Buyer Beware: Misleading HDMI Cable Labels

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Disclaimer: There is not a single one of you out there that doesn’t know about the HDMI cable hustle. But, we all have friends and family members that believe the marketing hype and unless they see it in black and white, they won’t believe it. Feel free to share this link with “them.”

Have you seen HDMI cables online or in stores labeled "120 Hz," "240Hz" and "480 Hz"? It's easy enough to slap such labels on HDMI cables but it's a sham. HDMI cables can no more be manufactured for specific refresh-rate HDTVs than a garden hose can be manufactured specifically to water seeded lawns and sod lawns. The same water flows through either one. The same HDTV signal flows through all HDMI cables, whether labeled "120Hz" or "480Hz" — or not labeled at all.
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Steve said:
Disclaimer: There is not a single one of you out there that doesn’t know about the HDMI cable hustle. But, we all have friends and family members that believe the marketing hype and unless they see it in black and white, they won’t believe it. Feel free to share this link with “them.”
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Wait, hold on now, are you saying that my "greener grass" garden hose is a lie?
 
I wonder if I post this on FB, Monster will send me a cease and desist letter. They'll justify their label saying "we're just informing our customer that you don't need to look harder because this cable CAN do 120 and higher" - never mind not mentioning that ANY cable can do it.
 
When I bought my TV and Blue Ray player this past Winter at Best Buy .....

The sales guy that helped me tried to sell me an HDMI cable Made by Monster Cable and was going on and on about how much better it was than all the others, etc.. etc ...

I looked him dead in the eye and told him straight out that "you guys are ripping people off. Selling those cables to people that don't know any better is a sham. That 60 dollar Monster cable is no different than the one I bought at Monoprice.com for less than 9 bucks shipped. " He was pretty speechless after that lol.
 
It's amazing how much people buy into this marketing. Talking to some people I know who work at Best Buy I found that they whole heartedly and almost rabidly defend these cables and the so called differences. Poor uninformed consumers need to read up before they actually buy anything.
 
This is like the "special audio" SATA hard drive cable that makes MP3s sound better! Featured on /. yesterday, but the blog post was withdrawn. All we are left with is: http://www.malcolmsteward.co.uk/?p=2495

"I know full well that it is ‘scientifically’ not possible for a data cable to exert such influence but I know what we heard"
 
Home entertainment cabling of all sorts is a giant racket; which is why I buy all of my cables online. The only time I even consider going to any store and buying cables is in a pinch. End even then I get the cheapest cables available; because they'll usually work just as well. Especially when you're talking about digital signals. analogue cables will show some improvement. Mostly in longer runs, but not nearly worth the additional costs most of the time.
 
THIS ties into the whole "quality" of HDMI cables about a year ago. Sometimes you see ads showing inferior picture quality next to, say, one that uses Monstrous-type cables...

I BUSTED Best Buy for this last year; they actually had the picture adjusted poorly, because, when I challenged the salesman, we swapped cables. The poorer picture stayed on the same TV, and not the other.

Bottom line: IT'S DIGITAL!!! A poor screen means dropped frames (unlikely), pixillation, missing picture parts, and/or intermittent picture freezing. Color, clarity, crispness, etc, are not factors in a poor digital dignal.

The thinner cheapo copper-conductor cables are every bit as good as the expensive thick cables, because they carry signal, not current. Your home theater speaker cables carry more current than your digital cables.
 
Well, this goes without saying. A person could use a telephone cord, or a Wii sensor bar cable even for 2.1 cheap computers speakers.. Now with larger speakers and wattages (presuming your speakers are not self powered), a lamp cord works well considering the ohms.. I could probably put some medieval armor on (with connectors soldered to my finger tips) and be able to transit 'the best' HDMI signal. As long as someone wasn't creating interference with an iPhone or something anyway. Just my stupid 2 cents.
 
I remember a long time ago that people hated on-board, integrated audio because for some reason or another noise was being introduced into the analog audio output. But I've not heard that argument for a long time, not since we've dropped the use of cheap AC'97 audio.

Now, this is just theory of course but if you have enough electrical noise going on inside a case of a computer it could translate to possible audio noise on the analog circuits.

But again, these arguments haven't been made for years.

