As part of the ongoing setup of my new work laptop, I had to get an HDMI cable to connect my laptop to my monitor. We ended up with a reasonably low-cost one from an online vendor. When it arrived, I was surprised to see the cable’s packaging claim that the cable “drastically reduces signal distortion” by using silver-plated, oxygen-free solid-copper conductors.<\/p>\n
Right, see, that’s a load of crap. Let’s start with the fact that HDMI signals are digital. The signal is a series of voltage changes indicating ones and zeros. What does it mean to “reduce signal distortion”? That cheap cables send 0.8s instead of 1s? And oxygen-free copper? Yes, oxygen turns copper green and flaky, but cables don’t oxidize, especially now that they’re wrapped in a snuggly blanket of foam polyethylene dielectrics. Using oxygen-free copper over regular copper buys you nothing. Or as a friend of mine sarcastically said, “Yeah, the 1’s in binary are scientifically proven to prefer copper with extra oxygen.”<\/p>\n
Expensive audio cables are notoriously burdened with mystical woo-woo explanations of how they prevent analog signal distortion, when the truth is that you’d do just as well with lamp cord<\/a>. Now that hand-wavy approach has apparently spread to video cables, and done so in the digital realm, where the vague tissue of plausibility regarding distortion doesn’t apply.<\/p>\n It gets worse when you realize how much mark up stores add to cable prices. We saw this back when Misty worked for Apple while based in a CompUSA. CompUSA gave her access to employee discounts. We could buy most things from them for some 5% over cost. Looking at the store’s cost for cables versus what they were charging the public was eye-opening.<\/p>\n You need HDMI or DVI cables? Go to some place like Monoprice<\/a>. They’ll sell you six feet of HDMI cable for under $13<\/a>. Heck, even Apple (!) will sell you a six foot HDMI cable for $20<\/a>. For comparison, Best Buy will happily sell you a six foot HDMI cable for $60<\/a>. If you’re really looking to be fleeced, they’ll sell you a 4 foot Monster cable for $80<\/a>.<\/p>\n I know which one I’d go for.<\/p>\n [tags]hdmi, cables, scams, monster cable, waste of money, monster cable costs more because of the pixie dust[\/tags]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As part of the ongoing setup of my new work laptop, I had to get an HDMI cable to connect my laptop to my monitor. We ended up with a reasonably low-cost one from an online vendor. When it arrived, I was surprised to see the cable’s packaging claim that the cable “drastically reduces signal … Continue reading HDMI Cable Scams<\/span>