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Why you should never pay more than $10 for an HDMI cable (Infographic)

210 points by cwan 17y ago

Sam_Odio 17y ago
Even better: An electromagnetically shielded, gold plated optical audio cable. Sold at Sears [1]. I stopped buying cables retail a long time ago. My favorite supplier: RiteAV. They're (IMHO) the Amazon of cables. Huge selection, modest prices [2], and great customer service [3]. 1. http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_05750807000P?vName=Computers%20&%20Electronics&cName=ElectronicsAccessories&sName=Home%20Theater%20&%20Audio&psid=FROOGLE01&sid=IDx20070921x00003a http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_05750807000P?vName=... 2. HDMI cables start at $3.50 - http://www.riteav.com/hdmi-cables-c-141_147.html?osCsid=cjmg54j8h357b3jp3hn1qn68k2 http://www.riteav.com/hdmi-cables-c-141_147.html?osCsid=cjmg... 3. I've never seen another retailer with as high a satisfaction rating: http://www.resellerratings.com/store/RiteAV http://www.resellerratings.com/store/RiteAV
- tezza 17y ago
  For UK peeps my recommendation would be http://euronetworks.co.uk/acatalog/HDMI_Cables.html http://euronetworks.co.uk/acatalog/HDMI_Cables.html Really high quality cables, low prices. Confusingly named, it's UK based as I said.
- lokijuhyghj 17y ago
  No the best ever is Denon's $500 ethernet cable. if you want the best quality for your downloaded MP3s you really need this. In tests audiophiles showed that not only are the 1s sharper but the 0s are much more rounded giving a more fulfilled sound
- Tuna-Fish 17y ago
  [1] made me hysterical for a few minutes. I know this old audiophile who insisted on buying the gold-plated kind when I helped him set up his home theater. I literally spent hours trying to convince him that it didn't matter, but apparently learned behavior just beats logical arguments and evidence. I think the reason there is a market for these kind of ripoffs is that back in the analog era the quality of cables really mattered, and that's when the people who buy these learned what they know of tech. I don't think it gets harder to learn new ideas as you get older, but instead unlearning the ones that have worked for you gets progressively harder the longer you have had them. I only hope I can be more rational when I get older.
- Pahalial 17y ago
  Not to knock your suggestion, but I've had similarly great experiences with http://monoprice.com http://monoprice.com . It seems similar to RiteAV, but much bigger and their prices seem on par (maybe 6-10 cents more expensive): http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Monoprice http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Monoprice Marginally higher rating, but more importantly a MUCH larger sample size (2338 lifetime reviews vs. 25) Also, as someone north of the border they do ship here, whereas (as far as I can tell) RiteAV doesn't.
  - chaosmachine 17y ago
    Monoprice also sells really cheap mini displayport adapters. They even sell a mini displayport to hdmi adapter (you can't get one from Apple).
singer 17y ago
Monoprice.com. That is all.
- joezydeco 17y ago
  Except when you're buying a new TV and you're at the checkout, you realize you need a cable to finish your hookup. This is why you never see a $10 cable in a retail store, like the poster above mentioned. It's all about the psychology of needing it now instead of being able to wait 4 more days.
  - mrcharles 17y ago
    This is why you use monoprice.com. Every time you need a cable, you actually order 4. It's still 1/4 the price of buying it from a retail store, and then when a friend needs a cable for that new tv he just bought, you can hand him one, for 1/4 the price of what he'd pay in stores, and he thanks you, AND you've just paid for your own cables. Really, just don't ever buy a cable in a store. Ever. Getting a TV? Plan it ahead of time. Buying new tech? Make sure you have the cables already. We're talking about an average 20x price markup on these cables, and sometimes significantly more (network cables I'm looking at you!). Knowing your options is the first step in not getting screwed.
    - dpcan 17y ago
      The original poster is precisely correct from my experience. The only time I purchased a cable online was when I bought someone a gift that required the HD cable. All the other times, we ran around the corner to Shopko and paid whatever their price was because we had a new HD system setup and wanted it in HD. Now. I really don't think it's a casual purchase for most people, and I certainly never considered buying more than one at a time.
      - Frazzydee 17y ago
        Also, when you're buying a $3,000 TV, $100 for the cables doesn't seem that bad, relatively speaking.
smackfu 17y ago
It's rare to see even a $10 one at retail. Often the lowest priced one is $20-25, and there are a bunch of $40 options. And not even talking about Monster which this article is singling out.
- brown9-2 17y ago
  the same idea about retail markups applies to these cables as well
- JshWright 17y ago
