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Watchdog BBC1 Tonight (20140604) HDMI leads
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Glawster2002
20-06-2014
Originally Posted by AlanO;73178659
£30 for a 1.5m Optical cable

[url
:
“http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-interconnects/audioquest/forest-optical-1.5m/audi-forest-opt-1.5m[/url]”

The last optical connectors I brought were @ £1.50 for a 1.5m cable from Amazon. The three of them work perfectly.

The problem is that anything that involves any form of digital technology instantly sounds complicated and very technical and so it is too easy for the salesperson to baffle the "average" punter with plausible-sounding BS.
chrisjr
20-06-2014
Originally Posted by Glawster2002:
“I think it is relative, though.

If you are in the fortunate position of buying a system costing hundreds of thousands of pounds you're probably not going to worry that a mains lead costs £3000 or whatever.

However for the rest of us in the real world it does matter.”

But why on earth would anyone waste 3 grand on a mains lead that does nothing one costing 3 quid does equally well?

Just because it has been cryogenically treated and has some nice wooden blocks that do sod all in the lead?
Glawster2002
20-06-2014
Originally Posted by chrisjr:
“But why on earth would anyone waste 3 grand on a mains lead that does nothing one costing 3 quid does equally well?

Just because it has been cryogenically treated and has some nice wooden blocks that do sod all in the lead? ”

There are plenty of people with more money than sense who will, I'm sure.
Winston_1
20-06-2014
Originally Posted by Glawster2002:
“I have never understood why so many on this forum have an issue with gold or silver plated connectors.

The one problem with copper is that when exposed to the air it tanishes and corrodes. Gold and silver don't.

Therefore for any electrical equipment connector it is eminently more sensible to use a thin coating of gold or silver as it prevents any problems in the future due to corrosion of the copper wires.”

Silver tarnishes (goes black), gold doesn't. However unless the sockets on your TV or STB are gold plated as well there is no point in the lead being plated.
td1983
20-06-2014
I bought a Poundland Signalex HDMI cable last week to go with my new Toshiba Blu-ray player. There really is no notable difference in the picture quality compared to the Alba one I use with my PS3. I guess some people just have more money than sense.

As a footnote, I notice Poundland have recently started selling Belkin SCART leads. Good value for a brand name lead. Good quality SCART leads DO make a difference, however.
Nigel Goodwin
20-06-2014
Originally Posted by td1983:
“Good quality SCART leads DO make a difference, however.”

The operative word there is 'good' - which isn't the same as 'expensive' - there's no need for a good SCART lead to cost more than £5.
td1983
20-06-2014
Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin:
“The operative word there is 'good' - which isn't the same as 'expensive' - there's no need for a good SCART lead to cost more than £5.”

Well to be honest, there has always been a bit of a con going on with SCART leads as well, with gold-plated, copper ones (and "oxygen free" ones, they do this with HDMI cables too) selling for expensive prices over perfectly serviceable ones which cost considerably less. The cheap ones with thin cabling-or "shielding", I believe it's called-have a rather fuzzy picture over thicker cabled ones which work just fine.
Nigel Goodwin
21-06-2014
Originally Posted by td1983:
“The cheap ones with thin cabling-or "shielding", I believe it's called-have a rather fuzzy picture over thicker cabled ones which work just fine.”

What you're looking for is "individually screened", and it doesn't have to be terribly thick as long as the screening is fairly decent.
d'@ve
21-06-2014
Originally Posted by chrisjr:
“But why on earth would anyone waste 3 grand on a mains lead that does nothing one costing 3 quid does equally well?

Just because it has been cryogenically treated and has some nice wooden blocks that do sod all in the lead? ”

Why do people spend hundreds of pounds on Gucchi handbags that do the same job as one costing a tenner or three? Or thousands on Rolex watches?

Baffled of Bournemouth
AlanO
23-06-2014
Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin:
“Yes, they are all instructed to sell expensive leads at any cost - as it's a BIG money maker.

Where they might make only 10-20% profit selling you a TV, they will make 500%+ on an expensive (and pointless) lead.”

Are you seriously saying that Currys is any more prone to this than John Lewis or Richer Sounds?

And how about Independents such as the one you work for? Does your employer sell a cheap HDMI lead comparable to the price on Amazon? Or is the cheapest HDMI lead well over £ 10? And do they stock 'premium' HDMI leads and try to up-sell customers to them?

