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Why HDMI? What you need to know before going digital

By Randolph Ramsay and Ty Pendlebury on 16 February 2009

Tired of all those messy home theatre cables ruining your living room's feng shui? Wondering why analog cables are still connecting your all-digital gear? There is a solution — HDMI.

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Comments (61)

  • Ty Pendlebury commented on 17/02/2009 14:22 Report abuse

    RE: pete. Yes, there are plenty of cheap cables on the market, and plenty of ridiculously expensive ones. It's really hard to differentiate between them as far as signal quality is concerned. But our main concern is long-term reliability, paying more for a well made and rugged cable will pay off in the long term. But don't get fooled by some manufacturers claims that their cable is FASTER than anothers -- it's rubbish.

  • Reality commented on 16/02/2009 18:23 Report abuse

    CNET USA actually had a story a short while ago sying that it isn't worth paying premium dollars for HDMI cables so don't get conned into buying expensive ones.

  • Pete commented on 16/02/2009 16:58 Report abuse

    "Don't expect these cables to be too cheap, though: you'll need to spend at least $70 to get a cable of sufficient quality"

    What RUBBISH! Spend $10 at MSY. It's a digital signal and therefore is not affected by interference ect. Unless your planing on getting a long 15m cable. It's like getting a expensive aerial and saying it produces better HD Digital TV stations, rubbish!

  • Pete commented on 16/02/2009 16:54 Report abuse

    Sxc:

    No. That's an output on your PC, not an input. Can you play your PC on your set top box though? Hhhmmmm.

  • Sxc commented on 15/01/2009 12:43 Report abuse

    Hi I have a computer that has a hdmi port, can I hook it up with a set top box and get he tv on my comp?

  • FRANK commented on 04/01/2009 16:04 Report abuse

    handy

  • april commented on 04/12/2008 09:31 Report abuse

    i need help! i have an big screen rca tv that has a dvi input. so i went out bought a dvi/hdmi cord that hooks up from my tv to my cable box (hd ready) but i have no sound, whats wrong? and how do i fix it?

  • cpryt commented on 07/08/2008 17:23 Report abuse

    i have a Lg plasma its hd 1024 x 768
    if i buy a blue-ray player will i still get a better picture ? of wont it work on my tv

  • mindyo commented on 11/07/2008 13:41 Report abuse

    Now with HDMI i want to connect my A/V receiver to the TV but i dont get any audio i thought you only needed one cable to make this work.

  • hatbrox commented on 02/07/2008 18:11 Report abuse

    this article is wrong: only 1.3a can transport Dolby TrueHD et DTS-HD Master Audio. 1.3 will not.
    Also, 1.3a offers wide gamut (color is encoded up to 12 bits) while 1.3 "only" offer 8 bits. but this will not be noticable unless you use hdmi to display photos,

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