Expensive gold-plated HDMI cables: A rip-off?

The local Circuit City store is trying to sell my in-laws a $130 HDMI cable (Monster Cable brand) to hook up their new HDTV. I've been reading some customer reviews saying that since HDMI cables carry a digital signal, there is absolutely no difference in picture quality between a cheapo HDMI cable and a gold-plated one. Is this true?

They are also trying to push this $180 Monster Cable surge protector:
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Mons...87372/catOid/-12927/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

It seems like a good idea to protect such a big investment, but are there more economical solutions? Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

id say the surge protector is worth it. i worked at futureshop benfore "best buy canada"

and we use the on all of our tvs and ht's etc.

A surge protector is good, but no need to buy one that expensive. I would get a good one around $50 or so. That should suffice. As for the HDMI cable, they are a rip off. Head on over to monoprice.com and pick up one for $20 or less.

For a computer I've never used a surge protector like that. Like bchur said, something for around $50 would be just fine. Now as for the big screen I have in my house I've got something with a little more umph.

inkfx said:

For a computer I've never used a surge protector like that. Like bchur said, something for around $50 would be just fine. Now as for the big screen I have in my house I've got something with a little more umph.

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This is for a big screen HDTV and A/V components. Cheaper surge protectors don't come with the coax cable inputs/outputs, do they?

If anything I'd buy one of the better surge protectors from Monster or Belkin.

Power Stage 3

^^^There are also cheaper versions.

As for HDMI cables you should be fine with any type, but Monster usually have best shielding that prevent signal loss, picture/sound noise...

You will never get clear answer on this, so you'll have to use your best judgment.

My family setup our HDTV a year or 2 ago, and it's been nothing short of incredible.

Skip the gold plated cables. Think about that, you're spending $130 to connect 2 pieces of hardware with a piece of metal. Come on.

Now the surge protector is different. My house's electrics are kind of unstable, but if you live in an area with lightning and stuff, you sure as hell don't want to hotbox your living room with magic smoke from your HDTV now do you?

7

Okay, thanks for the advice. Cheap HDMI cable and midrange surge protector it is!

RedDragonXXX said:

If anything I'd buy one of the better surge protectors from Monster or Belkin.

Power Stage 3

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Holy crap! I think that's overkill for my in-laws. The HDTV is the only expensive thing in their setup, and it's only a DLP at that. For the 5-10 heavy lightning storms we get per year, I think they'll be okay with the $180 unit (which is only $100 from techonweb.com).

KillrBuckeye said:

Okay, thanks for the advice. Cheap HDMI cable and midrange surge protector it is!

Holy crap! I think that's overkill for my in-laws. The HDTV is the only expensive thing in their setup, and it's only a DLP at that. For the 5-10 heavy lightning storms we get per year, I think they'll be okay with the $180 unit (which is only $100 from techonweb.com).

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It's a good investment since you can connect allot of stuff to it and it does other things beside being surge protector.

I got Power Stage 2, I mean I had it but had to sell it. It's a great unit well worth the price considering how it improved my picture quality on TV by completely eliminating noise I had before.

i never understood the expensive cable gigs for av in the digital age, its a digital signal, its either there or its not. I mean you could get a bum cable, but thats returnable.

Although, digital info consists of “1s” and “0s”. If any of these are missing, typically a processor will try and compensate and fill in the missing info by guessing at what is missing. Depending on how good these processors do this, they may be some lack of quality in the signal. The more information that is in tact the better the processor can convert it into an Image. High bandwidth cables such as an HDMI cable that carries so much information; which consist of an HD digital video and digital audio; it is critical to get a high quality cable that will be capable of transmitting all that information as clean as possible.

The construction of our HDMI cables is far superior to all of the competition. Our connectors are encased in copper which is very important to prevent interference and signal loss from occurring. We use 99.9999% oxygen free copper and then coat the copper with silver on our higher end product. Our shielding is superior in regards to a 95% copper braid and 100% Mylar foil. On the higher end product we use three and four shields. We also increase the gauge of wire the higher you go in the line. In order to be able to run long lengths of HDMI you need to be able to maintain the signal integrity through out the run. If your shielding is poor you will incur signal loss which is detrimental to an HDMI signal. Also our proprietary dielectric maintains the proper impedance at all times allowing for long runs.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Happy Holidays,

Eric Vitug
Technical Support
Monster Cable

Thanks for posting that. Still, most people who have tried both a Monster Cable and a generic-brand HDMI cable have reported no difference in image/audio quality (that's what I gathered from reading the customer reviews).