Wait... no, I want a crap ton of money! I'm going to patent the idea of shielded SATA, ribbon, and power supply cables. I'm going to make millions! LOL Suckers! LOL
 
HDMI as a standard is a big fail. I have seen far too many compatibility problems between HDMI devices. DVI/VGA/Composite/Component never had such stupid problems. These problems are the whole reason why bullshit cables exist. Someone will get a new HDMI TV and then discover it doesn't work using HDMI. So they assume it must be the cable, they go get an expensive cable and then find it still doesn't work. Happens all the time.
 
Ya got Cat-1's and Cat-2's. The rest is all bullshit.

I bought a dozen Cat-2's from Cables-2-Go for a buck.99 each.

It's not hard to figure out who is selling that snake-oil.
 
I only buy HDMI cables that are Overclocking certified, why settle for 240hz when you can go up to 1mhz?

:D:D
 
Quick paraphrased story I like to tell in cases like this: Friend's grandmothers house burned down. Power company admitted all fault and wrote huge checks to keep away the sue monster. With guidance and assistance of Friend, Grandma bought all the nicest A/V stuff money could buy. Friend setting up system has problem, can't get signal from ultra-nice BD player to ultra-nice TV. A million useless settings and menu screens later, the $3.99 Monoprice HDMI cable ate the $100 Monster HDMI cable's lunch.
 
I was in a sales room trying to get a DVI to HDMI cable. They had the DVI adapter for $9.99 which I was fine with, but then I needed the HDMI. All they carried was 140$ 2m cables. I told them I could get 10$ cables off ebay with gold connectors. Then told me I was paying for quality and the other cables would break in 6 months, whereas this one had a 5 year warranty. I told them I could buy 14 and it would last me 7.

Stoly said:
I only buy HDMI cables that are Overclocking certified, why settle for 240hz when you can go up to 1mhz?

:D:D
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Kenworth said:
Quick paraphrased story I like to tell in cases like this: Friend's grandmothers house burned down. Power company admitted all fault and wrote huge checks to keep away the sue monster. With guidance and assistance of Friend, Grandma bought all the nicest A/V stuff money could buy. Friend setting up system has problem, can't get signal from ultra-nice BD player to ultra-nice TV. A million useless settings and menu screens later, the $3.99 Monoprice HDMI cable ate the $100 Monster HDMI cable's lunch.
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I feel like this argument doesn't really support the point, which is that as long as the cable has no major hardware defects, the digital signal will propagate through it just fine, whether its coat hangers or 1000 dollar cables. What your pointing to is likely just a defect with the cables, which really has nothing to do with the quality of the cable? An anecdote like this really doesn't prove that the beauty of the resiliency of digital signals to loss.
 
I know people are trying to make a point, but you would never be able to run an HDMI signal over a wire coat hanger, to much crosstalk and interference.

Try running GB ethernet over 200 feet of cat 3 and it likely will not work. But 200 feet of cat 5 probably will, and 330 feet of cat 6 would be no problem.

The main point, epecially with digital signals, is that as long as the cable meets the specs, it will work. A cheap $10 cable from monoprice is a good as a $100 cable from BestBuy if they both meet the spec.

Only difference might be in the quality of the conectors, but unless you plan on plugging & unplugging the cable several times a week, it shouldn't make much difference.
 
There's a nice post on /. about how cables with clock-forwarded signals are affected by cable quality, but that's just bad design from the start ... apparently this affects some old digital audio standards, and the hardware that was too cheap to re-clock the incoming data, relying only on the degraded/skewed clock from the cable.
 
jonsy2k said:
I feel like this argument doesn't really support the point, which is that as long as the cable has no major hardware defects, the digital signal will propagate through it just fine, whether its coat hangers or 1000 dollar cables. What your pointing to is likely just a defect with the cables, which really has nothing to do with the quality of the cable? An anecdote like this really doesn't prove that the beauty of the resiliency of digital signals to loss.
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I guess it was more of an ironic commentary on the old adage "you get what you pay for". I do take exception to your statement that I am pointing out that it was a defect with the cable which really has nothing to do with the quality of the cable. Isn't quality directly related to if it works or not? For $100 a cable shouldn't there be somebody in a factory somewhere hooking these things up to make sure 100% that the person who pays this much will get a cable that will work every time?
 
