HDMI Cable Buyers Guide

HDMI stands for “High-Definition Multimedia Interface” and is a cable for connecting audio and video components. It is only capable of carrying a digital signal and so replaces some of the older analogue cables such as RF coaxial cable, composite video, S-Video, SCART, and component video.

It is especially popular now as a way of connecting DVD and Blu-ray players to newer HD Ready televisions and keeps everything digital, and hence there is no degradation in quality. The latest spec cables can also carry sound to an appropriate home cinema amplifier or receiver.

Different Types of HDMI

Of course things aren’t always as simple as they should be, and HDMI is no exception. There are currently a number of specifications of cable, that depending on your requirements, you may have to carefully consider. Without getting too technical, there are are three different specifications to look out for:

• HDMI 1.1 – includes support for DVD Audio;
• HDMI 1.2 – includes support for One Bit Audio, used on Super Audio CDs;
• HDMI 1.3 – includes support for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, Deep Colour, and increased bandwidth to 10.2 GBits.

In a nutshell, if you are looking to buy or add a high definition capable amplifier or will be needing the cable to carry an audio signal you should be looking at HDMI 1.3 (and specifically HDMI 1.3a or above). Fortunately, most cables are this specification these days, but it is wise to check before you buy. Otherwise it it doesn’t really matter which specification you go for as they are all capable of carrying a video signal, but it is always a good idea to buy the latest spec in case you upgrade your equipment in the future.

How Much To Spend?

Ask a dozen people, and you will get a dozen answers to this question. In theory, because it is a digital cable carrying a digital signal there should be no degradation in quality and spending £100 on a cable shouldn’t give any better picture quality than a £10 cable. This is true to a certain degree, however, before you zip off to eBay to buy a cheap cable, make sure you consider the following:

• The cables from well known suppliers like Lindy, QED, Monster and IXOS are very well made and are less likely to stop working due to tears or breaks in the inner cables;
• Branded cables will fully comply to the HDMI specification;
• Branded cables also tend to be guaranteed giving peace of mind should the cable stop working;
• If you have a long distance to cover (5m or over) a decent quality branded cable is essential.

We’ve had good results with a £5 cable and a £150 cable so how much to spend is really up to you. In our opinion, the picture quality difference is often negligible, but we would always recommend going for a well constructed cable from one of the brands if you want it to last.