A few quick ?'s on cables

[mainiac]

1. Does the quality of cables differ among brands? If so, which are the good and the bad brands?

2. Does it matter if the cable says DVI to HDMI or HDMI to DVI (in terms of connecting) in order to hook up a computer to a tv screen?

3. Do you still get HDTV quality video if you use a vga cable, but you use adapters to get it to fit dvi or hdmi slots?

Thanks for the help.

[Lespaul20]

1. Does the quality of cables differ among brands? If so, which are the good and the bad brands?

Generally speaking, the pricier it is the better quality. You may not notice any difference though.

2. Does it matter if the cable says DVI to HDMI or HDMI to DVI (in terms of connecting) in order to hook up a computer to a tv screen?

Both DVI and HDMI have Female connectors at the device end. So it doesn't matter.

3. Do you still get HDTV quality video if you use a vga cable, but you use adapters to get it to fit dvi or hdmi slots?

Depends on the device. A VGA type cable is capable of HD resolution but the device may not accept certain resolutions.

What is the situation that you are intriguing about?

[hitchface]

Generally, a higher quality cable will shield your components from electrical noise. That isn't just cables though. Good surge protector, UPC, and cables all combine to make a nice, clean power delivery. That basically means less background noise and fewer visual artifacts, a far as what you can see. It is also healthier for your components to be shielded from 'dirty' power.

I'm no expert, but I do care about quality sound and video. If you compare some bottom of the barrel cables with something from Monster (http://www.monstercable.com/), you'll probably notice a difference.

[mainiac]

What is the situation that you are intriguing about?

I was just wondering if the type of connection mattered or the cable mattered in terms of getting an hd picture. Thanks for the help, you answered all of my questions.

[Force Flow]

Generally speaking, the pricier it is the better quality. You may not notice any difference though.

That's not really an accurate measurement. There are lots of cable brands out there that are overpriced and aren't any better than the generic cables you'd find in newegg or staples.

Monster Cable, for instance, is notorious for price gouging

I was just wondering if the type of connection mattered or the cable mattered in terms of getting an hd picture.
There are gold-plated connectors available, but I haven't seen much difference between those and the standard steel/nickel/whatever connectors other than price. Shielding is probably a bit more more important than the type of metal on the connectors

[Lespaul20]

That's not really an accurate measurement. There are lots of cable brands out there that are overpriced and aren't any better than the generic cables you'd find in newegg or staples.

Monster Cable, for instance, is notorious for price gouging


Thats why I said generally speaking. I agree that Monster brand cables has always been overpriced and you are mostly just paying for the name.

I would think that $10 versus $30 cable the $30 might have better shielding, used higher quality copper and/or better connectors. The actually performance increase, like I said, may not be enough to be noticed.

[sgtspector]

Monster Cable, for instance, is notorious for price gouging

I believe that best buy just changed their employee purchase policy because of the huge markup on Monster products. Most items can be purchased for 5% above cost I think but monster cable products are no longer in that program.

[mojo]

With digital cables, such as HDMI and DVI, cable quality doesn't matter a whit. You either get no picture, or a perfect picture. Check out http://monoprice.com for some great prices on cables.

[Hi Ho]

Generally speaking, the pricier it is the better quality. You may not notice any difference though.
The cable industry is full of more snake oil than all other industries combined. Companies like MonsterCable and AudioQuest have consumers believing that "if it's expensive it must be better".

That couldn't be further from the truth. I second mojo's suggestion of Monoprice. BlueJeans (http://www.bluejeanscable.com/) is another good source. When working with HDMI cables up to 6ft in length just about any decently made cable will work perfectly. When you get into longer lengths the deficiencies in lesser quality cables become apparent. You still don't have to pay an arm and a leg to get a good one though. My 35 foot 24 AWG $60 HDMI cable from Monoprice works great, just as good as the $725 AudioQuest cable I had borrowed from work (no, that's not a typo). AudioQuest's 12 meter HDMI-3 costs $1,375. :eek:

That isn't just cables though. Good surge protector, UPC, and cables all combine to make a nice, clean power delivery. That basically means less background noise and fewer visual artifacts, a far as what you can see. It is also healthier for your components to be shielded from 'dirty' power.
Unless one has very dirty and unstable power coming into his home or the power supplies in the components are so poorly designed that they cannot reject normal levels of noise the chances that a power conditioner will make any appreciable difference in audio or video quality are next to nil. I'm not saying that having a power conditioner or better yet a UPS is a bad thing, it just won't improve the audio or visual aspects of a system in any detectable way unless there is something wrong in the first place. It can help prolong the life of components and protect them from surges.

