- Monday, 16 November 2009
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Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal - Charles Darwin
Punters duped into buying rip-off HDMI cables
CONSUMERS are being suckered into buying "high performance" HDMI cables for their new tellies after being told that they are needed to run digital signals properly.
HDMI cables are commonly sold as an add-on to flatscreen television sets at electronic outlets but sales people are trying to sell punters cables for hundreds of dollars claiming that they give superiour performance or can handle ‘higher bandwidth’ loads.
In fact you can get everything you need from a cable that costs about £12 and techie boffins are warning that people should be on their guard against slick sales pitches that claim otherwise.
Robin Braun, a professor of telecommunications at UTS says that, because the HDMI cable carries a digital signal, most of the built-up "noise" that affects more traditional analogue cable images is absent, meaning that most short-range HDMI cables will give a perfect image every time, regardless of their price.
Braun said that punters were taking home cables that far surpassed their needs, adding that some retailers were marking up cable to more than 10 times the wholesale price. µ
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Reminds me of the guy I know who was conned into buying a 'gold plated' optical TOSLINK cable.

Sigh....
This has been going on ever since digital technology entered into the consumer electronics busines. Why by an expensive dvd or cd-player when everything is handled digitaly from the disc to the amplifier? Even if there is so much noise and interference that bit-errors occur there is redundance, error correcting code and all that. If that wasn't true you would not be able to install large programs without getting bit errors in the transfer of the binary and then there would be runtime errors.

PS Sorry for all the spelling and grammar errors.
Comet seem to have a naff at trying to sell me Monster cables for Hi-fi's or a TV I just recently bought I refused it telling him there rubbish.

"Yes sir but there gold plated" so what gold is a better conductor but the other side (HDMI Port etc) of the connection would have to be gold as well to keep the improved signal. I have never seen improvement with a gold plated scart or HDMI cable to be honest.
Learn about Jitter, Luke. This has been discussed in hi-fi and home-theater forums ad nauseum. What's the news again?
Great article here: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/hdmi-cable-battlemodo/the-truth-about-monster-cable-part-2-268788.php

Really digs into the specifics regarding performance of high end (re: Monster Cable) cables vs. budget (re: Monoprice.com) cables. Article basically concludes no difference between cables on lengths less than 6 feet.
If you read 

http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/do-hdmi-cables-matter/

you'll see that eventually the type of HDMI cable you buy _will_ matter somewhat. As a result it may be worth paying more for something which conforms to the newer specifications.

Obviously right now you can get away with a few strands of bell wire (-:
As the first mentioned, Monster Cables brand comes to mind as one of the overpriced not needed cables. Back years ago when huge powerful speakers for home stereos were being (not these little iPod setups or crappy little 5.1 TV setups) used Monster Cable had a place, I used heavy extension cord instead and saved allot. Newegg.com can get you HDMI cables and all the others for a fraction of the price.
I don't know why people get so excited about cables. You don't have to take anyone's word on this subject, you can test cables and decide for yourself. In my opinion, most people don't care that much about sound and video quality; as long as the quality is adequate, they buy based on features, size and brand. However, if you are one of the few people who go to the trouble of testing and comparing components before buying, I recommend taking the time to test cables too. I have found the difference in cables (and digital equipment in general) is larger than theory would suggest. In some cases, cables are a cheap way to improve the performance of an expensive system. But, like anything else, don't just trust the salesman; make him demonstrate that a cable is better before spending extra.
Monster HDMI, and even USB cables... 100% rip off. Jumbo markup for the store, kick back for sales (SPIF) so that's why places like best buy push them so hard. You can get a certified 6' cable for under $10, and one with a better build quality for under $20. 

For a good laugh at Monster cable check out their attempt to sue Blue Jeans Cable.
http://www.audioholics.com/news/industry-news/blue-jeans-strikes-back
They will sell you a 6' HDMI from $4.80 to $17.25.
Ben, not that the article you're linking to is bad or anything, but if you scroll down to the bottom you'll learn that, surprise surprise, the author **works for a company that makes fancy cables**, which, I think you might agree, constitutes a *slight* conflict of interest.
The sun sets in the west and you can't break the internet by typing google into Google.
...except the consumer: In the US, many major chains now only stock Monster products, or similarly "overdesigned" products from other vendors. And if you are able to find a "normal" cable on a shelf, it will not cost any less than the "monstrosities."

