HD cables

[butter16]

Anyone know anything about them

Looked on Ebay and you can get one for £1.60 others cost £8.00, there are black ones, blue ones and red ones too

So who knows what are the differences

Are you meaning HDMI cables (to connect devices to a modern TV) ?

You probably 'get what you pay for'. If you plan to have a flat screen TV on the wall and have cables sunk into plaster then probably best to have a large channel cut into wall so a decent size conduit can be used (allowing replacement of cables if necessary).

If you plan to have a cable sunk into the wall, then an independent TV/video/Home Cinema shop might provide a gold-plated cable costing 50 to 100 pounds. The problem with a cheap cable is that if you plan to put a very high quality signal in (such as from a High Definition source such as a satellite box, or Blu-Ray DVD player) then a poor quality cable may attenuate some of the data and cause quality drops. Clearly if you spend 800 to 1500 on the TV and maybe 300 to 600 on other kit, a cable for even a tenner might not be up to the job.

In general I don't expect to find major differences in quality by spending 5 or 15 times what I think is 'reasonable' but it would be far better to buy a cheap cable, take it with you to a shop where they sell 50-100 quid cables and see if they will let you compare. Just don't let on that you paid under 20 quid for yours!

It would be worth trying a cheap cable, then a costly one, and decide which you would prefer in the wall (if you go down that route). I expect the costly one to survive longer without need of replacement and sunk into plaster, you don't want the cost or hassle after 18-30 months of deciding the cheap cable was 'too cheap' when you might buy something new and have a poor picture.

HDMI is a purely digital protocol so the signal either makes it to the end of the cable or it doesn't. Having a cable made of unobtanium won't give you better picture, it just gives the seller a bigger profit as the mark-up on these 'designer' cables is huge.

The different colours are just to suit your decor.

As I said, nothing to lose buying a cheap cable and comparing it with a higher quality cable.