[jazzcourier]

I am looking down the long.windowless corridor of HDMI cables...One for my Direct TV box to the TV and one from my DVD player to the TV. Stock cables look OK,but several people have mentioned upgrades and i have looked at a bunch of these cables and want some opinions,comments,ideas and user testimonials to some very good but not too expensive one meter cables to fill my needs.Thanks!

[bpape]

Actually, OPPO sells HDMI cables.  I've had great luck with them.  They're well built and are reasonably priced.

Bryan

[jvc]

Don't get fooled by all the hype of expensive cables. HDMI cables are digital, which means it's passing a bunch of ones and zeros. So, there's either a signal or there isn't. No in between. No need to spend $100 or more for a cable, when a $6 - $10 will do just as good of a job. Some people will disagree, but a lot of A/B tests have been run, and no one was able to tell a difference between the inexpensive and expensive cables.

A couple of places that sells very good cables at reasonable prices are:
http://www.monoprice.com/home/index.asp
http://www.bluejeanscable.com/
These sites are very well known and respected for their products and services.
Good luck!

[jtwrace]

DH Labs HDMI cables.

http://silversonic.com/docs/products/VideoCables.html#HDMI

~$70 per meter

[eclein]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002L5R78/ref=oss_product

Hasn't failed yet and I've had it 8 months, used daily, got a $60 Sony cable also thats very good bought at Walmart-did a blind A,B test and guessed cheaper was better everytime-depending on your budget get what makes sense. I'm sure if I had the money to buy exotic versions I'd probably try one. FWIW

[ted_b]

No reason to spend more than monoprice (make sure you get high speed HDMI so you are good to go with Deep Color, SACD, etc.) in 99% of the installations. 
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10240&cs_id=1024008&p_id=4956&seq=1&format=2

[jazzcourier]

Ones and zero's...OK now i got it.This is the kind of  shoot from the hip comments i had hoped for.Thanks guys!

[ajzepp]

I don't necessarily agree that they're all the same and you can just go with the cheapest. I've had handshake issues with two cheaper HDMI cables when I was on a run over 10'. That being said, I DO wholeheartedly recommend blue jeans cables. It's the only one made in the USA (last I knew) and I have a 25' cable with no handshake issues at all.

[low.pfile]

There was a video of a IEEE or similar seminar a few years ago with a Belden rep discussing quality of HDMI signals.... that is where I learned about Eye Patterns. The BlueJeans site covers the topic if you are into the science: http://www.bluejeanscable.com/articles/belden-hdmi-update.htm

I had Monoprice HDMI prior to using Bluray, now using Bluejeans F2 cable at about 1.5m with my BR. I have been pleased with both. A very good product at a reasonable price.

[ctviggen]

Don't get fooled by all the hype of expensive cables. HDMI cables are digital, which means it's passing a bunch of ones and zeros. So, there's either a signal or there isn't. No in between.

Why do people think this about digital?  With digital, there could still be a signal and errors.  I don't know what transmission method HDMI uses, but even if they use error correcting codes, many good error correcting codes can only correct a single bit error and determine that a multibit error has occurred (but cannot correct this).  If no error correction coding is used, then errors can occur. 

The fact is that errors can and do occur in digital all the time. 

[ted_b]

I don't necessarily agree that they're all the same and you can just go with the cheapest. I've had handshake issues with two cheaper HDMI cables when I was on a run over 10'. That being said, I DO wholeheartedly recommend blue jeans cables. It's the only one made in the USA (last I knew) and I have a 25' cable with no handshake issues at all.

I don't either, but it's not about price per se, it's about bandwidth.  Blue Jeans and Monoprice ( my recommendation as of late..I own several from both, as well as expensive Nordost, etc.) do a good job differentiating older HDMI 1.1-capable cables from the better category HDMI 1.3a+ stuff.  It's well known all over the A/V forums that earlier category 1 would have handshake issues at 10 ft plus.  That being said, $8 category 2 cables will not, even at 25-30 ft.  The heavy Blue Jeans Series 1 cables ar great for 25+ ft.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Actually, OPPO sells HDMI cables.  I've had great luck with them.  They're well built and are reasonably priced.

Bryan

Ditto. I've got a 25' cord that was less than $20 (iirc) I use everyday to my projector. Works great.
I've also heard good things about monoprice and bluejeans, but have used neither.

Bob

[soundbitten1]

I called the local tv cable company and they said a HDMI cable comes with the box.

[zybar]

I don't necessarily agree that they're all the same and you can just go with the cheapest. I've had handshake issues with two cheaper HDMI cables when I was on a run over 10'. That being said, I DO wholeheartedly recommend blue jeans cables. It's the only one made in the USA (last I knew) and I have a 25' cable with no handshake issues at all.

+1 

I use bluejeans throughout the house.

George

[gkinberg]

What about the gauge of the wire. It seems that 28 AWG is most common. Is there a time when one should go with a lower gauge such as 24?

In addtion, monoprice has HDMI cables w/Ferrite Cores while oppo and BJC do not. Important or useless?

[Phil A]

+1 

I use bluejeans throughout the house.

George

Same here.  I went with their best cables - a 50 footer to the main system projector and I believe a 30 footer for the basement projector.  I also got them between some of the components.  I also have some monoprice ones in the bedroom system and ran 15 foot monoprice ones between the bedroom system and main system (one going each way) so when I have a pre/pro in the main system with HDMI, the systems will be interconnected with HDMI (I also ran digital coax each way).

[Red Dragon Audio]

+1 for
http://www.bluejeanscable.com/

I've used their HDMI cables on every custom theater installation. 

[BobC]

Any opinions on the Audioquest "Pearl" or "Forest"?

[jvc]

An article about HDMI cables on MSNBC.com
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38731070/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/
Enjoy!

[Phil A]

I might experiment a bit with them for audio, although I'm a bit skeptical (but willing to try) about differences.  The reason I would try it is that I have a modded Oppo BDP-83 and an HDMI Switch/Audio De-embedder.  It separates the HDMI audio via coax (or toslink) and I take the coax out of the switch into my Bryston DAC.  The Oppo chip is limited to 24/88.2kHz PCM audio from SACD and the Bryston upsamples it to 176.4kHz and so far I prefer listening via the Bryston DAC.  I also find while the Oppo can pass full resolution DVD-A (192kHz), its coax output is so-so.  So as soon as I catch up with stuff perhaps over the winter I might try a couple of different HDMI cables for audio only.  The easy part about comparisons is that the HDMI Switch/Audio De-embedder (which can pass 192kHz) is a 4-way switch with a remote.