Amazing prices for HDMI cables

I decided it would be useful occasionally to be able connect my newish
laptop to our TV, and found that both had HDMI connections (which I've
no experience of using before). So off to buy an HDMI cable...

Messrs Maplin have a shop near us so I often get such items there, but
their prices were £25 and upwards which surprised me; other local shops
like PC World had prices which were similar or even further into the
stratosphere. I then Googled and found a number of on-line retailers
selling them at around £5 which seemed more reasonable. Then to ebay
where I've just got one from a UK dealer, delivered in under 2 days, for
£1-19 including postage and packing. It works fine.

Is there something I'm missing about the need for gold-plated (and
presumably diamond-encrusted) HDMI cables in some situations, that
obviously I don't need? I can't think of any other commodity item where
there's a price ratio of over 20:1 between competing retailers.


--
Clive Page

In message on Sat, 07 May 2011 12:39:37 +0100
Clive Page wrote:

I decided it would be useful occasionally to be able connect my newish
laptop to our TV, and found that both had HDMI connections (which I've
no experience of using before). So off to buy an HDMI cable...

Messrs Maplin have a shop near us so I often get such items there, but
their prices were £25 and upwards which surprised me; other local shops
like PC World had prices which were similar or even further into the
stratosphere. I then Googled and found a number of on-line retailers
selling them at around £5 which seemed more reasonable. Then to ebay
where I've just got one from a UK dealer, delivered in under 2 days, for
£1-19 including postage and packing. It works fine.

Is there something I'm missing about the need for gold-plated (and
presumably diamond-encrusted) HDMI cables in some situations, that
obviously I don't need? I can't think of any other commodity item where
there's a price ratio of over 20:1 between competing retailers.

Well, I don't think HDMI was around when my Philips CRT TV was made, so I'm
sticking to the three SCART inputs for now ...

However, I suppose I'll want one one day, so I picked up a 2m one when I
spotted some in a pound shop a while ago. Whether I'll be able to find it when
I need one is another matter ...

--

Terry

On Sat, 7 May 2011 13:29:16 +0100
Terry Casey wrote:

In message on Sat, 07 May 2011
12:39:37 +0100 Clive Page wrote:

I decided it would be useful occasionally to be able connect my
newish laptop to our TV, and found that both had HDMI connections
(which I've no experience of using before). So off to buy an HDMI
cable...

Messrs Maplin have a shop near us so I often get such items there,
but their prices were £25 and upwards which surprised me; other
local shops like PC World had prices which were similar or even
further into the stratosphere. I then Googled and found a number
of on-line retailers selling them at around £5 which seemed more
reasonable. Then to ebay where I've just got one from a UK dealer,
delivered in under 2 days, for £1-19 including postage and
packing. It works fine.

Is there something I'm missing about the need for gold-plated (and
presumably diamond-encrusted) HDMI cables in some situations, that
obviously I don't need? I can't think of any other commodity item
where there's a price ratio of over 20:1 between competing
retailers.

Well, I don't think HDMI was around when my Philips CRT TV was made,
so I'm sticking to the three SCART inputs for now ...


You have SCART inputs? How modern! I still have a working Decca set,
with only a coax input. It's going to be for the guest room, now we
have upgraded to Digital.
--
Davey.

"Clive Page" wrote in message
...
I decided it would be useful occasionally to be able connect my newish
laptop to our TV, and found that both had HDMI connections (which I've no
experience of using before). So off to buy an HDMI cable...

Messrs Maplin have a shop near us so I often get such items there, but
their prices were £25 and upwards which surprised me; other local shops
like PC World had prices which were similar or even further into the
stratosphere. I then Googled and found a number of on-line retailers
selling them at around £5 which seemed more reasonable. Then to ebay
where I've just got one from a UK dealer, delivered in under 2 days, for
£1-19 including postage and packing. It works fine.

Is there something I'm missing about the need for gold-plated (and
presumably diamond-encrusted) HDMI cables in some situations, that
obviously I don't need?

