HDMI cables - why are they costly?

Hello,

Hope you are doing fine. Glad to be here with another blog.

One of the so many Hot things happening today are High Definition (HD) TVs. so many brands and so many types and the good thing is they are getting cheaper and affordable. Its time we change from the standard definition (SD) CRT TV and start enjoying HD in greater details and brilliant colors!

OK so you brought yourself a nice HD LCD/LED TV. you figure out that you also need HD player and a HDMI cable. you can buy a BluRay HD player to play your HD DVDs or a digital HD media player to play HD videos from your hard drive and pen drive. and obviously you need a HDMI cable to connect the HD player to your HD TV.

Lets get to know what HDMI is and what the cable does.

HDMI is High Definition Multimedia Interface . Its is a standard that was created to define how multimedia devices would connect together. the idea is to put both video signal and audio signal onto a single cable! This is a digital technology. the HDMI cable has 19 pins and carries the audio and video signal in digital format. This single cable can support full HD video (1080p) and 7.1 channel surround sound.

So when you have to buy a HDMI cable buy a cheaper one ! yes your heard me "a cheaper one"

I know this would surprise everyone. The sales guy always suggest a high quality cable that costs a 1000 bucks! or more, of course why not, we are talking about full HD video and 7.1 channel surround audio which is high quality and obviously you need a high quality cable?

Well the truth is its a digital cable, and quality of the cable has nothing to do with quality of the signal and hence the picture itself.
This is unlike the analog video cable where you need cables of pure copper for loss less signal transmission.

If you hear the sales guy talk about " oxygen free copper " " gold plated " " heavy gauge wire " " ultra high speed " " high density shielding " don't buy this crap. This has nothing to do with the picture quality. people will tell anything and convince you to buy a costly HDMI cable in the name of quality. Its not that HDMI cables are costly, there are made to be costly so you end up spending your hard earned money on all the high quality stuff the cable comes with and all of which has no effect on picture quality!

you only need to know 2 things. HDMI version 1.3 and 1.4 . the version will be printed on the cable, if you don't see any it will be 1.3 and will work just fine.

If you have to watch 1080p video with 7.1 channel audio you need a HDMI cable of version 1.3
If you have to watch 1080p video in 3D and with 7.1 channel audio you need a HDMI cable of version 1.4
version 1.4 also carries Ethernet (Internet) besides audio and video signals.

Most HDMI cables sold today are usually 1.3 version so you don't have to worry about versions really. You get a decent HDMI cable for about 200 to 500 INR

If you are spending anything more than 500 INR you are insanely rich!

If you already have a so called " high quality " HDMI cable, that came in high quality packing with high quality rubbish printed on it, replace it with a cheap HDMI cable (I bet a 200 INR cable will work fine) and try to find at least 6 differences!

Good Day.
vn