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Cheap!?!?!? It's one of the most expensive cables out there now. And I am talking about non gold plated and non premium stuff.

Have you looked at stores that don't treat HDMI cables as a high-profit accessory that makes up for their low-profit HDTV's (e.g. Best Buy)? Monoprice's selection of "non-professional" (scroll down) HDMI cables seems reasonable to me (not much more than DVI).

• 12-foot HDMI 1.3a cable with gold plated connectors: $5 plus shipping
• Here's a beauty that looks like a special buy: gold-plated 6-foot HDMI 1.3a cable for $1.95

For laughs, here's Best Buy's

Cheap!?!?!? It's one of the most expensive cables out there now. And I am talking about non gold plated and non premium stuff.

Have you looked at stores that don't treat HDMI cables as a high-profit accessory that makes up for their low-profit HDTV's (e.g. Best Buy)? Monoprice's selection of "non-professional" (scroll down) HDMI cables seems reasonable to me (not much more than DVI).

• 12-foot HDMI 1.3a cable with gold plated connectors: $5 plus shipping
• Here's a beauty that looks like a special buy: gold-plated 6-foot HDMI 1.3a cable for $1.95

For laughs, here's Best Buy's

Cheap!?!?!? It's one of the most expensive cables out there now. And I am talking about non gold plated and non premium stuff.

Have you looked at stores that don't treat HDMI cables as a high-profit accessory that makes up for their low-profit HDTV's (e.g. Best Buy)? Monoprice's selection of "non-professional" (scroll down) HDMI cables seems reasonable to me (not much more than DVI).

• 12-foot HDMI 1.3a cable with gold plated connectors: $5 plus shipping
• Here's a beauty that looks like a special buy: gold-plated 6-foot HDMI 1.3a cable for $1.95

For laughs, here's Best Buy's

You may want to check out monoprice.com if you want affordable HDMI cables (and others as well). A 10ft HDMI cable is under $5 and quantity discounts start at 2 rather than 10 or 50, etc.

Cheaper than $1.94?

The markup on cat6 is insane. (a $25 cable wholesales for around $4)

You can buy 25' Cat6 for less than $4 from MonoPrice. Even in quantities as low as 10, it's about $3 each.

Of course, retail stores pretty much want your firstborn child for a 25' Cat6...at least $20, and sometimes as much as $30.

I have been getting both ethernet and audio cables at http://www.monoprice.com/ . They are dirt cheap but also have been better quality than cables 10 times as expensive in box stores. I would recommend buying instead of making just for the fact that somebody might break one and blame you instead of their own abuse.

I never had a problem a cheap generic ps2->usb adapter on my 1992 model M. It's the 2-in-1 mouse/keyboard kind from monoprice.

For stuff like that I go to www.monoprice.com. Never buy cables & stuff B&M if you can help it. The markup is ludicrous.

For example 14' Cat5e for $1.68. The same cable in every retail store I've seen is $15 or $20. That's a 892% markup.

For stuff like that I go to www.monoprice.com. Never buy cables & stuff B&M if you can help it. The markup is ludicrous.

For example 14' Cat5e for $1.68. The same cable in every retail store I've seen is $15 or $20. That's a 892% markup.

. It was another 3ft cable, but it was different than the others and had no price on it. After looking around for someone for about 10 minutes, I found one of the sales dudes and he told me it was $18, but that he had been hoping to pick that one up for himself.

You paid $18 for an HDMI cable and you didn't think you got screwed.

Have you heard of Monoprice?

And, you fell for I want to get it for myself trick?

I managed to pull 30% off, which actually is a pretty good deal on something like a game console, which usually will have a very strict price set by the manufacturer and is constant at any place you try to shop for it (including online).

XBox has holiday bundle, 20GB or 60GB bundles, jasper and other chipsets etc etc. Buying a new xbox isn't that straightforward.

I guess her husband wasn't tech savvy enough to do the online research for her. ;-)

He could have found her a cheaper local substitute (one of those models that can charge multiple types of phones), or he could have ordered one for a couple of dollars, and paid the extra fee to get it rushed delivered by Fedex or something (that would have still been cheaper that way).
http://www.monoprice.com
http://www.resellerratings.com/store/monoprice

get a few of these:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10423&cs_id=1042301&p_id=2671&seq=1&format=2

You said, and I quote: "... Newegg will be charged by UPS or fedex for the dimensions of the box" The size of the box doesn't change in this case. Newegg ships small items in rather large boxes.

