by mediadogg |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 13,202 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting oleops: Quote:
to say:
pQuoting df256:
Quote:
What could you be missing? Bits is bits! Either the data gets there or it does not.
It's a litle bit on the far side, because if you miss 10% of "bits" what would your picture look like, there are no time to give feedback and get them again.. what you get is what you get and it would result in poorer picture with artifacts, the telly has to take an qualified guess of what is missing... a miss of bits in audio will also result in poorer audio. Wouldn't the 10% loss be covered by the 'it does not' part of his statement? What pdf was saying is the cable is not going to enhance the bits. Either they get there, and you see/hear them all, or they don't, and your picture/sound isn't as good. | | | No dictator, no invader can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever.
There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom.
Against this power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand.
The Centauri learned this lesson once.
We will teach it to them again.
Though it take a thousand years, we will be free.
- Citizen G'Kar |
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| Registered: March 21, 2007 | | Posts: 171 |
| | Posted: | | | | I have always understood that a bit cannot be degraded and I believe this to be true. The article you submitted is by a company called "Blue Jean Cable" hardly an impartial source. It would be the same as asking Monster Cable for their opinion.
I purchased HDMI cables from Monoprice and took them to a local Best Buy and connected them from a BluRay player they had displayed to a Sony TV. I did this on the sly replacing a Monster HDMI cable. I then asked various employees what their opinion of the Monster (actually Monoprice) was. They all said that the picture was as good as it could possibly be. I left the cable in place and came back a couple of weeks later. The staff was still using this setup to sell people Monster HDMI cables. People are gullible and will believe whatever they are told, if what they are told is done with enough conviction.
It is insane to buy a player for a couple of hundred bucks, only to be told that you should pay the same amount for a cable to connect the player. It is all just bulls#$@. | | | | Graham |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Posts: 810 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting oleops: Quote:
...
to say:
pQuoting df256:
Quote:
What could you be missing? Bits is bits! Either the data gets there or it does not.
It's a litle bit on the far side, because if you miss 10% of "bits" what would your picture look like, there are no time to give feedback and get them again.. what you get is what you get and it would result in poorer picture with artifacts, the telly has to take an qualified guess of what is missing... a miss of bits in audio will also result in poorer audio. If you are 'missing' 10% of the bits, something is very wrong in your setup! If the link is working correctly all of the bits should get to the display! As others have said, if your cable is too long you may get errors, but they should be big errors, like the link dropping and then reconnecting. pdf | | | Paul Francis
San Juan Capistrano, CA, USA |
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| Registered: March 18, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 6,463 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting FUBAR: Quote:
I have always understood that a bit cannot be degraded and I believe this to be true. The article you submitted is by a company called "Blue Jean Cable" hardly an impartial source. It would be the same as asking Monster Cable for their opinion. Well I did point out that one has to be careful about sources. I stated that, like you, I doubted some of the claims of the product. I also pointed out that I had read some of the material in the reference that I found, and what I read fit with my understanding, which of course you have no need to trust. For my own purposes, I'll trust my own instincts and experience as an Electrical Engineer. I've observed many clean and dirty bits in my career (ha!) which gives me a "bit" of confidence about what I said.  If you are open minded to do some study on this, read about the conduction of electricity over wires, and the concept of resistance and inductance. Even good wires have a finite ability to transmit electrical pulses faithfully, depending on the frequency and type of pulses. It is possible to exceed the capacity (or "bandwidth") of any physical channel. So long as you stay within design limits and there are no defects, you are ok. Exceed the design limits (e.g. a 100 foot HDMI cable with no boost), then it is possible for the electrical signal to be degraded (i.e., what you get out is not what you put in.) I also pointed out, that at typical cable lengths found in Home Theater, indeed there should be no difference in a properly manufactured and non-defective cable, and that is not necessarily correlated with price. So we actually agree on the bottom line. | | | Thanks for your support.
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Hey, new product!!! BDPFrog. | | | | Last edited: by mediadogg |
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| Registered: March 19, 2007 | | Posts: 700 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Unicus69: Quote:
Wouldn't the 10% loss be covered by the 'it does not' part of his statement? What pdf was saying is the cable is not going to enhance the bits. Either they get there, and you see/hear them all, or they don't, and your picture/sound isn't as good. Yes, and his statment din't at al implified that any cable should do? My point (well mistaken I understand) is that a loss will give poor quality, a better cable with better connection have less change of loss/failing ( if a stream digital or not are destroyed or covered with noice it is lost anyway) I am not saying that you should use 200$ on a cable but maybe go for an 50$ one if as I also mentioned you are using hi-end audio or want to unplug your system once in a while and move it. | | | | We are all at the same age, only at different time... |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Posts: 2,692 |
| | Posted: | | | | From my own experience - which is having a cable 3m long between my TV and the blu ray player - a £10 hdmi cable is good enough.
If you are using a 100ft cable to connect your equipment then yes - you probably should look at some boosting of the signal.. but I didn't know that's what we were talking about.. | | | | Paul |
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