Kenworth said:
I guess it was more of an ironic commentary on the old adage "you get what you pay for". I do take exception to your statement that I am pointing out that it was a defect with the cable which really has nothing to do with the quality of the cable. Isn't quality directly related to if it works or not? For $100 a cable shouldn't there be somebody in a factory somewhere hooking these things up to make sure 100% that the person who pays this much will get a cable that will work every time?
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You are quite right of course, if I'm paying 100 bucks for that cable, I would expect that the service at least be better, which I believe it is, since they offer 5 year/lifetime warranties, IIRC. I definitely agree that their product is not worth the price, but the quality is a bit better for the most part.

On a side note, the cables are abhorrently overpriced, which is an issue, but their insistence at "upholding" their copyright claims on other random smaller companies basically prevents me from saying anything good about their products.
 
Kenworth said:
I guess it was more of an ironic commentary on the old adage "you get what you pay for". I do take exception to your statement that I am pointing out that it was a defect with the cable which really has nothing to do with the quality of the cable. Isn't quality directly related to if it works or not? For $100 a cable shouldn't there be somebody in a factory somewhere hooking these things up to make sure 100% that the person who pays this much will get a cable that will work every time?
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You would think so, but that would be asking too much of someone like Monster. The cables would cost 5x more :p. They really just want to pocket your money and call it a day, their cables are being made right alongside the ones that sell for 1/10th the price on ebay and there isn't a single difference other than maybe the amount of plastic each cable is wrapped in.

I got an HDMI cable on newegg a long time ago for like $12 for a 6 foot cable and it was some of the best quality cable I've ever bought.

In other news, grass is green and the sky is blue.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Good thing they didn't actually show the name Monster, or else there would be a lawsuit a brewing :D
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It does show monster and it isn't against the law. They aren't lying about the product, they're exposing their shady business practices. The government wouldn't allow them to file a lawsuit just because they're bashing their product (or rather, telling it like it is).
 
monster cable is famous for it. they have "high speed" hdmi cables that cost 2x or more and are the exact same 1.3 standard. i buy mine online too
 
I ordered a large supply of HDMI cables from Monoprice. Now when friends and family need one They come to me. Depending on who it is they only cost $9.99 to $19.99! :D
 
The warranty argument is a moot point as to paying more for a cable. Sure the expensive Monster cable has a nice 5 year warranty. But the cheap little Monoprice cable cowering in the corner has a lifetime warranty! And replacement is a breeze. I did have the situation where an HDMI cable went bad, most likely due to moving and it was kinked in a box. None the less they replaced it without question and I got a replacement in 1 day with no need to send back the bad one! I would like to see the rigmarole you would need to go through to get Monster to take your cable back. And at the end of the day sure BB and Monster are misleading people, but those same people also need stop taking everything some sales person says for truth and do a little research.
 
the only reason BB employees try to sell the gimmick is because of the giant profit margins and I believe commisions that come from each sale. I dont blame them for trying hard but lying I cannot tolerate
 
its not commission, its being 15 years old and not knowing anything other than what the sales manager tells you during 'team meetings'

86 5.0L said:
the only reason BB employees try to sell the gimmick is because of the giant profit margins and I believe commisions that come from each sale. I dont blame them for trying hard but lying I cannot tolerate
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The only reason I can see spending a little bit more money on a nicer cable is if you plan on running it a longer than average distance. A better quality cable may be able to carry the digital signal farther than a really cheap one. Shouldn't cost much more than your average cheap cable. Anyone who buys a digital cable for $100+ is crazy, unless it's like 100' long... I recently bought a 32' (10m) HDMI cable for about $35, and I feel that was a fair price.
 
Well when BB can make more profit selling a piece of copper wire shrouded in rubber and plastic vs. selling a stainless steel refrigerator, wouldn't you drill it into your employees heads that Monster Cable is Superior?

I will 100% agree that a $3.99 cable will provide the exact same picture and quality as a $399.99 cable. I vowed years ago to boycott Monster and inform everyone I know to avoid them, as even the free cables that come with some products are A OK.

However, I do believe that Best Buy deceives and misdirects the uniformed public in the name of making a dollar. While making a dollar or two isn't against the law, setting up fake displays to make the public think one cable is better than the other, is FRAUD.

I avoid BB like the plague anymore as its never, EVER, the BEST BUY.
 
Well, I was one of those people whose credit card info was stolen after a Monoprice purchase. So those HDMI cables ended up costing me about $1500... Temporarily, of course.
 
lol I posted this on my FB, calling out both BB and MC for crappy cables at horrible prices. I'm entitled to my opinion and IF they tried anything I would let them take me to court and prove in a court of law that my statements were in fact true. :D
 
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