Amazingly, you said: "If you want to complain about price gouging, complain about the retail prices of cables in the world." That encouraged me to investigate cable prices at Newegg. Here is a comparison of the price for 10 network cables, each 1 foot long:

Newegg.com:
Rosewill RCW-569 1ft. /Network Cable Cat 6 White - Retail
According to the Newegg web site, this is Newegg's lowest price 1-foot Cat 6 network cable.
For 10 cables [Notice, NO discount for quantity order.]:
"Savings, -$0.20 Sale"
Total Price, not $8.90, but $6.90 because of the "Savings".
Subtotal: $6.90
Shipping: $21.92 Grand Total: $28.82

Monoprice.com:
CAT 6 500MHz UTP 1FT Cable - Black, Product ID: 2288
1: $0.75, 2-9: $0.68 10-19: $0.60, 20-49: $0.53, 50+: $0.46
For 10 cables:
SubTotal $6.00
S&H Cost $2.87
Grand Total $8.87

Newegg charges almost $20 more! Most of that is "gouging" for shipping. Remember these cables are only 1 foot long. They are very light.

I've ordered those cables from Monoprice.com, and they are excellent.

Note: These figures were accurate at the time this was researched, Saturday, January 17, 2009, 12:48 PM, PST. I suppose that it is possible that Newegg will have a "special", and change the prices above.

You talk as though you are a top manager at Newegg.com. You said: [My emphasis:] "You've already covered my warehouse manager and workers overhead for going and retrieving the items, and verifying the order for the most part with the purchase of the first item. Having them grab a second, third, or 10th one while they're already there doesn't cost me as much as the initial send, therefore the handling fee per unit goes down."

You said, and I quote, "Newegg is attempting to reward you by passing savings on to you for your bulk purchase, not ripping you off jackass."

I don't feel "rewarded". I feel abused, not only by the price, but by your extraordinarily dishonest argument and your abusive language.

If CC liquidates, I may not be able to get a 1080p TV for $200, but maybe I could get an HDMI cable for $7? That's less than Newegg, even if I get free shipping.

Is it less than Monoprice.com, though?

A flood of discounted merchandise from liquidating Circuit City stores could hurt Best Buy during this holiday shopping season

I hardly think a company that sells a cable for $129.99 when a functionally equivalent cable is available for $5.43 is concerned about the availability of discounted merchandise.

the easiest way is to find a place like http://www.monoprice.com/

Nope. Steve figures if you can afford a camera with a firewire port you will spring for the MBP. You might piss and moan but in the end you will pull out the credit card. It's all about the money.

That's probably true, and its very unApple of them (disappearing the allowing the non-pro to edit video like a pro). But its a deal breaker for me on the MacBook, I want firewire. And it hurts a little because I like the dimensions of the MacBook so much more than the MBP. If they've disappeared firewire target disk mode from OS X, I'm really going to be pissed.

I think it's a general sign of Firewire disappearing from general consumer products. The first major sign that I noticed was the lack of easy backwards compatibility between Firewire 800 and Firewire 400.

What? dude... it doesn't get any easier

I wonder if Target Disk mode and such will be implemented for USB in Mac OS X?

doubtful :-(
How would that even work? USB depends on the processor. FireWire has its own controller chip, which is awesome even if it does cost a little more. Did you even read your own "informative" post? (sorry for the grief... not you I'm mad at about this)

External hard drives were nice with Firewire because of how it in didn't burden the cpu like USB. But as with SCSI/ATA, chips are invented that offload the work from the CPU (sometimes diverging from the technology's spec to do so).

exactly.

Meh.

Wah!

In that case:

2-way splitter

100ft RG6 Coaxial Cable

Or do you get dinged with an additional box?

In that case:

2-way splitter

100ft RG6 Coaxial Cable

Or do you get dinged with an additional box?

The $399.99 80GB PS3 includes one DualShock 3 controller (a $45.99 value) and a composite cable (the same cable most all PlayStations have traditionally come with).

