Beware of overpriced HDMI cables
If you are one of the many who bought HDTVs, Blu-Ray players, game consoles, etc., but haven’t bought the HDMI cables yet read this first, it will save you a ton of money.
In big chain electronics stores like Best Buy, HHGreg, and even the now defunct Circuit City and CompUSA (when they still existed), you can’t buy anything without the sales associates trying to forcefully brainwash you into thinking brands like Acustic and Monster Cables must be used or you will burn in hell and never get the perfect sound of picture quality that piece of electronics you bought has to offer. But the truth of the matter is that it doesn’t matter if you use an overpriced cable or a cheap $4 cable.
You might be wondering how I dare to say a cheap cable will work just as good as your over-expensive-high-definition-3D-hyperspeed-superwhatever HDMI cable, and the answer is simple; as long as the cable is CERTIFIED (as in made to HDMI specifications) there should not by any signal degradation. What does that mean? It means that as long as you bought a good cable and not a cheap-ass one from the dollar store it will work just as good as any other overpriced cable.
Did I say overpriced? Check the prices on this $1095.99 AudioQuest Diamond HDMI cable from Best Buy, or this $2,694.75 Diamond HDMI Digital Audio/Video cable from Amazon, those are probably two or three times as expensive as your 32″ HDTV! By the way, read the reviews, they’re hilarious.
PC Magazine did an article on why HDMI brands don’t matter this past May, you might want to take a look at that as it explains the basics of HDMI for the technology impaired.
If after reading that article you still are convinced that the more expensive brands are your only solution to quench that thirst for high definition then the following infograph can explain it better.
As you can see you’re pretty much throwing your money away into an empty pit. There are plenty of places online where you can get relatively cheap HDMI cables for the fraction of the cost of the big brands, and if we compare the prices of the examples above you will have to agree those are savings of more than 500%. Just take a look at this and this, even search on Amazon and Newegg finds cheaper deals, the difference in price is humongous!
So don’t let yourself be fooled by sales associates trying to increase their commission by selling you those super expensive cables, you’re better off getting the cables from somewhere else.