  http://sellout.woot.com/?ts=1270026281&sig=b28b38ff5dc158bf http://sellout.woot.com/?ts=1270026281&sig=b28b38ff5dc15... $9.99, shipped.
  - smackfu 17y ago
    The key word was "retail". Like if I need a cable today.
- pcarmichael 17y ago
  At the local Fry's (in Austin), there is a section of HDMI cables by the TVs and DVD/Blu-ray players. Cheapest in that section is about $20-$25 as you mention. However, over on the other side of the store, near the computer components, there is a section full of cables (coax, etc.). They have HDMI cables over there too - for ~$10 or so. I guess in some stores you just have to know where to look.
vital101 17y ago
I always thought that the "high end" cable market was a rip-off. Even as someone who loves high quality audio, its REALLY hard to tell the difference between a moderately priced cable and a high end one.
- thmz 17y ago
  Wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-end_audio_cables http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-end_audio_cables There is a nice quote on it: "no other product is as shrouded in hype and mystery as the audio cable!" I also like high quality audio. But most of the time just a good thick electric copper cable will do the job. Also saves you a lot of $.
  - wmf 17y ago
    The idea of basing expensive audiophile equipment on unbalanced audio seems silly; if they really cared about quality, wouldn't they be using balanced signaling?
edd 17y ago
How can companies still get away with not shipping these cables in the box with displays?
- Retric 17y ago
  A) Not everyone is going to use a HDMI cable. (Wrong length, already have one etc. EX: How often did you use the phone line that came with a new phone?) B) It costs them money. C) It helps suport big box retail.
  - smokinn 17y ago
    I think it's mostly a combination of B and C. I have enough monitor and pc power cables to last me the rest of my life at this point but they still package new ones whenever I buy a power supply or monitor.
- jerf 17y ago
  Second order effects, of course. If Samsung ships a cheap HDMI cable in the box, it's very little skin off their nose; they raise the price by their cost, about $2, and even in the competitive TV market that's probably absorbable to some extent. But what happens next? They ship their TV to Best Buy, who quickly notices the TV ships with an HDMI cable, "robbing" them of the chance to sell a Monster cable. Or worse, the customer might still buy one, get them both home, notice there's no difference (or at least no $400 difference) and return the Monster cable. Ack! That's a $100+ profit opportunity that Samsung is costing them. How will Best Buy make up for it? They're going to jack the price of the Samsung TV up by some fraction of the $138 that they can no longer make. Not necessarily the whole amount, it would be prorated based on the average rate of Monster purchase; Best Buy has its own problems if it jacks the price of a TV up as it is a competitive market for them, too! In fact, it is so competitive that it is not hard to imagine that Best Buy will discover they can't effectively sell that TV for ~$50 more (guessing) and just plain take it off the market. I am not saying this is inevitable, just that it is definitely a very possible outcome. If they don't, the very-price-sensitive American consumers will certainly notice the price difference in sufficient numbers to reduce sales of that TV. So, how does this feed back to Samsung? They put in an HDMI cable, and either their retails sales drop, or Best Buy even entirely drops their TV. So, whose fault is this? Money grubbing Samsung? Money grubbing Best Buy? Well, the capitalistic model tends to assume that the customer is informed, and when the customer is not informed, they can be scammed. Here, the customers are not informed. So I split the blame between Monster, who are aggressively lying to customers, and the customer base itself. (Best Buy to some extent here too, for the same reasons as Monster.) Not one, not the other, both. Too many audio/videophiles will aggressively defend their purchase of expensive cables, even after it is explained that their justification is technical gibberish, and as the market leaders they deserve some of the blame. The other reason I blame this is that if you resolve the problem that a critical mass of customers actually believes expensive cables work, the problems go away. Best Buy raises the prices of all TVs a bit to make up the profit margin, as do all similar retailers. (Most are working on single-digit % profit margins from the top corporate POV, so if they lose something like the Monster cable they will need to make it up elsewhere.) Customers don't even notice because TVs continue to work like computers with constant price drops, so it manifests as a brief interruption in otherwise-falling prices rather than a huge, visible increase. Samsung starts sticking cheap-but-effective cables in, and instead of being punished by the retailers, customers reward them with happy thoughts about good service and a good out-of-box experience (which are hard to quantify but certainly produce bankable assets in the end). The other option: When buying a TV through a different channel where there isn't a good Monster upsell opportunity, perhaps something like Amazon (which still has the upsell opportunity in some sense, but will present customers with many 1-star reviews and give them a chance to become informed properly), ship an HDMI cable then. Second order effects, second order effects, second order effects. Always think second order effects when thinking about economics. It's never the simple story, the economic entities react to each other.
