HDMI Cable Myth Debunked! Save Some Cash!

My biggest pet peeve is when sales people flat out lie. I know it's part of their job and all that, but still! I feel that part of my mission in life is to make sure people don't get suckered into buying stuff that they don't need and in 2008 and 2009 its the HDMI cable scam for those gorgeous new HDTVs everyone is getting.

Many people think that name brand HDMI cables like Monster produce a better picture than some cheapy store brand cables and especially the mega cheap cables online. The fact is that HDMI is digital and unlike analog video that we've been using, digital doesn't degrade for the same reasons. It either works or it doesn't!

CBC Marketplace decided to test this theory on cables:



They came to the same conclusion. A $260 Monster HDMI cable ran at pure, perfect quality. The $12 HDMI cable bought online ran at pure, perfect quality. Zero difference, none, ziltch, nadda!

If you happen to buy an expensive HDMI cable from Best Buy or a similar shop this past Christmas, it may not be too late to take it back! If you are planning on buying an HDTV this year, you more than likely will need at least one HDMI cable, so I beg of you - please keep in mind how much you could be saving by buying from places online. The only thing you need to keep in mind when buying online is the HDMI version - which right now is (and will be for some time) ver. 1.3a

And trust me, I take my own advice too - I buy ALL my cables from www.monoprice.com. I recently bought 4 HDMI cables for my setup and my total cost was $25 after shipping. I saved over $1000 by staying away from the $260 Monster cables!

When it comes to shopping, you always have to look out for yourself!

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First Digital Presidential Portrait

Barack Obama had his portrait taken the other day and it was marked as the first digital presidential portrait! In the past 8 years we have seen huge changes in digital cameras. Here is a little snippit from the article:

"In early 2001, Nikon's D1 was typical of the digital SLR cameras professionals were using. The 2.6-megapixel camera debuted in 1999 and cost about US$5,000 for the body alone. In contrast, the EOS 5D used for Obama's portrait has a 12.8-megapixel resolution and costs about $2,000."


I remember when I bought my first digital camera my first year of college - it was a Nikon Coolpix 4.0 Megapixel camera and I thought it was a steal at $550. Now you can find digital cameras with double the megapixels at more than half the cost. Don't let that sort of thing beat you up though - if everyone waited years for price reductions and better technology, we'd never get anywhere!

Congrats to Obama for making history yet again!

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