Retailer Calls Rivals' Bluff On "HDMI Scam" 664
nk497 writes "Retailer Kogan is offering customers of rival stores free HDMI cables to highlight the 'scam' of selling the cables for £100, saying its own £4 cable works just as well. 'An HDMI cable is an HDMI cable,' Kogan said. 'It's a digital cable. You either get a picture or you don't. Don't get conned into buying a 'fancy' HDMI cable because it will make no difference!' Rival retailers Currys and John Lewis said they preferred to offer customers a 'variety' of cables. 'Each of our HDMI cables offers excellent quality and value for money, and by providing our customers with a range of different cables which offer different specifications, we are able to help them find one to suit their specific needs, with features such as different cable lengths, ultra slim and high speed,' said a spokesman for John Lewis, which sells cables for £20 to £99."
The emperor has no clothes! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:An HDMI cable is not just an HDMI cable (Score:5, Insightful)
Why in gods name are you running >50 foot HDMI runs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#Cables
Re:An HDMI cable is not just an HDMI cable (Score:5, Insightful)
That's exactly what he's saying. You either get a signal, or you don't. It's not like an analogue system, where there's a wide spectrum between perfect and nonfunctional. Either the error rate is below the correction threshold, in which case a better cable won't make a difference, or it's above and you can easily tell because there's no picture.
For some uses, such as long runs, you really do need a better cable. For most, you don't.
Re:But the Best Buy guy said it does (Score:5, Insightful)
Agreed on the bulk conductivity, but the advantage of gold plating on contacts is the fact that gold doesn't tarnish or corrode, reducing conductivity over time.
Gold plated connector contacts are widely used on industrial/military gear, particularly in low-level signal applications.
Re:NO it depends... (Score:4, Insightful)
Thing is, they claim better colour reproduction, sharper images and so on. When in reality a HDMI cable can only degrade when it is producing errors in the signal. But such a cable is *faulty* not just average in quality.
It would be like saying a higher quality USB cable results in better print outs when connected to your printer.
What about the internal wiring of the TV? surely it is pointless using a £100 interconnect when the internal wiring of the TV is using fairly cheap wire?
HDMI certification is for the WHOLE cable (Score:4, Insightful)
Whatever the length of your cable, either it works and display a perfect picture and earns its HDMI certification or it does not work properly and its NOT a valid HDMI product. And you get a refund for this deceptive product.
I don't care that with a longer cable, it requires higher quality cable parts. I want a Normal Speed HDMI cable or a HighSpeed HDMI cable.
I buy a certified product, not raw components to solder myself.
Re:Best Buy tried to sell me an HDMI cable... (Score:3, Insightful)
These are people who are supposed to be experts in what they sell.
Ah there's your mistake. They are actually supposed to be the cheapest people they could find who wouldn't screw up more than say, 90% of the sales to 90% of the population.
When I was a kid, I stocked shelves at a local supermarket. No one expected me to be a world-class expert chef. I still have no idea what to do with canned squid, or giant cans of ground allspice, or chitlins.
It sounds like you think you have a business owner - contractor relationship, but you're actually getting a (platonic) housewife - shelf stocker relationship.