Although not necessary by any means, if you're lucky enough to own an HDTV, you can splurge $3.19 on an HDMI cable. If your HDTV only has component video, that cable is just $5.27 plus shipping.

Additional controllers (also not necessary) can be had for anywhere from $10-$40 for third-party, or $45.99 for first-party.

Depending on where you live, it's free shipping and no taxes for the PS3, game, and controller on Amazon. Minimal shipping for the cable(s) from Monoprice if you need them.

The $399.99 80GB PS3 includes one DualShock 3 controller (a $45.99 value) and a composite cable (the same cable most all PlayStations have traditionally come with).

Although not necessary by any means, if you're lucky enough to own an HDTV, you can splurge $3.19 on an HDMI cable. If your HDTV only has component video, that cable is just $5.27 plus shipping.

Additional controllers (also not necessary) can be had for anywhere from $10-$40 for third-party, or $45.99 for first-party.

Depending on where you live, it's free shipping and no taxes for the PS3, game, and controller on Amazon. Minimal shipping for the cable(s) from Monoprice if you need them.

As far as cables are concerned, Monoprice is better than Newegg, mainly because of their cheap shipping:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10301

http://reviews.cnet.com/keyboards/logitech-cordless-mediaboard-for/4505-3134_7-32319140.html

My friend is using one for just this purpose. And he's about 30' or so away, and he's going through from the first room of his house to his basement and it's working great.

As for the wireless video? Are you using so type of VGA wireless solution? With an LCD TV you should be able to receive 720p or even 1080p connect. This would require either a component or HDMI/DVI connect. There are actually DVI over ethernet adapters which will send your single over the long distance without losing quality which the wireless solution I used to use has issues with. You could also just hit up http://www.monoprice.com/ and pick up a 40" HDMI cable for about $40 or so shipped. If you didn't know you can get adapters that convert DVI->HDMI and some even support sound as well.

Just in case anyone doesn't know of them, Monoprice has been my cabling place for years. Good prices, reasonable shipping.

The alternatives are not as good and not as cheap as the geek makes them out to be.

HDMI is one cable for digital audio and video. HDMI 1.3 has a bandwidth of 340 MHz. High-Definition Multimedia Interface

Costs are $1 a foot to lengths of 100 ft.HDMI Cable

Alternative to Blu-Ray - DVD (which has laughable DRM)

The computer Geek thinks PC quality video.

The guy who puts $5-$25K into HT is thinking theatrical quality projection and sound.

Netflix isn't charging him a premium for the Blu-Ray rental. If he owns a PS3 he owns a Profile 2 Blu-Ray player. The Blu-Ray disk is 50 GB today and 100 GB tomorrow.

100 GB of professionally recorded mp4 video that doesn't have to be downloaded over a snail-slow and fragile P2P link. 100 GB that doesn't take a big bite out of his media server or DVR.

1. Cost.

2. Standard definition picture quality.

3. Cost of content.

4. Amount of content.

5. Cost of accessories.

6. The fact that I already own an SDTV.

1. Buy 1080p TV
2. Buy DVI to HDMI converter like this one
3. Buy wireless keyboard and pointing device (preferably touchpad or trackball)
4. ???
5. Sit in living room with TV and computer!

And yes, yes it does work with linux!

Damn, it showed up in preview, here's another attempt. They aren't exactly expensive at $3.36 ($2.69 in quantity) for a 1.5ft cable. Hell even a 50' cable is only $12 =) Of course they'd be a hell of a lot more expensive at BB or CC but that's what you get for instant gratification and expensive realestate.

