The Rip
Share This
If you’ve already splashed out on the huge flat-screen tv, a state-of-art Blu-Ray player, and a satellite dish with a monthly subscription that brings with it hundreds of channels, then it probably seems like it’s a small price to pay for HDMI cables. But, this is exactly the mentality that gets people to pay for this habitually over-priced bit of technological excess. The truth, as our infographic points out, is that there is absolutely no difference between the cheapest and most expensive HDMI cables, at least over shorter runs. If you’re wiring an entire house, you may find these cables to be worth it.
To understand why you shouldn’t pay extra, you need to understand the difference between analog and digital. With analog cables, the signal degrades, with digital cables such as HDMI, it either works or it doesn’t. The signal doesn’t degrade any more than your JPEGs degrade when you put them on a thumb drive.
Embed the above image on your site
Graphic by Wallstats.com
Related Videos
Popular Articles
173 Comments so far
leave a comment-
Dumpster 668 days ago
15 likes
-
Paul Van 668 days ago
1 like
-
Ryko 668 days ago
5 likes
« Previous 1 2 3As a computer engineer (not just bachelors but a rapetastic masters)
I laugh at anyone who buys monster cables, or anything other “high end” cable. 50 footer is one thing, but any 3$ 3 foot hdmi cable will work just fine.
Despite what the morons on here who are going on and on about “i sell big systems, and these cables are awesome!”
Lets all remember they are making money off americans thinking they need those expensive cables.
You want to buy expensive component cables, by all means do so (still dont buy monster)
But buying an expensive digital cable, is quite possibly one of the stupidest things you can do.
Don’t take advice from someone who is selling home theater systems.
Take advice from the engineers, websites, reviewers of the industry, and really anyone who knowa ANYTHING about how computers and digital age works.
I mean really, where the hell are you running your lines that your getting bad enough interfernce on your HDMI that it causes problems? You got that cable wrapped around a fan in your window? Got it running behind the main electricty for the house?
Perhaps you’ve managed to snake that cable around a super conducting electromagnet at the local Particle accelerator?
People who are installing theater systems are glorified plumbers, they know less about how the equipment works than the engineers who designed it.
Oh, and any interference you have will NOT result in the wrong colors, not even close champs.
Ha!
I once heard a rumor that a blind audio quality test was performed–one set of speakers was connected to the audio source through a metal hanger, and one set of speakers was connected with top-line Monster cables. The result: no-one could tell the difference. And that was an analog connection, where it’s not simply bits or no bits.
Monoprice is prob the best place on the web to buy HDMI cables.
This is still not as bad as exspensive speaker wire, which can cost well over $100 per foot.