FS: HDMI Cables

[IanGT99]

The cable that comcast and directv uses is complete crap. They have had more problems with the cables than they have with the boxes themselves. The Monster 800 and 1000 cables are overkill for anything out there right now, but down the road you will need one to support the updated signal types. To make a Monster 1000 4ft. cable, it costs Monster $31.67. It costs Best Buy $83.42 to buy one. Then they sell it for $129.99. My employee price is $88.21. Both Monster and Best Buy make good money on cables. That's why they're the most stolen item period. An argument can go on forever about this. A Geo Metro and a Porsche do the same thing... get you from point A to point B. But the Porsche is leaps and bounds better. Same goes for HDMI cables...

[Mike Jung]

Originally Posted by IanGT99

Depends on what sort of output your computer has. Using an S-Video cable seems to be the standard.

Also, what brand of cables are these??? The shielding doesn't look to be all that great on them, and they look to be pretty plain. Also, I have a hard time believing they can do 5 Gbps. I work for Best Buy in the Home Theater dept. and not even our Monster Cable 600 series HDMI's can do 5 Gbps. Only the 800 and 1000 series can, but those are $105 and $130 respectively. You need a cable that can do 6-7 for Blu-Ray and true 1080p High Def, but even 4 is pretty much overkill for today's HD programming.

Originally Posted by Mike Jung

What is "true 1080p high definition" ?

?

[ancona46]

Originally Posted by IanGT99

The cable that comcast and directv uses is complete crap. They have had more problems with the cables than they have with the boxes themselves. The Monster 800 and 1000 cables are overkill for anything out there right now, but down the road you will need one to support the updated signal types. To make a Monster 1000 4ft. cable, it costs Monster $31.67. It costs Best Buy $83.42 to buy one. Then they sell it for $129.99. My employee price is $88.21. Both Monster and Best Buy make good money on cables. That's why they're the most stolen item period. An argument can go on forever about this. A Geo Metro and a Porsche do the same thing... get you from point A to point B. But the Porsche is leaps and bounds better. Same goes for HDMI cables...

thats BS i have been working for comcast for 4 years and not once seen a problem cause by a HDMI cable its all the gold plated crap and bogus surge protectors you guys sell people that cause the problems

[IanGT99]

Originally Posted by ancona46

thats BS i have been working for comcast for 4 years and not once seen a problem cause by a HDMI cable its all the gold plated crap and bogus surge protectors you guys sell people that cause the problems

Gold plated crap and bogus surge protectors, huh?

1. Gold plated terminals enhance the signal transfer no matter if it's an RCA cable or an HDMI cable.

2. Those "bogus surge protectors" you speak of are actually the most important part of a home theater system. The Monsters with Clean Power take the surging, interference ridden power coming into your house and clean it all up by making an even source of power. The picture on a TV is better, the sound from an audio system is better, and you never had to worry about spikes and surges. I've seen the difference first hand, man. Wouldn't have a nice TV without one.

[IanGT99]

True 1080p High Definition would be things like the HD service from Comcast or DirecTV or a Blu-Ray player that goes from the box directly to a 1080p TV with an HDMI cable. That's all.

A situation where a 1080p signal is broadcast and it's not really 1080p being shown on the screen is if you have a signal coming from an HD box or Blu-Ray with an HDMI, then have it going through an audio receiver that doesn't do 1080p conversion, then taking it to the TV. That's basically going from a digital signal to an analog, then back to digital. Isn't quite as good.

Also, there's over-the-air HD, which is broadcast in 1080i.

[Rosado]

2. Those "bogus surge protectors" you speak of are actually the most important part of a home theater system. The Monsters with Clean Power take the surging, interference ridden power coming into your house and clean it all up by making an even source of power. The picture on a TV is better, the sound from an audio system is better, and you never had to worry about spikes and surges. I've seen the difference first hand, man. Wouldn't have a nice TV without one.

I agree 100% with that. I spent the money for the monster cables and the surge protector. I used diffrent HDMI cables, from Radio shack to no names. Monster all the way. YOu have the right setup , you can and will see the diffrence. Especially with BLUERAY or any HD DVD players.

