Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Very recently, I purchased a television at Best Buy. They don't sell the $5 and $10 HDMI cables you find at Fry's or on Amazon, so I went ahead and bought this cable.
I thought I wouldn't mind, after all I spent thousands on the TV, but it kept nagging me. So I bought a $2 HDMI cable from Amazon (search for HDMI and you'll see a few brands). My TV has twin HDMI inputs, so I hooked up this cable and the Monster cable, put on Casino Royale, and flipped between the cables to see what the difference was.
There was absolutely no difference. None at all. I figured the picture would be slightly sharper or the colors cleaner, but you could put a gun to my head and I wouldn't be able to tell you which was which.
And I googled HDMI and learned that if your video and audio signals work at all, then the signal is being carried correctly. There is no middle ground with HDMI. Better cables do not incrementally improve picture quality! Why? Because the HDMI is digital, and it's very difficult to distort a 1 into a 0. In fact, it's technically impossible without total signal distortion or failure. Failure in signal is caused by processors or cables that are too long. Or more likely, misconfigured systems. With digital signals, the cables have a much easier job. Imagine if you had to read a book from 100 yards away? That's analog. Imagine reading morse code from a flashlight at 100yards away (and you know morse cose)? That's digital.
So by buying this cable, you are insuring yourself that if your cable length is at the extreme, or if your house gets hit by an EMP, that this monster cable will shield that digital signal quite a bit better than the cheap cable. Why not pay $2 and see if that kind of insurance is necessary? After all, if the $2 cable works, it's not going to get better.
It's repulsive that Best Buy only sells extremely expensive cables. I'm glad Amazon gives me the choice. Don't be naive! Give the cheap cable a try! One word of caution: if you require HDMI 1.3a, get a compatible cable. For $15 bucks, you're still saving a lot of money. You can check your manuals to see if your audio quality is so high that you need the 1.3a cables. Either way, there's no reason to get this horribly overpriced cable.
The money you save can go into systems that transcode digital signals better. That's where the real improvement in picture and audio is to be found!
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