Are all HDMI cables the same?

By David Katzmaier, CNET.com on 24 October 2005
Hi, James. One of the joys of digital transmission is that the cables should not affect video or audio quality whatsoever. In other words, all HDMI cables should offer identical performance in almost all usage situations. The exceptions are very long runs -- say over four metres -- where high-quality cables may work better, although often you'll need some sort of "extender" for these situations anyway. Personally, I would buy the cheapest cable I could find from a local vendor with a return policy and try it out. As long as it works, it will offer identical image quality to more expensive cables.

Topics: digital, tv, quality, hdmi, cable, cabling, james

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Comments (27)

  • RickVision commented on 08/07/2009 21:44 Report abuse

    Big Priced cables = Big Wank Factor.. Some Sales staff prey on buyers as they try to make up some lost $$ on the price they worked out for the sale of a HT system or LCD etc.. having worked with elite AV sales staff for many years, Accessories, Accessories and Accessories are all part of a Good sale.. Most ppl would NOT be able to spot Any difference between cables rated for NASA astronauts and Chinese $20 specials..

  • David commented on 05/07/2009 14:49 Report abuse

    I bought a hyper speed hdmi cable from proaudiovisual.com.au for $50. Its just as good as the monster cable which I purchased from JB Hifi for over $200. What a rip off

  • Alex commented on 12/06/2009 16:51 Report abuse

    Amazon: HDMI cable for 16 cents http://tinyurl.com/nkdlxl

  • TECH commented on 28/05/2009 16:09 Report abuse

    DIGITAL CABLES Cheap cables will give you a lower audio quality. I can only asume the same with video. Error correction will reduce the bit rate hence reducing quality. A 24bit audio source traveling down a cheaper cable will "miss" bits at the recieving end. Error correction tries to replace the missing bits and this reduces the bandwidth available to convert back to analog for the internal amp. Cheap cable = cheap signal.

  • MoNsTa commented on 27/05/2009 20:23 Report abuse

    You guys what is $329 for a MONSTER cable when you have gone out and spent $5000 or more on a LCD or plasma screen, and if you have a panel that has 100hz or more the top cable's make a huge difference to the picture. And if you say they dont your a cheap skate or you don't know what your talking about............FULL STOP

  • Bewildered commented on 18/05/2009 16:28 Report abuse

    I bought a $50 Dick Smith HDMI cable and the quality is just as good as the $279 Monster that Harvey Norman insisted I buy. I have since returned it to Harvey Norman!

  • Bigwal commented on 18/05/2009 14:08 Report abuse

    We purchased a 50" Panasonic plasma and a Panasonic Blu-ray and we were told that we should purchase the $270 monster cable which we did, I was told about 3 weeks later from a so called expert that the one he sells for $40 does the same thing. Who do you listen to?

  • Kimmy commented on 15/05/2009 12:58 Report abuse

    We have a Sony 50" LCD and a Sony Blu-Ray. Just bought a $40 HDMI cable from JB HIFI. Their range goes from $54.95 to over $200+. I bargained a little. As a Cable Guy posted, so long as it's HDMI 3.1 at least, unless you plan on moving the cable a lot (DJ or harsh environment) then the upper-end cables are unnecessary.

  • Bewildered commented on 10/05/2009 19:16 Report abuse

    Hi, Just bought a panasonic plasma and panasonic dvd player, both with HDMI. The sales guy said I had to buy a $279 monster HDMI cable for the best result. I did, and yes the result is awesome, but having read the posts on cnet I think perhaps I should have bought the el cheapo one. Any thoughts?

  • Cable guy commented on 27/04/2009 16:25 Report abuse

    Barry, CAT5 and CAT6 are different cables, sure. But the data they carry is the sme. The difference is the bandwidth capacity of the cable. CAt5 started at 100Mhz, CAT6 is 500Mhz, therefore you can pass the same data through each of the cable types just at different speeds. I suggest that for those of you who have issues with your HDMI cables, check that they're HDMI version 1.3 or later. The cables will have a higher bandwidth. That should eliminate and bluring or instances where the picture seems to slow down.

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