wihogfan
Just wanted to recommend an online vendor of cables.
Monoprice.com
I don't work for or have any affiliation with them, but if this is seen in any way as being SPAM then I'll gladly delete it.
My wife makes fun of me for the amount of cables that I keep on hand, but in my experience Home Theater, TV, audio, and PC cables all tend to go bad after several years of use and I hate having to run out and buy over priced poor quality cables from the box retailers.
Monoprice was recommended to me about 6 months ago and in that time I've placed several orders with them. I was skeptical at first because their prices are so cheap, but the quality of everything I've gotten from them has been outstanding- I even think that their $3- 6' HDMI 1.3a cables are a lot better quality than the $100 monster cables that you get at the box retailers. Shipping is usually fairly quick too- I usually only pay for their cheapest option- USPS ground- and all of my orders have arrived within 6 business days.
Just recommending them because I hate to see people paying $40 or more for HDMI cables when you can find better quality cables for a lot less money. (And in fairness to the local retailers, there is a lot of cheap stuff online that is poor quality too.)
Posted June 11, 2008 10:26am in
Fox Cities TV is an independent blog and member-driven community based in Green Bay, Wisconsin and serves the Northeast Wisconsin area, including Green Bay, Appleton, and Oshkosh. TV lovers can come here to learn about what's happening in local (and national) television, interact with other TV viewers and express their opinions.
I agree about HDMI cables.
I agree about HDMI cables. When it comes to digital cables like HDMI, Monster Cables are a farce. I bought a pair of $2 HDMI cables (6' length on Amazon and I've been extremely happy with them. They weren't cheaply-constructed either, both were heavy, solid cables that have never given me any problems.
Good recommendation!
Yep, all back this up as
Yep, all back this up as well. I feel terrible when I see people get suckered into buying $70 'cheap' Dynex HDMI cables at Best Buy. I've even told strangers in stores to visit Monoprice, or even Wal-mart to buy much cheaper cables than Best Buy pushes out.
I just submitted a review on
I just submitted a review on Bestbuy.com for their crappy Dynex HDMI cable. It wasn't overly negative, just saying that it was overpriced. I doubt it'll pass the review board.
Ha...I did the same thing
Ha...I did the same thing recently at Circuit City- only with the HDTV I bought from them. The price at the store was over $400 more than their online price and they wouldn't give me the online price at the store. I had to go back home, order online, and then return to the store to pick it up. I submitted a review reflecting that I was happy with the TV, but not with the store pricing (99% of the review was about the TV w/just 2 lines at the end about the pricing). It never made their website. My wife, who works in retail, couldn't believe they wouldn't honor their own company's website price and wanted to buy it somewhere else. However their online price was too good of a deal to pass up.
That's odd. I just bought a
That's odd. I just bought a digital camera from Circuit City and the price in store (still *on sale* mind you) was like 20-30 more than the price online. I asked and they matched it. Maybe with TVs where there's a $400 difference, they wouldn't. Still dumb, though.
That's a time when it's helpful to have an iPhone or iPod Touch or other mobile Internet device. While you're standing there, order the thing online and time their "24 Minute In Store Guarantee".
I'll relate my Circuit City
I'll relate my Circuit City experience back to my thread topic too. The sales person there tried to sell me Monster HDMI cables stating that good quality Monster cables were necessary and without them the picture on a HDTV in HD might not look any better than SD. Total crock as you won't ever get picture quality degradation with a poor digital connection. You might get no picture or some picture freezing and stuttering with an extremely poor quality cable perhaps, but it's not the same as analog signals where a poor quality cable can result in all sorts of "snowy" pictures.
On a related note, have you
On a related note, have you ever gone into a Circuit City, Best Buy or Radio Shack and overheard an employee talking to a customer about something like that and just thought to yourself "either this person is flat-out lying to make a sale or just inexplicably stupid"?
Have you ever just wanted to jump in and correct them?
I, myself, sold a pair of camcorders one day at Best Buy while I was there picking out my own, because apparently I looked like I knew more about what I was doing than the Best Buy guy did. (Because I did my research on models at home and was there doing a first-hand comparison)
At Best Buy a few months ago
At Best Buy a few months ago I overheard a couple buying an upconverting DVD player to go with an HDTV they had at home. The salesman took the $100 player box off the shelf and casually said that they would also need an HDMI cable to get the best picture and he simply grabbed the cable from rack and brought it to the register with their DVD player. They had no idea of the price, he just said they needed it, grabbed it, and the couple didn't say anything. I casually walked over to the mini sales counter hidden in the TV section at the Darboy Best Buy to hear the rest of the transaction. The couple was shocked when he told them their total was $175. They of course questioned this and then said that another salesman told them that the HDMI cable would be cheaper if they got the cable. The salesman then left to find a manager, at what point I stepped in, told them to go to Monoprice.com to get a $5 cable or if they wanted one today go to Wal-mart or Target and get one for $25/$30. The couple was extremely happy and grateful and I left quickly before the salesman came back. In a related note, I just got an e-mail from Best Buy that my reward zone card was upgraded to Premium Silver status! Looks like I get 25% more points on all purchases as well as longer return periods now. Not a bad deal.
Monoprice.com has good prices
Monoprice.com has good prices compared to Best Buy and other retailers, but you can find even better prices on Amazon for HDMI cables and if you look around at Amazon, you can get free shipping too.