On short runs, any cheap cable will do fine.
If you start to go to 5-10m lengths then cheap cables will show signal
deterioration before good ones, but I'm talking about the difference between
a £5 and £20 cable. Once you start going past that then I'd be amazed if
anyone can justify it.



--
Alex

Clive Page wrote:
I decided it would be useful occasionally to be able connect my newish
laptop to our TV, and found that both had HDMI connections (which I've
no experience of using before). So off to buy an HDMI cable...

Messrs Maplin have a shop near us so I often get such items there, but
their prices were £25 and upwards which surprised me; other local shops
like PC World had prices which were similar or even further into the
stratosphere. I then Googled and found a number of on-line retailers
selling them at around £5 which seemed more reasonable. Then to ebay
where I've just got one from a UK dealer, delivered in under 2 days, for
£1-19 including postage and packing. It works fine.

Is there something I'm missing about the need for gold-plated (and
presumably diamond-encrusted) HDMI cables in some situations, that
obviously I don't need? I can't think of any other commodity item where
there's a price ratio of over 20:1 between competing retailers.


The large chain retailers make most of their money from warranties,
batteries, scart leads, and HDMI leads. When you see the staff bonuses
paid for the sale of each item you realise the truth of this. £1 bonus
for the sale of a telly; £3 for the sale of an HDMI lead.

CPC sell leads in attractive retail packaging at about the £7 mark.
These are destined for sale in small retail shops at £20 to £60.

Of course the days of making money on sales of large items are gone,
thanks to the Internet. People come in the shop, decide what to buy,
then bugger off and buy on line, often whilst sitting in the carpark
outside the shop.

As an aerial installation firm, at one time we could make good money
from selling sat boxes. Now I can only get Freesat and Freeview HDD
boxes at a bout £40 less than the internet price. There's no way that
covers installation and a years on site warranty (which is what people
expect if you've installed it). So I say to people, yes, I'll
supply/install/guarantee the box if you want but it will cost about £60
more than you can get it on the internet. They can then chose which
route to take.

Bill

On 07/05/2011 13:58, Bill Wright wrote:
Clive Page wrote:
I decided it would be useful occasionally to be able connect my newish
laptop to our TV, and found that both had HDMI connections (which I've
no experience of using before). So off to buy an HDMI cable...

Messrs Maplin have a shop near us so I often get such items there, but
their prices were £25 and upwards which surprised me; other local
shops like PC World had prices which were similar or even further into
the stratosphere. I then Googled and found a number of on-line
retailers selling them at around £5 which seemed more reasonable. Then
to ebay where I've just got one from a UK dealer, delivered in under 2
days, for £1-19 including postage and packing. It works fine.

Is there something I'm missing about the need for gold-plated (and
presumably diamond-encrusted) HDMI cables in some situations, that
obviously I don't need? I can't think of any other commodity item
where there's a price ratio of over 20:1 between competing retailers.


The large chain retailers make most of their money from warranties,
batteries, scart leads, and HDMI leads. When you see the staff bonuses
paid for the sale of each item you realise the truth of this. £1 bonus
for the sale of a telly; £3 for the sale of an HDMI lead.

CPC sell leads in attractive retail packaging at about the £7 mark.
These are destined for sale in small retail shops at £20 to £60.


So are you saying that the leads which the OP has seen at vastly
differing prices are actually *identical* but with different mark-ups
applied - or is there any physical difference?

--
Cheers,
Roger
____________
Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom
checked.

On 07/05/2011 3:50 PM, Roger Mills wrote:


So are you saying that the leads which the OP has seen at vastly
differing prices are actually *identical* but with different mark-ups
applied - or is there any physical difference?


it's whether the signal makes it through or not that matters.
an expensive usb cable won't give you better prints from your printer.
expensive memory sticks won't make your word documents look better.

--
Gareth.
That fly.... Is your magic wand.