I'm not disputing there is up-selling in the electricals market, I am contesting that Currys are the only place which do it.

Funnily enough its one area where Argos & the supermarkets can claim innocence, because of their self-serve nature, so it's down to the customer to choose what lead to buy.
JurassicMark
23-06-2014
Originally Posted by AlanO:
“Are you seriously saying that Currys is any more prone to this than John Lewis or Richer Sounds?

And how about Independents such as the one you work for? Does your employer sell a cheap HDMI lead comparable to the price on Amazon? Or is the cheapest HDMI lead well over £ 10? And do they stock 'premium' HDMI leads and try to up-sell customers to them?

I'm not disputing there is up-selling in the electricals market, I am contesting that Currys are the only place which do it.

Funnily enough its one area where Argos & the supermarkets can claim innocence, because of their self-serve nature, so it's down to the customer to choose what lead to buy.”

When you use the self-service checkout at Argos, it suggest 'Special offers' for your product. Just selected a random TV on the Argos website and one of its offers includes a £25 HDMI cable. It's not the same as the pressure selling from the likes of Currys, but Argos are not completely innocent.

Not sure about supermarkets, They could potentially try to sell expensive cables if a customer enquired about a TV with staff in the electrical department, but have not heard of this happening.
barbeler
24-06-2014
Originally Posted by Glawster2002:
“I have never understood why so many on this forum have an issue with gold or silver plated connectors.

The one problem with copper is that when exposed to the air it tanishes and corrodes. Gold and silver don't.”

Has anybody ever seen any corrosion whatsoever on a standard hdmi lead? I certainly haven't and in the highly unlikely event that it did happen I'd simply go out and buy another cheap one.
Nigel Goodwin
24-06-2014
Originally Posted by AlanO:
“Are you seriously saying that Currys is any more prone to this than John Lewis or Richer Sounds?
”

Not at all, just that I have personal experience with Currys staff so know what they are told, I don't know any JL/RS staff.

Quote:
“
And how about Independents such as the one you work for? Does your employer sell a cheap HDMI lead comparable to the price on Amazon? Or is the cheapest HDMI lead well over £ 10? And do they stock 'premium' HDMI leads and try to up-sell customers to them?
”

As far as I know they don't try to 'up-sell', and on deliveries we generally fit HDMI (and other leads) for free.

Quote:
“
I'm not disputing there is up-selling in the electricals market, I am contesting that Currys are the only place which do it.
”

No one has ever made that suggestion.
Glawster2002
24-06-2014
Originally Posted by Winston_1:
“Silver tarnishes (goes black), gold doesn't. However unless the sockets on your TV or STB are gold plated as well there is no point in the lead being plated.”

However silver tarnishes at a much slower rate than copper.

Go in to any telecoms or IT equipment room and you will not find a single copper connector pin, they are all either gold or silver plated for that reason.
Winston_1
24-06-2014
Originally Posted by Glawster2002:
“
Go in to any telecoms or IT equipment room and you will not find a single copper connector pin, they are all either gold or silver plated for that reason.”

Well when I worked for ntl (now VM), pins were certainly not copper, much too soft, but the were not gold or silver plated either.
Glawster2002
24-06-2014
Originally Posted by Winston_1:
“Well when I worked for ntl (now VM), pins were certainly not copper, much too soft, but the were not gold or silver plated either.”

Really? You have never used BT Type 43 connectors? They are almost always gold plated.

however it is an argument in semantics. The reality is that pins and connectors are always either a non-tarnish, or tarnish resistant, material, for the precise reason that copper does corrode and tarnish easily when exposed to the atmosphere.
Nigel Goodwin
24-06-2014
Originally Posted by Glawster2002:
“Really? You have never used BT Type 43 connectors? They are almost always gold plated.

however it is an argument in semantics. The reality is that pins and connectors are always either a non-tarnish, or tarnish resistant, material, for the precise reason that copper does corrode and tarnish easily when exposed to the atmosphere.”

What about SCART pins?, aren't they tin plated?.
webbie
24-06-2014
Yep, most connectors are tin plated. If they look silver, it's really tin. If it looks gold, then it's a very thin gold coating.
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