we've all had this happen you walk into the local big box store for the express
purpose of buying just one thing and walking out you're trying to check out
with your new tv and one of them notices
you
and what happens you start questioning yourself
does it make a difference should i spend 100 on an HDMI cable i mean it's not so
expensive when you consider that it helps me get the most out of my 100 tv i
just bought stop right there that is how you fall into the trap i've
done it how about you guys don't be shy leave a comment share your
embarrassing premium cable story and we can all laugh at ourselves together
or maybe you're sitting there thinking all right Linus why is buying a nice
cable such a big deal i've been buying them my whole life and they work just
fine you're right they do and honestly there
was a time not that long ago when they actually made a difference particularly
over longer distances the gauge of the copper or the thickness of the wires
inside a cable has a noticeable impact on the signal quality which for analog
interfaces directly affects quality
video cables are a great example of this i've seen my fair share of crummy
component cables result in visual anomalies and i can easily pick out a
lousy vga cable versus a decent one versus a great one in a blind taste test
ten times out of ten okay so then why am i hating on them
what happened digital happened with digital interfaces
like HDMI dvi displayport or Thunderbolt
signal degradation loss occurs over distances in exactly the same way and a
crummy cable or connector can result in a failure to display an image on the
screen but the difference is that a handshake process occurs to determine
the quality of the link when you hook it up and it either is good enough or it
isn't if it is then it's as good as any
other suitable connection and if it isn't well then you take the cable back
to the store and get a new one because it's defective the only real middle
ground is intermittent operation which can be a pain to diagnose but it's the
same result as defective just take it back and get a new one no need to spend
more lies about better image quality aside better cables can have a number of
advantages they can have better sheathing that is sleeved for damage
resistance or uses higher quality plastics to prevent stiffening over time
they can have more robust connectors that are harder to dislodge or
gold-plated to last for more insertions they can have emi shielding for reliable
operation in environments with a lot of electromagnetic interference or they can
even just have better aesthetics for applications where the wiring will be
visible so while top tier cables that make your base response better
or whatever almost never makes sense the least expensive option isn't always
optimal either what i'm saying is that there is a time and place for good
cables as long as you understand what it is that you're buying for something i
tuck behind my pc and never touch like a monitor cable i'll always use the
cheapest possible thing that functions but here at Linus media group we often
buy mid-tier xlr cables HDMI cables sdi
cables network cables and more when something is going to be moved around
and subjected to the rigors of a busy environment it's worth it especially for
professional use where an intermittent connection is just plain not good enough
and 10 minutes of downtime costs more than a bunch of stupid fancy cables in
the first place but with that said if a
friend starts trying to sell you exotic silver cables or like firewire and usb
cables that claim to operate at speeds faster than the rated specification of
the interfaces that they connect to you will need one of these
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you for watching like and share this video if you liked it dislike it if you
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your expensive cable stories if you guys forgot before you were so engrossed by
the magnificence of this video that you didn't think to do it at the time you
can leave a comment now because the video is pretty much over and as always don't forget to subscribe so you don't
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