HDMI cables, if you don’t have any at home, that will probably change for you sooner or later.
The new cabling standard for High Def. TV comes in many sizes and styles, and wildly varying price points.
Case in point the Best Buy Brand “Geek Squad Elite 8′ HDMI” Cable
Listed as “On Sale” for $80.99 with the following spec list:
Connect your computer to a monitor or projector with this high-speed HDMI A/V cable and enjoy high-definition video and stunning sound quality through a single cable.
Product Features
- Connect 1 HDMI component with an output to an HDMI component with an input
- Digital video up to 1920 x 1200 resolution and Lossless audio through a single cable
- Delivers a bandwidth up to 10.2 Gbps for maximum performance
- Supports 60Hz and 120Hz refresh rates
- Compatible with Deep Color and x.v.Color
This cable is probably sold to just about every Best Buy customer who comes in to buy a Bluray player, or a new HDTV, but is this cable a deal?
I hardly think so! Let’s see if we can use our brains and the Internet to try and save some money on an 8 foot HDMI cable.
Enter Monoprice.com
As far as I am concerned, Monoprice is the, first and, only place anyone should be buying cables they need.
A quick search on monoprice.com for 8′ HDMI cables yields this gem.
Specs & Features
Connector Type: HDMI male to HDMI male
Connector Finish: Gold
Length: 8ft
Gauge: 24AWG
# of conductors: 19
Conductor Plating: Tin
Shielding level: Triple
Shielding type: EMI
Ferrite Cores: No
Net Jacket: Yes
Built-in Equalizer: No
Supported Resolutions: 480i to 1080pBandwidth: up to 340 Mhz (10.2 Gbps)
Deep Color: 10-bit, 12-bit, and 3*16-bit (48-bit RGB or YCbCr) color depths. “x.v.Color™”
HDMI Certified: Yes
HDMI Spec: 1.3a
Category 2 Certified: Yes
HDCP Compliant: Yes
CEC Compliant: Yes
ROHS Compliant: Yes
1.3 Device Compatible: Yes
Supports DVD Audio: Yes
Supports SACD: Yes
Supports TrueHD & DTS-HD: Yes
Overall Diameter: 10mmUL Specs
UL File #: E139956
UL Style #: 20276
CL2 (In-Wall): Yes
VW-1: Yes
Voltage Rating: 30V
Temperature Rating: 80° C
Now I can only assume this cable is comparable to the Geek Squad labeled cable, and based on the store’s name alone “Best Buy” you would think that the Monoprice cable would be pretty close in price.
WRONG!
The Monoprice cable is priced at a whopping $9.60! Adding in the $4.95 shipping rate for USPS Priority service, you end up with a total of $14.55
That is a savings of $66.44
Even if you paid the Next Day Air Service from Monoprice to get the cable to you tomorrow, it would still only come to $29.85, for a total savings of $51.14.
How can the Big Box Stores Justify their prices? I guess they just figure that most consumers are just uninformed idiots and can be talked in to buying anything.
So the next time someone says they got a deal at “Best Buy” you can laugh to yourself and revel in the fact you are saving a fortune compared to the average big box consumer. Or you can do someone a huge favor and say “Wow, are you within the 30 day return period, because I can save you a lot of money for the exact same thing!
End of Technorambling.
© 2009, Technoramblings of the digitally insane. All rights reserved.
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#1 by Josiah on October 8, 2009 - 8:08 pm
Quote
As a former employee of a technology sales company i can confirm the information above from Mr. Digitally Insane is correct. Cables were by far the highest margin products we sold and they can easily be found elsewhere. Just because the TV was less expensive, does not mean the cables are. (Same thing with printers and ink/toner.)
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