HDMI leads
 

Have just been to Comet to buy a new TV and the salesman tried to convince me to buy a new HDMI lead for £60. He said the one you get with the V+ box isn't good enough.
I'm completely new to all this - does anyone have any advice please

Re: HDMI leads
 

Don't buy it!!

The one provided will be good enough. :)

Have a quick look at this

http://www.avforums.com/forums/sky-h...-big-scam.html

Re: HDMI leads
 

I guarantee this will open up a minefield so I am going to say this then dive for cover!

HDMI leads are digital which means they send nothing more than 1s and 0s so the signal will either get there or it wont. The picture wont be any better or worse.

The only thing I would say would be don't buy the cheapest going just because the build quality may be crap but you shouldn't need to spend more than £10 or £15 tops.

Right i'm off!!!

Re: HDMI leads
 

Had an argument with a salesman in Comet a while back about this. Tried to tell me the colours would be more vivid with their 60quid cable. I would have loved to have got into a proper technical 'to do' with him but the missus dragged me away.

No need to spend more than a fiver on a cable. Only spend more if you want to go more than a few metres.

Re: HDMI leads
 

Ha, Comet salesmen are the easiest people to con. Spout some technical crap at them & they will agree with you. £60.00, my backside.

Re: HDMI leads
 

They want to sell you that lead because it is so overpriced due to the profit markup. It's how the store makes it's money from the gullible punter.

Re: HDMI leads
 

My mate spent about £60 on some for his TV and he insists the picture is better but its just 'Don't want to admit I wasted £60' Syndrome

Anybody who has spent a lot of money on them does the same but you offer to bring you £10 lead round to see the difference they will make an excuse not to do it

Re: HDMI leads
 

As already said by Oatie, if your cable only has to be up to about 3 metres you can safely get a much cheaper cable. It's only when you start approaching 5 metres plus that a more expensive cable is needed.

Re: HDMI leads
 

I asked don't know why I asked one of their sales staff the following question a year ago:

question - will there be a HD Freeview integrated TV in the foreseeable future

Answer - SKY will never let it happen

Rest my case

Re: HDMI leads
 

Wasn't trying to sell you a Sky package as well by any chance?

Re: HDMI leads
 

No but he was trying to sell me a VHS player though ;)

Re: HDMI leads
 

Of course eveyone knows that HDMI cables are digital and therefore only send ones and zeros. Unfortunately everyone is wrong. HDMI in common with all copper (and indeed wireless) signals are NOT digital, they actually carry an analogue waveform on which is superimposed a digital signal. In simple terms the voltages on the cables are constantly changing (hence analogue) if it's above a certain value then the receiving equipment interprets it as a 1 and if it's below that value then it's a 0.

Now the longer the cable, the more the signal degrades to the point when it's no longer possible to accurately distinguish between what should be 1s and 0s and at that point the picture will fail completely. Also timing the signals is absolutely crucial, if the timing slides out of tolerance again the signal collapses, at the high frequencies involved, the cable will act as an aerial radiating radio waves out and picking up interference. This is helped by twisting the pairs of wires in a particular way. Get the number of twists per meter wrong and again the signal can degrade faster than it should.

Bend the cable and one set of wires on the outside of the will stretch more than those on the inside. Bend it too much and the difference in length can (and does) cause timing errors. HDCP is particularly sensitive to this, if HDCP doesn't handshake properly (and it does it every two seconds) then you simply won't get a picture.

So we all need to go out any pay hundreds of pounds for cables? Well no. For most cases when we are only talking about a metre or so the tolerances in the cable specs are enough that any old £3 cable should work just fine. However I'd be tempted to pay a little more, say £10 or so to be a bit more reassured that the cable has been manufactured properly.

Certainly the two or three meter £200-£300 cables that you sometimes see for sale promising much better picture quality than a £20 cable are really taking the p**s but I just wanted to say that HDMI is actually a very complex system and the oft repeated, 'well it's digital so it either works or it doesn't; and a £2 cable is just as good as a £500 one' just isn't true. HDMI cable are NOT all the same but unless you are dealing with long lengths or are in a particularly noisy (electrically speaking) environment, you really don't have to go overboard.

Re: HDMI leads
 

Thanks for all you help - I thought I'd probably done the right thing by saying no but it's always best to speak to those in the know. he tried to sell me an extended warranty as well. I soon put him right on that one.

Re: HDMI leads
 

Ha ha! Nice one! Bet you had to say 'no' to the warranty at least 5 times...

"But what if the first 3 months where free..." :dozey: Just give me the bloody TV!!

Re: HDMI leads
 

Well said, :) I think I eventually got the same point over in this thread. :argue:

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...php?t=33654072

I got my voice heard on pages three and four.

There really is some cr@p spouted on both side of the argument. For a domestic application I am convinced that it IS worth paying a bit more for a cable. I have set my budget at the £20 mark.