1. For speakers go to Ascend Acoustics. The 170's are great, if you have a small room, go ahead and get the even smaller ones. Buy them w/the mounting bracket and aim 'em all towards the center of the "sweet spot" you want in your room. $1200 w/shipping and brackets.
2. Buy a decent subwoofer. Get a Canton, for example. Get it as inexpensive as you can find online. Probably get one smaller than you think you'll need, since everyone overestimate's how big of a sub they need, especially if you have full size other speakers, like the Ascend 170s. $250-350
3. For wires, go to Monoprice for anything specialty (hdmi, etc...) and Home Depot for a big spool of large gauge speaker wire. Everything wire could possibly need for a HT shouldn't run more than $100-200 total. Use good shielded coax for your sub. Every other speaker is perfect with Home Depot copper.
4. Get a Denon 38XX receiver. A really good receiver is key. Do some research on which models do what to fit your specific needs, but get something decent in the $900-1200 range at least to get the most use out of your speakers. Denon won't steer you wrong. There are other brands that are comparable, but don't cost any less when they're truely comparable and usually have at least one receiver class that isn't worth the money.
5. Get the latest best deal HT projector by going to Projector Central and reading the latest set of reviews in your price range. Then shop online for the best deal. It changes too fast for a recommendation to be really useful, but you can get a Sanyo PLV-Z2000 1080p projector for $2200 right now. Get a ceiling mount kit for it if that fits your room.
6. Get a stewart filmscreen to fit your room. Remember, you want your head to be sitting about 1.3-1.8 time the screen width away from the screen. The variance is for if you prefer to sit in the front, middle, or back in big screen movie theaters. Your screen will last much longer than your electronics, so don't be afraid to get a nice one. If you have a totally light controlled room, get a white screen. If you don't, get a grey screen. Either way, get the model with the thick black velvet border, it's way worth it. $800-1800, depending on size and style.
7. Get an upscaling HD-DVD and/or Blu-Ray player. Shop online for the best deal of the moment, or buy a PS3 if you want Blu-Ray. $400-750
8. Unless you absolutely must have the NFL sunday ticket, order Dishnetwork and get their current VIP-series HD DVR. Right now that's a 722, although a 622 is almost identical. Get the DishDVR package w/HD. Watch HD in pleasure. $90/month.
9. If you don't live alone, get a HT-specific uhf universal remote and program it to control everything else. Check Remote Central for the latest recommendations and deals. $100-600.
10. Use pot lights for the ceiling and rope lights from Home Depot for steps/theater aisle floors. Hook all lights up through remote controllable dimmers. Crown molding a bit down the wall w/rope lights in it also works well. Price Varies depending on taste.
11. If you might have power issues, get a $100-200 UPS online and plug your expensive stuff in through it.
12. Don't use a square room. Do look at the acoustic issues and consider soundproofing and deadening the walls and ceiling. (Carpet usually takes care of the floor).
13. For the best experience, no windows and black walls and ceiling. Put the door where if it opens, it doesn't shine light directly on the screen.
14. Ideally arrange the projector and screen so that the light go

No joke.

Lately I've been explaining this almost weekly as many friends of mine are in the HDTV buying mode right now (ramping up towards christmas). I had one friend that unfortunately didn't chat with me about cables before buying his HDTV. He got a pretty good deal on the TV... but got owned on the cables (bought 3 HDMI Monster cables at $100 a piece... sigh).

Other cables that drive me crazy are optical cables. It's _light_... it's digital... you either get it or you don't. My Dad recently got a home theater system and I warned him that they would try to sell him really expensive optical cables... and sure enough they did. But my Dad pressed the salesman to show him the difference and the guy just blubbered and Dad walked out of the store with a $7 cable...

I honestly think that there should be a class action lawsuit against Monster Cable. What they do is no less than pure false advertising. They prey on the uneducated...

For everyone out there looking for some good _and_ cheap HDMI (and other) cables... please check out http://www.monoprice.com/ . I own several of their cheap (as in I got 3 for $15 including shipping) and they work wonderfully.

I almost bought an Oppo up-converting dvd player one month ago, since the Oppo players have received excellent reviews everywhere. We purchased a 40-inch LCD TV, and HD content from our cable provider looks great, but playing DVDs with our 2 year old DVD player just didn't look that good.

I had been determined to sit out the format war until there was a winner, but before paying $200 for an Oppo, decided to look at what there was for HD out there. I was surprised to find the Toshiba HD-A2 on sale at Amazon and a few local electronics stores for $240. It was getting mostly good reviews (a few bad reviews, but not many ... 4.5 stars on Amazon). And especially important to me was most people said its up-converting was impressive--just barely below what the best Oppo's with DCDi by Faroudja up-converting could do.

