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these HDMI cables are worth $140
musanman
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Registered User regular
I recently purchased an HDTV that can run 1080p. I have nothing capable of getting up to that quality of signal, but I may purchase a bluray player (probably ps3) in the future.
While setting up my system I was looking at the prices of HDMI cables...in the $140 range for 6 foot cables?
I asked the sales clerk at best buy how they can possibly justify this retarded overpricing and he brought out a box of spliced wires. "see how this one is all paper and you can see all the colored wires in the monster cable"
ooookay that is some magic trick you got there...I just smiled and walked away.
If HDMI is a digital signal, it sends 0s and 1s. They either get there or they don't. The only possible thing I can imagine happening is somehow the cable loses some of the bits, which would result in a horrible black spot or mixed up image. How can the cable possibly change the quality.
This thread is for people to either discuss the differences between cables or their experiences with dumbass salespeople.
While setting up my system I was looking at the prices of HDMI cables...in the $140 range for 6 foot cables?
I asked the sales clerk at best buy how they can possibly justify this retarded overpricing and he brought out a box of spliced wires. "see how this one is all paper and you can see all the colored wires in the monster cable"
ooookay that is some magic trick you got there...I just smiled and walked away.
If HDMI is a digital signal, it sends 0s and 1s. They either get there or they don't. The only possible thing I can imagine happening is somehow the cable loses some of the bits, which would result in a horrible black spot or mixed up image. How can the cable possibly change the quality.
This thread is for people to either discuss the differences between cables or their experiences with dumbass salespeople.
musanman on
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The problem is that the average consumer is dumb. A lot of them believe that Best Buy, Circuit City et al. are the ultimate in technological knowledge because they 1) know more than they do and 2) are fucking everywhere.
I'll give you a bit of both:
The HDMI cable I have hooked between my PS3 and my TV is a $5 cable I got from monoprice.com. The picture looks fucking incredible.
A few years back while still in college, I had a Circuit City biscuit tell me, with all sincerity, that Data CD-Rs couldn't have music written to them.
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I wound up deciding that two days wait was worth $30 to me.
I consider this a fundamental failure of capitalism.
That's because Circuit City, Best Buy, Monster.com, PC Richard & Sons, et al. are on the winning side of a very basic psychological parlor trick that has been more or less bred into the American (if not Global) consumerist psyche: that more expensive equates to "better." This trick is particularly sinister in the case of HDMI cables because it is supported by evidence. In many, many other cases, more expensive actually does equal better, even within audio/video equipment. So it is reasonable to think that that would be the case here. It's actually not the norm in this case. Therefore it is easy to swindle people.
It is reprehensible.
The markup on cables is about the same as the cost of next day air for a cable. I wouldn't mind paying more in the store— maybe ten bucks on the $2.50 I got it for online. No problem. $35 is outrageous, just bald-faced profiteering that I refuse to support.
Regardless Radio Shack's only reason to exist is because you want something now or you're ignorant. Either way you're going to get ripped off.
For very long runs expensive cabling is actually worthwhile. Funny thing is monster really isn't pro quality they just charge like it is.
Like drez already mentioned, people might not be eager to buy Monster cables if they were $20 instead of $140.
You could change the Monster cables to designer jeans, I guess. This is a thread about perceived value, right?
Oh good - that means we can bitch about the prices of bottled water and concert tickets here. :P
Is that just a failing of my imagination, or are Monster cables a different matter? To me there is a blatant disrespect for the consumer here. I mean, I don't think this is analogous to Grey Goose versus other vodka. This is like telling consumers that Grey Goose will get you drunk faster than other vodkas or something. It's a total fucking sham.
Now, if Monster sold their cables on the basis of "they look cool" that's one thing. But once they start advertising that their cables protect the user's digital signal from things that have no means of interrupting it then you go from creating a sensationalized value to creating a value on false pretenses. Two different things. "Buy our jeans, they're cooler than The Gap's!" is not the same thing as "buy our jeans, The Gap's won't cover your legs as well as ours!" when the latter isn't even remotely true.
I figured it was something worth discussing. I wasn't necessarily looking for technical help, or even responses. I think most of the audience in D&D is smart enough to understand when they're being conned...I'd just like to hear their experiences.
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Isnt all vodka supposed to be flavorless? I mean, after a certain quality of filtering threshold its all the same. So isnt vodka differences fake too? Or at least as bad as the difference between designer jeans that look the same but are different brands, one of which is "Cooler".
but they're listening to every word I say
I've never used Monster or any designer cables for home theater, but I have used nicer cables for amplifying instruments and there is a difference between a shitty cable and a good one. Is it enough to warrant the extra price? Probably not for most people. Though I suppose it's different for analog signals in comparison to HDMI.
No, the big difference I pointed out is that there is zero difference between a 5 dollar brandless cable and a 140 dollar Monster cable while there are differences between a bottle of Smirnoff or Absolute and Grey Goose. Thus the analogy falls short.
Unless you can give me one relevant difference between a Monster HDMI cable and a 5-dollar brandless HDMI cable. "Relevant" meaning one that is advertised and one that people usually choose a Monster cable for. There are relevant differences between Grey Goose and other vodkas and there are relevant differences between designer jeans and other jeans. There are no relevant differences between Monster HDMI cables and other cables.
Flavorless? No. Unless my definition of "flavor" is wrong. And I'm not saying that the difference in vodkas or clothing are substantial or even good, I'm saying that the differences are not fictitious. There is a social stigma related to the amount you spend on clothes. No single element of the textile industry created that stigma...but it now exists. Same goes with vodka. The same doesn't exist for Monster HDMI cables. There is no gain, not even a pretentious one, for the consumer. Monster HDMI cables are marketed as "working better," that's it. That's their entire ad campaign. And it's false. Clothers advertise that their clothes make you "look better" or that you'll "fit in with a better crowd" or something along those lines which may be stupid but it's arguably not false. And there is, in fact, a difference in taste from vodka to vodka.
I don't know anything about amplifying instruments or what kind of cables you are using. I am specifically talking about Monster HDMI cables. I forgot to specify the "HDMI" in the above post you quoted, though. Digital signals are different.
Vodka is designed to be tasteless and odorless in theory. The higher quality vodka is the one that has been filtered again and again until there are no impurities...but I would agree the analogy falls short let's try to keep it focused on the cables.
Other types of monster cable have perceived value, I would say, but digital cables (DVI-D or HDMI) have wholly-fictitious values.
Didn't Mythbusters do something on this?
But yeah, HDMI markup is bullshit.
I think they used it as mouthwash. Since it's odorless but high in alcohol it kills all the the bad shit in your mouth and doesn't smell like you've been drinking. They might have mixed it with cinnamon or something.
They tested whether you could increase your vodka's quality w/ a coffee filter.
On a completely different note: When I went to Rome on a school trip a few years ago, I saw a store that actually went by the name "Expensive". I guess that shows that some purchases are simply made as a way of saying "I can afford to waste money!"
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