micks56 17y ago
My patience for the line, "It is digital. It either works or it doesn't" ended a long time ago. "Digital" signals are analog signals, but the only difference is that they are restricted to being above or below some threshold. But around that threshold there is a gray area where you can't really tell whether your signal will be interpreted as 1 or 0. I am not defending the need for high-end HDMI cables. But saying "It's digital so don't worry" is wrong. There are reasons that "digital" cables use twisted pair. Wow, even some "digital" cable standards specify the number of twists per inch required for reliable operation. And wow, some cable standards even specify shielded cable is required. I wonder why. Here is a fun exercise for those that think "digital" signals don't need engineering steps to protect signal integrity: build all of your cables (or PCBs for that matter) with straight signals and you will have an excellent time trying to debug why your communications don't work. Bonus fun for making the cable length 1/4 of your signal wavelength.
- matwood 17y ago
  I think the point of the "either works or it doesn't" is a comparison versus analog. With an analog signal you could get slightly better results by getting better cables (or worse with worse cables). If you have a poor digital cable it flat out doesn't work. If the cable you're using works, buying a more expensive cable isn't going to make it work any better. Either the 1s and 0s made it from the source to the destination or they didn't. No one is claiming that there isn't engineering that needs to happen to make a digital signal reliably travel from the source to the receiver.
  - micks56 17y ago
    I think your understanding of cables is off. All signals are analog. Every single one. (Actually, I take that back. With the exception of quantum computers, to date, all signals are analog). A "digital" cable doesn't just work or not work. It is possible to receive spurious bit errors for many reasons. For example, you turn up the volume to your awesome surround sound speakers, which causes more current to flow through your speaker wires that happen to be running parallel to your horrible HDMI cable. The increased current causes interference in your low-power HDMI cable, causing bit errors in the transmission.
gstar 17y ago
Shame! I thought we were going to get analytics from Mint showing their users net worth closely correlated with purchasing low-price HDMI cables.
- cake 17y ago
  I was expecting some comparaison of the renewal interval from users buying cheap cables vs users buying expensive cables.
mansr 17y ago
There's a bit more to it than that. An HDMI cable contains three serial data links, each operating at roughly 1.5Gbps. At rates that high, some shielding is required, or the cable will pick up enough noise to damage the signal. The HDMI link has some error correction (contrary to a comment on that site) whereby 8 data bits are transmitted using 10 bits on the wire, so minor errors are tolerated. The important thing, and the central argument of that article, is that with a digital link, once there are no bit errors, no further improvements can be made, and even a cheap cable is plenty good enough for a short HDMI connection. Gold-plated connectors are still a good idea. Corrosion is as much of a problem there as anywhere. Should you use a truly awful cable, and those do exist, you will probably notice an occasional "spark" on the display.
ck2 17y ago
I suspect Monster has it in their catalog for government contract fulfillment where they can just drop it in without any review of cost when A/V components are ordered (seriously). It's not aimed at people who actually look at price tags.
- ShabbyDoo 17y ago
  Have you ever gone into a Best Buy or similar and seen the cable selection? The "cheap" cables are $50, and the Monster cables are sold right beside them. Many people compare prices on the TV before coming into the store, but are not armed with good information when the salesperson tells them that their $1200 TV is worthless without $250 in cables.
  - ck2 17y ago
    It's more insidious at a Best Buy where large purchases like HDTV with accessories are often financed and the salesperson says they can have the best without paying for it (right now). The average consumer has no clue and doesn't want to learn that digital is digital, not like analog. All they know is when there is poor signal they get nothing on their TV (or blocky) where on their old TV they at least got a viewable picture with noise.
carterschonwald 17y ago
