HDTV Cables For Dummies

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We get tons of press releases in our inbox ever day, some are important to know and some…well, not so much. I like the “For Dummies” series of books, they are helpful to your friends and relative that are not so tech savvy but this latest product is a gimmick if I ever saw one. $150 for HD cables and a how-to guide? How-to what? Component cables are color coded for cryin’ out loud and HDMI only goes in one way. How could you get that wrong?

These kits provide consumers a complete, end-to-end solution that features the cables needed for multiple high-definition connections and the practical knowledge necessary to quickly and easily connect home entertainment components.

Since I am not one to complain without offering a solution, you can get an HDMI cable here starting at $6 and a set of component cables for as little as $15. They are color coded so even grandma can do this and save herself $135 and she won't end up with a ton of extra cables she won't use. :)
 
Actually I had a friend that was duped into buying a hundred dollar HDMI cable. I still make fun of him for it.
 
There are actually people stupid enough that aren't able to match colors (not refering to people that are actually color blind, just refering to the people that are color stupid).
 
How-to guids can be nice, especially for the video/audioophile idiot. My dad has plenty of money and a nice home theater setup, but he just has no way to visualize or conceptualize the way video and audio get from a source, to a receiver, and then to the output device.

I spent an hour on the phone with him after he moved, explaining how to hook up a TV, speakers, Wii, DVD, VHS, receiver and tape player. The problem came from the different ways you can move HD video (component, HDMI), SD video (RCA, S-video, coax) and audio (rca, optical, digital coax) etc coupled with limited ports.

I ended up drawing a diagram and emailing it to him. It was pretty complicated, but still... I told him to go to radio shack and buy the second lest expensive cable of each kind he needed.
 
Well, at least this engadget news item was actually put into different words. :p
 
Someone I know from work bought a 100$ HDMI cable. Luckly I got him to return it before he opened it. I don't get why people think a fancy cable is going to make a difference with a digital signal. Even more so the people who spend $$$ on super speaker wire. Seriously, if you've got EMI that is going to be able to give interference at speaker level outputs you should be thinking about your health and not your speakers.
 
Er, that came out wrong and I meant no offense. I mean, it can't really be helped that the news here usually contains a subset of engadget's news. You're covering the same stuff!
 
Never, ever underestimate the stupidity of some human beings on this planet. I can point out at least half a dozen people I know who would have issues with component or DVI/HDMI cables. I guess they were put on this planet for a reason LOL.
 
Well, at least this engadget news item was actually put into different words. :p

This is a press release... you know, a news release that is sent to the press :rolleyes: Why on earth would I link another site that linked to another site that linked the same press release they sent us? :rolleyes:
 
Never, ever underestimate the stupidity of some human beings on this planet.
True story: One of my users pulled me aside yesterday to tell me that both he and his wife could not turn on the computer in her office over the weekend. Between the two of them, they couldn't find the power button. For the record, it's in the dead-center of the machine's face.

Who just gives up and assumes that there just must not be a power button? I'll tell you: The same person who has come to me on three separate occasions to tell me that they can't log into their computer because my username is appearing where their username used to appear. My response: "Well, clearly, that can't be changed. You need a new computer."
 
This is a press release... you know, a news release that is sent to the press :rolleyes: Why on earth would I link another site that linked to another site that linked the same press release they sent us? :rolleyes:
Yeah, sorry Steve. I posted an apology a few posts below my original post on this. Again, my apologies.

Here it is again. . .
Er, that came out wrong and I meant no offense. I mean, it can't really be helped that the news here usually contains a subset of engadget's news. You're covering the same stuff!
 
I'd think component would be easy enough to setup, but when my parents bought an HDTV last spring I tried to talk my dad through setting it up over the phone.. didn't go so well. I ended up setting it up properly for them when I visited at Easter. He still doesn't quite understand that just because Wheel of Fortune has a little "In HD" banner that if he isn't watching it on the HD channel it's not HD.

And he spent 20+ years installing multi-million dollar fiber rings for telecom systems.
 
Yeah, sorry Steve. I posted an apology a few posts below my original post on this. Again, my apologies.[/INDENT]

No biggy. What happens is that these places blast out their PRs to all of us and, when they are cool / funny / ridiculous enough...we all post them.

A lot of our daily news comes from readers submissions (that's why we thank the submitter) and forum members that submit stories. These readers often frequent the other big tech sites and submit there as well...or they SEE it there and submit it to us or vice versa, so on and so forth.

