I was thrown out of Best Buy

[Smoker]

well this will make you soooooooo much happier

USAToday article on Monster cable prices

[groover km]

well this will make you soooooooo much happier

USAToday article on Monster cable prices

LOL!!! WTF are 'speedy' hdmi cables??? Do i get to see the show before it's broadcast? Does it only take 50 minutes to watch an hour??? What?

Brilliant. There must be a market for this stuff; $400 cables. I really want to meet these people, I could earn a fortune doing installation...

[SuMo]

LOL!!! WTF are 'speedy' hdmi cables??? Do i get to see the show before it's broadcast? Does it only take 50 minutes to watch an hour??? What?

Nah.... I think speedy, ultra speedy etc is the time you need to figure out you've been scr$$wd

[pbb]

They've been doing this for a long time. I had a BestBuy employee try to get me to spend a bunch of money on a high-end cable for the sub-woofer that came with my surround sound system. He said the cable that came with the system wouldn't last a month. 12 years later it is still working fine!

[dvasco]

I don't even go to Best Buy anymore because they never have good prices anymore. I mainly go to Fry's which probably doesn't exist outside the southwest US. All retail stores are going to have employees that have limited knowledge and only know how to sell and don't really know the the quality of their products. I had a Best Buy employee get mad I didn't buy their more expensive s-video cable. Funny thing is I have worked in Best Buy in the repair dept but I quit the second day they wanted me to work the floor. I have had a lot of Radio Shack employees tell me they don't carry certain products and 10 minutes later I would find exactly what I was looking for. Another time I wanted to see if a DVD player played SVDC, the guy told me it wasn't connected and had too many components and connections. A few minutes later I had all his connection corrected. He was sure I worked for a living doing that stuff. I learned it on my own before working any where on electronics. Even in this forum someone suggested I use a higher grade s-video cable but I found the solution without going that route.

[Ted the Penguin]

ok so there IS a difference in HDMI cables, there is an article on gizmodo about it, and how they tested some monoprice stuff against it. but basically, it comes down to futureproofing, since everything handled todays resolutions, only some carried future stuff. and even that only really matters when you are putting it INSIDE a wall. otherwise you can just spend another $10 when your current $10 cable doesnt work... and THEN you may need to spend a bit more. but certainty not before trying the cheap cables

I did the same thing at a party. he had a bose (shudder) system, and HDTV and a second amp that he hadnt hooked up to his speakers by the pool.

the HD cable box was connected only with coax, and the bose DVD player was connected only with composite... and RCA L+R audio cables for sound.
thankfully he had the higher end system, that actually had digital inputs, and could handle component video (interesting story, bose systems use composite + svideo to make component, and they have a little adapter for it). so I was able to hook everything up, as well as get his second amp and speakers working with the requisite remote (which is actually pretty nice).

sigh

[bdgbill]

I don't even go to Best Buy anymore because they never have good prices anymore. I mainly go to Fry's which probably doesn't exist outside the southwest US.

I love Fry's! I was thrilled when I found one in Indianapolis a couple of weeks ago on a business trip. I too thought they were only in AZ, CA.

For those of you that have not seen a Fry's, Imagine a store bigger than a Super Wal-Mart full of tech stuff.

I was in there for over 3 hours. Bought a 500gig HD for 99.00, an electronic weather station, a 4 foot long power strip, a couple of breadboards, a big pack of assorted LED's for $3.00 and a bunch of other stuff. I'm lucky I was able to pay my rent this month.

They have a pretty bad reputation online for the kind of rebate and warranty scams on big ticket items that Tigerdirect is famous for but it's a great store to browse around in.

[-Oz-]

I love Fry's! I was thrilled when I found one in Indianapolis a couple of weeks ago on a business trip. I too thought they were only in AZ, CA.

For those of you that have not seen a Fry's, Imagine a store bigger than a Super Wal-Mart full of tech stuff.

I was in there for over 3 hours. Bought a 500gig HD for 99.00, an electronic weather station, a 4 foot long power strip, a couple of breadboards, a big pack of assorted LED's for $3.00 and a bunch of other stuff. I'm lucky I was able to pay my rent this month.

They have a pretty bad reputation online for the kind of rebate and warranty scams on big ticket items that Tigerdirect is famous for but it's a great store to browse around in.

They are also a total PITA to return stuff do. I'd rather order stuff from newegg than go into fry's. But for the stuff you bought frys is a good place.

[nitrogen_widget]

On HDMI cables, if their built so thin that they feel like they will break if you bend them then yes, I'd say it makes a difference.
I've seen them & it seems to me they will fail simplt because the connector is so cheap it doesn't seat itself securly.

but when my brother came home with a $70 HDMI cable from I think either Radio Shack or Best buy to go with his direct HDTV I went to Big lot's & picked one up for $5 & he couldn't tell the difference.

I also paid $3 for my Svideo cable at Big Lot's. RCA gold plated mesh sheilding. Those make a significant difference over the S-video cable that came with the DVD player.

Paying $20 for svideo is crazy to me.

I don't even go into Best Buy anymore to just look around.
The yellow shirts & thier constant harrasment make me want to slap someone.

How many times do I have to tell the same guy I don't need help?

Do I have to rudely say "I am smarter than you, I know more about electroincs than you, walk away" like my buddy does every time he goes in there?

He's kind-of a jerk though so I think he goes to besy buy just so he can do that.

[jeandde]

Good for you!!! bdgbill, I actually know how little they know, as I was once a "blueshirt" about 15 years ago, actually a funny story...I spent 12 years in the audio/visual/video industry, military background, plus civilian. Fast forward a decade, I walk into a Best Buy for a job...You're Hired...we'll put you in computers and software.....What!!??? I don't know anything about computers, I don't even own one. Well....needless to say I told a lot of lies, not intently, but back then there were probably more people who didn't know a lot about computers, so blowing smoke wasn't as easy to detect, whereas the average user today, can run their own network server at home with little help. Although BB doesn't pay on commission, there is tremendous pressure on them to sell at all costs. You can probably thank BB for getting rid of CC's commissioned sales people, although with that you get lucky enough to always get the person who can't tell you the difference between a roll of tape, and a donut. Tell you what, go in to any Electronics Big Box store, as matter of fact go to all of them, and ask them what the difference is in the resolution between a plasma, lcd, and a rear projection screen tv is and will it really be that important with HDTV 1080i becoming standard in a few years.....and stand back, because odds are they will spew rhetoric that will make you sick just to listen. Well after all that (sorry for stealing your soapbox) I do have to thank them after all because they got me started into an IT career, that has landed me some pretty decent paying jobs, working for companies that realized both my potential and deficits. So next time you feel offended by being thrown out of Best Buy....just remember this one thing.... you can't help stupid.