Help with HDTV Hookup

[trader1]

Any guidance on HDMI

Purchased an inexpensive HDMI cable off E bay for 42" 1080 flatscreen
Hooked it up to Optimum DVR box- Some minor interference on TV so I switched to the Component Cables (r,b,g and w/r audio), but noticed somewhat of a sound loss on TV- Cablevision insists there should be no difference-
Would spending $$ for the better HDMI cable work

 

[Chrome Dome]

Go to the Apple store. You can get a decent cable for $20, lot cheaper then other places

 

[lightweight]

Any guidance on HDMI

Purchased an inexpensive HDMI cable off E bay for 42" 1080 flatscreen
Hooked it up to Optimum DVR box- Some minor interference on TV so I switched to the Component Cables (r,b,g and w/r audio), but noticed somewhat of a sound loss on TV- Cablevision insists there should be no difference-
Would spending $$ for the better HDMI cable work

Coponent cables? throw away. Garbage. Cheaper HDMI cable, do make a difference. Not a good idea. Monster Cables is what everyone, or most use. They are really good and very popular.The ones, though that you should go and get, to use, Cinnimon. That is who makes them. Better than Monster cables and a lot cheaper. They are in a red and maybe blk box. Beside these 2, do not cheap out on HDMI cables. They do make a big difference.

 

[canthelpit]

LW, I rarely disagree with you, but in this case i must. The difference between a $100 set of Monsters and a $20 set of Phillips is negligable. DO NOT spend the money on monsters unless you have stock in them, they are a rip-off.

Search the net, log on to some hi-def discussion boards and you will hear the same thing.

 

[canthelpit]

any cable at monoprice will be great

 

[BigRiddah]

I'm going to second what canthelpit said & tell you to get cables from monoprice.com.

 

[out of control]

also if you press your settings button on your remote then find sound settings you may have to switch to HDMI sound.

 

[lightweight]

LW, I rarely disagree with you, but in this case i must. The difference between a $100 set of Monsters and a $20 set of Phillips is negligable. DO NOT spend the money on monsters unless you have stock in them, they are a rip-off.

Search the net, log on to some hi-def discussion boards and you will hear the same thing.

One reason I said to get Cinimon cables. A lot less than monster and better. I guess online pricing would be cheaper but if the cable is also cheaper, what good is it. I still disagree though and do think that there would be a difference in picture. Maybe I would not tell the difference but the experts do.

 

[backseat]

It's all digital. So if the picture is there it's perfect. It does not degrade, or get snowey, it disapears. The expensive cables are usauuly more mechanically robust and look pretty, maybe 24 gauge instead of 28 gauge.

 

[jwills500]

I get the biggest laugh from people who pay these high prices for cables. The stores play on their fears of inferior cables, back in the 70's, we had the gold braided cables with gold looking connectors which were better than plain old gray cables. I used to run frequency response tests for guys who insisted that they were better. The test showed no differance at all.
I bought 4 6' HDMI cables about 6 weeks ago for 2.85 each. They worked just fine. Even if you used the long lasting argument, the industry changes all the time. Composite video, S video, component video and now HDMI, whats next.

You people can buy what you want, but its your money, and Best Buy will gladly take it and laugh all the way to the bank.

 

[oldfool]

Costco

When in doubt, I buy from Costco and bring it back if I'm not happy.
Home Depot is also good on returns.
Is Sears still good?

 

[JusAsexToy4women]

I get the biggest laugh from people who pay these high prices for cables. The stores play on their fears of inferior cables, back in the 70's, we had the gold braided cables with gold looking connectors which were better than plain old gray cables. I used to run frequency response tests for guys who insisted that they were better. The test showed no differance at all.
I bought 4 6' HDMI cables about 6 weeks ago for 2.85 each. They worked just fine. Even if you used the long lasting argument, the industry changes all the time. Composite video, S video, component video and now HDMI, whats next.

