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HDMI Cable RIP-Off

falcon409

falcon409

Moderator
Staff member
I take full credit for this debacle. One of my monitors finally gave up the ghost this morning and so off I went to get a replacement. Found an HP 23.8" for $118+tax. Of course they only come with VGA hook-ups so I went to Best Buy for the cable. Found one (of course never checking the price), got into a discussion with the employee about Flight Sim, the whole time sliding the card, pushing some buttons, selected "email" for my receipt and after about 10 minutes walked out. Just a while ago I was checking my email and saw the receipt from Best Buy. . . . ."$39.00" for a 6' HDMI cable?

I quickly did a search and I was hard pressed to find one that cost more than about $15. Damn!! Hard Lesson Learned!
 
I have been told by experts that there is no such thing as using a high priced HDMI cable. I have HDMI cables in use on my super Hi Def TV for the last couple of years & I defy anybody to show me the differance between the $6 cables & the $40 cables. My choice 4$ cheepies.
Look on the internet for HDMI cables and buy the cheapies.
 
I just went through the same thing, I just got into a car racing simulator ( Assetto Corsa ). Because hooking up wheel and pedal set up would not work at the computer where I also have my flight simulator set up, I set up a separate desk for the car racing and a spare 32 inch TV. I needed a HDMI cable to go from the computer to the TV. I also looked at HDMI cables at Best Buy and could not believe the prices.
I just happened to go to Costco later that day and saw a package of two 12 foot HDMI cables for $14. I asked about he quality of them and he said they are the same cables sold all over town, they sell probably a couple hundred thousand TV's at all the Costco stores and many people will also buy a longer HDMI cable for those TV's. He said they have never had one come back.
It works great and I now have an extra 12 foot cable.
 
jim said:
I have been told by experts that there is no such thing as using a high priced HDMI cable. I have HDMI cables in use on my super Hi Def TV for the last couple of years & I defy anybody to show me the differance between the $6 cables & the $40 cables. My choice 4$ cheepies.
Look on the internet for HDMI cables and buy the cheapies.
Click to expand...

I hear Monoprice.com has really good prices on HDMI cables - https://www.monoprice.com/
 
I think it means Best Buy....somewhere else. :dizzy:

The other day I paid eleven bucks...for a can of charcoal lighter fluid. I was BSing with the cashier...didn't look at the slip till I got home. Could have bought a decent HDMI cable for that!!!
 
gman5250 said:
I think it means Best Buy....somewhere else. :dizzy:

The other day I paid eleven bucks...for a can of charcoal lighter fluid. I was BSing with the cashier...didn't look at the slip till I got home. Could have bought a decent HDMI cable for that!!!
Click to expand...
Indeed you could have :biggrin-new::biggrin-new::encouragement:
 
Best Buy are the pits. I thought the ones in the US were bad until I ventured into my local here in Abbotsford BC couple of years back. I was enquiring with several of their Geek squad about what was newish then, the AMD Eyefinity for multiple monitors. They hadn't a clue what I was talking about and thought the idea was impossible. I had to Point out they a system on display using such a set up, but the type before NV and AMD came out with theirs. I have since avoided BB since then, until last week, I was in Langley BC and thought Hmmmmm I need a bigger HUB perhaps pop in their BB. Not disappointed, the Geeks again were equally devoid of brain cells and the store didn't stock such a thing as there is no call for them.
I used to promote NCIX but they went tits up through greed. I now avow Mikes Computers who are staffed by knowlegable hippies at least.... and cheapish.

Best Buy .... Best Avioided.
 
I've dealt with a single retailer for longer than I can remember, staff always know their stuff and the boys and girls are taught how to interact with their customers.
Even 'difficult' customers like YHS.:biggrin-new:
On the odd occasion when I had to look elsewhere I've been unimpressed, and a store titled 'Best Buy' would never see my money.

Re HDMI cables, there is standard number of 'wires' (for want of a better term) required in a cable according to my electrical genius brother, the difference between low and high price cables lies in the gauge of theses strands.
Bend the 'budget' cables and the thin strands are stressed and will eventually fail.
FTR Robbie is the head of 'Electrics' at one of the major newspaper houses in the country and is a clever boy.
As always, you get what you pay for.....................:173go1:
 
wombat666 said:
I've dealt with a single retailer for longer than I can remember, staff always know their stuff and the boys and girls are taught how to interact with their customers.
Even 'difficult' customers like YHS.:biggrin-new:
On the odd occasion when I had to look elsewhere I've been unimpressed, and a store titled 'Best Buy' would never see my money.