An excellent place for purchasing av and other sorts of cables at sane prices is monoprice.com Ive been very happy with the pricing which is consistently the lowest I've seen and the construction quality both. Sanely priced does not imply any loss in construction quality nor does the contrapositive hold, though US consumers are conditioned to view price as a signalling mechanism for quality to various extents
keefe 17y ago
The graphic is totally useless, the same information could have been conveyed in 30 lines of text. An "infographic" should have some kind of graph or chart or something that adds insight, not a picture of 9 playstations and a dopey flow chart.
- brown9-2 17y ago
  What is wrong with conveying those 30 lines of text visually like this graphic does? Perhaps some people will respond better to the same information in this format as opposed to pure lines of text.
matclayton 17y ago
The Reason to buy a really expensive HDMI Cable. There is only one "good" (dubious) reason to by a really expensive cable, and that is for range. There is a performance differences between the cheap and gold cables, due to the different conductivities. However over short distance this isn't observable, as the receiver will correctly interpret the digital signal even though there is no noise on the line, this is the beauty of digital signals. It is there or it isn't, and with decent ECC on the line, which I'm assuming HDMI has, even with a fair bit of degradation it wont be an issue. However as you extend the cable the signal with degrade at a different rate depending on the quality of the cable, and eventually you will reach a distance where the digital signal even with ECC is lost, and it will no longer work. With a higher quality cable this range is greater, (we are talking of ranges in the 10's -> 100's of meters), certainly no issue for a normal TV setup, and you would have to question why you even needed such a long cable to start with, move your source/receiver closer to each other. The only other factor which might show up is the sensitivity and power of the transceivers, and you might find a cable of 100m works on some gear and not on others, but if you do you really are using the wrong tool for the job, go buy a optical repeater :) I'm guessing on distances here, but you get the idea, I use to work in high frequency data transmission systems, and have no idea of the detailed specs of HDMI but should give you an idea.
mawhidby 17y ago
I get all my cables from Amazon. They always have a 6-foot HDMI cable for about $3, with free shipping. Here's a link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002L5R78/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0001IXUDK&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0AA7M0DZV2FKQC1G6HTF http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002L5R78/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp...
coverband 17y ago
So what if some dude with extra money pays a premium for a brand name? If it wasn't for them helping with the profits, Best Buy wouldn't be able to sell us a $400 dollar dual core laptop at a razor thin margin.
samlittlewood 17y ago
A possibly apocryphal story about Quad using a surprising source of speaker cables: http://www.zerogain.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1464 http://www.zerogain.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1464
corysama 17y ago
I've read exactly one semi-scientific comparison of popular DVI cables of varying price. Amazingly, the conclusion was that Monster Cables really are better. However the difference had no effect unless you were running a high-bandwidth signal (>=1920x1080x60Hz) over a long distance (>=12 feet? I don't recall exactly). The cheaper long cables would work for low bandwidth signals, but would lose sync and fail at high rez. Either way: monoprice.com
Groxx 17y ago
My personal favorite store to get cables from: Fleet Farm. Typically, you can find almost any kind of cable for $5-$10, some of the common ones for less. I think my 25-foot flat ethernet cable came in at a whopping $12, but it's been the most durable I've owned. They've also got rational pants, which my wife in particular likes.
andrewcaito 17y ago
I'm reminded of an incident a few years back when Monster sent a cease and desist letter to Blue Jeans Cable. The CEO wrote them a response that was pretty well publicized: http://gizmodo.com/380055/blue-jeans-cable-calls-bs-on-monster-cable-patent-suit-vows-to-fight-to-bloody-death http://gizmodo.com/380055/blue-jeans-cable-calls-bs-on-monst... I bought some cables from http://www.bluejeanscable.com/ http://www.bluejeanscable.com/ a few months later. I needed to make a few longer than normal runs, and they had reasonable prices and were direct about the capabilities of their different products outside of spec.
- gridspy 17y ago
  Awesome rebuttal by Blue Jeans. I wanted to fist pump at the end.
teeja 17y ago
Unless you know exactly why you need the expensive one, you don't need it. Unless a reasonable-length cable is damaged or malconstructed in such a way that it distorts transmitted waveforms so much that they're not recoverable, any reasonable conductor will work. This stuff isn't rocket science since about a year after RS232 was invented.