I have read some reports that HDMI devices can synchronise more slowly with a poor quality cable. If nothing else, better quality cables are gold plated which reduces oxidisation on the contacts. If you have paid say £700 for a 40" screen, £175 for a Bluray why not £20 for a cable. Thats before you start considering AV Amps and Surround Sound.

Well thats my two cents worth.;)

Re: HDMI leads
 

to be fair, they're just doing what the company asks them to do.

more than likely they don't agree with blatant fleecing of punters either but this is how stores make money, which is how employees get paid.

in the current climate, a job is better than none at all.
am sure theres parts of your job or things your employer does that you disagree with.

I don't agree with pushing Norton 360 on all my PC customers at Currys, despite what a lot of people think, its actually a decent AV system now (just look at AV comparatives.org for proof) but giving the customer choice is good customer service.

However, Norton sales is what we're judged on and if 55% of my laptop/PC customers don't take it, I get a *******ing on my next meeting with my manager.

the best way to deal with the HDMI sales people is ask them to demonstrate a cheap cable and an expensive one and show you the difference.

all the Currys superstores have various TVs setup showing you the pic difference between the types of cables from SVHS upwards.

what they dont have is a comparison between 2 scarts or 2 HDMI's

during my training I had a blazing row with the seminar leader about ********ting customers about HDMIs.

his reasoning was that since we make so little money on the TVs, we've got to make money some other way
the only things that are profitable for likes of Comet/Currys are:
Extended warranties
overpriced AV cables
printer cartridges
mobile broadband contracts

the average PC/Laptop/TV makes around 10-11% profit.

Re: HDMI leads
 

i just bought a couple of hdmi leads 1.5 meters for 75p each (phillips make)from tescos and i cant see any difference in picture quality from a 75p cable to the one i paid £60 fools and thier money are easily parted

Re: HDMI leads
 

You fool! :dunce: :p:

Re: HDMI leads
 

What I would like to know is what is so wrong about extended warranties ? I think they are a worthwhile thing to have, my Daughter bought a £1500 Sony Bravia from a catalogue firm,admittedly it was overpriced as most things are from catalogues,a month after the 12 month guarantee ran out the telly failed,she was quoted close to £200 for repairs from two different sources,she didnt have the money :shocked: if only she had paid the £60 pound odd for the two years extended guarantee,it would have saved a lot of heartache ....

Re: HDMI leads
 

I recently bought a 32" LG lcd tv from currys for £329. The guy would only offer me 1 type of warrenty that was going to cost £129 extra. If I had been offered a warrenty for a resonable price I would probably of taken it but when its more than a third of the actual cost of the tv I don't think its worth it.

Re: HDMI leads
 

I'm glad someone linked to our epic discussion about HDMI leads last time....!

I think we all learnt something ;)

Re: HDMI leads
 

Well assuming the fault was the result of an inherrent defect (which unless she was abusing the tv it was) then the TV would still bee covered by a garentee, the consumer protection act and the sale of goods act. which simply states that a product should bee free from faults and suitable specs for a "resonable period". for a tv in that price range the resonable period would bee 2-3 years ;). Also the biggest problem with extended warrentee is that they are over priced for what they do. for £60 you could get a warrente direct from an insurance company that would cover 3-4 products :)

Re: HDMI leads
 

I got a Samsung Bluray player from Comet and the salesman tried to get me to buy an expensive HDMI lead.

I said you don't need an expensive one and he said that that is also what the Sony sales rep had told him - but they are told to push the high end leads.

Re: HDMI leads
 

When I was researching the purchase of my Panansonic TH42PX80, I went to Comet. The sales person also tried to sell me an expensive lead. He told me, would you believe, that if I used a cheap lead, the warranty would be invalid. :shocked:

On the subject of warranties, personally I would only trust a retailer who gave me a five year warranty, with an item of this value, that is why I always buy from John Lewis.

Re: HDMI leads
 

CAn someone tell me where I could get a HDMI to RCA lead, preferably from the high street and one thats not going to break the bank!

Re: HDMI leads
 

http://www.sourcingmap.com/hdmi-male...l?currency=GBP

Though whether it works for what you want to do or not I don't know

Re: HDMI leads
 

I find the Richer Sounds Warranty is a fair price. 10% upfront the value of the product for a five year warranty. Seems pretty good to me. They also provide loan equipment and for larger TV's, 32" and above I think, home collection and return.

Re: HDMI leads
 

Well since it is digital is should be very easy to produce a "tester" that would identify cables with less than 100% effective.

Re: HDMI leads
 

What are you connecting? HDMI is normally a digital signal RCA analogue so a cable will do is chagne the connectors at each and won't effect the signal.

For example I don't think you could take the HDMI socket on the V+ and use a cable to connect it to the Component connectors on a TV.

JJ

Re: HDMI leads
 

The John Lewis one is free and provides the same benefits.

Re: HDMI leads
 

I guess it comes down to product selection and store location. john Lewis is the exception. Unless you get a special promotion then warranties are generally much more expensive than Richer Sounds.

You pays your money and takes your choice...:)