Daily Blog – Brian Florian – April 30, 2008: CBC’S MARKETPLACE QUESTIONS THE HIGHER PRICED HDMI CABLES.
CBC Television here in Canada has a long running no-commercial consumer watchdog type show called Marketplace. This week the show caught my eye because they took a look at higher priced HDMI cables versus generic.
The segment is available for download from their website.
April 30th, 2008 at 5:54 am
I haven’t watched it but I can say that I am constantly trying to “protect” my friends from overspending on HDMI cables. I know some people believe that more expensive cables are better (and, perhaps, in some circumstances with some equipment, it might make a difference) but even granting that there needs to be some sort of reasonable proportion. I have an uncle who (unfortunately for his wallet) bought a modest set up (40 inch Sony LCD, an entry level Yamaha receiver and a modest sat/sub speaker set from Yamaha–BTW, he did not consult me before his purchase). The cost of his gear came to 1800$ tax in before the cable. However, his one metre HDMI cable cost him 220$ (before taxes). I have a 25 FOOT cable from Blue Jeans Cable (26.95$US delivered to my door) and I brought it with me to his house and did a swap out. NO difference. NONE. My limited understanding of electronics may be flawed, but my understanding about cables carrying a digital signal is that they either work or they don’t. They are not, as I understand it, supposed to be prone to interference–their only limitation (if properly built) is signal dependent–beyond certain lengths the signal is too weak and requires a repeater. That, however, is not a cable limitation, again, if I understand correctly.