[ancona46]

Originally Posted by IanGT99

Gold plated crap and bogus surge protectors, huh?

1. Gold plated terminals enhance the signal transfer no matter if it's an RCA cable or an HDMI cable.

2. Those "bogus surge protectors" you speak of are actually the most important part of a home theater system. The Monsters with Clean Power take the surging, interference ridden power coming into your house and clean it all up by making an even source of power. The picture on a TV is better, the sound from an audio system is better, and you never had to worry about spikes and surges. I've seen the difference first hand, man. Wouldn't have a nice TV without one.

thats crap i bought a monster surge srip and a walmart one and u cant tell the difference at all but if u say so go for it

how come you guys tell customers to run the cable wires into the surge strips when all that does is block the return signal and knocking out the return path?

people flip out when we go out and unhook the cable from it and the stuff starts working the way it should after they spent 200 bucks for the thing cause the guy at BEST TRY told them they needed it

[Sprucegagt]

Originally Posted by IanGT99

Gold plated crap and bogus surge protectors, huh?
2. Those "bogus surge protectors" you speak of are actually the most important part of a home theater system. The Monsters with Clean Power take the surging, interference ridden power coming into your house and clean it all up by making an even source of power. The picture on a TV is better, the sound from an audio system is better, and you never had to worry about spikes and surges. I've seen the difference first hand, man. Wouldn't have a nice TV without one.

A surge protector is not an EMI filter. One filters out interference and signal noise the other protects against voltage spikes. Please learn the difference. Plus if you really want a TRUE clean source for power you would get a UPS.

[JohnnyB4439]

Surge Protectors are vital in any home theater setup period. It protects your equipment from power surges and harmful interference.

As far as monster cables go, and I could care less what anyone else says, works for, seen, heard or told. There not worth the price they put on there. Sure its great looking quality, gold connections, a nice fat rubber insulator. But cmon, 80-120? for a focking cable? Give me a break. My buddy that used to work for circuit city said they got those cables for about 5 bucks, then turn around and rape the living **** out of customers like me and you. Screw that.

[JohnnyB4439]

Also, when people say "Monster Cables are better" is a load of crap.

Real audio engineers would sooner use LAMP CORD then a monster cable, heres an example...
Take the cables from your amplifier going to your speakers. THE SPEAKER IS THE WORST PART OF THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE. The speakers have more distortion than the cables, amplifier, source put together. In blind tests, listeners could not differentiate between brands of cables and LAMP CORD. There is a reason Monster spends so much on advertising vs actual product value. They sell to fools who think the cables matter. (especially in a digital connection...it is either good or not). This from the same group of marketers that brought you DIGITAL SPEAKERS (you know the ones with the red/black terminals). LOL, Who was that famous guy that said "A suckers born every minute?"

[IanGT99]

^^ Wow, I haven't heard "digital speakers" in a long time. I will certainly give you that. Complete marketing ploy.

If you ever have the chance (which I know it would be difficult to do this), but if you have a 1080p capable TV and a Blu-Ray player, watch a movie clip with a crappy Walmart HDMI cable. Then watch the same clip with a Monster 800 cable. I did this and saw quite a difference. Moreso in the high-action clips than anything. True, there really isn't much you can see if you don't have a 1080p signal going through the cable, but there is still a difference.

Sprucegagt, I understand that a surge protector is not a filter. Monster makes regular surge protectors, but they also make surge protectors with filters built in. It's their CleanPower system. Cheapest one is about $80 while it can go all the way up to $400 for a stand-alone box that is almost the size of an audio receiver.
You all can believe what you want, but an interference meter does not lie. I forget what the unit of measurment is that the meter uses, but even in the $50 regular Monster surge protector, it was spiking all over the place between 60 and 65. Plugged into the $80 protector with clean power, it went down to around 12. Then into the $200 stand-alone unit, it was below 2.

[ancona46]

what type of interference are u talking about? if its on the rf cables something is wrong cause all they do is backfeed voltage onto the return path

[IanGT99]

Interference can be seen from outside sources like radio waves, other power lines, or telephone lines or from inside sources that backfeed into your house's electrical system such as refigerators, microwave ovens, etc.