We link Engadget's original content all the time, love those guys too...probably why we like the same stuff ;)
 
Doesn't everyone know that a 6ft HDMI cable is better if it costs $100?? The picture is so much better. If you're dropping $4,000 on a nice HDTV, you absolutely need good cables to match. If you use cheap cables it's like putting 15" dodge neon rims on a Ferrari!

... according to the guy at best buy :rolleyes:

monoprice > *
 
True story: One of my users pulled me aside yesterday to tell me that both he and his wife could not turn on the computer in her office over the weekend. Between the two of them, they couldn't find the power button. For the record, it's in the dead-center of the machine's face.

Who just gives up and assumes that there just must not be a power button? I'll tell you: The same person who has come to me on three separate occasions to tell me that they can't log into their computer because my username is appearing where their username used to appear. My response: "Well, clearly, that can't be changed. You need a new computer."

I see how you afford the GTX 280 SLI in your rig. My only question is why I'm not taking money from idiots. :(
 
There is a missing :D in my post above. Without it, it reads as if I don't agree with what you did, which is wrong. I believe more and more that stupid people exist to make smart people rich :p
 
I always scratch my head at the gold plated "connectors" like on USB cables - or in this case HDMI. Aren't the electrical contacts already gold plated on most cables regardless if it's considered a premium cable? So what's the point in gold plating the grounding sheath?

I can understand getting premium cables for analog (within reason), but digital? An expensive cable isn't going to improve things unless you've got some serious connection or interference problems caused by a damaged or poor quality cable.
 
There is a missing :D in my post above. Without it, it reads as if I don't agree with what you did, which is wrong. I believe more and more that stupid people exist to make smart people rich :p
Hehe, no offense was taken. Though, clearly, I was being facetious when I told him he'd need a new computer merely because my username was appearing at the logon prompt. This having happened for the third time, I was finally a bit exasperated and felt justified in being a bit snarky while trying to get through to him that he should start assuming that there is a way to do things. Like, in that case, there must be a way to change the username appearing there. Like, oh I don't know, possibly erasing my username and typing in his own? :eek:

Seriously, I don't understand how some of my users get through their day-to-day lives.

But, it's the clueless and computer-illiterate among us that allows for my gainful employment. So your point is well-taken. It's just too bad that it's that "I give up! It's impossible! Help!" mindset that probably also leads to the world being as f-ed up as it always has been and always will be.
 
I remember when i first started seeing HDMI cables around 100 bucks and i just thought what a rip off. but there are really dumb people out there and probably a fair amount of the hdtv for dummies have sold
 
How could you get that wrong?

I used to work at a cable company...this guy called in stating that his HDTV picture is looking kinda bad, so we go through the steps of figuring out how everything was hooked up. He had power going to his cable box, but no cables connecting the box to his TV....the coax was going straight from the wall to his $2,700, 1080p, 46" HDTV.

Of course hooking your expensive TV up to your expensive cable box wouldn't make a lick of sense, right?

Honestly, if there's someone out there stupid enough to spend that much on 3 hdmi cables and a generic how-to guide, then more power to 'em. I'd just rather they were spending it on me. ;P
 
Brick and mortar stores make a killing off of cables. The markup on them is simply shocking. I knew the price of certain cables when I ran a video production company...our cost on a certain brand of cable was 14 cents per pack but I didn't have time to wait for my distributor to get the order together so I went to Best Buy around the corner to get things up and running faster and walked out with the same cable that cost me $35. That's one hell of a markup.
 
I know a girl that paid $100 for someone to come to her house and put a nail in the wall because she wanted it centered
 
I have a bunch of free component cables.

I just take those Composite+R+LAudio cables I've collected throughout the years every time I ended up buying something that included those... and mark the ends of the cable so that Red goes to (duh) Red, Green gets Yellow and Blue gets White.

You don't even need to buy "component" cables to use wire+RCA jacks as component cables. Though personally, I prefer to build my own (out of Canare cables) so that little trick I mentioned above is just for people who keep begging me to fix and install their shit for them. Less money spent on their part without having to buy a Component cable is... just merely a fraction of what they would have spent going to you in thanks. *grumble*
 
I have a bunch of free component cables.

I just take those Composite+R+LAudio cables I've collected throughout the years every time I ended up buying something that included those... and mark the ends of the cable so that Red goes to (duh) Red, Green gets Yellow and Blue gets White.

For those wondering...

Blue sharpie marker on yellow, green.
Blue sharpie on white, blue.

Works for color coding some ghetto cables for other people. Forgot to throw that explanation in there.
 
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