The HDMI cable that comes with V+, is this sufficient?

[higgsfield]

It's easy to criticise Curry's employees - but you should remember that Currys doesn't pay well, so cannot hire the most qualified/motivated staff and doesn't train them well either. If they're treated so poorly, is it any wonder they're not the most convincing salesforce.

[suggsy]

I am one of these laymen, i have a 42 inch panasonic viera 1080p plasma, i 'ahem' was convinced to buy a £50 hdmi cable from said currys, i was impressed with the excellent picture and sound, then i bought a 37 inch LG lcd for another room, then used the 'normal' hdmi supplied by Virgin, guess what, superb picture and sound.

Here endeth my first expensive lesson.

Btw, i think in my opinion, and i'm far from 'technical', is to by the £10 or so hdmi cable, but obviously i only make sure it is 1080p compatible as is both my tv's, then i think that will be and is absolutely fine.

[TheDon]

Originally Posted by higgsfield

It's easy to criticise Curry's employees - but you should remember that Currys doesn't pay well, so cannot hire the most qualified/motivated staff and doesn't train them well either. If they're treated so poorly, is it any wonder they're not the most convincing salesforce.

It's not the employees that get criticised, but the company (and actually pretty much any one that sells tvs and interconnects) for pushing overpriced, over marked up, cables to customers that don't have a clue just so as they can profit to them. That they're not the most convincing salesmen is irrelevant, the products they are pushing are pretty much snake oil, and better training and more convincing sales pitches do not change that.

Most people when they go to buy a TV don't know the difference between most TVs, they go on the showroom looks (and the TVs with the highest markups will be set up to have a better picture) and what the salesmen say. It's not really the salesmen's fault, they're just doing their jobs, the companies behind them push them to sell the highest markup items. It's not just currys, but even specialist outlets like richer sounds (who'll always be pushing LG sets for instance) do the same.

The customer just gets bombarded with tech spiel that is meaningless to what they want, and so just go along with what they are told. They don't know that there's no difference between a budget 1.8m no name cable and a monster oxygen free cable, they just know all the stats they're told in the store that makes the monster cable far superior on paper.

If the salesmen started telling them the truth they'd soon be out of a job, and it's even worse when they're on commission because then they're pretty much forced into pushing the higher markup items just to make a normal wage.

Luckily with the internet being what it is these days more and more people are actually researching what they're spending their money on and go in knowing exactly what they want.

[higgsfield]

Precisely!

Originally Posted by TheDon

..The customer just gets bombarded with tech spiel that is meaningless ..

bit OT but that makes me cringe with womens cosmetics on TV

..this hair shampoo contain "info-moby-oxy-labideans"...

like some woman at homes gonna go:

"oh great - i wondered when i was gonna be able to get "info-moby-oxy-labideans" - i buy a bottle now

what cringes me is the advertiser just say it like everyone knows what they're yakkin about - probably half the time women just feel like they 'ought' to know what they are

.

[EBD3000]

Originally Posted by higgsfield

It's easy to criticise Curry's employees - but you should remember that Currys doesn't pay well, so cannot hire the most qualified/motivated staff and doesn't train them well either. If they're treated so poorly, is it any wonder they're not the most convincing salesforce.

Its obviously company policy so I blame them.

[TheDon]

Originally Posted by JethroUK

bit OT but that makes me cringe with womens cosmetics on TV

..this hair shampoo contain "info-moby-oxy-labideans"...

like some woman at homes gonna go:

"oh great - i wondered when i was gonna be able to get "info-moby-oxy-labideans" - i buy a bottle now

what cringes me is the advertiser just say it like everyone knows what they're yakkin about - probably half the time women just feel like they 'ought' to know what they are

.

Don't forget that specialised ingredient found in almost all beauty products... Aqua!

I still don't understand why they can't just list it as water. It reminds me of the campaigns to get hydroxilic acid and dihydrogen monoxyide (both just chemical names for water) banned due to the severe health risks.

[cli70488]

In my case I was not given an HDMI connecting lead when they fitted the V+ Box so purchased one , which was cheap ,and it does the job well. Just another example of the rather poor service VM are providing.

[Hom3r]

I was walking around my local Comet when I saw them selling a 3 metre Monster 400 HDMI cable for £20 was worth over £150 so I bought it.

I haven't noticed any major difference.

[peanut]

Originally Posted by Hom3r

I was walking around my local Comet when I saw them selling a 3 metre Monster 400 HDMI cable for £20 was worth over £150 so I bought it.

I haven't noticed any major difference.

So no major difference. So what are the minor differences you've noticed?

[TheDon]

Originally Posted by cli70488

In my case I was not given an HDMI connecting lead when they fitted the V+ Box so purchased one , which was cheap ,and it does the job well. Just another example of the rather poor service VM are providing.

If the installer doesn't leave one then you can phone them up to request they send one out to you free of charge. Just another example of the great service VM are providing.

[Begize]

Officially, there are two standards of HDMI cable - 1 and 2. Type 1 cables are tested to 75Mhz which is supposed to be equivalent to it carrying a 1080i signal. Type 2 cables are tested to 340Mhz which means it can easily carry a 1080p signal (and higher).

At the moment in the UK, most HD TV broadcasts are in 720p with a few of Skys in 1080i (I think) and it's unlikely to change. So, even if Virgin were to start broadcasting some of the Sky HD stuff, a type 1 cable will be enough - in other words, a cheap one!

So, like everyone says, there will be no visible difference at all on a normal sized screen over normal distances. The only time you might want to consider one is if you are using a large screen (over 60") which is a distance from a 1080p source.

[philmacavity]

On a similar vein, I shelled out £15 for an optical TOSlink cable from Maplins & to be honest, I don't think it's that much better than my old cambridge Atlantic audio leads I used before!

[Tezcatlipoca]

[HD content on V+ & Sky+HD is broadcast at 1080i, not 720p.]


Even if you did need a category 2 (aka "HDMI v1.3", aka "High Speed") HDMI cable, there is still no need whatsoever to buy a monstrously priced one...

[hedgie]

Originally Posted by philmacavity

On a similar vein, I shelled out £15 for an optical TOSlink cable from Maplins & to be honest, I don't think it's that much better than my old cambridge Atlantic audio leads I used before!

I have some Cambridge Audio Atlantic and some Pacific cables, I thought they were a very good compromise between cost and performance for analogue signals. For me the advantage of the Optical cables on a digital platform is the smaller form factor, they are easier to route and hide and less prone to interference and pick-up.

On the subject of HDMI and digital signal transfer in general, I always subscribed to the concept of a poor quality cable introducing errors so was prepared to upgrade the standard Virgin cable. The fact is it has been very reliable, I simply have not seen any need to upgrade.