I went for a LG in the end 43"

Now can someone tell me I really need the proper HDMI lead which one and best price. I have the 4K ultra TV.

A magazine tested loads of premium and budget hdmi leads a few years ago, and there was almost zero difference.

I went for a LG in the end 43"

Now can someone tell me I really need the proper HDMI lead which one and best price. I have the 4K ultra TV.

 

As long as you dont buy one from the market, or 99p shop, just about anything will do.

As above... any will work with zero difference in performance. A digital signal either works or it doesn't with nothing in between.

 

Where I have found a huge difference between cheap and non-cheap (I don't buy expensive ones!) is the quality of the cable itself and how long it lasts! I do still have a couple of pound shop cables that are working fine after a couple of years but then a couple of other cheap ones that have been plugged/unplugged a lot of moved around etc and they break very easily.

 

I then have a Belkin one (a bargain from the pound shop and it's 3m long!) that I plug/unplug from my laptop everyday and move around etc and it's still working fine.

I went for a LG in the end 43"

Now can someone tell me I really need the proper HDMI lead which one and best price. I have the 4K ultra TV.

 

HDMI is HDMI is HDMI. As long as it meets the required standard 1.4 or 2.0 it doesn't matter if it's £1.99 or £199.

The whole point of digital encoding is that the signal gets there or not.

 

All this talk of jitter and error rates is valid, but if a cable meets the standard, then these are within requirements and so you won't have a problem.

 

Ref my comment on HDR above, I would personally rather have a 1080p HDR display than a 4k non-HDR display.

This should tell you all you need to know about what a huge difference HDR will make.

 

Also in terms of TV resolution, how big a TV is it going to be and how far away from it are you going to be?

I ask because at say 2m from a 42" screen, you're almost certainly not going to notice the difference between 1080p and 4k.

 

Add to this, the lack of 4k content and you might be more interested in saving the money and getting a higher quality set if you can't wait for the HDR standards to be put out to everyone.

Edited 7 January, 201610 yr by cheezemonkhai

HDMI is HDMI is HDMI. As long as it meets the required standard 1.4 or 2.0 it doesn't matter if it's £1.99 or £199.

The whole point of digital encoding is that the signal gets there or not.

 

 

I've had some problems with badly shielded cheap HDMI cables  (increased interference ) and replaced them with other cheap cables to fix. But having to buy two lots of cables at say £2.99 is still  a lot cheaper than some of the "premium" cables.

 

But we have also  resolved not to replace any TV until it has ceased to function  - the TV market reminds me of the PC market from a few years ago when last year's model was out of date and you had to get the new one. Its seems they are obsolete before they are sold.

Edited 7 January, 201610 yr by io1901

You're right there! But then it's the same with everything else like phones, tablets, cars etc etc.

 

This is why we weren't prepared to spend a lot of money on a TV and didn't want the smart TV stuff as having a basic TV with nothing built in means we can upgrade the things that plug into it as we need to whereas if the manufacturer stops supporting that TV (firmware updates) it goes out of date very quickly.

Thanks all on the cable info.

 

I foolishly bought an expensive cable with my TV, I know I was being upsold at the time so I should known better. Anyway I have got my money back on said cable and using the stuff I have at the moment, really cheap ones of which I have three. Must say there is absolutely no difference in picture/sound quality with the cheapo ones have once I had set up the TV how I wanted it for sound and picture preferences.

 

Everything coming via my Virgin box or from Freeview isn't Ultra HD anyway. The Blueray player connected with the cheapo leads gives out superb picture and sound quality, so happy bunny.

I remember a 10 screen test in a mag that had 9x1080 TVs and 1x720. Only one of the reviews even noticed that one of the TVs wasn't full HD and most of the reviews voted the 720 set top of the pile. The reason, in no small part, was the 720 TV was a Pioneer Kuro, the best black levels in the business and as a consequence, so much more detail in the scene was revealed that just upping the resolution. HDR is the thing I'm looking forward to most as well

 

I went to a demo of 8K TV at Wimbledon last year and to be honest, it was pants. They also had 26 channel audio with speakers on 3 different heights. Utterly pointless in my opinion and deeply disappointing :(

^^^^ I was speaking to a guy in Currys who appeared to know his stuff,  everything he was saying I quite understood and had previous knowledge of, re these ultra HD TV's. One of the questions I asked was, I look at all these TV's you have on and you can see the differences in picture quality, even the same make but differing szes. He told me all TV's are straight out the box plugged in and nothing adjusted.

