Electronics

[heart of savino]

do you really need to buy  a digital fiber optic 6 ft 4k hdtv cable for a television i just bought.some people say yes some no.any opinions?

[gardenman]

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@heart of savino wrote:

do you really need to buy  a digital fiber optic 6 ft 4k hdtv cable for a television i just bought.some people say yes some no.any opinions?

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About the only fiber optic cable you would need for an HDTV would be one to connect the 'audio out' of the HDTV to the 'audio in' on a home theater receiver or soundbar. Even then you don't "need" one as you could do with the analog cables instead. A fiber optic cable keeps everything digital so there's no degradation or signal loss, but you're very unlikely to hear the difference.

Now, they do make fiber optic HDMI cables these days claiming they're better than the old copper HDMI cables, but that's kind of absurd to me. They talk a lot about signal degradation, but we're talking about digital signals with HDMI so there's not likely any degradation. A one or zero is still a one or zero. This strikes me as a big time marketing ploy more than anything. If you're running an HDMI cable fifty or a hundred feet, maybe you'd see/hear a difference, but I doubt it. I'd stick to the old copper HDMI cables and save the money. I just don't see any reason why you need fiber optic HDMI cables. It's just a marketing ploy from what I can see.

There's been very little testing done that I can find, and the testing I can find is typically done by the high end installers who want to sell you a $150 cable instead of a $6 cable. They talk about signal speed, signal degradation, the higher amounts of data needed to be moved for 4K, etc. I don't buy most of what they're saying. Does a 4K HDR picture require more data? Absolutely! But, and this is a big but, those sending the data and the HDTV don't know what cable is connecting the two. They're sending out all the data they want you to get and adding a new cable won't change that.

In the audio/video world perception is easily fooled. A slightly brighter picture makes one TV look better than another. A slightly louder volume makes one speaker sound better than another. Knowning something costs more can often fool a consumer into thinking there's a difference. The reality is that data can only be sent or received at a certain rate and the cable is almost never the restrictive factor. The hardware on either end is the restrictive factor.

I'd stick with an old, standard HDMI cable for now and give it a year or two for things to sort out. If there is a difference then, fine, but my money is there won't be a difference. Right now the fiber optic HDMI cables are very highly priced. Those prices should fall, likely a lot, over the next year.

[gardenman]

I've been doing some more poking around and have seen multiple recommendations for a site called monoprice. You can get a 6 ft HDMI cable there that allows 18 gbps transfer rates for around $3.51. which is about the same speed the fiber optic HDMI cables promise. (Give or take two tenths, some promise 18.2 gbps.) If you go with a regular HDMI cable with an 18 gbps speed rating, you should be fine.

[heart of savino]

thanks gardenman,

I think i will return them and get my 20 dollars back.

tv looks and sounds fine...

[glb613]

Gardenman, my Sony TV only has a digital connection for audio out.  If you have an older analog audio system, like the Bose system I have, you'll need a convertor box.  They are cheap compared to buying a whole new system. So, recommending people don't need to buy a cable may not apply to their TV set.  

[hckynut]

@heart of savino

Do you need one? No! There are however many like myself that let my own eyes and ears decide what gets the audio and video as close as possible to my perfect, not that of anyone else. Sound and sight are subjective depending on each individuals preference, and their sight and hearing quality abilities.

I do not care about the "experts testings" or what anyone else views as propaganda to make more money for manufacturers. My satisfaction is the only view that counts when it comes to my enjoyment of audio/video, or both when combined.

I saw/see a distinct improvement in my HD and 4k video when I use upgraded cables, audio and or video. I made telephone wires and cable for over 30 years for Western Electric and AT&T, so I know what a difference just in "wall thickness"/eccentricity, and wire gauge(stranded or single cable"s") can make. This is applicable to both voice and picture(moving or still) to the end results.

If you fall into the majority of tv viewers you probably don't want to spend the extra money on cables, and you certainly do not need to do so. Years ago most TV viewers would tell me that they COULD NOT see the difference between High Definition(HD) and Standard Definition (SD) broadcasts. Those same people now? Some get upset when some shows are not in HD. 

The world of audio and video has changed greatly since I grew to love and follow it starting in the early 1950's, and will continue to do so, probably for infinity.

hckynut(john)