Roger Mills wrote:

So are you saying that the leads which the OP has seen at vastly
differing prices are actually *identical* but with different mark-ups
applied - or is there any physical difference?

There may be some physical differences. For example Argos has 0.75m HDMI
cables with nickel plated connectors at £4.99 or 1m gold plated at £12.99
(3 for £22.99).

They also sell more expensive 1m cables at £99.97 for people with more
money than sense (the identical branded Monster HDMI400-1M cable is on
Amazon for £9.99).

So the answer to your question is probably both.

--
Duncan Booth

On Sat, 07 May 2011 15:50:09 +0100, Roger Mills
wrote:

On 07/05/2011 13:58, Bill Wright wrote:
Clive Page wrote:
I decided it would be useful occasionally to be able connect my newish
laptop to our TV, and found that both had HDMI connections (which I've
no experience of using before). So off to buy an HDMI cable...

Messrs Maplin have a shop near us so I often get such items there, but
their prices were £25 and upwards which surprised me; other local
shops like PC World had prices which were similar or even further into
the stratosphere. I then Googled and found a number of on-line
retailers selling them at around £5 which seemed more reasonable. Then
to ebay where I've just got one from a UK dealer, delivered in under 2
days, for £1-19 including postage and packing. It works fine.

Is there something I'm missing about the need for gold-plated (and
presumably diamond-encrusted) HDMI cables in some situations, that
obviously I don't need? I can't think of any other commodity item
where there's a price ratio of over 20:1 between competing retailers.


The large chain retailers make most of their money from warranties,
batteries, scart leads, and HDMI leads. When you see the staff bonuses
paid for the sale of each item you realise the truth of this. £1 bonus
for the sale of a telly; £3 for the sale of an HDMI lead.

CPC sell leads in attractive retail packaging at about the £7 mark.
These are destined for sale in small retail shops at £20 to £60.


So are you saying that the leads which the OP has seen at vastly
differing prices are actually *identical* but with different mark-ups
applied - or is there any physical difference?

Some of them may be physically different. This is a comparison of the
types supplied under the Lindy brand:
http://www.lindy.co.uk/tips/hdmitable.html

For a 2m length prices start at £3.99 and go up to £64.99.
http://www.lindy.co.uk/2m-hdmi-cable/41372.html
http://www.lindy.co.uk/2m-flat-white...ble/41162.html
http://www.lindy.co.uk/2m-premium-hi...ble/41112.html
http://www.lindy.co.uk/2m-premium-go...net/37421.html

The cheaper ones use solid core, the more expensive ones starnded core.

I'll leave it to someone who knows about these things to comment
further.

--
Peter Duncanson
(in uk.tech.digital-tv)

In article , Clive Page wrote:
I decided it would be useful occasionally to be able connect my newish
laptop to our TV, and found that both had HDMI connections (which I've
no experience of using before). So off to buy an HDMI cable...

Messrs Maplin have a shop near us so I often get such items there, but
their prices were £25 and upwards which surprised me; other local shops
like PC World had prices which were similar or even further into the
stratosphere. I then Googled and found a number of on-line retailers
selling them at around £5 which seemed more reasonable. Then to ebay
where I've just got one from a UK dealer, delivered in under 2 days, for
£1-19 including postage and packing. It works fine.

Is there something I'm missing about the need for gold-plated (and
presumably diamond-encrusted) HDMI cables in some situations, that
obviously I don't need? I can't think of any other commodity item where
there's a price ratio of over 20:1 between competing retailers.

The fact that you're asking this means the only thing you're missing is
gullibility, an all too common property in too many others.

For the expensive cables, you'd be paying for packaging and bull****. For
some people, technical sounding bull**** presented in a convincing way
seems to be taken as a substitute for peace of mind, the reasoning
apparently being that the extra money pays for something terribly clever
and technical that they couldn't possibly understand but which will save
them from the cost of repairs or the services of somebody with real
knowledge later on. In reality, cables are just made of metal wires, and
the electrons can't read the price labels.

Rod.
--
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http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtual-access/