Anyone know about good cables for blue ray/HD tv?

K

Kirk_Ferentz

Joined
Feb 16, 2010
Messages
589
I need to pick some up for my new blue ray player and maybe some new ones for connecting my cable box to my tv. Does anyone know about these? What are some good ones to get the most out of my equipment? What are the chris reeve or Busse or whatever of cables? Or if it doesn't make much difference, let me know that too.
 
Cables are cables and premium cables are a flat out scam. Stay away from them or you're probably getting ripped off.
 
not too much of a difference. i just look for solid connectors and thick awg.
mediabridge off of amazon is the most premium of the cheap cables. solid construction. comparable to monster at 1/10th the price. theres another brand that i cant recall right now that is of similar quality but comes with a blue/black theme instead of mediabridge's red. 10 foot hdmi is only about 10 bucks. both have all the latest 3d and hdmi1.4 support.

people that buy $100 dollar 6 foot cables for their flatscreens from bestbuy are crazy. last time i was there a guy bought 2 cables and a bulky home theater surge protector for about $350. he could have got 2 cables off of amazon and a large UPS battery backup or something.
 
i wouldnt go as far as saying cables are cables, but just stay away from the really thin $3 cables. you want the ones that look comparable to monster with the reinforced connectors and thick wiring. there are pictures of cut away diagrams of the build quality that u can look at floating around the net.
 
Hi Kirk -

I get mine from monoprice dot com.

I have ordered the mid-level hdmi cables and they are just fine.

In addition, I color-coded my setup, ordering enough colors that makes it very easy to hook up my stuff.

hdmi is the way to go if your components support them.

best regards -

mqqn
 
ditto on the high-priced cables from bestbuy and whatnot. you can get pretty good HDMI and optical cables from Amazon for about $10-$15 and they work fine. I bought 6 of each and they haven't given any problems at all. They might not be as flexible and might be a little thicker, but you will be very hard-pressed to see any difference in performance.
 
What kind of tv do you have? If the refresh rate is only 60hz then you can go with a cheap hdmi cable because it won't make a difference. Also what cable company do you use? Some companies will put out a better pic then others. If you have comcast your not going to see a big difference between hdmi and component cables.
 
Digital is digital - signal will be the same no matter what the cable. I only matters if there is risk of cable damage. Just get one that looks that it is made ok.
 
idaho said:
Digital is digital - signal will be the same no matter what the cable. I only matters if there is risk of cable damage. Just get one that looks that it is made ok.
Click to expand...

Absolutely correct. DO NOT spend money on fancy cables for HDMI over short distances; this is a scam.
 
If it's an HDMI cable, that means it has been certified for HDMI. Don't buy the cheapest ones, but don't spend a lot either. The Amazon Basics or Mediabridge ones are just fine. Even the cheapest Best Buy brand (Dynex) are a rip-off.
 
idaho said:
Digital is digital - signal will be the same no matter what the cable. I only matters if there is risk of cable damage. Just get one that looks that it is made ok.
Click to expand...
Not really, some cables can handle a faster refresh rate but if the equipment on either end of the cable can't handle it then it doesn't make a differance. Do avoid the cables with the "gold" ends though, that's a scam.
 
jimmyd1982 said:
Do avoid the cables with the "gold" ends though, that's a scam.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say avoid, gold plated connectors are very common and cost next to nothing. Just don't pay more and think your TV image looks better because of some gold plating.
The high end stuff is mainly useful for analog connections (good shielding, little losses), but I guess you have pure digital connections, where the signal is pretty tolerant.
 
You will not notice a difference in picture or sound no matter what HDMI cable you go with. Most cable companies broadcast at 1080i. I believe that Direct TV broadcasts at 1080p. So the difference will not matter when watching cable. When watching HD movies on a Blu Ray player or playing video games that run at 1080p, you may notice a slight difference in sharpness, but it is so minute that spending the extra $ on "top quality" cables is a waste. The real differences in color and sound that you may notice between televisions are due to the actual television and not the cable.

If you're spending more than $10 or $15 on an HDMI cable you are paying too much. Personally, $15 is too much.
 
sturzi said:
I wouldn't say avoid, gold plated connectors...
Click to expand...

I would. The gold "plating" on consumer-grade connectors is so thin that it's actually porous and actually reduces contact area resulting in worse contact. I've examined some of these connectors under a microscope and it is shocking how bad the plating is. It's not usually plated either. it's electroless flash which is a significantly-inferior finish. It's just there to dazzle the eye.
 
As someone said earlier, monoprice dot com. You should not spend more than $10 on an HDMI cable (unless its 50 ft. long) Everything you see in a Best Buy as far as cables is a scam. If you ask anyone of their employees, that is their biggest mark up. They do not make much on their HDTVs, most of their money is in the things like the cables.

Seriously I have 3 bluray players in my house, every one of them is hooked up with a monoprice cable and looks fantastic, and I am VERY ocd about that.
 
I bought extra cables for our B-R systems (we have 2) online for cheap.

As long as they meet specifications, they all work the same, that's why there are specifications.

Overpriced cables like Monster are a total and complete rip-off. You don't need them.
 
I install commercial audio/video equipment and some home theater...in your favorite search engine...do a search for Firefold. Good prices and quality. Never had a bad cable from them. Their HDMI cables are the only ones I've ever used.

John
 
No difference in a normal household situation. Don't spend more then 10-15 dollars unless you want the brag factor.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top