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Have I been ripped off? Tesco HDMI cable £17


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Old 27-02-2010, 14:18
greysuit55
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I've just paid £17 for a Gold (24 cart apparently) 2m HDMI cable!

Not even one of those fancy packaged, high end items just a crappy plastic cover like a bag of peanuts.
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Old 27-02-2010, 14:22
alves
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Yes you have. Take it back.

I'm sure Tesco sell cheaper ones.
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Old 27-02-2010, 14:23
Joel's dad
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NEVER MIND. Fleabay is where I bought all of mine!
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Old 27-02-2010, 14:31
Pugwash69
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24 carat gold of 1 micron plating I imagine. It makes a good non-oxidising connection, but the wires will still be copper. Same quality as market-stall jewellery. Take it back and get something costing £5 at most.

I have cheap HDMI cables connecting anything of 2m or less. I have a cheap 10m cable that cost me about £15, but it couldn't handle 1080p @ 60Hz (red sparkles). Fine at 1080i @ 50Hz and 1080p @ 24Hz. I just replaced it with a £60 10m cable that is much better.
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Old 27-02-2010, 16:15
linkinpark875
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I've just paid £17 for a Gold (24 cart apparently) 2m HDMI cable!

Not even one of those fancy packaged, high end items just a crappy plastic cover like a bag of peanuts.
Cheaper than Maplin they cost about £40 or £50 for some gold plated HDMI cables.

But yes total rip off. Argos do them for £4 it's like scart leads the quality means nothing. You won't see any difference in picture quality that's for sure.
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Old 27-02-2010, 18:12
TheBoingoBandit
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Cheaper than Maplin they cost about £40 or £50 for some gold plated HDMI cables.

But yes total rip off. Argos do them for £4 it's like scart leads the quality means nothing. You won't see any difference in picture quality that's for sure.



Scart cables are different as they are sending an analogue signal and this can suffer from interference.


With scart it is worth spending more than the cruddy one in the box or the lowest priced one you can find.
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Old 27-02-2010, 18:16
cymru78
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I was in Asda last night and had a quick look at the entertainment dept.
They were selling a hdmi cable for something like £20 then on another shelf I saw the exact same cable but with different packaging for £3!
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Old 28-02-2010, 08:33
MrGiles2
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The prices of HDMI cables is still getting peoples backs up.

Currys Digital are still charging more than £75 for HDMI cables claiming superior quality and performance which is ludricous.

Shop around folks, plenty of HDMI cables around at decent prices.
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Old 28-02-2010, 11:33
Orbitalzone
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But why did the OP buy this in the first place or is was it an impulse buy only to find out later that you can get them much cheaper?
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Old 28-02-2010, 12:23
David (2)
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A few weeks ago our local Currys were asking £40 for a 3M HDMI cable.

Wilkos have then for about £14.

Our local electrical shop which you would expect to be expensive has a 3M HDMI cord for just under £10.
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Old 28-02-2010, 12:36
GaryB
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We use cheap CPC "Pro Signal" HDMI cables at work (mainly because they get nicked so much). Under a fiver for most lengths. Work great and we've never had one fail so far.

http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-signal/ps...-2m/dp/AV14727

http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-signal/ps...-5m/dp/AV14729
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Old 28-02-2010, 12:41
Orbitalzone
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Isn't it time for the bi-monthly "HDMI cables are worth spending £40 / aren't worth spending £5" arguement?

And "Digital is Digital and cannot be improved with cables" vs "My colours are more vibrant, sharper images and better sound separation" arguement?

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Old 28-02-2010, 12:49
Nigel Goodwin
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We use cheap CPC "Pro Signal" HDMI cables at work (mainly because they get nicked so much). Under a fiver for most lengths. Work great and we've never had one fail so far.
CPC are incredibly good on cables, I use them all the time.
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Old 01-03-2010, 21:19
Adrian Mole
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I found some on Amazon less than a quid each. Postage for 5 was more than the price of the cables
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Old 20-05-2010, 09:08
Aerology
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In my view, many of these expensive cables are blatant profiteering, not only by the likes of Currys etc on the high street, but there are also certain 'high-end' Hi-Fi companies who are trying to sell trumped up cables to home cinema enthusiasts, and are trying to convince us all to pay more because there is "clearly a difference" or whatever.