So for $40 more than what I was going to spend on an Oppo, I could get a good up-converting DVD player, that also played HD DVDs. Plus I got five free (albeit lame) HD DVDs through a rebate (if you remember to mail it in on time). Since I subscribe to netflix, I could simply rent HD DVDs and enjoy the HD quality on my HD TV, and not have to worry about whether HD DVD becomes obsolete one day.

So I decided to take the plunge, bought the HD DVD player, got a 3-ft HDMI cable from http://monoprice.com/ for $4 (they are $40-$100 at most stores, which is a rip-off, since the monoprice cables are excellent), and I was set.

And it turns out I couldn't be happier with my decision. My player does a great job of up-converting, and the HD DVD movies (what few ones are actually available) really look supurb. I haven't bought a single HD DVD movie, and I don't intend to. I'm just enjoying HD movies that I rent, and will continue to do so until it makes sense to change to something else if I need to.

Some people are saying that average consumers don't notice the difference between the HD discs and regular DVDs, but I think it depends. Everyone can tell the difference between an old CRT television and a new flat panel television, so a lot of consumers are buying the new HD flat panel televisions, even though they can be $1000+. If you buy a new flat panel HD television, you immediately learn the difference between high definition and standard definition content, because standard definition content looks pretty crappy by comparison on most new flat panel HD televisions. If someone doesn't have a decent up-converting DVD player, I think they will be disappointed watching DVDs on their new $1000+ tv, as I was. So I have to disagree, and say that many people can tell the difference between DVDs and HD discs, and really do want more out of their major new tv purchase. Whether that's getting a good up-converting DVD player, or spending a little more on an HD DVD player, or even more on a blu-ray player, it's their call. But I think that most poeple who have bought a new flat panel HD televisions are looking for a way to make that major purchase be something that looks as impressive watching movies as it does watching HD tv shows.

Did you mean HDMI? how about this? $4.79 http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id =102&cp_id=10240&cs_id=1024004&p_id=2412&seq=1&for mat=2&style=

It seems like people are going to great lengths to explain his clearly arbitrary price discrepancy. The cable? Give me a break. The PS3 is the only console I can think of since the 8-bit days that actually takes a standard video cable. You don't need any special Sony cable. Just a $4 HDMI cable does the trick.

Disclaimer: I own both a Wii and a PS3, and I have $0 of buyers remorse. Though given the fact that I've been playing mostly PS2 games lately due to the lack of quality new releases for both systems, perhaps if I had less disposable income I'd have $750 in remorse. I certainly couldn't tell you that I like one of them better than the other though. They both have their strengths. If you don't have an HDTV, the Wii is the clear winner, but otherwise the PS3 definitely holds its own.

The cables would be FAR cheaper than the extremely complex and expensive DVI/HDMI cables.

This is a marketing abberation, if FOC wire were used BestBuy et al. would still charge 90+ dollars for a length. I am not claiming that these are the prices you would pay in that fictional world, but it's not a bad guide for what is happening on the cheap end...
A yard of duplex FOC is 8.36 at monoprice.com whereas 3 feet of HDMI is only 2.74. Even their best quality stuff is only 14.97.

On another note, people care about analog because that's what the marketplace already had installed. The vendor only has to make one connector and saves a few pennies per display, ships one cable (if they bother to include one) and a salesman/customer doesn't have to figure out if their computer will work with it. Worst case it's a sale of another 20 dollar adapter worth a dollar rather than a return. Not wholy insane in an era where manufacturers sold computers with soldier pads for an AGP slot but wouldn't put one on because it was an additional 1.5 cent part when they already had integrated graphics (analog baby). I hope it was an anomaly, but I remember a couple of times going to Compusa and they did not have a computer in stock that had a slot for the video cards they sold in the next isle.

The cables would be FAR cheaper than the extremely complex and expensive DVI/HDMI cables.

This is a marketing abberation, if FOC wire were used BestBuy et al. would still charge 90+ dollars for a length. I am not claiming that these are the prices you would pay in that fictional world, but it's not a bad guide for what is happening on the cheap end...
A yard of duplex FOC is 8.36 at monoprice.com whereas 3 feet of HDMI is only 2.74. Even their best quality stuff is only 14.97.

