Bad Experience With Inexpensive HDMI Cable?

[bfalls]

Has anyone had issues related to inexpensive HDMI cables? I've seen several 3m cables on ebay for about $14.00 shipped and wondered how they stand up to more expensive Monster cables.

[edtyct]

Hi bfalls,

I PM'ed you a couple of weeks back. Sorry you missed it. Chances are the cheap HDMI cables will be just fine in a fairly short run. One eager ebay merchant (Lenexpo, I think) has been offering inexpensive DVI and HDMI cables for a while. I've tried them at 3 to 6 ft. or so without incident. You don't have to pay Monster prices for solid performance (I'm not a Monster basher, but cables can be overengineered for particular uses).

Ed

[topspeed]

My wife and I A/B'd a Belden hdmi cable against the one supplied with my HD stb, even going so far as to have the other one switch them out so we wouldn't know which one we were watching. Neither of us could notice one whit of difference. Save your cash.

[bfalls]

Thanks for the feedback. I've ordered Dishnetwork's ViP622 HD DVR and expect to have it in a couple of weeks. I plan to take advantage of the HDMI connection to my Hitachi 57S715 HD RPTV.

Edtyct, I did notice the pm about a week ago, but wasn't in a position to take advantage of your offer. I've followed your posts with much interest for some time. I've just taken a position with SonyDADC New Technology dept. in Terre Haute IN and have been very busy. We provide audio/video authoring for DVD, CD, Enhanced CD, UMD, and SACD, so I'm trying to absorb a lot of new info. We also provide the ARccOS and SecuROM copy protection.

I still have my Sencore 304, but don't have a lot of time to do ISF calibrations. I wanted badly to check the Spider product against an ISF calibration, but felt I hadn't the time to do it justice . I didn't want to taint opinions for either process with a less than adequate effort. The Spider sounds interesting and uses comparable methods to ISF. If it provides the results I've read so far at a price in reach of the average audio/video enthusiast, it's very exciting. Thanks again for the opinions on the cable. I look forward to finally watch HD at a reasonable price.

[edtyct]

bfalls,

Thanks for the update. The new job seems pretty exciting. I hope that you'll be able to share some of the arcane features of disk authoring with us (minus trade secrets, of course). Didn't Sony do the AVIA test disks? I'm not familiar with the Sencore 304, unless you mean the VP 403. Now, that's a nice little unit to have on hand. Evidently, the Sypder Pro model, which apparently costs over $2000, is a fully functional ISF instrument. The consumer Spyder, which the ISF endorses, doesn't go as deep, but it purports to maximize the user controls--a very valuable commodity in its own right.

Ed

[bfalls]

Sorry it is the 403 model (my lysdexia is showing, pun intended:-) I've only been with the company for a few weeks. I'm in the process of learning detailed DVD structure in preparation for ARccOS training. Of course, I couldn't reveal any trade secrets. I worked in IS before coming to SonyDADC and I'm a firm believer in protection of intellectual prorerty. I have friends who've worked years developing video games and believe it would be tragic for them to loose anything to piracy.

With software and sensors, the 403 is pretty pricey. The average consumer doesn't care about perfection, so a $2000 unit even with it's limitations, can be very useful.

[bobsticks]

...to echo Topspeed's experience. I let the salesman talk me into "upgrading" to the Deluxe Gold model DVI cable only to find after testing it on two different HDTVs, that there was no decernable difference. Again these were six-foot runs and so I can't speculate as to quality over extended lengths of cable.