PhysX said:

The construction of our HDMI cables is far superior to all of the competition.

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I respectfully disagree on your oppinion. Although I do like your brand, your manufacturing process is not exclusive to Monster.

RedDragonXXX said:

As for HDMI cables you should be fine with any type, but Monster usually have best shielding that prevent signal loss, picture/sound noise...

You will never get clear answer on this, so you'll have to use your best judgment.

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Well, actually, the clear answer is that a cable is a cable is a cable, although guage is important. Head on over to avsforum, where professional home theater installers will tell you that "special" cables are a ripoff. Or do a google search. Cables are teh snake oil of AV.

Monster Cables are marketing, pure and simple.

PhysX said:

Although, digital info consists of “1s” and “0s”. If any of these are missing, typically a processor will try and compensate and fill in the missing info by guessing at what is missing. Depending on how good these processors do this, they may be some lack of quality in the signal. The more information that is in tact the better the processor can convert it into an Image. High bandwidth cables such as an HDMI cable that carries so much information; which consist of an HD digital video and digital audio; it is critical to get a high quality cable that will be capable of transmitting all that information as clean as possible.

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I want third-party blind results which show this to be the case. It's complete BS.

PhysX said:

The construction of our HDMI cables is far superior to all of the competition. Our connectors are encased in copper which is very important to prevent interference and signal loss from occurring. We use 99.9999% oxygen free copper and then coat the copper with silver on our higher end product. Our shielding is superior in regards to a 95% copper braid and 100% Mylar foil. On the higher end product we use three and four shields. We also increase the gauge of wire the higher you go in the line. In order to be able to run long lengths of HDMI you need to be able to maintain the signal integrity through out the run. If your shielding is poor you will incur signal loss which is detrimental to an HDMI signal. Also our proprietary dielectric maintains the proper impedance at all times allowing for long runs.

Click to expand...

Oh.. my.. goodness. Sorry to be so harsh, but again - BS. Please show me verifiable and reviewable lab results which show that any of what is said here has any measurable effect on signal quality.

Crap, crap and more crap. Consumers get ripped off on cables too much to sit around and listen to junk like this.

aaronjb said:

I want third-party blind results which show this to be the case. It's complete BS.



Oh.. my.. goodness. Sorry to be so harsh, but again - BS. Please show me verifiable and reviewable lab results which show that any of what is said here has any measurable effect on signal quality.

Crap, crap and more crap. Consumers get ripped off on cables too much to sit around and listen to junk like this.

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[email protected]

PhysX said:

Although, digital info consists of “1s” and “0s”. If any of these are missing, typically a processor will try and compensate and fill in the missing info by guessing at what is missing. Depending on how good these processors do this, they may be some lack of quality in the signal. The more information that is in tact the better the processor can convert it into an Image. High bandwidth cables such as an HDMI cable that carries so much information; which consist of an HD digital video and digital audio; it is critical to get a high quality cable that will be capable of transmitting all that information as clean as possible.

Click to expand...

Sorry PhysX this is BS info your feeding us our your company fed you.
I'm a EE and I know how HDMI signals work and with the ECC in an HDMI signal there is no way it's going to be less quality. The CPU's so called "guess" is the ECC algorithym which is the same for every cpu. The s/n of your cables is high, but a 1db gain around the 90+ s/n level means instead of a chance of once in a trillion years of one bad audio or video frame it's a one in 2 trillian years chance. (those are obviously exagerations, but the fact is in the lifetime of your TV, you have a better chance of you and it being struck by lightning than either cable having a bad frame sent)

Only time I'd spend cash on higher gauge wire/less resistance is when using analog signals, that's when s/n level matters alot because thier no ECC to correct errors, no matter how small)

This is all you need and all you need to pay. Don't allow yourself to be ripped off. Cheers!

After my cable signal gets through all my splitters and coax, my $15 HDMI cable does just fine. I used a monster cable supplied by comcast for a few days and saw no difference.

These cables are for people who like to say they have "Munster" cable. The thing is, once you really convince yourself that this cable will look/sound better - it really will look better TO YOU. The signal will be identical, so will the picture - but the fact that you WANT it to look better (to justify your investment) will cloud your judgment, and you will convince yourself that it looks better (usually till you go to your grave).

Then someone does A/B Double Blinds - and the truths are revealed

The Human Brain is a weird (and easily exploitable) creature, huh? At least someone is profitting off it