Heck, ever had to buy something as basic as a 14' network patch at an office supply store? $30 from Belkin (and that's after the prices just dropped), lovely.
Yup I paid £2-3 for a nice gold plated HDMI cable... capitalism is Darwinism.

Hmm here it is:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130508

they increased the price by £1... oh well :].
While it is true that high end HDMI cables such as those under the Monster brand and any other cable in that sort of range are way over priced for what they are, it isn't entirely true that a cheaper cable will give you the same results. Pretty much any cheap HDMI cable will provide enough bandwidth for HDTV and DVD quality audio and most people would never notice any difference between a $10 cable or a $300 Monster cable with that kind of content and equipment.

It isn't until you get into a minimum of 1080p resolution and full 7.1 HD audio that higher grade cables will actually make any difference. That difference though will still only be small and it's really only the audio/videophiles who will notice when a cable that is properly certified for the HDMI 1.3 spec to allow enough bandwidth for things such as Deep Colour and DTS-HD bitstreatm passthrough is actually being used.

While it is a digital signal, it doesn't mean that it can't be interrupted. If the connection is bad, it's more noticeable if it's a digital signal than one which is analogue simply because the signal either gets to it's destination or it doesn't, there is no middle ground like with analgoue signals. Free-to-air digital TV broadcasts can commonly have pops and crackles in the audio or pixelation to the image which will be worse in bad reception areas or during storms for example.

A HDMI connection will certainly not be as bad as that unless it's extremely bad quality cable or it has been chewed through by the dog or something, but seeing as though there is no error correction with real-time audio/video streaming like there is on network or Internet traffic, it's still possible. Higher quality content such as images with resolutions 1080p or higher combined with full HD audio require more bandwidth and are therefor more prone to signal dropouts on cheaper cables, although it is still very rare.

In addition to that, HDMI signals will lose strength after only about 3 metres. Better quality cables are certainly recommended at distances longer than this. Personally I'm just using a $8 HDMI cable from my HTPC to my 1080p LCD TV at home. It is only used for the video though so there should be plenty of bandwidth for the time being until a upgrade my AV receiver to a modern 7.1 HD one with HDMI inputs...
I just won't buy overpriced digital cables. Bits are bits -- I shove far higher data rates down cheap patch cables so I don't feel I have to pay extra because the bits are driving my TV. (Even though the whole HDMI thing is a PoS as digital interfaces go.)

So the problem is how to get reasonably priced cables when the local stores just stock overpriced Monsters.

I've got the same problem with the fiber used to transfer audio - its an el cheapo polymer multimode fiber, the lowest of the low (with lousy connectors) but because its for 'audio' we're expected to pay premium prices for the thing.
I was in Currys / Dixons and they tried in vain to sell me a HDMI cable for €99, it had magic properties such as gold plating, wow! lol Oh and that was the cheapest one! 

I went to Argos and got one for €12, sorted!
I bought the same cable from Ebuyer as excelsior (an earlier poster) did, but got it for 2.99 quid with free postage [sadly, Ebuyer don't do free postage any more] specially on that item. It works fine, so I'm glad I bought 3 of them at the time :-) Gold plated, 2m, HDMI 1.3, 3 quid, free postage - I doubt anyone could ever do better...
If so, it passes the HDMI specs and is fine.

see 

http://www.hdmi.com/download/guidelines/2007_10HDMI_Trademark_FAQs_pdf.pdf

and think of things a different way. if i told you i had a UTP cable that was very thick and gold plated and it made you tube videos look sharper you'd think i was mad.
I personally purchased goods from http://ukhdmi.com/hdmi-cables/ a perfect example of multiple HDMI Cables for different cost. I guess the customer is in control i choose the £7.00 version as i liked the built quality. I guess everyone needs to decide for them self. Business class is not for everyone?