HDMI Cable for Samsung Full HD LCD TV

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skip73

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Wannabe Geek

#84336 28-May-2011 17:48

Hi,I have bought a Samsung Full HD LCD TV and are using MySky Hdi with it, the picture is amazing but when I go into the Store (Harvey Norman etc) the picture is incredible..even better than the one at home. What is the best way to get the best picture out of the TV?. Is the HDMI cable from the MySky Box as good as a seperate one you can get from the store or would I be advised to get one from the store?, if that is the reason I'm not getting the same quality picture as in the store. Also the shop assistant showed me 3 "decent" types of HDMI cables with varying prices and obviously the most expensive was the best one he said for when you are using systems with high information and speed to transfer, but really would it be any better than the cheaper one which was also very good, they are all well over $100 and cringed when i saw the price, wondering if there are any cheaper ones that are just as good for my requirements. Hope you can understand this query. Thanks.

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#475202 28-May-2011 18:12

hdmi is a DIGITAL STANDARD... meaning, pretty much, all cables are the same!
The reason it probably looked better in the store is that they turn up colour, brightnes, etc to make it over-saturated plus they were probably running BlueRay or another 1080p input...

They are trying to sell you a cable because they prey on people that dont understand that "digital" means it will either work, or it's broken... you can have a $3 cable or a $1000 cable... If the signal goes in one end and comes out the other, it works. The same way digital TV has a picture or it doesn't.

HN and Noel Leeming are good at this BS!

kiwitrc

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#475206 28-May-2011 18:28

Those TVs have a store mode, and as Blakamin said it will be running in that mode in store. Dont buy an expensive HDMI cable, you dont need it.

NzBeagle

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#475207 28-May-2011 18:29

If you are after decently priced cables, I use this site, NZ Company, quick and easy. http://www.rapalloav.co.nz/

scuwp

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#475218 28-May-2011 18:56

There is plenty of research confirming the previous GZer's advise regarding expensive cables, they make no difference whatsoever. The only thing I will say is that sometimes the build quality can vary (i.e. how strong the fittings are), but if you aren't shifting things around all the time plugging in/out then thats also irrelevant.

(Good) stores always hook up their display TV's to show the best possible picture. Blu-ray players through HDMI cables and the demo disk is designed to give that 'wow' impression.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

CADMAX

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#475219 28-May-2011 19:02

Is there any reason that you should not run the TV in store mode?

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.

Wade

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#475221 28-May-2011 19:02

As above, you pay for build quality not performance effectively or in the case of the cables HN/NL etc try to on sell you pay an additional 80% for marketing :P Google "monster cable myth" and make up your own mind

Regarding quality, check you have mysky outputting 1080i and not 576 or 480 (or whatever the other options are) from memory it defaults to the lowest setting for compatibility.

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Wade

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#475224 28-May-2011 19:10

CADMAX: Is there any reason that you should not run the TV in store mode?

Its your tv you can do what you like but why would you want to? Get the set into your house and set it up for the4 conditions.

If you have the time sometimes trolling some AV forums will present some settigns that other users have found to offer a good picture. Usually they are AV geeks that have used calibration discs to get the result so can reap okay results or at least a good starting point. Setting a accurate picture is not as easy as you may think, its a black are to me but there are individuals that make an artform of it!

sbiddle

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#475241 28-May-2011 19:53

What looked better in store?

Stores typically only display TV's running high bitrate 1080p demo content so it looks stunning. Unfortunately nothing in the broadcast world comes close to this so you're never going to see the same results, no matter what TV or cable you have.

The easiest way to shut a HN salesman up when he starts spinning crap about cables is to ask the margin he's making on that $150 cable. Last time I saw some pricing it was around an 60% GP margin on them (150% markup). Offer to bring in a $10 HDMI cable and perform a comparison between the two. You'll find them backing down very quickly.

scorpiworld

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#475249 28-May-2011 20:19

Not sure if the menus are the same but on our Samsung LCD bring up the setup menu, under 'Picture' and select the 'Mode' to 'Dynamic'.

It sets these to:
Backlight 20
Contrast 100
Brightness 45
Sharpness 55
Colour 55

That should make everything a bit more amazing.

As stated above though, content is king and not the cable.

richms

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#475251 28-May-2011 20:35

Watching stuff in the "WOW OMG!" demo mode gets fatiging and annoying quickly. Just like listening to hypercompressed audio does. Has a lot of immediate impact but gets annoying fast.

Richard rich.ms

campoki

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Master Geek

#475257 28-May-2011 21:07

Basically you won't be able to beat the picture quality in those retail stores. But I agree with the person above about buying hdmi cables at http://www.rapalloav.co.nz/ their awesome.

Any reasonable high speed hdmi cable is good enough for bluerays and 3D blueray.
Also DON'T buy HDMI 1.4 (the expenseive option with ethernet)-thats a waste of money

Hope that helps

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CADMAX

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#475261 28-May-2011 21:19

ok seeing as we are talking HDMI cables i have a question.

i have a Sharp 40" LCD TV running on Windows media center with a ATI HD3200 inbuilt card supplying both audio and video to the TV.

the thing is when the PC goes to a blank screen or when one turns off the TV you have to go into the audio meun on the TV and change from PCM to Dolby digital then back again to PCM to get audio working.

any ideas ?

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.

sbiddle

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#475265 28-May-2011 21:28

CADMAX: ok seeing as we are talking HDMI cables i have a question.

i have a Sharp 40" LCD TV running on Windows media center with a ATI HD3200 inbuilt card supplying both audio and video to the TV.

the thing is when the PC goes to a blank screen or when one turns off the TV you have to go into the audio meun on the TV and change from PCM to Dolby digital then back again to PCM to get audio working.

any ideas ?

Are you running the latest Catalyst drivers? I recall somebody having a similar issue a few years ago that was resolved with a driver update.

CADMAX

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#475266 28-May-2011 21:34

yes had a play and did a full reinstall 4 days ago. should have added that :P
had a play with all the drivers and got them all up to date.

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.

skip73

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#475278 28-May-2011 22:39

Thanks, everyones been very helpful. I'm gonna have a look around some more tomorrow

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