Currently using a certified KabelDirekt HDMI which great sound and picture results with a new Samsung QN95, wondering what HDMI cables others i using, i went for the certified 2.1, but got my eye on the new Chord C View 2.1, any thoughts
Basic Amazon. There is no need at all for fancy HDMI cables at all just well made ones and meet the standards.
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I’ve got the same KabelDirekt ones. They’re amazing esp at the price point. I compared against the chord c-view but was hard pressed to tell a difference. Same applied to KabelDirekt Ethernet cable vs. Chord c-stream
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Thanks - saw the new C Stream on Amazon so have taken a punt delivery today, for me the KabelDirekt was a big step up from the Amazon basic and then Ugreen, but they where not HDMI 2.1.
I think the HDMI 2.1 cable upto 4k @ 120hz was the big improvement, but the sound was a welcome surprise as the Samsung sound object tracking was barely discernible before.
Just cannot see the Chord saying anyway it is certified, but then you can’t certify snakeoil.
I have 3 x Virgin Media freebee works perfectly well. considering upgrading one of them to Amazon basics as I need a longer cable.
A couple of years back took a punt on a Goobay 72317 high speed HDMI £20 cable.
My old chord c - view cable struggled with some very dark scenes on the Game of thrones series from a SkyQ HD device which prompted me to look around.
Glad I did as this has been superb, although we don’t have the SkyQ ultra HD device - so can’t vouch for its efficacy here.
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There are on their website….
Awaiting feedback, but to me Chord are saying " latest HDMI 2.1 specification" and conveniently not mentioning certified.
Whereas the KabelDirekt is and even registered when checked with Ultra High Speed HDMI Cable - Bandwidth Up To 48Gbps
Well that was a quick, Chord is staying, smoother picture and I now have some bass 
I got KabelDirekt’s new hdmi 2.1 cable. Works well. I even saw deeper blacks going from my ps5 to my TV, replaced all my hdmi’s.
Chord recently released a new version of it C’s series. The hdmi’s are now 2.1 compatible. Assuming you got the latest one.
Yes for sure the latest version.
Do you guys actually now how HDMI works? If you did you would understand that there is no way it can make a picture better. The only thing to affect picture is your TV or the decoder in a Blu-ray player or settop box. HDMi works without faults or it doesn’t. It cant make a picture sharper or softer or lighter or darker. It can fail and add artefacts but they are pretty noticeable. As for audio possibly if you believe the whole noise into the ADC thing like ethernet I suppose.
I have worked in the broadcast and film field for 20+ years and not one digital cable affects how a picture looks on a device it’s only the devices that send and receive that do this.
You can’t change what the pixel is. It can only be exactly the right pixel as sent by the source, or no pixel at all .
It can’t from the digitally encoded info, correct… however noise or rf loading affects can effect less than perfect host equipment, and so one may see the affects of increased ground plane noise or, clock / signal phase noise. RFI noise in digital video equipment can result in noisy backs or muted colours, even perceived as definition. It’s the same as with digital audio…
As always the better the equipment the less susceptible it is to such artefacts.
Remember digitally encoded information in cables is essentially an analogue signal. Analogue distortions like inter mod noise, ground plane noise, phase noise, can result in coupled energy that can affect audio and video systems ‘out of band’.
As far as consumer cable ‘certification’, I consider that a basic form of ground level quality control for manufacturers, to differentiate from possible unscrupulous ones… in a market where the aim is usually to keep costs to the minimum. But yes you should consider consumer ‘certification’ as standard to validate the product fit for purpose rather than anything else.
Of course such certification will most likely relate to physical construction and digital bandwidth and likely cable cross talk, it is unlikely to give much if any insight in ‘out of band’ noise and other artefacts either conveyed or created by the cable.
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You obviously don’t. Where are you from, 1998?
As ever Simon. thanks for you input. Yes I fully understand that these digtial interconnects transmit analogue signals and are suceptible to RF interference like any cable. But in this scenario this would generally manfest in artefacts which I did mention. These I would expect to be loss of signal, intermittant droputs, sash and sparkles (the latter would be seen as noise and is more ikely visble in the blacks admittieldy but would be evident elsewhere as well if you look closely) all these issues are pretty easy to spot and not subtle, but I have not witnessed any others changes you claim though at work or in the home. But if the artefacts I mentioned are happening its more likely to be a failed cable, a very badly made one or perhaps its too long for purpose.
Hi, yes it does depend on equipment, but I have observed these ‘analogue’ artefacts… particularly on an older Panasonic plasma I had… less so on my current LG.
However I have experienced digital bandwidth issues with some cables on 4K, particularly when the Chroma sub sampling is set at 4:4:4 which really pushes the data rate… here I can see flashing images, corrupted image or total failure with some hdmi cables. Obviously an inferior chroma sub sampling rate of 4:2:0 is more tolerant on hdmi cables at 4K as the data rate is reigned back, but at a loss of colour and detail definition. In my experience however these settings don’t auto negotiate, they need to be manually set.
I would go as far to say at 4K pixel resolution, in most domestic environments, the chroma sub sampling rate becomes far more important for picture quality and realism, in if ones is going to use lesser sampling rates you might as well stick with HD… it’s like the video equivalent of the 1980’s Peak Music Power of boom boxes. Having more pixels without the quality behind them is a waste… and plays to the consumerism pitch… ie higher number is automatically better.
You made me smile with ‘sparkles’, I haven’t seen that since the 90s in the days of analogue VGA/VESA cables and video wall switching panels… takes me back.
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Yes it’s particularly the 4:4:4 sampling that pushes cable and connection technology to it’s limits and actually the higher the level of source/equipment the more critical the cable. A lot of these so called 4K stated spec cables are absolutely junk and don’t even pass a signal, never mind a quality signal.
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They really needed something better than twisted pairs to handle the higher rates as it’s not really up to it. But they listened to content providers to set a standard and not the broadcast experts who have been managing this with no issues using coax and HD SDI for years over great lengths.