So, Due to an excess of game consoles (XBox, XBox 360, XBox 360 “Slim”, PS2) and a relative lack of RGB and Component places to plug everything in on the back of my Brand Y HDTV, I ended up deciding I should get an HDMI cable to open up a couple more choices of places to stick things (and lets face it, any guy my age appreciates a couple of extra places to stick things).
So, I looked at what HDMI cables cost at various local places, and said “Screw that!:rolleyes:” and went to eBay. Found a 3’ HDMI cable in China somewhere for $5 including shipping, and ordered it. Seems to work just great on my 720p TV with my new XBox 360, even seems to change the screen format appropriately when I go between widescreen and fullscreen DVDs, which is a neat trick.
Now, I know all the arguments for why I shouldn’t apply for a new loan to get a Monster or Pear HDMI cable made with adamantium-cored unobtanium/gold alloy wiring for the most premium in subsonic transaccoustical vibes. What I’m curious about is why I SHOULDN’T have bought a $5 3 foot HDMI cable made from copper or whatever they make cheap cables out of from some fly by night factory in Hong Kong.
No reason that I have yet to determine. The markup on connectors and accessories and such is shocking - I used to work at Suncoast and got everything at Best Buy for cost + 10%, so now I can’t bear to pay store prices for any of that stuff. Seriously, that cell phone charger for your car? That you paid 30 bucks for? Five bucks.
Oh boy, you screwed up big time. If you really feel this way, you should just stick to a 13" inch black and white TV. Now, a cheap cable from Hong Kong will seem like it will work at first glance and it will…function just fine or so it seems. That is where they get most uneducated people. You buy one, plug it in, think that it works and then go and tell everyone that you got good results.
What you can’t see is that you should have just taken that money and flushed it down the toilet and destroyed the rest of your electronics too because you obviously don’t know what you are doing. The cheap cables do nothing to compensate for harmonic flux coming from the earth’s core and they are so sensitive to temporal-spatial shifts resonating from universal background radiation originating from the Big Bang that it makes sounds all but unlistenable to a trained ear like the ones I possess.
I could bring a $5000 cable over to your house, plug it in, and we could stare and listen closely for half an hour. I could point out tiny things that I am noticing and you might be amazed. Then again, you may not be able to hear or see it at all and that is even worse because it will always take someone like me to come over and explain it to you every time you buy a new part.
You shouldn’t “shouldn’t have.” You did do the right thing. There’s no discernible difference between a $1 HDMI cable and a $75 Monster cable, they’re all digital.
I think the only thing you did wrong was pay too much.
But no, you’re fine. Expensive cables are a ripoff. HDMI is digital, so the bits either get there or they don’t. As long as the bits are getting through, you’re good.
I have had many experiences with this. A couple of my experiences:
Free video cable splitter from the cable company vs gold-plated video cable splitter, $4 (or $12?) at Home Depot.
$5 microphone vs $25 microphone
Free earphones vs $25 Koss earphones
etc. etc. etc.
In my experience, it breaks down like this:
More expensive means higher quality materials. In particular, I noticed this with the earphones. Usually, my earphones would last 2-3 years, and disintegrate the entire time (always the padding would wear off first, then one of the earphones would break, one side would stop working, etc.) My Koss earphones still have the original padding, both sides still work, and they have almost no wear on them at all. I’ve had them for 20 years now.
More expensive means better performance: In the two microphones I have, the free one is useless. It barely pics up any sound, and it only works with the lowest settings on any sound capture software I have. The expensive microphone, on the other hand, picks up sound clearly and at the highest settings, which I can then reduce to save on space. Also, the free microphone includes an annoying hiss that I can’t get rid of.
More expensive means better function: of the two cable splitters I have, the free one had a much worse signal to the tv, and it could result in interference when moved. The gold plated one, on the other hand, has a rock-solid picture with little or no performance loss.
Imho, much of the stuff I have is the result of needing it for research or performance, therefore I needed it to perform at a high level. If you don’t mind or need the highest level of quality, sometimes a low-end product works for you.
Exactly. Depending on how cheaply that cable was made, it may begin to somehow fall apart. Presumably the ends separating off the cable or something like that. But if that’s the case, you’ll know it’s time to replace it because the AV signal isn’t getting there consistently or at all. But if your $5 cable falls apart in three years, who cares? You can just get another one for the same price. Hell, do that a couple times and HDMI will probably have been replaced by HDBaseT, at which point you’ll probably be looking into a new TV. Like with all things, there’s paying a premium for actual quality and then there’s paying a premium for either perceived quality or for complete fluff.
Bingo. Monoprice takes these sorts of things that are sold at high margins, and they sell them at low margins, but they’re a reputable place. They have great bargains on cables, connectors, and some kinds of electronic accessories. They have a lot of items that might normally sell for $5 or $20, that they sell for $1 or $2. Like Ipod protective films and basic plastic cases. The shipping charges are also reasonable.
I bought five 5-foot HDMI cables off of Amazon a few years back for twenty-five cents EACH. The shipping cost more than the cables. They’ve done the job just as well as an overpriced Monster cable.
Your items are a little different though - there is a big difference between very cheap earphones (and I assume microphones) and more expensive items. You hit diminishing returns pretty quickly as you head into the more expensive range, but dirt cheap earphones sound terrible.
I don’t think this applies to digital cables. No home user is going to notice any difference between cheap HDMI cables and expensive HDMI cables. They will work equally well. I bet they won’t even notice any difference that matters in build quality either. Personally I’ve never had a cable fail on me, even ones I attempt to use after three years being crushed in a drawer. All my components are plugged into my TV with cheap HDMI components - given that they are not moved around much ever I would be surprised if any of them spontaneously failed on me. And if they did, well its only five bucks.
I hope you’re happy. Because you didn’t purchase that Monster cable some poor guy probably got laid off and can’t feed his family anymore. He won’t be able to find a new job so he’ll start dealing drugs and his wife will turn to prostitution so the kids can eat. Everything will be fine until his wife gets arrested and he goes to bail her out, unaware that his face is plastered all over the police station because some junkie gave him up for a lighter sentence. With both parents in jail the kids will have to go into foster care, but they won’t be loved–the foster parents are only doing it for the extra money from the state. Once they turn 18 they’ll get booted out onto the street to make the same mistakes their parents made. Only this time the daughter will get her throat cut by a serial killer who targets prostitutes and the son will be found under a bridge, dead from an overdose.
But you got your cable for cheap and that’s all that matters.
My understanding is that with digital cables, either it works or it doesn’t - it isn’t like analog where you might get a good signal or a shitty one.
And my boyfriend works in video production and he buys expensive microphones, expensive headphones, cheap-ass cables. They’re fundamentally different purchases.
This isn’t completely true - the signals are still analog going over the cable, and poor quality cables can cause digital noise or signal dropouts. Still, unless you are going a long ways, even the cheapest cables usually work.
I have a 15’ long vga cable I purchased from an Amazon seller, it works fine with all but my one monitor. Evidently the place it plugs in on it causes some interference, and all vga cables do the same thing. Fuzzy screen. The newer style plugs are a little further down the line and work fine, even with the cheap cable I have for that, unless I pull the cable over to that area, which will cause the fuzzy screen to start up. In short, I doubt any seriously over priced Monster cable will do any better if it crosses that zone.
