Cable wars

[elwaylite]

Originally Posted by haushausman

See that bad mammajamma under my SN? It's a 61" DLP 1080p HD Samsung. I don't see why it wouldn't support 24 fps. But I'll look into it.

When you spend $150 bucks on your HDMI Monster Cable alone and an extra G for the 1080p.. these little things matter.

Dude, you might want to edit the cable part. (see monoprice.com)

[haushausman]

I have no shame in my game.. no snukes in my snizz. I'm well aware that the Internet has better prices than Best Buy.. I'm been shopping online since Prodigy.. but one thing the Internet doesn't have is 2 year interest-free financing

[theknub]

or in my case, know people who work for monster that get things at 70% off

[Gremal]

Originally Posted by haushausman

When you spend $150 bucks on your HDMI Monster Cable alone...these little things matter.

Tell me about it. My Electra Glide cables list for $7000 each (not that I paid even 20% of that) and use solid silver conductors...little things do matter, especially when they all work together to give you a big thing like audio or video.

[haushausman]

Attention to all the little things add up to a big difference. And once you enter the realm of HD you better get over expensive prices right off the bat.

[elwaylite]

Originally Posted by haushausman

Attention to all the little things add up to a big difference. And once you enter the realm of HD you better get over expensive prices right off the bat.

Expensive prices are one thing, but spending $150 for a cable that does no better than a $25 cable is not "getting over" anything.

[haushausman]

Bah. Not arguing over the price of a cable. I just think if your spending thousands and thousands on a home entertainment center.. why skimp out on the little shit that make small differences.

[elwaylite]

Hey, I was in the same boat. When I bought my Plasma, I paid $125 for the Monster cable. I thank AVSforum especially for showing me that it's a complete ripoff. I now buy all my HDMI cables for $25.

[SVTCobra_71]

Originally Posted by Gremal

Tell me about it. My Electra Glide cables list for $7000 each (not that I paid even 20% of that) and use solid silver conductors...little things do matter, especially when they all work together to give you a big thing like audio or video.

It's nice to see others that know the value of a good cable.
-Audioquest HDMI-3 2M $375
-Audioquest KE-4 (PSS) 8ft $2,800

Congrats to all those that are aware of what good cables are to those that pay for the better quality cables.

[JTK]

Ijustboughtcrapitis- The disease that makes a person delude themself into believing the crap they just bought is the best because they spent too much on it. ...

^^
That's what $7000 (?!?!) cables are about. Thank God that one poster didn't pay near that much but even 20 percent of that figure is pretty high.

I realize you get what you pay for and there's good cables vs. garbage cables, but c'mon, let's get real here, folks.

"Law of diminishing returns" doesn't even begin to cover the likes of something like this.

[Ashplisken]

It's amazing that even in the face of Scientific explanation and logical reasoning that people still insist on endorsing these rip-off artists...

[JTK]

Originally Posted by Ashplisken

It's amazing that even in the face of Scientific explanation and logical reasoning that people still insist on endorsing these rip-off artists...

Usually it's because they're probably selling the stuff themselves, more often than not.

[haushausman]

Originally Posted by elwaylite

Ah, I slightly remember what it was like to be 20 and thought that I knew everything.

I'm actually 24.. but close.

At this point I don't even know what the original thread was about.. oh yes, FPS.

Thank you to everyone so concerned about where my money goes. I do appreciate it. Till then I'll try and stay out of jail for purchasing over priced products.

[Blu Tiger]

Are Monster cables really not good?

[DavePS3]

Generally, Mosnter are no better no worse than Radio Shack cables - unless you need more sheilding from AC lines running parallel to the interconnects but that's rare.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by kiddtigger

Are Monster cables really not good?

Monster cables are just like Bose: They can be pretty good but they're obscenely overpriced.

[Valore]

I don't think it's a question of weather or not monster cables are good....I think what astonishes people are their outlandish prices. I'll admit I use an 8' M series monster cable that was expensive as hell...and I realize I could have prolly bought a cheaper one that does just the same thing...nonetheless, it works great and I already look at it as money I no longer have

[MrBogey]

With a digital medium you either have the info transmitted or it's dropped. If it's dropped it needs to be resent or skipped over. That's where jitter comes into play.

If you are going a short distance with little interference then a cheap cable can be good enough. The goal is transparency across the bits. For digital transmission a lot of the cheaper cables still transmit just as good.

If I was running a 30' HDMI cable I'd pay for a good quality one but for 3ft I'll get the cheapest I can find.

[BOSS10L]

Originally Posted by Valore

I don't think it's a question of weather or not monster cables are good....I think what astonishes people are their outlandish prices. I'll admit I use an 8' M series monster cable that was expensive as hell...and I realize I could have prolly bought a cheaper one that does just the same thing...nonetheless, it works great and I already look at it as money I no longer have

Agreed. My first cable was a Monster 6' DVI to DVI I spent $100 on back in '04. I'll be darned if my $20 Monoprice ones don't offer the same quality at a fraction of the cost.

[Rup_Muk]

I've probably forgotten all my communications engineering stuff - and I'm sure there are folks here that will "rectify" my lack of knowledge. This is what I remember:

Cable properties - i.e. resistance, capacitance, inductance - become a major factor as a function of distance (or length). Put together, these 3 contribute to a length-dependent deterioration of signal amplitude and may even influence slew rate, thus causing a widening of the pulse. How does this modulate signals:

1. Analog signals - such as transmission from the receiver to the speakers, or video over composite, component lines - can be very, very bad - dependent on length. In this case, it is better to get good cables - ones with very low stray capacitance and as low a resistance as possible.

2. Digital signals - most devices that accept digital signals have built-in thresholding. Therefore, even if the amplitude is degraded in transmission, the digital signal is "reconstructed" based on threshold crossings. In this case, cable quality is not as important as that required for analog transmission.

If you put 1 and 2 together, it summarizes what other folks have stated in the thread - that audio is cable-dependent (more silver, better shielding, etc)and video (HDMI) is not. Based on my limited recollection of transmission parameters above, I would concur. Therefore, unless you're running 100s of feet of cable, a decent quality HDMI cable should suffice.

Rup.