In the analogue world, these cables can make a difference to picture or sound quality - but in the digital world a lot less so.

Thank goodness for eBay. I've bought all my HDMI cables from there relatively cheaply and had no problems.
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Old 20-05-2010, 09:17
earthling13
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Have a look in Poundland, if it's no good you've only lost a quid.
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Old 20-05-2010, 09:26
S-T-E-V-E
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http://www.kenable.co.uk/

Is where i get mine from.
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Old 20-05-2010, 09:32
nessyfencer
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Isn't it time for the bi-monthly "HDMI cables are worth spending £40 / aren't worth spending £5" arguement?

And "Digital is Digital and cannot be improved with cables" vs "My colours are more vibrant, sharper images and better sound separation" arguement?

That would be useful. I'd read such thread with great interest.
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Old 20-05-2010, 10:08
Fenris
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All this reminds me of a Hi-Fi exhibition some years ago where you could buy speaker cable at £5000 per metre. (yes, five THOUSAND).
Also there, a well-known speaker maker demo-ing their latest (and so presumably trying for best quality), using big orange speaker cables.
Short version of conversation with reporter:-
'Those cables look familiar'
'They're B&Q outdoor mains extension cables. They look nice, they're tough and they work perfectly well'
'£5K per? Oxygen-free copper, etc?'
'No, total ....' (fill in with whatever impolite word you prefer)

Equally, I have seen improvements in video quality by using a better cable, where the cheap cable was the weakest link in the system - everything should be more or less matched, there's no point in spending more on the cable than on the things being connected!
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Old 20-05-2010, 10:14
Nigel Goodwin
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Equally, I have seen improvements in video quality by using a better cable, where the cheap cable was the weakest link in the system - everything should be more or less matched, there's no point in spending more on the cable than on the things being connected!
No point in spending more than the minimum required for a decent working cable - analogue or digital. A really cheap and nasty analogue cable may well be too poor, but that's only because it's crap - all it needs is a low resistance, low capacitance, and decent quality screening. Once those are met, nothing else makes any improvement.

Broadcasters and recording studios don't use silly expensive cables, just normal decent quality ones. And your highend amplifiers, TV's, speakers etc. only use cheap interconnections inside.
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Old 20-05-2010, 10:36
Gordie1
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Poundland have them for .........drum roll..............£1
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Old 20-05-2010, 10:46
nessyfencer
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Poundland have them for .........drum roll..............£1
Ooh... I'd better hurry before the price goes up
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Old 20-05-2010, 10:52
Glawster2002
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Equally, I have seen improvements in video quality by using a better cable, where the cheap cable was the weakest link in the system - everything should be more or less matched, there's no point in spending more on the cable than on the things being connected!
As a rule of thumb I always allow @ 10% of my budget for speaker cables and interconnects, that has always worked well for me.

But in the end, as long as you're happy with the price you've paid and the performance of the cable with your system, why worry about how much it cost? Life's too short.
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Old 20-05-2010, 11:17
njp
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As a rule of thumb I always allow @ 10% of my budget for speaker cables and interconnects, that has always worked well for me.
But it's a rule of thumb that doesn't actually make much sense.

Cable requirements do not scale in proportion to how much you spend on the equipment to which they connect. There are cables that don't do the job, and cables that do, and that's as good as it gets, in either the analogue or the digital domains.

And there are no objective signal measurements or double-blind ABX tests to the contrary!
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Old 20-05-2010, 11:27
Glawster2002
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But it's a rule of thumb that doesn't actually make much sense.

Cable requirements do not scale in proportion to how much you spend on the equipment to which they connect. There are cables that don't do the job, and cables that do, and that's as good as it gets, in either the analogue or the digital domains.

And there are no objective signal measurements or double-blind ABX tests to the contrary!
Ermmmm..... Why not?????

If you spend £200 on a Blu-ray player and then allow @ £20 for an HDMI cable that sounds about right to me. A "rule of thumb" is an approximation, to allow you to budget for these things, not a definite "this is how much you have to spend!!!. I'm not saying if you but a £2000 TV and a £1000 Blu-ray player you should by a £300 HDMI interconnect.

People get so @nal about this. Sheesh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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