On another note, people care about analog because that's what the marketplace already had installed. The vendor only has to make one connector and saves a few pennies per display, ships one cable (if they bother to include one) and a salesman/customer doesn't have to figure out if their computer will work with it. Worst case it's a sale of another 20 dollar adapter worth a dollar rather than a return. Not wholy insane in an era where manufacturers sold computers with soldier pads for an AGP slot but wouldn't put one on because it was an additional 1.5 cent part when they already had integrated graphics (analog baby). I hope it was an anomaly, but I remember a couple of times going to Compusa and they did not have a computer in stock that had a slot for the video cards they sold in the next isle.

The cables would be FAR cheaper than the extremely complex and expensive DVI/HDMI cables.

This is a marketing abberation, if FOC wire were used BestBuy et al. would still charge 90+ dollars for a length. I am not claiming that these are the prices you would pay in that fictional world, but it's not a bad guide for what is happening on the cheap end...
A yard of duplex FOC is 8.36 at monoprice.com whereas 3 feet of HDMI is only 2.74. Even their best quality stuff is only 14.97.

On another note, people care about analog because that's what the marketplace already had installed. The vendor only has to make one connector and saves a few pennies per display, ships one cable (if they bother to include one) and a salesman/customer doesn't have to figure out if their computer will work with it. Worst case it's a sale of another 20 dollar adapter worth a dollar rather than a return. Not wholy insane in an era where manufacturers sold computers with soldier pads for an AGP slot but wouldn't put one on because it was an additional 1.5 cent part when they already had integrated graphics (analog baby). I hope it was an anomaly, but I remember a couple of times going to Compusa and they did not have a computer in stock that had a slot for the video cards they sold in the next isle.

$5.25 for 6 foot cable. See, order of magnitude price difference. The beauty of digital signals is that the signal is not going to be degraded over 6 feet in a home theater setting (or any others for that matter).

Lie much?

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id =102&cp_id=10240&cs_id=1024004&p_id=2526&seq=1&for mat=2

HDMI Cable male to male 28AWG - 3ft w/Ferrite Cores (Gold Plated) for $2.74

http://www.monoprice.com/home/index.asp

I've never purchased through them, but someone recommended them, and after seeing the prices, I bookmarked em.

And why does an optical or HDMI cable of sufficient length end up costing more than most DVD players? It's a CABLE for Pete's sake.

I will concur that HDMI cables longer than 30 feet are unheard of, and that this is because of the specification. Every network standard has distance limitations. It's a trade-off between performance, convenience and cost. In defense of the standards team I can only say that most people tend to put their TV and tuner/dvd/etc on the same side of their house. Sort of like putting the oven in the kitchen with the fridge. But I'm kind of conservative that way.

I recently bought a projector that took HDMI, that is when I startedlooking for HDMI cables. Turns out the cheapest HDMI cable 3ft is for 30$-40$. if u want anything longer, your are looking at 100$ plus

lol are you kidding?

http://www.monoprice.com/

don't buy overpriced monster crap.................... like someone said a more expensive better isn't going to do shit for you on the digital side unless you have a lot of noise in the area

Not $599.

For $499 you get everything the $599 has except the larger HD, built-in WiFi and a CF and SD card reader.

You can upgrade the HD, and add WiFi and SD/CF card reading via USB.

The PS2 Linux kit was overexpensive because Sony wanted it that way. There was a network/HD adapter for the PS2 later that cost a lot less than $700.

HDMI can be converted to DVI-D with a simple physical adapter or cable. They use the same signalling for video. How about for $5?

http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.as p?c_id=102&cp_id=10231&style=

http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.as p?c_id=101&cp_id=10110&style=

$28 for a manual pushbutton HDMI switch and $80 for an automatic/remote control one.

The specs on the webpage say different http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id =101&cp_id=10110&cs_id=1011002&p_id=2777&style=&se q=1&format=2#description

" - HDCP Compliant."

My TV has 5 HDMI ports because I spent ~$130 on a 5-to-1 HDMI switch.

You'll get lots of replies about HDMI switches, and most will probably have links to overpriced switches. I've always found the best deals at monoprice. They've got some HDMI switches here.

Only a complete retard would pay $100 for a cable meant to deliver a purely digital signal. Then again these are the same people Monster-brand products are amrketed to, so nothing surprises me.