Please do not overpay for cables
I'll never stop being angry at how big box electronics stores gouge consumers on cables. This week's Best Buy advertisement is promoting Rocketfish HDMI cables "on sale" for $49.99 for a 4' cable and $69.99 for an 8' cable.
Let me state this as simple as I can:
DO NOT buy these cables!
Instead buy these:
15 comments for this blog post so far...
December 02, 2010 at 11:26 am
Katie
This would have been very nice to know last week...when I paid $75 for one of these...*SHAME*
December 02, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Patric Welch
Katie, sorry to hear that. Can you take the other one back? Or at least you’ll know for next time :)
December 03, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Pete Simpson
You should also check out Monoprice.com. 10’ HDMI cable for $4.23. http://www.monoprice.com. Specifically, http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10240&cs_id=1024008&p_id=3993&seq=1&format=2
December 04, 2010 at 1:22 am
Patric Welch
Good call Pete. Thanks for the addition!
December 07, 2010 at 6:56 am
LISA
Curious, is there any difference in quality between what these retailers are selling and what Amazon or other online sources sell? I just wonder why there’s such a huge price difference. Thanks.
December 07, 2010 at 8:04 am
Doug Walden
I just purchased 6’ HDMI cables for $2.49 + $2.10 shipping at http://www.FireFold.com. They are also good on prices for other Home Theater accessories.
December 07, 2010 at 8:37 am
David Szpunar
If you want to buy local (Indiana), I’d also suggest http://www.cablesforless.com. They’re just out I-70 past Plainfield (you can pick up at their warehouse if you want to make the drive and save shipping) and although their cost isn’t always as rock-bottom as some other sites, they’re close, and I really love their Cat 5 and Cat6 patch cables in particular (the strain relief/antisnag stuff is the best design I’ve seen). I have HDMI and serial cables from them as well, and they also have VGA/DVI etc, and lots of adapters.
December 07, 2010 at 9:21 am
Patric Welch
Lisa, while I can’t speak to the exact differences in quality between these cables I can tell you the Amazon ones are not junk and are very good quality. And even if there is a slight difference, the majority of people would never know the difference (except in their pocketbook!)
December 07, 2010 at 9:21 am
Patric Welch
Doug, David - thanks for letting us know some additional alternatives!
December 07, 2010 at 11:40 am
David Szpunar
Regarding quality; with digital cables, if the signal makes it and the digital connection is made well, you won’t notice a difference in quality of the transmitted image. If all the bits get there, they all get there, if they don’t, you won’t see a picture. It’s not like analog where there are varying degrees of “good signal quality.” If you see a digital picture over HDMI, your cable is plenty high enough quality, which pretty much all the cheap ones are.
Why are they expensive at many retailers? Because they don’t make much margin on the TVs themselves so they make thousands of percent markup on the cables to make up for it. Shh, it’s a secret :-)
December 07, 2010 at 1:30 pm
LISA
Wow! Thanks Patrick & David. What valuable information to have.
December 07, 2010 at 1:38 pm
Donna
Thanks, Patrick!!! I’ll sure know next time!!! :D
December 07, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Patric Welch
David - reminds me of when I bought my last DVD player. The DVD player was $99 or so and they wanted to sell me a $129 component video cable to connect it to my receiver and/or television. Ummm, no thanks.
December 07, 2010 at 2:11 pm
Patric Welch
By the way, that $129 (at the time) cable was from Monster which I’m sure also makes great cables. Just not great enough to spend $129 on.
December 14, 2010 at 3:40 pm
Bryan Meyers
Wow! I had no idea. Good to know.
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