Where Is The Best Place To Buy HDMI Cable - Page 3

You really think it's gold?

Probably 99% of those that pay a premium do. Although, it is a "gold" color.

When the MANUFACTURER's website says "Gold plating" on the contacts, I have no reason not to believe them. Anything else is subject to skepticism....

"new and improved" gold!

Either Tin or Gold plating is fine. Generally you should stick to one or the other though as it is best to avoid dissimilar metals.

Gold plating is preferred since it doesn't corrode and doesn't react very much against dissimilar metals.
Which is why it is used in higher quality, incl. MIL-SPEC connectors for long term reliability:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_plating
http://www.sharrettsplating.com/gold-plating.html
http://www.sharrettsplating.com/tin-plating.html

Gold plating is rarely used on connectors since it is so soft and rubs off when the contacts mate.
Gold is sometimes used on memory modules....these are called mate once connectors...think about that.

The 'gold' plating on audio connectors is generally chromated cadmium....which I guess can be called fools gold, based on some of the posts here.

Amazon.com has some good deals as well, I bought three media bridge HDMI cables from them shipping was free and the cables are very nice newest standard arc pass through as well as 3d gold plated 6 ft long for just under 10 bucks a pop. If you pay more then 20 bucks a cable you should slap yourself cause they all.work the same newest standerd that is

Spent a lot of years in the circuit board industry as a metalographer and it's true that we used gold plating on all of the the connections and they were permanent. Gold is a better conductor of electricity and lasts practically forever but I'm not sold that it makes any difference in PQ on an HDMI cable and the cables are so cheap that they they are disposable. The military and the space program need their electronic equipment to function in extreme conditions and for decades.

I normally order from monoprice, but lately I have been seeing good deals on ebay. Recently I ordered 2-10ft HDMI cables and 2-12ft optical cables for $10 with free shipping. The quality seems good and they work fine.

I like the fact they are made with thin flexible cables. This makes it easier to manuever in tight spots

HDMI cables are carrying digital signals. As long as the signal is error-free (i.e. no corrupted data) the cable will make absolutely zero difference to picture quality.

If you see little white dots (aka sparklies or zits) appear then you're getting some data corruption - and that could be caused by a cable that's not performing as well as is needed. In reality, for normal length cables, this seldom happens.

If an HDMI cable works, it works. There is no impact on picture quality due to cable 'quality' once you have an error free signal. That's the joy of digital carriage.

People will talk about jitter and similar - but the reality is that HDMI signal paths are likely to be buffered via some form of memory and reclocked internally (particularly audio - as it is packetised in the video stream during blanking periods) so even this isn't relevant.

I buy my cables based on price, physical appearance (sometimes I want a light coloured cable to reduce visibility), and robustness (some connectors appear better made than others mechnically).

it doesn't...the conductors are much longer then the connector, they're not gold.
resistance isn't really the issue that most here think it is....specifically on a digital interconnect.

Or any interconnect.

Then why is nearly no connector in the Cable TV industry gold plated? With millions of high bandwidth (typically 1 GHz) connections and reliable service at stake one would think that gold would be welcome, if not mandatory. But it's not. Almost every RF connector I've seen in my 30 year career as a CATV tech was at most tin plated.

Gold plating is great in low signal level applications, but not necessary at cable TV signal levels.

So then back to the HDMI application. Since HDMI signal levels are at least 3.3 Volts then gold plated HDMI is completely unnecessary.

How high do you think the RF level is?

I've already stated why 'gold' plating isn't used in connectors that need to mate more than once.

Tin is softer than gold. The main problem with mating a tin plated connector to a gold plated connector is fretting of the tin.

Tin also generally requires more pressure than gold to maintain a good connection.
Edited by Colm - 2/21/13 at 12:21pm

It is more current than voltage dependent. HDMI is much lower in current than is a cable RF circuit.

And HDMI connectors need to mate more than once?

I've often found it necessary to mate as often as possible (sorry, it just seems that this conversation is headed in the argumentative direction)

Boy, you've got more answers than Carter has Little Liver Pills...Not that they make a lot of sense sometimes. Why, pray tell, would Tin, having a higher resistance than Gold, be better suited for high current applications?

I never said it would. You must be referring to someone else.

Anyway, I don't believe gold is necessary.

Yes...you really think HDMI cables never get unplugged and plugged back in?

Several weeks ago i bought one from amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=as_li_qf_sp_sr_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=aps&keywords=cables&linkCode=as2&tag=leadgenerat-20

Lots of nifty quoting, but none of them showed that I said that Tin would be better in high current situations. Because I never said that. All I said was that gold is preferred in low current situations. Big difference.

The ones I install don't. In fact, in the AV systems I've installed, even the RCA-type audio connectors have no reason to be unplugged/reinstalled. With 19 thin metal contacts, HDMI cables aren't designed to be multiple-insertion cables. Especially the cheap ones.

Realistically, if any of the inputs/outputs of your source/destination devices are not "gold" plated, there's no reason to be concerned about using gold plated interconncts anyway.
What you should be concerned about is "cheap" construction, not inexpensive cables.

IMHO the best 2 places and the first 2 places to look for cables are monoprice and blue jeans since their sponsorship makes posting in this forum possible.