Of course I have done my homework on all these TV's and I guess what I've learned anyone can spiel stuff out to the unsuspecting. They even told me I can buy a a DVD (or come free with the HDMI cable) that sets your TV up for sound/picture properly, or a USB drive to plug (even more money) and do it that way. So according to them (experts) I use the term loosely it's not just about buying a TV and that's it plug it in, you need all of this other stuff to go with it to get the best out of it.  I could have spent another £100+

Edited 7 January, 201610 yr by MickA

Not sure what your budget is Mike but did you think about buying decent projector and projector screen...?

 

I know that you could buy a decent wireless projector, remote controlled screen and good sound system for the same price as 55'' plus 4k TV...

They even told me I can buy a a DVD (or come free with the HDMI cable) that sets your TV up for sound/picture properly, or a USB drive to plug (even more money) and do it that way. So according to them (experts) I use the term loosely it's not just about buying a TV and that's it plug it in, you need all of this other stuff to go with it to get the best out of it.

Those preconfigs are kinda a waste of money. A TV should be configured in the room were it is supposed to be. This is to get the correct brightness and so on.

^^^^ I was speaking to a guy in Currys who appeared to know his stuff, everything he was saying I quite understood and had previous knowledge of, re these ultra HD TV's. One of the questions I asked was, I look at all these TV's you have on and you can see the differences in picture quality, even the same make but differing szes. He told me all TV's are straight out the box plugged in and nothing adjusted.

Of course I have done my homework on all these TV's and I guess what I've learned anyone can spiel stuff out to the unsuspecting. They even told me I can buy a a DVD (or come free with the HDMI cable) that sets your TV up for sound/picture properly, or a USB drive to plug (even more money) and do it that way. So according to them (experts) I use the term loosely it's not just about buying a TV and that's it plug it in, you need all of this other stuff to go with it to get the best out of it. I could have spent another £100+

Almost all the TVs come in "shop mode" so they look their best.

At home this is too bright and unnatural colour wise.

Almost all the TVs come in "shop mode" so they look their best.

At home this is too bright and unnatural colour wise.

 

I can confirm my LG 4K has a "Demo Mode" clearly marked in the set up menu.

 

I also run my TV in full fat mode, I have tried the various economy and auto adjust modes and feel they all degrade the picture quality; it is the same on my PC screen, the screen stays on full, as the picture quality drop in economy mode is very obvious.

Get one of these........... 

 

Certainly sound better than most TV's today!  Still got an old Loewe Mimo crt that's very 'Scene' (so the young ones tell me).

 

Be good to know what you went for.

I use movie mode with a few extra setting tweeks on my Samsung works fine for me

Sent from my Galaxy S5 using Tapatalk

Get one of these........... 

 

 

Got an old B&W portable like that under my desk at work -   got to be vintage now...

Sorry to maybe go over old ground again,

Watching sitting at home, if the TV is HD watching an HD channel I'm not going to notice any difference between a TV that is HD only and one that is 4K?

Just seen a nice Sony that seems to fit the bill, but it's on HD.

We don't have Sky, but have a Free Sat box, so don't have any 4K acces, would I be buying something I don't need?

4K might be the best thing in 6-7 years, then again, maybe the entire TV industry will have moved on from LCD/LED. Unless you want a 4K player or 4K sat box or streaming or 4K video gaming, then IMO forget about it. Get the best HD TV that suits.

4K might be the best thing in 6-7 years, then again, maybe the entire TV industry will have moved on from LCD/LED. Unless you want a 4K player or 4K sat box or streaming or 4K video gaming, then IMO forget about it. Get the best HD TV that suits.

I really hope the will have moved away fro led/lcd. They have become better, but still no match for a good plasma.

Hopefully OLED will be the answer.