Optical Toslink Cable and xbox 360

DesertBox

So i just got a spiffy new home theater receiver and I need a cable to connect my 360 to it. I have an older 360 so no HDMI.

What is the difference between this cable and this cable? Besides $2. What is a "metal fancy connector" and why should I care?

Or am I looking at the wrong cable entirely? Should I get the one with the mini plug?

BONUS QUESTION: At a length of 6 feet and not going through the wall, any HDMI cable should do, right? This one will be fine, right?

I'd Fuck Chuck Lidell Up

I'm asuming "metal fancy cable" is refering to the gold plated ends

which, as described in the article, Prevents Corrosion and Provides for Maximum Protection of the Fiber Tip

get it. it's not a bad deal

and 6 feet should be fine unless you have your tv more than 6 feet from what you are connecting, which would be a stretch to say the least. if your stuff is sitting under the tv somewhere 6 feet is plenty

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Captain Vash

DesertBox wrote: »

So i just got a spiffy new home theater receiver and I need a cable to connect my 360 to it. I have an older 360 so no HDMI.

What is the difference between this cable and this cable? Besides $2. What is a "metal fancy connector" and why should I care?

Or am I looking at the wrong cable entirely? Should I get the one with the mini plug?

BONUS QUESTION: At a length of 6 feet and not going through the wall, any HDMI cable should do, right? This one will be fine, right?

an HDMI cable, like an optical cable, is a digital signal.

at any length, as long as the connections works, 100% possible quality is achieved.

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RUNN1NGMAN

I have both of those cables, there is no difference in the actual cable. The more expensive ones have a thicker sheath and heavier connector—they're more appropriate for a heavy duty use. They both are fine for a home theater.

Scrublet

Captain Vash wrote: »

an HDMI cable, like an optical cable, is a digital signal.

at any length, as long as the connections works, 100% possible quality is achieved.

This is important enough it bears repeating. You can debate the merits of spending a ton of money on speaker wire or something. But with digital cables it's not like the signal is going to get corrupted like an analog signal will. Particularly with optical cables that are based on light, not electricity.

vonPoonBurGer

Scrublet wrote: »

But with digital cables it's not like the signal is going to get corrupted like an analog signal will. Particularly with optical cables that are based on light, not electricity.

This is why the mere existence of optical cables with metal ends baffles me. Standard optical cables are made entirely of plastics and there is no electricity involved in the signal, so metal ends will do absolutely nothing for signal propagation. The only benefit of the metal ends would be to increase the strength of the cable ends, I guess. Seems kind of pointless to me, I can count on zero fingers the number of times I've stepped on or otherwise crushed the ends of my apparently oh-so-flimsy plastic optical cables.

Orogogus

Scrublet wrote: »

Captain Vash wrote: »

an HDMI cable, like an optical cable, is a digital signal.

at any length, as long as the connections works, 100% possible quality is achieved.

This is important enough it bears repeating. You can debate the merits of spending a ton of money on speaker wire or something. But with digital cables it's not like the signal is going to get corrupted like an analog signal will. Particularly with optical cables that are based on light, not electricity.

Why is this the case? A video file is digital, but it can get damaged and produce corruption instead of simply not working.

Scrublet

I'm going to assume you mean the file itself gets corrupted? That usually happens due to its storage medium or an operating system problem. When you send a digital file (say, over Ethernet), checksums are in place to make sure that the file is transferred accurately. So in computer operations, excessive interference may corrupt a fragment and require that fragment to be resent. But this is usually transparent to the home user and only becomes an issue to worry about in corporate/business networks.

I've not seen evidence to indicate that outside interference is warping HDMI data and making your colors look wrong. I have seen evidence to suggest the cable business makes a HUGE amount of money planting fear in consumer hearts. Ever wonder why you never see Monster cable sales in those Best Buy ads? Ever? And that should answer the metal-end question vonPoon threw out there.

RUNN1NGMAN

Orogogus wrote: »

Scrublet wrote: »

Captain Vash wrote: »

an HDMI cable, like an optical cable, is a digital signal.

at any length, as long as the connections works, 100% possible quality is achieved.

This is important enough it bears repeating. You can debate the merits of spending a ton of money on speaker wire or something. But with digital cables it's not like the signal is going to get corrupted like an analog signal will. Particularly with optical cables that are based on light, not electricity.

Why is this the case? A video file is digital, but it can get damaged and produce corruption instead of simply not working.

Yeah, I disagree with the above logic too. If you are using a crappy optical cable, then you're going to be hearing a lot of popping and signal drops. Quality is different than price, but with digital signals you will have problems with a poor-quality cable. Digital signals do get corrupted—it's just that instead of minor loss or static in the signal, you get popping or pixelation as the signal gets lost completely. Losing a piece of a digital signal is much more catastrophic than losing portions of an analog signal, as anyone using bunny ears for TV reception can attest.

Scrublet

RUNN1NGMAN wrote: »

Orogogus wrote: »

Scrublet wrote: »

Captain Vash wrote: »

an HDMI cable, like an optical cable, is a digital signal.

at any length, as long as the connections works, 100% possible quality is achieved.

This is important enough it bears repeating. You can debate the merits of spending a ton of money on speaker wire or something. But with digital cables it's not like the signal is going to get corrupted like an analog signal will. Particularly with optical cables that are based on light, not electricity.

Why is this the case? A video file is digital, but it can get damaged and produce corruption instead of simply not working.

Yeah, I disagree with the above logic too. If you are using a crappy optical cable, then you're going to be hearing a lot of popping and signal drops. Quality is different than price, but with digital signals you will have problems with a poor-quality cable. Digital signals do get corrupted—it's just that instead of minor loss or static in the signal, you get popping or pixelation as the signal gets lost completely. Losing a piece of a digital signal is much more catastrophic than losing portions of an analog signal, as anyone using bunny ears for TV reception can attest.

I don't disagree that digital signals get corrupted, but I think it's fair to say the cable is not usually the culprit. I'm not looking to start a cable-quality argument, the main point I wanted to bring out is that all the attenuation issues that premium cable products will wail about really don't exist.

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