Just bought a 42 inch plasma tv. I picked up the Time Warner HD box which has an HDMI outlet. My DVD player doesn’t appear to have one, but that is no surprise as it is a sub-100 dollar unit I bought in 2004. I"ll upgrade that later.
So, do I need a HDMI cable to get the best picture for HD signals on the tv? Are they a waste of money?
If I get one, how much should I expect to pay?
You’ll absolutely need an HDMI cable. You simply can’t get an HD signal (or aspect ratio) without it.
As for what you pay, it’ll vary widely. Typical prices seem to be around $40, unless you go with the (completely unnecessary and needlessly expensive) Monster cables, which are a scam in and of themselves.
Or, you can do what I did- check for a bargain on Amazon. I got four HDMI cables for twenty-three cents each, and they’re doing a perfectly acceptable job.
You should not conceivably pay $40.
Try shopping in the computer section rather than the home theatre section. And note that for digital cables of this sort, the cheap ones are basically fine. You don’t spend $40 for your PC’s monitor cable, do you?
I’d say you should not even have to pay $10 (including shipping.) $20 at the most if you want to pick it up right now at Wal-Mart.
Generally, you should go with the most capable cable possible. So, for instance, if your DVD player does at least have component outputs, use those. But only an idiot pays $100 for a cable of any kind unless it’s like 1000 feet long.
Wait - what model box did you get from TW?
My dad got a 42" LCD. He got an HDMI cable and wall hanger for an extra $70. I hooked up the TV to the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD box from TW using the HDMI cable.
It worked!
Wait, no it didn’t!
Long Story:
Presumably, the cable box is supposed to tell the TV what resolution it’s broadcasting in (different networks and different shows have different resolution). The box is supposed to get this info from the cable and tell the TV. Well this worked fine for my dad, then we’d turn the set off and this would no longer work. Everything was in 480p. I’d reboot it, it’d work again. Come back in a few days, didn’t work. Called TW, talked to two VERY nice techs. They rebooted. I said “well yes I know it works after it’s rebooted. But when you walk away for a while it forgets how to do it.” I asked if I needed to maybe use component cables they said “no, that’s just for a different looking picture.” Okie dokie. We decided if it kept happening, I’d go get dad a new box.
So we go up to TW and we stand in line for a half hour (we timed it) and I get up to the front desk and tell the nice lady I need a new box. She asks whyfor. I tell her whyfor. She says, very matter-of-factly “no, you need a component cable. That problem you’re experiencing is because of the HDMI cable.”
Long Story Short:
If you have a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD, you need COMPONENT cables (green/blue/red/red white OR green/blue/red and then a separate red/white audio cable set) NOT HDMI.
After fucking with this shit for THREE WEEKS I ran down to Wal Mart and got him a $12 5-cable component cable and it has worked PERFECTLY ever since.
Moral of Story:
You might need component not HDMI. I would try component first if you have said hookups on your box. You also do not need to spend more than $20 on cable.
My Scientific Atlanta 8300HD (supplied by Time Warner) works perfectly fine with an HDMI cable.
Well fuck your Scientific Atlanta 8300HD*!!! 
Seriously, I totally believe you. But I’m relaying a real story that really happened just a couple months ago. It was a crappy experience and totally wasted my time. I don’t want dalej42 to have to go through component/HDMI bullshit if he doesn’t have to. If nothing else he’ll have this story in the back of his mind when he’s on hold with the TW techs.
*I only say this because I am totally, totally jealous of your set just “working.” I say fuck your cable box, not you.
I went to Comp USA to buy a USB cable and they didn’t have one for under $35. :mad: I walked out, possibly never to return.
Eh? Mine is hooked up with component cables (the red, blue & green ones) from the DVR to TV. In fact that was what was recommended to me. I only use an HDMI for my DVD player, the cable costing me only around $1.
And now I see someone else has mentioned the same thing. :smack: Yes, I have a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD as well. The component cables come free with the box so you really don’t even have to buy anything extra, unless you’re hooking up another piece of equipment as well.
I went with an HDMI cable one of my Chinese programmers from Queens sold me for $10.
I bought an HDMI from our local ‘cables r us’ store for less than $10.
If you have a choice between HDMI and component, definitely go with HDMI - if for no other reason than to keep the back of your set from looking like a rat’s nest. It’s really sweet that you can use ONE cable to get both audio and video signals now, and very high quality ones at that.
That won’t be hard to manage. Actually, why hasn’y your CompUSA been closed yet? The company is going out of business nationwide.
As mentioned above, anything more than $20 for HDMI cables is a ripoff. A dealer that keeps popping up as one of the best for PC and home theater cables is monoprice. And look, today’s front-page deal is a 6-foot gold-plated HDMI cable for $3.51. (Limit 50 per customer, please!) I’m having visions of someone stuffing a trenchcoat with cables and hanging out on the edge of Best Buy’s parking lot. “Pssst! Need any cables?”
To be fair, the cable box will occasionally get confused and claim that my TV isn’t “authorized” to show an image from the HDMI connection. It will further advise me to use component cables instead. I just reset the TV to get my HDMI signal back.
I think they’re keeping some stores open. It’s been a while, but last I heard, for Arizona they were closing all the stores in Phoenix but leaving a single one open in Tucson.
Is that why my new HDMI DVD player drops the sound every once in a while?
Unplugging the cable and plugging it back in fixes it every time, but it’s annoying.
Hadn’t heard that. A couple of years back, Madison was rated the “most wired” city in America. 75% of adults use the internet on a regular basis. So there is a huge computer market here.
So much mis-information… I guess it’s understandable. The technology doesn’t work as well as it is supposed to, and people inevitably try to extend their own experiences, based on faulty equipment or lack of know-how, into patterns and hard and fast rules.
But ask the guy who just spend an obscene amount of time and money replacing his home theater: me.
You don’t “need” an HDMI for an 8300HD cable box to work. No cable company currently broadcasts more than 1080i, and component will handle this. However, you don’t “need” component either. Set up correctly, HDMI will work. Advantages? You won’t necessarily need additional audio cables, you will be ready for 1080p devices which do require HDMI/DVI, and you could potentially get away with fewer cables.
As mentioned: do not buy cables from a big box store. Newegg or Amazon has them for pennies.
You can find a region free, upscaling 1080p, avi, divx, and mpg ready DVD player for $60 today. This isn’t HD or Blu-ray, but it will give you better results with your new HDTV while you bide your time. Upscaling doesn’t magically make standard DVD’s HD, but it does deliver the best quality that standard DVD can offer, and in the TV’s native resolution. Set the TV to “just scan” to make sure it doesn’t alter the image.
The biggest reasons why people don’t think HDMI is working are: Handshaking – HD signals over HDMI require anti-piracy handshaking, and some equipment doesn’t do it well. Audio – HDMI can handle digital audio, or not (leaving it available for dedicated ‘digital out’), and people often have a hard time finding and interpreting the output settings. Pass-thru – some AV receivers can upscale and pass-thru composite and component sources over HDMI, some can only pass-thru HDMI. Those that can’t never make this limitation clear.
Anyone want to know about HDMI 1.1 vs. 1.3? 