HDMI Cable Debate: Does price really dictate quality?

[HyenaThePirate]

Recently I bought a monster cable for my ps3, since it was down to about $50 and the sales person at Best Buy swore up and down that the quality was absolutely worth the price.

I have a $10 cable I was using for my cable box that has been so far just fine. Thinking I'd be better of switching them out since I use my cable far more than my PS3, I did just that and to my surprise, I noticed absolutely NO difference in quality... in fact, it seems to my imagination that the edges on the shows on the tv seem more-- "jagged"? So I Switched them back, no problem. No jagged edges. Switched again, Jaggies!

Now the jaggies aren't bad enough to really bother me, and if anything maybe the cables themselves are defective in some way so I might take them back, but doing some google research exposed me to a debate I wasn't aware was going on on the internet... the "Expensive" vs. "Inexpensive" HDMI cable debate.

Apparently some people seem to think you really do get what you pay for, and list a plethora of reasons for why you should buy those $300 cables at the local electronics store. But other people have argued that for any cable under 6 feet there really is no difference and all those claims of "superior", "premium", and "Ultra-fast" are all hot air pasted on packaging in order to sucker people into buying things at a ridiculously marked up price.

So in grand escapist tradition, I'd like to present the question to the forum, because I foolishly put more faith in you lot than any "expert" at a chain store.
Is there really a difference between a $5 6-foot HDMI 1.3x cable and the $200 ones? Or is this going to go down in history as one of the worst industry gauging debacles of the new millennium?

 

[Random Fella]

I think it's more to do with the consol and the television you are using... I didn't think the cable made a difference perhaps the more expensive cables are just more durable and last longer? I think it's more got to do with the actual things the wire is connecting over the wire connecting them, but i'm no electrician this is just what i reckon.

 

[PeePantz]

No. There isn't. A cable is a fucking cable. I have several friends who do home installation and they ALWAYS laugh at people who buy ridiculously overpriced HDMI cables.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

At 6 foot, no, there's no point unless you want durability. Digital is digital and isn't as affected by signal loss as an analog cable would.

The $200 cables are only useful for analog, digital doesn't care as much.

 

[Ziadaine_v1legacy]

Nope. My old man was about to pick up a 3m HDMI cable for $70 and I took it off his hands and said "noooooo".

There's ZERO difference, they all have the same structure, the ONLY difference is the brand thats been popped on each head to make it LOOK the best.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Yeah, the only people I've heard actually praising the higher priced name brand cables are, not surprisingly, the people selling said name brand cables.

 

[UltraParanoia]

Where the hell did you find a 6 ft cable for $5? Cause the cheapest I've found was 15 for 3ft.

 

[Gigano]

Don't think it really matter much, at least with short cables. Maybe there's some extended warranty or something, but nothing that could justify such a price hike.

If there is a difference, you'll probably need a comparatively expensive TV/surround set to be able to take advantage of it anyway, and it'll be marginal.

 

[JaredXE]

Nope, no difference whatsoever. Really makes me laugh that they sell gold-plated tipped ones like that's going to improve anything.....other than the manufacturer's income.

 

[jamesfrommelbourne]

sometimes an expensive product isnt worth the price, bur cheap ones are always crud

 

[Swaki]

if you pay around 20 euroes then its perfect quality, the really cheap ones in my experience break if you try to take it out of the box and plug it in on the same day, but unless you get one made from solid gold (everything is better if you add gold, FACT) there's no difference.

its like buying umbrellas, the expensive ones can take the wind but they all keep rain out (dont know if that analogy makes sense, its late and i have been trying to wrap my mind around this very dry book about neurology for the last 6 hours)

 

[Shapsters]

Ya Monster can rightly go fuck themselves. They charge such a ridiculous price for products which are NO better than a product you can get for much much cheaper. I always hate seeing people who pay premium prices for cables because they really are all the same.

 

[thedeathscythe]

Unless the cheapo one isn't gold plated, then no, they will be the same. I have seen cheapos that are copper plated, but I steer clear of those. Other than that, repeat everything everyone else said. Warranties might be a bit better on more expensive one? But my 12' cable cost maybe $60 max and the guy totally tried to up sell me and I straight up told him to stop talking about stuff he didn't know about.

 

[HyenaThePirate]

Where the hell did you find a 6 ft cable for $5? Cause the cheapest I've found was 15 for 3ft.

Amazon.com my friend.
Or ebay.
Check out monoprice cables. Seemed to be the bees knees.

 

[HyenaThePirate]

if you pay around 20 euroes then its perfect quality, the really cheap ones in my experience break if you try to take it out of the box and plug it in on the same day, but unless you get one made from solid gold (everything is better if you add gold, FACT) there's no difference.

its like buying umbrellas, the expensive ones can take the wind but they all keep rain out (dont know if that analogy makes sense, its late and i have been trying to wrap my mind around this very dry book about neurology for the last 6 hours)

From what I understand, the gold plating on the tips is just to prevent corrosion, but seriously, unless you live in a rain forest, or power your house with STEAM, I don't see this being any sort of problem.

 

[shemoanscazrex3]

They all perform the same. From what I've been told the only time you want to get expensive is if its long or you're cabling through a wall. I go to monoprice all the time and my friend went to best buy, conclusion no difference. Some people like to justify their purchases in any way possible

 

[Atomic Skull]

Using a "higher quality" cable isn't going to make the 1's and 0's higher quality. It's a digital signal it either works or it doesn't.

 

[TeeBs]

The 50$ HDMI cable probably comes with a reach around.

 

[Omegatronacles]

I work in TV retail. My store sells Monster HDMI cables. We also sell no name brand HDMI cables.

I have set up tests using two identical TV's, two identical Blu Ray players, running identical Blu Ray movies, one set using the Monster HDMI and the other set using the no name brand.

At a distance of 1.5 meters, there was absolutely no difference in picture quality between Monster and No Name.

At a distance of 5 meters, there was absolutely no difference in picture quality between Monster and No Name.

At a distance of 15 meters, Monster showed a marginally better picture quality over the No Name brand. And when I say marginally, I mean that if they hadn't been sitting right next to each other, I would never ever have noticed.

At a distance of greater than 15 meters, I stopped the test, because quite frankly if your TV is 15 meters away from your HDMI device, you either need to rethink the arrangement of your loungeroom, or you should have had someone professionally wire up the house with HDMI.

So, for a typical TV user, there is no advantage to "premium" HDMI cables. I would personally recommend that you buy your cables from a local store than online, simply because these cables do come with a warranty, and it's far easier to claim a warranty from the store you bought it at as opposed to trying to get some faceless person online to honour a warranty.

Although, since it's possible to get cables online for less than a cup of coffee, sometimes even the warranty doesn't matter.

 

[llafnwod]

At a distance of 15 meters, Monster showed a marginally better picture quality over the No Name brand. And when I say marginally, I mean that if they hadn't been sitting right next to each other, I would never ever have noticed.

Out of curiosity, did you switch the cables to ensure the quality difference wasn't elsewhere in the setup?