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How much was your HDMI cable?
By Daniel | April 8, 2008
With high definition DVD players and TVs getting popular, I thought it would be a good topic for my first post. I’ve recently learned how to save money on HDMI cables. My wife and I have had a HD TV now for just over a year but never used the HDMI connection on the back panel. If you’re not familiar with HDMI, it allows digital video and multi-channel audio to go between devices that support it, such as a Blu-ray DVD player and a HD TV. It gives you the highest signal quality of 1080p.
We have recently purchased a DVD recorder that will upscale to the higher signals, 720p and 1080i. This was my first chance to use the HDMI connection. After we picked up the DVD recorder, we headed over to find a cable to connect it to the TV. Our biggest surprise was the price of a HDMI cable. I was shocked. The cheap cables started at $40 and it was only a 3-foot cable! Not too many people can use a 3-foot cable because it’s too short. The prices only skyrocketed from there. The name brand Monster Cable sold for about $160 for 12-feet. I of course bought the 3-footer for $40 since I didn’t expect the cables to be so expensive. I don’t remember what brand it is. Luckily, the cable reached between the DVD recorder and TV.
Just recently I learned HDMI cable prices don’t have to take advantage of the average home user. There are two sites that a friend recommended to me, Blue Jeans Cable.com and MonoPrice.com. They sell generic cables at a fraction of the price. A 3-foot HDMI cable at Blue Jeans Cable is $3.75 for the base cable and $21.50 for their best one, which is half the price of the big box electronics stores. The prices at Monoprice.com are also similar to Blue Jeans Cables.
When I first heard the prices at the recommended websites my first thought was, what about quality? Will the picture quality suffer? From doing some research I’ve found that if the cable is less than 15 feet you won’t see a difference. The reason is the digital signal doesn’t get interference like other analog cables. If you do have a longer distance to route your cable, you might want to go with a cable that is constructed with higher quality or gold terminals.
With that said, next time I need a HDMI cable I will be saving at least 50%. That is just more money to put in savings or for investing. $20 today could be $300 in retirement.
Topics: Consumer-Shopping |