You people can buy what you want, but its your money, and Best Buy will gladly take it and laugh all the way to the bank.

I bought the ones off ebay and they work great and like someone else said if you want to throw money away then buy the monster cable and while your at it get there power strip also to complete the set up

 

[JusAsexToy4women]

For the cablevision set up make sure you have the right HD box and set the box to auto picture size and you should be good to go. If you picture is still bad check the coax connections to make sure there all tight and if all else fails the problem maybe there drop to your location is bad .... mine gets water damage every year practically and they have to change it every year like clock work

 

[justme]

Trader1 -

You unintentionally walked into the audio world equivalent of asking for bbfs providers. I'd wager millions of dollars of productivity have been lost by people arguing the extent to which cabling matters. I have my own opinions, nut really they don't matter since usually I advise people to try things out and then decide for themselves.

One suggestion would be to head over to audiogon.com or another online classified site. Find yourself a cable that's relatively common i.e. one that many different people are selling. A commonly sold cable will have settled in at some kind of equilibrium price. Moreover, if you decide that it isn't worth the money, you can generally get most of your money back by putting it back up for sale.

For the most part, this thread hasn't devolved into a predictable cables thread. I'd like to see it stay that way.

 

[Axe]

For the most part, this thread hasn't devolved into a predictable cables thread. I'd like to see it stay that way.

'Cause guys here are more interested in pussy than cables.

 

[Ozzy]

Do not buy Monster cables. They are a waste of money.

Use any affordable HDMI if you want HD.... period! If one causes interference or you're not happy with the results, switch to another affordable brand. They use different compositions in the wire, shielding and casings so you will get different results from system to system.


If you have top shelf equipment..... and I don't mean the top shelf at Best Buy, then expensive cables might matter. And when I speak of top shelf I'm not talking Bose or Infinity or Polk. I'm talking $10,000 speakers (thats each speaker) and a hundred or two thousand more in amps and receivers the type that take a shit on a Harmon Kardon and wipe their ass with a Carver. And I say "might" because some top end cables will have varying affects on different top end equipment. And when I say top end cables I'm not talking about a 2 ft Monster HDMI that costs $79. I'm talking about a 2 ft HDMI cable that costs $1500.

 

[Ozzy]

Any guidance on HDMI

Purchased an inexpensive HDMI cable off E bay for 42" 1080 flatscreen
Hooked it up to Optimum DVR box- Some minor interference on TV so I switched to the Component Cables (r,b,g and w/r audio), but noticed somewhat of a sound loss on TV- Cablevision insists there should be no difference-
Would spending $$ for the better HDMI cable work

Cablevision doesn't know shit. You're talking to a monkey with a Cablevision handbook in front of them. Of course there's going to be a difference (however minor in most cases) when you switch connection methods. HDMI is the best, optical (if you have it) is good for audio. If you have optical out, run that to your receiver (which should be 7.1 or this info is moot) and run your HDMI for your video. On cheaper HDMI cable the audio and video can sometimes cause issues. Separating them by using an optical for audio should do the trick.

 

[ozmo]

i also vouch for monoprice cables. or any other cheap cables.

if the volume sounds low for some reason, it's probably not your cables. check your audio config. for example, HDMI will allow full digital audio, 7.1 surround or whatever. if you enable 7.1, but dont have a center channel in your room, the sound might seem dulled because most of the audio in a film will be coming through the center channel. whereas with an analog Left+Right channel cable, the audio gets downmixed to two channels, allowing you to hear all the sound in 2 speakers.

 

[trader1]

Pleased to say TV working fine

Ozzy hit it on the nose-- The Cablevision people don't really know crap.. 2 home service calls, 3 swappped boxes and 4 calls to customer service. My inexpensive HDMI cable worked fine- Settings on box/tv needed to be made compatable

An e mail to monoprice.com resulted in a fast response with superior customer service follow up

Thanks to all for valuable feedback