HDMI Cable Scam | Caveat Emptor

Sunday, February 18, 2007

While doing my morning crawl of all things technology-reated, I came a cross a rather informative, interesting article posted by an IT guy named Harry alerting us concumers to the outrageous scam that HDMI cable manufacturers are using to swindle us out of our hard-earned dollars.

As many of you may already have found out, upgrading to HDTV is not a cheap endeavor once you factor in the price of your HDTV-ready television, the set-top HDTV receiver, and let us not forget the HDMI cables required to connect the various components to the HDTV television.

These HDMI cables often fetch a price of over $100, even on ebay! One company that seems to have alot of "hype" about being a great HDMI cable, is Monster Cable. Not knowing any better, many people will shell out more than $100 for their HDMI cable, but before you do, you should read on ...

Recently, a few lesser-known brands have started retailing HDMI cables for substancially less than their $100 or better cousins. Is there any difference in them, and will my saving $100 affect my quality of connection between my HDTV-enabled components?

The short answer is NO, and NO.

On Sony's playstation user forum, a member going by the name RUSirius explains the makeup and differences between HDMI cables, in technical terms, and also using an easier-to-follow anology for those who get lost in technobabble.

What it boils down to, is HDMI cables transport digital signals, only transferring "ones" or "zeros" to be decoded by the HDTV receiver. You do not need a cable costing well over $100 to do the same thing a cable costing less than $20 will do, and do just as well!

There is a company called Monoprice.com that is a cable wholesaler. Monoprice sells individual HDMI cables over the internet at a cost of $17.93. Several playstation users have reported buying this cable, and all of them report favorably that the quality is perfect. The cable itself is thick and sturdy, and their picture is impressive. Let us not forget the fact they just saved over $100 too!

And if you are really apprehensive about buying a lesser-known brand such as Monoprice, Apple also sells an HDMI cable for $19.95.

Please share this article with anybody you know who has recently, or is considering purchasing an HDTV telesision set and/or a game console. Educating consumers is the only way to stop this HDMI cable scam.