Re HDMI cables, there is standard number of 'wires' (for want of a better term) required in a cable according to my electrical genius brother, the difference between low and high price cables lies in the gauge of theses strands.
Bend the 'budget' cables and the thin strands are stressed and will eventually fail.
FTR Robbie is the head of 'Electrics' at one of the major newspaper houses in the country and is a clever boy.
As always, you get what you pay for.....................:173go1:
Click to expand...

Was just putting together a similar reply....well stated wombat. The data transfer between the cheap and more expensive is usually the same, plus there are shielding benefits too.
 
For what it's worth... "Geek Squad" is just a contractor that Best Buy exclusively uses that's generally staffed by entry level pc techs.

HDMI cables are digital, so they don't suffer from the sort of issues that analog cables were susceptible to....but many retailers try to market them to consumers as if they were. Generally, a cheap cable will be fine if it's not going to be to be subjected to vibration or bending near the connectors.


Naismith said:
Best Buy are the pits. I thought the ones in the US were bad until I ventured into my local here in Abbotsford BC couple of years back. I was enquiring with several of their Geek squad about what was newish then, the AMD Eyefinity for multiple monitors. They hadn't a clue what I was talking about and thought the idea was impossible. I had to Point out they a system on display using such a set up, but the type before NV and AMD came out with theirs. I have since avoided BB since then, until last week, I was in Langley BC and thought Hmmmmm I need a bigger HUB perhaps pop in their BB. Not disappointed, the Geeks again were equally devoid of brain cells and the store didn't stock such a thing as there is no call for them.
I used to promote NCIX but they went tits up through greed. I now avow Mikes Computers who are staffed by knowlegable hippies at least.... and cheapish.

Best Buy .... Best Avioided.
Click to expand...
 
It seems the same rip-off model is at work throughout the computer and peripherals world. Different gear same story - printer stopped functioning after being used 3 times (HP) in the past year (shows you how often I print stuff off these days). Down to the local version of best buys in OZ, buy a Canon. Get home, no cables in the box and because it is a Canon uses different usb cables. Check the box read the fine print (with a magnifying glass it was literally that small) - cables not supplied. Geez plus expletives who sells computer gear without connection cables? Answer just about all of them two days later get back into town, go to the local version of all things electronic get the required cable. Cable cost me 15% less than the printer. Sales person, none of them supply cables anymore it is all WI FI (Well some of us do not need or use WIFI and some of us still have tower PC's idiots).

Advice - don't throw away any old cables etc - at some point your going to need them.
 
LOL! Think yourself lucky Falcon. I have seen HDMI cables for around $100 here in Australia. Mind you I haven't looked for a while, and that was a few years back when they were newer technology. And then there are the $150 "surge protected" powerboards!!!
 
Yes they used to be that high here also but the prices have dropped if you look around.

Best Buy is not a bad place to go when you need it now.

If you can wait there are better sources for just about everything than a retail store.
 
scotth6 said:
LOL! Think yourself lucky Falcon. I have seen HDMI cables for around $100 here in Australia. Mind you I haven't looked for a while, and that was a few years back when they were newer technology. And then there are the $150 "surge protected" powerboards!!!
Click to expand...

https://www.scorptec.com.au/departments/PC-Parts-&-Upgrades

I can't recommend this group highly enough!
They put up with me for starters and that probably sums them up.
I think during my last major build I 'exchanged' towers at least three times.......:173go1:
Last time I looked there were at least three stores scattered around urban Melbourne and recently Scorptec opened in Sydney.
:encouragement:
 
Since HDMI is a digital interface, from one digital device to another (computer to monitor), there's no point in buying an expensive cable. I read a great comment on another site recently which summed it up perfectly: "You wouldn't buy a more expensive printer cable and expect better quality printouts. The document quality depends on the printer and the computer and it is much the same with any digital system".
 
That is true - up to a point. However, there are some significant differences in the shielding on any set of 'digital cables' that can make a real difference in ultimate performance.
 
n4gix said:
That is true - up to a point. However, there are some significant differences in the shielding on any set of 'digital cables' that can make a real difference in ultimate performance.
Click to expand...

I agree. In my previous post I talked about not buying "expensive" cables. It easy to find a decent 3m HDMI 2.0b screened cable which is rated at 18Gbps for less than £10 in the UK. I don't consider that to be expensive but I wouldn't pay any more than that for one, but neither would I buy a "bargain-basement" cable. There's a lot of snake oil advertising around claiming that paying £100 or more for an HDMI cable gives you better audio frequency response or, worse still, more vibrant colours!
 
Fry's

Ed,

You live in Texas and there's quite a few Fry's outlets in the state. They were my go to source when I lived in Washington and have far more choices than Best Buy ever had. I would highly recommend checking with them.
 
if using 4k monitor at 60hz, need to use hdmi cable rated for this bandwidth, $15 at frys. other than that, any old hdmi cable will work for 1080p.
 
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