15 Jan 2025 10:24 AM
@Chodley wrote:What do you believe the handshake actually does?
The only part the cable plays in it, by the way, is carrying voltages representing either 1s or 0s along its wires at an extremely high switching rate. You know this from your course so I don't mean to be patronising. It does need to be high enough quality to do that reliably because there is no - well, very little - opportunity for error correction, unlike (for example) ethernet. I agree a poor quality cable can affect the signal. But if it deteriorates to the point a 1 can no longer be reliably distinguished from a 0, you lose the image. It doesn't "not look as good". You see the same effect in satellite transmissions in bad weather. Very rapid loss of coherent image followed by "no signal".
This is a good thread on the same subject https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/394232-does-HDMI-have-Error-Correction
You'd think it was a simple on off scenario, thus a faulty cable will either pass a signal or not but in my experience of dealing with various forms of media displays in practice it isn't that simple. I've seen screen corruption and colour distortion all caused by either faulty cables or low grade versions.
@SussexWolf is not alone in stating a improved PQ resulted from fitting a better quality cable either but whether this is a placebo effect or not I've an open mind on.
15 Jan 2025 12:44 PM - last edited: 15 Jan 2025 12:53 PM
Posted by a Superuser, not a Sky employee. Find out moreOh absolutely but I consider those failure states where the image is very obviously corrupted. Same with the sparkles you can get as described in that linked thread.
The subtleties of analog transmission were much finer grained and higher grade / better shielded cables in those days could absolutely produce a better picture for the same input while the poorer cable would still give an acceptable result.
The main issue with digital is a single bit being wrong (a subtle defect which would have been unnoticeable on analog) can be either trivial (red=127 instead of 126) or very significant (red=528 instead of 26) and that's a simplistic example of how reliant a single pixel is on signal timing / clean voltage switching - encryption makes it even worse.
15 Jan 2025 01:02 PM
I'm also open minded on the improvement in screen quality, but as I commented, my wife didn't know I'd changed the cable and unprompted made an observation on it.
What I can't dismiss though, is the reliability of the connection after switching to a new HDMI 2.1 cable. The old Sky cable worked fine with my Sky Q box and older Sony 4K tv. But with the same Sky Q and cable and a new LG C4 tv, within days I was finding the tv would no longer display the Sky Q HDMI input. The tv switched on, and switched to the HDMi input, but saw no signal. Unplugged and replugged the cable, no joy. Tried a different HDMI port on the tv. Manually switched inputs on the tv. The problem remained. Reboot the Sky Q box, and all works again until next time the Sky Q box is switched off, after which the problem returned. Tried two other HDMI cables I had, and the problem remained. Bought a new HDMI 2.1 certified cable for £7 from Amazon and the problem has gone.
15 Jan 2025 01:49 PM - last edited: 15 Jan 2025 01:50 PM
Posted by a Superuser, not a Sky employee. Find out more
@SussexWolf wrote:
Bought a new HDMI 2.1 certified cable for £7 from Amazon and the problem has gone.
Our main objection is to the £70 / £700 / £7000* cables
*Forgive the slight exageration: it's actually only a bit over £5000 ; )
15 Jan 2025 01:55 PM
Wow. Now that's an expensive cable!
I'm not into expensive cables for something as simple as a connection between Sky Q and a TV. Just something which works reliably. This one did the job for me. I'm confident any number of similarly spec'ed and priced cables would work just the same.
15 Jan 2025 02:24 PM
Posted by a Superuser, not a Sky employee. Find out moreThey should face criminal charges for that pricing 😆
15 Jan 2025 02:56 PM - last edited: 15 Jan 2025 02:57 PM
Posted by a Superuser, not a Sky employee. Find out more
" Nordost’s proprietary Micro Mono-Filament technology is then implemented, permitting the current and voltage to travel above the conductor’s surface, virtually unimpeded by insulation "
Got to admit, that's quite ingenious. Not entirely sure about the physics, though...
03 Feb 2025 08:19 PM
Just had the same problem and came across this page in my search for a fix.
Sky Q box connected to an LG 4k TV (only 2 years old) and connected to it for that whole period and working.
Unplugging the Sky box and the Tv for a few minutes has fixed it, for now at least. Unplugging the box alone didn't do it.
03 Feb 2025 10:18 PM
I'd recommend the cheap HDMI cable I linked in a prior post. It's fixed my connection issues with my Sky Q and new LG C4 tv.
10 Feb 2025 01:31 PM
This worked for me too! Thank you!
10 Feb 2025 01:35 PM
This worked for me too! Thank you!
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