210 points by cwan 17y ago

Even better: An electromagnetically shielded, gold plated optical audio cable. Sold at Sears [1]. I stopped buying cables retail a long time ago. My favorite supplier: RiteAV. They're (IMHO) the Amazon of cables. Huge selection, modest prices [2], and great customer service [3]. 1. http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_05750807000P?vName=Computers%20&%20Electronics&cName=ElectronicsAccessories&sName=Home%20Theater%20&%20Audio&psid=FROOGLE01&sid=IDx20070921x00003a http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_05750807000P?vName=... 2. HDMI cables start at $3.50 - http://www.riteav.com/hdmi-cables-c-141_147.html?osCsid=cjmg54j8h357b3jp3hn1qn68k2 http://www.riteav.com/hdmi-cables-c-141_147.html?osCsid=cjmg... 3. I've never seen another retailer with as high a satisfaction rating: http://www.resellerratings.com/store/RiteAV http://www.resellerratings.com/store/RiteAV

tezza 17y ago
For UK peeps my recommendation would be http://euronetworks.co.uk/acatalog/HDMI_Cables.html http://euronetworks.co.uk/acatalog/HDMI_Cables.html Really high quality cables, low prices. Confusingly named, it's UK based as I said.
lokijuhyghj 17y ago
No the best ever is Denon's $500 ethernet cable. if you want the best quality for your downloaded MP3s you really need this. In tests audiophiles showed that not only are the 1s sharper but the 0s are much more rounded giving a more fulfilled sound
Tuna-Fish 17y ago
[1] made me hysterical for a few minutes. I know this old audiophile who insisted on buying the gold-plated kind when I helped him set up his home theater. I literally spent hours trying to convince him that it didn't matter, but apparently learned behavior just beats logical arguments and evidence. I think the reason there is a market for these kind of ripoffs is that back in the analog era the quality of cables really mattered, and that's when the people who buy these learned what they know of tech. I don't think it gets harder to learn new ideas as you get older, but instead unlearning the ones that have worked for you gets progressively harder the longer you have had them. I only hope I can be more rational when I get older.
Pahalial 17y ago
Not to knock your suggestion, but I've had similarly great experiences with http://monoprice.com http://monoprice.com . It seems similar to RiteAV, but much bigger and their prices seem on par (maybe 6-10 cents more expensive): http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Monoprice http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Monoprice Marginally higher rating, but more importantly a MUCH larger sample size (2338 lifetime reviews vs. 25) Also, as someone north of the border they do ship here, whereas (as far as I can tell) RiteAV doesn't.
- chaosmachine 17y ago
  Monoprice also sells really cheap mini displayport adapters. They even sell a mini displayport to hdmi adapter (you can't get one from Apple).

singer 17y ago

Monoprice.com. That is all.

joezydeco 17y ago
Except when you're buying a new TV and you're at the checkout, you realize you need a cable to finish your hookup. This is why you never see a $10 cable in a retail store, like the poster above mentioned. It's all about the psychology of needing it now instead of being able to wait 4 more days.
- mrcharles 17y ago
  This is why you use monoprice.com. Every time you need a cable, you actually order 4. It's still 1/4 the price of buying it from a retail store, and then when a friend needs a cable for that new tv he just bought, you can hand him one, for 1/4 the price of what he'd pay in stores, and he thanks you, AND you've just paid for your own cables. Really, just don't ever buy a cable in a store. Ever. Getting a TV? Plan it ahead of time. Buying new tech? Make sure you have the cables already. We're talking about an average 20x price markup on these cables, and sometimes significantly more (network cables I'm looking at you!). Knowing your options is the first step in not getting screwed.
  - dpcan 17y ago
    The original poster is precisely correct from my experience. The only time I purchased a cable online was when I bought someone a gift that required the HD cable. All the other times, we ran around the corner to Shopko and paid whatever their price was because we had a new HD system setup and wanted it in HD. Now. I really don't think it's a casual purchase for most people, and I certainly never considered buying more than one at a time.
    - Frazzydee 17y ago
      Also, when you're buying a $3,000 TV, $100 for the cables doesn't seem that bad, relatively speaking.