With digital cables, such as HDMI and DVI, cable quality doesn't matter a whit. You either get no picture, or a perfect picture.
That's not completely true. There is an in between when it comes to video cables like DVI and HDMI. You can get sparkles. When you have them it is very obvious though.

There are gold-plated connectors available, but I haven't seen much difference between those and the standard steel/nickel/whatever connectors other than price. Shielding is probably a bit more more important than the type of metal on the connectors
Gold plating does nothing to improve the quality of the signal. In fact, gold is a worse conductor than copper. Still, it really makes no difference. I have used cables with all sorts of metals plating the conductors and have yet to see or hear any differences. The main advantage of gold is that it does not tarnish.

I don't know of any properly conducted double blind tests that have proven that any "high end" cables provide any audible or visible improvement when compared to a properly made "cheap" cable. They do a very good job of cleaning out wallets though.

3. Do you still get HDTV quality video if you use a vga cable, but you use adapters to get it to fit dvi or hdmi slots?
I'm not sure I understand what you're saying here. You can't simply use an adapter to make a VGA output work with an HDMI input. VGA is analog. HDMI is digital. You would need an analog to digital converter. DVI is a different story. Not all of the pins on a DVI jack are actually used for the digital video signal, provided it's a certain type of DVI jack. The rest, depending on the component, are used for analog VGA signals and it may be possible to use an adapter if the connector on the display is DVI-I. See HERE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvi) for reference.

[hitchface]

Um...that was LesPaul that made that 1st quote.

Either way, I happen to live in an area that tends to feed dirty power to the homes. The grid is aged, and Alberta power in general isn't all that reputable. Around here, protecting your stuff is pretty important. Especially when a thunderstorm comes around, you are nearly guaranteed some sort of sag or surge.

[Hi Ho]

Oops :o Sorry, fixed now.

I'm not against power conditioners. I use them myself and will be upgrading to a UPS for my theater equipment. I just don't expect any improvements in performance. There are those who will spend thousands on a three foot power cord or some voodoo power conditioner and swear that it magically improves every aspect of a system two-fold. That's what drives me nuts. :)

[hitchface]

Yeah, I do hear ya on that. Going overboard like that is worthless. However, some cables will likely be built to a bad standard. I'm not saying to go overly expensive, but if my cables have a single strand of copper wiring running around in them, it wouldn't take much for that wire to give. I guess I should say that good cables won't improve performance, but rather bad cables will deteriorate it in some cases.

[glc]

I used a $21.58 6 foot Belkin PureAV HDMI cable from Sam's to connect my HD cable box to my HDTV. Works just fine.

[Lespaul20]

Yeah, I do hear ya on that. Going overboard like that is worthless. However, some cables will likely be built to a bad standard. I'm not saying to go overly expensive, but if my cables have a single strand of copper wiring running around in them, it wouldn't take much for that wire to give. I guess I should say that good cables won't improve performance, but rather bad cables will deteriorate it in some cases.


I just about added something like that in my last post. The slightly more expensive cables may last longer and might be worth the extra $10. I have has many guitar cable and I've had some cheap cables that I might not have heard the difference but the didn't hold up as well.

Just to be clear, I am in now way am I endorsing spending Hundreds of Dollars on cables.

[Jaggannath]

In fact, gold is a worse conductor than copper. Still, it really makes no difference. I have used cables with all sorts of metals plating the conductors and have yet to see or hear any differences. The main advantage of gold is that it does not tarnish.


Sorry Hi Ho, can't let this one slip by... gold is actually a better conductor than copper. The only metal that is argued to be a better conductor is silver, although this is up for dispute still. However, as you stated, it is like copper in that it is susceptible to tarnishing, unlike gold.

[Hi Ho]

I had the facts completely wrong on that one Jaggannath. It just so happened that I had been watching a show about copper on the history channel and I could have sworn that they said copper was a better conductor than gold. Now I have no idea what they were talking about. I'm going to have to see if that show is still on my Tivo and check that. :)

EDIT: Nope, it got knocked off the now playing list. :(

[Jaggannath]

Copper is just convenient and cheap, but gold is better, hence it's use in small applications... hey, we all make mistakes etc., I'm not perfect (although I'm the closest person to it I know :D)

[glc]

Copper is far from cheap these days - but yes, it's cheap compared to gold.