AppleQueso wrote:Niode wrote:GSZX1337 wrote:Yarp. As long as your HDMI cable is gold-plated, you're fine.
Because the gold plating makes the transfer of those 1s and 0s all the more accurate... It's a digital cable. It ain't gonna make a jot of difference whether it's coated in fucking platinum or silver. Hell it could coated in fucking unobtainium for all I care, it's still going to do the exact same job.
Seriously, this. Signal fidelity means NOTHING in a digital signal. It either works or it doesn't.
Actually, no.
Like I explained before in my previous post in this thread different materials can make a huge difference in the transfer rate and throughput for a cable. I've literally had the cheapo silver nickel plated ones get hot and either burn out or start melting slightly because the data transfer rate was being exceeded like crazy. Different materials and cables will be rated for more or for less in terms of content and data flow.
Think of it like Ethernet cables, all of them have the same number of pins yet 10Base-T cables will max out at 10MBps, 10/100Base-T cables will max out at 100MBps and 10/100/1000 cables max out at 1000MBps. There's a lot more going on than "It either works or it doesn't? and while plug and play may be the lay of the digital land the amount of stress and throughput a cable can take does in fact have a physical limit.
Also some cables are only rated for a single resolution or lower such as 480p max cables, 720p max cables and 1080i/p max cables, it's all written on the box and the cable itself. In addition there are some cables which aren't rated for more than just stereo or normal Dolby5.1 and regular DTS in the audio department. Using low grade or under-rated cables in applications, resolutions or audio settings exceeding their transfer rate can cause all sorts of mayhem such as cables overheating, shorts in the cable and generally play havoc with and wreck your equipment.
Anyhow, for just using your HDTV with it's built in speakers most lower end $5-$10 wal-mart cables will do more than fine for anything up to 1080i/p, normal Dolby 5.1 and regular DTS; Besides having a guarantee of it's rating for data transfer you'll also generally get a cable with a much nicer build quality for pretty cheap. It's when you start venturing into higher bandwidth applications like running a full 1080p signal with Dolby TrueHD or DTS Master Audio and all sorts of other features like internet and BD-Live over the same wire that you can have some serious trouble when using a no name cheapo.