smackfu 17y ago

It's rare to see even a $10 one at retail. Often the lowest priced one is $20-25, and there are a bunch of $40 options. And not even talking about Monster which this article is singling out.

brown9-2 17y ago
the same idea about retail markups applies to these cables as well
JshWright 17y ago
http://sellout.woot.com/?ts=1270026281&sig=b28b38ff5dc158bf http://sellout.woot.com/?ts=1270026281&sig=b28b38ff5dc15... $9.99, shipped.
- smackfu 17y ago
  The key word was "retail". Like if I need a cable today.
pcarmichael 17y ago
At the local Fry's (in Austin), there is a section of HDMI cables by the TVs and DVD/Blu-ray players. Cheapest in that section is about $20-$25 as you mention. However, over on the other side of the store, near the computer components, there is a section full of cables (coax, etc.). They have HDMI cables over there too - for ~$10 or so. I guess in some stores you just have to know where to look.

vital101 17y ago

I always thought that the "high end" cable market was a rip-off. Even as someone who loves high quality audio, its REALLY hard to tell the difference between a moderately priced cable and a high end one.

thmz 17y ago
Wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-end_audio_cables http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-end_audio_cables There is a nice quote on it: "no other product is as shrouded in hype and mystery as the audio cable!" I also like high quality audio. But most of the time just a good thick electric copper cable will do the job. Also saves you a lot of $.
- wmf 17y ago
  The idea of basing expensive audiophile equipment on unbalanced audio seems silly; if they really cared about quality, wouldn't they be using balanced signaling?

edd 17y ago

How can companies still get away with not shipping these cables in the box with displays?

Retric 17y ago
A) Not everyone is going to use a HDMI cable. (Wrong length, already have one etc. EX: How often did you use the phone line that came with a new phone?) B) It costs them money. C) It helps suport big box retail.
- smokinn 17y ago
  I think it's mostly a combination of B and C. I have enough monitor and pc power cables to last me the rest of my life at this point but they still package new ones whenever I buy a power supply or monitor.
jerf 17y ago
Second order effects, of course. If Samsung ships a cheap HDMI cable in the box, it's very little skin off their nose; they raise the price by their cost, about $2, and even in the competitive TV market that's probably absorbable to some extent. But what happens next? They ship their TV to Best Buy, who quickly notices the TV ships with an HDMI cable, "robbing" them of the chance to sell a Monster cable. Or worse, the customer might still buy one, get them both home, notice there's no difference (or at least no $400 difference) and return the Monster cable. Ack! That's a $100+ profit opportunity that Samsung is costing them. How will Best Buy make up for it? They're going to jack the price of the Samsung TV up by some fraction of the $138 that they can no longer make. Not necessarily the whole amount, it would be prorated based on the average rate of Monster purchase; Best Buy has its own problems if it jacks the price of a TV up as it is a competitive market for them, too! In fact, it is so competitive that it is not hard to imagine that Best Buy will discover they can't effectively sell that TV for ~$50 more (guessing) and just plain take it off the market. I am not saying this is inevitable, just that it is definitely a very possible outcome. If they don't, the very-price-sensitive American consumers will certainly notice the price difference in sufficient numbers to reduce sales of that TV. So, how does this feed back to Samsung? They put in an HDMI cable, and either their retails sales drop, or Best Buy even entirely drops their TV. So, whose fault is this? Money grubbing Samsung? Money grubbing Best Buy? Well, the capitalistic model tends to assume that the customer is informed, and when the customer is not informed, they can be scammed. Here, the customers are not informed. So I split the blame between Monster, who are aggressively lying to customers, and the customer base itself. (Best Buy to some extent here too, for the same reasons as Monster.) Not one, not the other, both. Too many audio/videophiles will aggressively defend their purchase of expensive cables, even after it is explained that their justification is technical gibberish, and as the market leaders they deserve some of the blame. The other reason I blame this is that if you resolve the problem that a critical mass of customers actually believes expensive cables work, the problems go away. Best Buy raises the prices of all TVs a bit to make up the profit margin, as do all similar retailers. (Most are working on single-digit % profit margins from the top corporate POV, so if they lose something like the Monster cable they will need to make it up elsewhere.) Customers don't even notice because TVs continue to work like computers with constant price drops, so it manifests as a brief interruption in otherwise-falling prices rather than a huge, visible increase. Samsung starts sticking cheap-but-effective cables in, and instead of being punished by the retailers, customers reward them with happy thoughts about good service and a good out-of-box experience (which are hard to quantify but certainly produce bankable assets in the end). The other option: When buying a TV through a different channel where there isn't a good Monster upsell opportunity, perhaps something like Amazon (which still has the upsell opportunity in some sense, but will present customers with many 1-star reviews and give them a chance to become informed properly), ship an HDMI cable then. Second order effects, second order effects, second order effects. Always think second order effects when thinking about economics. It's never the simple story, the economic entities react to each other.

