i am sorry but....

Jun 14, 2003
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$100 for 1m of HDMI cable is utter nonsense.

how do monster cable even think they are going to sell those cables at $100 per meter?

http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=3084

scroll down to mid-bottom, Monster are aiming to clear up the confusion of HDMI cables (not sure there even was any) by speed rating their cables.

ingenious solution to a problem that doesnt exist?
 
Jun 14, 2003
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just read also that the guy from monster said at 2m their bog standard HDMI cable, which at $50 a meter is still an eye gougingly bad ripoff, is capable of transmitting upto 12Gbps (ie as much as you'd ever need). but asked AT not to quote him on that as he wasnt 100% sure.

so if that is the case.

its pay $50 for a cable that is 1m long and can do 12gbps or pay $100 for a thicker cable of 1m which will also do 12gbps. lol

so really, the only way your going to actually notice that your cable isnt fast enough is when you require fairly long lengths of it..... over short distances there is zero point in getting the high end cable because the standard one is just as capable over that distance. your gonna be paying $100 a meter for a couple of meters! lol

Much to our surprise, Mr. Lee did answer our next question. We stated that cable "speed" and the ability to transmit a signal was directly related to cable length, but we wondered how fast the lower speed rated cables would be at shorter distances. Take the lowest end Standard Speed HDMI cable, Mr. Lee mentioned that at 2m it would be capable of transmitting around 12Gbps of data - nearly as much as Monster's high end Ultimate High Speed HDMI cable. Mr. Lee requested that we didn't quote him exactly because he didn't know the specific bandwidth rating at 2m off the top of his head, so don't take the 12Gbps figure to heart - but we would suspect that the actual number is somewhere around there.

The point being that Monster's high end cables are definitely necessary for very long cable runs, but most consumers aren't installing their HD-DVD/Blu-ray players more than 1 - 2 meters away from their TVs, where these ultra expensive cables are not necessary at all. In our opinion, Monster would be doing the consumer a greater service if it simply replaced speed ratings with length ratings: e.g. buy cable X if you need 0 - 10m, cable Y for 11 - 30m, etc...
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
You should ask them why there's no visible difference between the $10 HDMI cable and their $100 HDMI cable :p. Maybe they'll stammer for another hodgepodge of an answer.
 

Vegitto

Diamond Member
May 3, 2005
5,234
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Don't you think they'd lower their prices if no-one bought them? Face it, some people just don't know anything about stuff like this, and if the friendly salesman tells you that your picture will look 1000x better with the $100 cable instead of the $10 one, they'll happily shell out a hundred bucks.
 

RadiclDreamer

Diamond Member
Aug 8, 2004
8,622
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Because there are people who think it makes a world of difference.....hint its extremely minor if anything
 

waggy

No Lifer
Dec 14, 2000
68,143
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i hope you just didn't figure this out. Monster cables are a huge rip off.
 

Jawo

Diamond Member
Jun 15, 2005
4,125
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ha ha ha...I was killing time in a BB awhile back and just thought I wonder over to the cables section since it had been a long time since I had been there and needed a good laugh. Low and behold here walks up a salesperson and a customer. the salesperson goes on their speil about about Monster cables are the best and they are worth the premium. I make eye contact with the customer, and patiently wait for the sales person to shut up and leave. Talking with the customer they just needed to run it about 1 meter to their new giant LCD TV. The customer can not believe the markup when I tell them about monoprice....and walks away w/o buying anything!
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
20
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I needed a DVI cable once for a new LCD monitor (it only came with a standard VGA cable). Circuit City was closest. They now exclusively carry Monster Cables. Cheapest DVI cable they had there was $80. Guess how much of my money they got.

Best Buy's cables were expensive too - I wound up paying $20 for a no-name DVI cable there.
 

fredhe12

Senior member
Apr 6, 2006
612
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I'm rockin' a $10 cable with no problems, but obviously there's enough of a market that people buy that stuff.
 

slsmnaz

Diamond Member
Mar 13, 2005
4,016
1
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AT saved me from buying the expensive cables. When I was buying my HDTV I just did a search here and found monoprice. Some people just don't know what to look for.
 

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
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The only thing dumber than a hundred dollar cable is actually paying for a hundred dollar cable.
 
Jun 14, 2003
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they have this cable zip thingy as well..... which is also expensive....and from what the guy was demonstrating im pretty sure i have the exact same thing (in beige) at home which i paid a couple of quid for.

yeah i knew monster cables were way over priced, but i didnt know you could pay $100 for 1m cable, especially when over that distance a £2 job of ebay is just as good.

i was looking for a optical cable the otherday (TOS link i think) one of those skinny black ones would of done just fine, i think its just a bunch of fibres wrapped in black PVC, they do the job. (liek the ones u used to get with the sony MD player/recorders)

i went to currys to have a look.

monster cables optical cable with big chunky plugs and super thick braiding..... £24

f that, 24 quid for what is essentially a stretched piece of glass. i found the little skinny ones on ebay...£2 a pop for 1m lengths which is more than enough.
 

Mxylplyx

Diamond Member
Mar 21, 2007
4,197
101
106
I wish I had come up with the idea for Monster cables. Marketing to dumbasses is very lucrative. How do you think all these politicians get elected?
 

Syrch

Diamond Member
May 21, 2004
3,382
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I've lost touch with the different cables. If i wanted an HDMI cable with audio that is say 6ft long, which one on monoprice would i use? Im assuming all HDMI has audio in it?