Small Rant, HDMI cables and Best Buy

[IRL]

I rarely if ever rant...but my recent visit to Best Buy in Deerfoot Meadows left me a tad steamed!

I wanted to hook up my 32" HDTV via HDMI cable to my Shaw PVR. I went online and was amazed at the price differences between regular HDMI cables ($24) and Monster cables ($145+). I did some research and easily came to the conclusion that it was a waste of money going with Monster cables...especially only needing 6 ft.

I walk in to Best Buy and cannot find any of the cheap cables...the only ones they have on the shelves are the expensive ones. I politely ask to use one of their computers to see if they had any stock of the $24 ones that I saw online. All of a sudden a "know it all" sales guy laughs at me and says "well I don't recommend those...they are garbage". I was a tad stunned and mentioned that I did some research and it was found cables (in particular 6 feet ones) don't make a difference and its generally recommend to go with the cheaper ones. Well in the most arrogant way I could have someone possibly respond, he tells me that there is alot of signal degredation in the cheap cables and that I should go back and "do more research". He then turns his back to me giving the cold shoulder smurking to another customer he was helping.

I rarely get upset in these situations...but damn, I hate it when someone tries to make you look like an idiot. Aparently because they sell video equipment, they are highly specialized individuals who know everything and anything about video and audio. All I could do was laugh and walk away trying to find another "video specialist" to help me locate the "cheap" cables.

In the end I found the $24 cables...they work like a charm with no obvious "signal degredation".

[sabad66]

monoprice.com is your friend next time!

[syscal]

or locally at Alberta Computer Cable www.cablesbyacc.com

[eblend]

definately go monoprice, as a fact go there now, order a cable, when it comes in take you 24 dollar cable and return it, make them deal with reselling it and repackaging and stuff since they were a bunch of asses. The cables feed digital signal, 1 and 0, it either works or not

[em2ab]

He's right but just didn't realize it's only for cables around 14 feet and over. He shouldn't have insisted he was right though, otherwise he'll never learn the difference.

[badatusrnames]

He works at Best Buy. Don't worry about it...

[WhippWhapp]

Originally posted by sabad66
monoprice.com is your friend next time!

What he said!

[IRL]

Thanks for the link to Monoprice. I did see the website and almost ordered yesterday, but I wasnt sure about final costs after taking into account shipping/brokerage (if any).

Generally I prefer buying from Best Buy...as their sales staff don't work on commission and for the most part are not pushy with their sales. I have found most do want to help and are pretty honest...in this case I just found the bad apple.

I still might take it back...I just hate to do it as I butchered the plastic box opening it!

[EK 2.0]

Originally posted by IRL

All of a sudden a "know it all" sales guy laughs at me and says "well I don't recommend those...they are garbage"

Sorry, I will just keep my advice to myself next time....

And by the way the other customer I was talking to bought TWO of the 145 dollar cables...AND warranty.....AND a mouse pad.

[410440]

Originally posted by EK 2.0



Sorry, I will just keep my advice to myself next time....

And by the way the other customer I was talking to bought TWO of the 145 dollar cables...AND warranty.....AND a mouse pad.

and gave you a 20$ tip?

To the O.P, if only you knew the cost on those cables and were able to buy them at cost, everything would be monster, or rocketfish which is pretty much monster.

Rocketfish HDMI retails for 100 bucks, retail cost is like 7 dollars.

[GQBalla]

Like said monoprice ftw!

Also I woulnt get bent over about it, he works at best buy

[Unknown303]

I would only ever recommend either Alberta Computer Cables or Monoprice. ACC is a great place if you need it now. And Monoprice is epic for cheapest prices on anything home theater related. An HDMI cable is an HDMI cable. the only thing you have to look at is the AWG generally anything 24AWG or smaller number is what you'll want.

When it comes down to it the devices we use these days are growing less sensitive to resistance difference and will generally work with damn near any copper wire connecting between two devices. If your ever in buy again ask what training or where he's received his information from. They don't know shit there and I find that's a good enough answer as to why they don't work for commission as bestbuy. Now if you can find a decent Futureshop employee who actually knows what they are talking about and can give you the honest answer and not the Futureshop answer then they will probably tell you to order from Monoprice.

[flipstah]

Originally posted by syscal
or locally at Alberta Computer Cable www.cablesbyacc.com

Thanks for this! I am in need of a 50ft HDMI cable and I like supporting the local community.

[410440]

there was a test done at one point, i cant remember where or when.

but some dude used 2 coat hangers as signal cables and compared them to monster cables, and there was no differance.


only reason to buy monster is when its fucking dirt ass cheap.

[Zero102]

That test related to speaker wires and it was rather subjective at best.

That said, I choose to believe it entirely. I think monster cables are just hype and I've seen more than enough anecdotal evidence (really there is no hard proof) to support it.
I buy cheapie cables whenever the signal is digital or the run is short. Only on long runs do I buy nice cabling, and even then, it is __NEVER__ monster cable.

[HyperZell]

Too many people deal in extremes when it comes to this. The people who insist that "it either works or it doesn't" are almost as bad as the ones that insist that there's a huge difference between cables.

Here's the scoop - there are differences between cheap cables and expensive ones. The question is: how much of a difference? In most cases, not much, if any. In fact, you would be extremely hard pressed to tell the difference between the two. Where you start to see it is in extended cable length - so if you're going to build a new house and have a built in wall cable of like 75ft, then yeah you might consider a premium cable. For most people with their components six feet away from the TV, it probably doesn't matter.

And please don't mix up the "is there a difference" argument with the "massive markup" thing. Just because something is marked up a lot doesn't mean it doesn't perform. It's just priced at what the market will bear, so separate the two as they have no affect on the other. Read: price does not necessarily indicate quality.

[Mitsu3000gt]

The last HDMI cables we bought were from Alberta Computer Cable as well. COSTCO.ca has a bunch of cables too, 35 footers for $40. Also note you can't get HDMI 1.3a certified cables 35ft and over.

Never, ever buy anything cable or power related from a chain store such as future shop, BB, visions, etc.

You can also use CAT 5 cable for HDMI if you want, its popular for when you need to run through walls and such.

[dragonone]

u guys should read the technical training bulletins they have for the sales team at BB/FS, not only are some of them written by monster, but how can you expect some high school drop-out sales guy to understand the physics behind things like wires? they try hard to memorize the concept tho i'll give them that much. whatever information the company gives them, it's their bible and since the cables cost more even 'at cost' than monoprice, their cables must be the best lol.

[megavolt]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
You can also use CAT 5 cable for HDMI if you want, its popular for when you need to run through walls and such.

Heh... didn't know that... you can just hook up the TMDS Data and Clock Channels and it works? Just without auto display information and such I'm assuming.

[Mibz]

I -believe- you need two cables per run of HDMI and you get distances of up to 200ft with Cat6. Pretty sure houses with HDMI pre-wired are actually using Cat6 and converters.