micks56 17y ago

My patience for the line, "It is digital. It either works or it doesn't" ended a long time ago. "Digital" signals are analog signals, but the only difference is that they are restricted to being above or below some threshold. But around that threshold there is a gray area where you can't really tell whether your signal will be interpreted as 1 or 0. I am not defending the need for high-end HDMI cables. But saying "It's digital so don't worry" is wrong. There are reasons that "digital" cables use twisted pair. Wow, even some "digital" cable standards specify the number of twists per inch required for reliable operation. And wow, some cable standards even specify shielded cable is required. I wonder why. Here is a fun exercise for those that think "digital" signals don't need engineering steps to protect signal integrity: build all of your cables (or PCBs for that matter) with straight signals and you will have an excellent time trying to debug why your communications don't work. Bonus fun for making the cable length 1/4 of your signal wavelength.

matwood 17y ago
I think the point of the "either works or it doesn't" is a comparison versus analog. With an analog signal you could get slightly better results by getting better cables (or worse with worse cables). If you have a poor digital cable it flat out doesn't work. If the cable you're using works, buying a more expensive cable isn't going to make it work any better. Either the 1s and 0s made it from the source to the destination or they didn't. No one is claiming that there isn't engineering that needs to happen to make a digital signal reliably travel from the source to the receiver.
- micks56 17y ago
  I think your understanding of cables is off. All signals are analog. Every single one. (Actually, I take that back. With the exception of quantum computers, to date, all signals are analog). A "digital" cable doesn't just work or not work. It is possible to receive spurious bit errors for many reasons. For example, you turn up the volume to your awesome surround sound speakers, which causes more current to flow through your speaker wires that happen to be running parallel to your horrible HDMI cable. The increased current causes interference in your low-power HDMI cable, causing bit errors in the transmission.

gstar 17y ago

Shame! I thought we were going to get analytics from Mint showing their users net worth closely correlated with purchasing low-price HDMI cables.

cake 17y ago
I was expecting some comparaison of the renewal interval from users buying cheap cables vs users buying expensive cables.

mansr 17y ago

There's a bit more to it than that. An HDMI cable contains three serial data links, each operating at roughly 1.5Gbps. At rates that high, some shielding is required, or the cable will pick up enough noise to damage the signal. The HDMI link has some error correction (contrary to a comment on that site) whereby 8 data bits are transmitted using 10 bits on the wire, so minor errors are tolerated. The important thing, and the central argument of that article, is that with a digital link, once there are no bit errors, no further improvements can be made, and even a cheap cable is plenty good enough for a short HDMI connection. Gold-plated connectors are still a good idea. Corrosion is as much of a problem there as anywhere. Should you use a truly awful cable, and those do exist, you will probably notice an occasional "spark" on the display.

ck2 17y ago

I suspect Monster has it in their catalog for government contract fulfillment where they can just drop it in without any review of cost when A/V components are ordered (seriously). It's not aimed at people who actually look at price tags.

ShabbyDoo 17y ago
Have you ever gone into a Best Buy or similar and seen the cable selection? The "cheap" cables are $50, and the Monster cables are sold right beside them. Many people compare prices on the TV before coming into the store, but are not armed with good information when the salesperson tells them that their $1200 TV is worthless without $250 in cables.
- ck2 17y ago
  It's more insidious at a Best Buy where large purchases like HDTV with accessories are often financed and the salesperson says they can have the best without paying for it (right now). The average consumer has no clue and doesn't want to learn that digital is digital, not like analog. All they know is when there is poor signal they get nothing on their TV (or blocky) where on their old TV they at least got a viewable picture with noise.

