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 Post subject: Video cable quality?
PostPosted: Wed 07-26-2006 2:33PM 
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The salesman at Bestbuy was singing the praises of using special (re: expensive) cables to connect various audio and video components together. Obviously I can find the cables more cheaply online than I will at Bestbuy but I'd still rather not spend money that I didn't have to. Does using special cables to connect your HDTV to a satelite box or an XBOX really make a difference? If so, are there any brands that I ought to be looking for?

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PostPosted: Wed 07-26-2006 3:23PM 
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The main things you want to look at when buying cables for quality is the what the cable is made of and it's thickness. Copper is usually the best you can do and the smaller the gauge the better.

Then shielding is extremely important, because you don't want extra static (signal noise) being introduced into your line, which can easily occur if your cable is of any reasonable length.

The connectors is the next focus. Gold connectors are about the best you can do, and of course you want your cable to fit snug and not be loose.

And finally quality of manufacturing. Monster makes overpriced cables, but they are made to a pretty high quality and come with a warrenty if I remember correctly.

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PostPosted: Thu 07-27-2006 8:17AM 
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Simple Answer: No
Long Answer: Nooo


Note: If you need new cables, monoprice is your best bet


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PostPosted: Thu 07-27-2006 8:31AM 
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gil-galad wrote:
Simple Answer: No
Long Answer: Nooo


Note: If you need new cables, monoprice is your best bet


Ditto. I've purchased cables from their eBay store 3 times now, and every time, their service has been excellent and the cable works great.


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PostPosted: Sat 07-29-2006 12:10PM 
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gil-galad wrote:
...monoprice ...


thank you

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PostPosted: Sat 07-29-2006 1:40PM 
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what video signal are you using? if its analog you have to worry alot more about interference than if it is a digital signal


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PostPosted: Sat 07-29-2006 3:05PM 
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More specificly, I was talking to some chick at Bestbuy while shopping for a tv and she swore from personal experience that she could tell the difference on her tv at home between using an expensive HDMI and a cheap HDMI cable. She also had a lengthy spiel on dirty power. I recongize that they aren't on comission so ultimately they don't care what I buy, but I don't really trust them to have the best training either. I spent some time on Google looking for opinions but none of the sites I ran across had very definitive things to say about how much those things really affect picture quality.

Ultimately I have no interest in spending lots of money for a .01% improvement, but if it makes a significant difference I don't mind going the extra mile.

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PostPosted: Sat 07-29-2006 3:31PM 
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well correct me if im wrong but HDMI should be a totally digital interface. Whereas analog signals are very susceptible to interference, a minor distortion in phase or intensity could alter a huge amount on color or picture syncing. Asynchronous digital signals usually have checksums and being digital well its either a 1 or a 0 and using signal conditioning.

this is all from high school electronics classes so im sure some of you EE majors might be able to elaborate a little better, but no i dont think its worth shelling out the extra 30-50 bucks


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PostPosted: Sat 07-29-2006 3:50PM 
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dar9q7 wrote:
well correct me if im wrong but HDMI should be a totally digital interface. Whereas analog signals are very susceptible to interference, a minor distortion in phase or intensity could alter a huge amount on color or picture syncing. Asynchronous digital signals usually have checksums and being digital well its either a 1 or a 0 and using signal conditioning.

this is all from high school electronics classes so im sure some of you EE majors might be able to elaborate a little better, but no i dont think its worth shelling out the extra 30-50 bucks



Ditto. Digital signal is a bunch of 1s and 0s. As long as it gets from the source to the destination, it will be the same data and same quality regardless of cable. The cable could simply be so bad it won't transfer data at all, or have problems where the data cuts in and out, but if you get a cable from a reputable source like Monoprice (I have 2 of their optical cables and 1 digital coax cable, work great) then it's no different than a Monster cable. As long as the data gets there in one piece, the image will be of the same quality. I'm no EE or anything, but I think that's pretty much common sense (which most Best Buy employees lack)

Regarding Best Buy employees and commission. No, they're not on commission, but the more they sell, the better it looks on their reviews. Thats how retail works. So while she may not have a bigger paycheck next week from selling you the Monster cable, the store gets more money (since the markup on those cables is insane) and when it's time for a raise, managers will take that into consideration. So that's why they still try to sell you that shit.


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PostPosted: Sat 07-29-2006 11:01PM 
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HDMI uses a signal that is not compressed. Out of all the types of transmission lines, that is the only one that does that. It tends to show, however, because HDMI is typically the most expensive.

There is an article about data transmission lines in an older edition of Popular Mechanics (June 2006) that compared quality and shortfalls of each transmission type.

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PostPosted: Sun 07-30-2006 4:17PM 
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compression shouldnt effect the quality of the transmission and the interference its susceptible to but only the quality of the actual image itself. HDMI uses a lot more data in order to get a better picture than other HD digital standards, BUT compression shouldnt really have an effect on cable chioces in my opinion.

compression example: if you watch a dvd and theres a night scene thats a pure deep black background, then you rip the dvd and compress it to fit on a standard 4.7 GB dvd or even worse compress it into a MPG, then look at the same scene and generally that deep black color will now be a constantly changing mix of pixelized grayscales.


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