carterschonwald 17y ago

An excellent place for purchasing av and other sorts of cables at sane prices is monoprice.com Ive been very happy with the pricing which is consistently the lowest I've seen and the construction quality both. Sanely priced does not imply any loss in construction quality nor does the contrapositive hold, though US consumers are conditioned to view price as a signalling mechanism for quality to various extents

keefe 17y ago

The graphic is totally useless, the same information could have been conveyed in 30 lines of text. An "infographic" should have some kind of graph or chart or something that adds insight, not a picture of 9 playstations and a dopey flow chart.

brown9-2 17y ago
What is wrong with conveying those 30 lines of text visually like this graphic does? Perhaps some people will respond better to the same information in this format as opposed to pure lines of text.

matclayton 17y ago

The Reason to buy a really expensive HDMI Cable. There is only one "good" (dubious) reason to by a really expensive cable, and that is for range. There is a performance differences between the cheap and gold cables, due to the different conductivities. However over short distance this isn't observable, as the receiver will correctly interpret the digital signal even though there is no noise on the line, this is the beauty of digital signals. It is there or it isn't, and with decent ECC on the line, which I'm assuming HDMI has, even with a fair bit of degradation it wont be an issue. However as you extend the cable the signal with degrade at a different rate depending on the quality of the cable, and eventually you will reach a distance where the digital signal even with ECC is lost, and it will no longer work. With a higher quality cable this range is greater, (we are talking of ranges in the 10's -> 100's of meters), certainly no issue for a normal TV setup, and you would have to question why you even needed such a long cable to start with, move your source/receiver closer to each other. The only other factor which might show up is the sensitivity and power of the transceivers, and you might find a cable of 100m works on some gear and not on others, but if you do you really are using the wrong tool for the job, go buy a optical repeater :) I'm guessing on distances here, but you get the idea, I use to work in high frequency data transmission systems, and have no idea of the detailed specs of HDMI but should give you an idea.

mawhidby 17y ago

I get all my cables from Amazon. They always have a 6-foot HDMI cable for about $3, with free shipping. Here's a link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002L5R78/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0001IXUDK&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0AA7M0DZV2FKQC1G6HTF http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002L5R78/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp...

coverband 17y ago

So what if some dude with extra money pays a premium for a brand name? If it wasn't for them helping with the profits, Best Buy wouldn't be able to sell us a $400 dollar dual core laptop at a razor thin margin.

samlittlewood 17y ago

A possibly apocryphal story about Quad using a surprising source of speaker cables: http://www.zerogain.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1464 http://www.zerogain.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1464

corysama 17y ago

I've read exactly one semi-scientific comparison of popular DVI cables of varying price. Amazingly, the conclusion was that Monster Cables really are better. However the difference had no effect unless you were running a high-bandwidth signal (>=1920x1080x60Hz) over a long distance (>=12 feet? I don't recall exactly). The cheaper long cables would work for low bandwidth signals, but would lose sync and fail at high rez. Either way: monoprice.com

Groxx 17y ago

My personal favorite store to get cables from: Fleet Farm. Typically, you can find almost any kind of cable for $5-$10, some of the common ones for less. I think my 25-foot flat ethernet cable came in at a whopping $12, but it's been the most durable I've owned. They've also got rational pants, which my wife in particular likes.

andrewcaito 17y ago

I'm reminded of an incident a few years back when Monster sent a cease and desist letter to Blue Jeans Cable. The CEO wrote them a response that was pretty well publicized: http://gizmodo.com/380055/blue-jeans-cable-calls-bs-on-monster-cable-patent-suit-vows-to-fight-to-bloody-death http://gizmodo.com/380055/blue-jeans-cable-calls-bs-on-monst... I bought some cables from http://www.bluejeanscable.com/ http://www.bluejeanscable.com/ a few months later. I needed to make a few longer than normal runs, and they had reasonable prices and were direct about the capabilities of their different products outside of spec.

gridspy 17y ago
Awesome rebuttal by Blue Jeans. I wanted to fist pump at the end.

teeja 17y ago

Unless you know exactly why you need the expensive one, you don't need it. Unless a reasonable-length cable is damaged or malconstructed in such a way that it distorts transmitted waveforms so much that they're not recoverable, any reasonable conductor will work. This stuff isn't rocket science since about a year after RS232 was invented.