Buyers beware - but not in the usual way...
- Thread starter Umbran
- Start date
Nytmare
David Jose
That's what I ended up doing with my first flatpanel. Who'd've thought that they'd add an extra 13 inches of width just in the boxing. Thankfully I had a bunch of furniture pads in my trunk and I was able to use them to wrap up the TV.
For my old CRT, I had to pull out the back seat and tie the seat to the roof of the car.
And, in the more regular form of the buyer being aware...
In the middle of buying the pricey TV and home theater setup, I didn't notice how horribly overpriced the HDMI cables were. Really, guys, you can slip that past me in the middle of a big-ticket sale, but not upon examination.
This isn't bad, in that the cables are also too short for the stand I have for the thing, so I have to exchange them anyway. But how about we buy a reasonably priced cable this time, hm?
In the middle of buying the pricey TV and home theater setup, I didn't notice how horribly overpriced the HDMI cables were. Really, guys, you can slip that past me in the middle of a big-ticket sale, but not upon examination.
This isn't bad, in that the cables are also too short for the stand I have for the thing, so I have to exchange them anyway. But how about we buy a reasonably priced cable this time, hm?
Scott DeWar
Prof. Emeritus-Supernatural Events/Countermeasure
I use to work for Radio Shack. The Shack store employees across the street in the mall would slip in the pricy gold cables, but our manager made sure none of us pulled off that kind of trick. fair treatment of customer = returning customer.
Aeolius
Adventurer
It could be worse. Where I hung our TV there was a power outlet but no other jacks. I didn't want to run an HDMI cable from the receiver to the TV, as it would have been unsightly. So, I opted for Wireless HDMI .
cha-ching
Scott DeWar
Prof. Emeritus-Supernatural Events/Countermeasure
nice and clean.
Nytmare
David Jose
I'm waiting to see if they slipped you the Monster cables, or if this was your reaction to normally priced HDMI cables.
Nellisir
Hero
It could be worse. Where I hung our TV there was a power outlet but no other jacks. I didn't want to run an HDMI cable from the receiver to the TV, as it would have been unsightly. So, I opted for Wireless HDMI .
cha-ching
I keep asking what I need to do to get you to adopt me, Aeolius, but you never respond.
No, not Monster. Forest, which are cheaper than Monster, but still twice as expensive as the perfectly suitable Dynex cables I walked out with this time. I'm still technically paying more than I need to, but I'm paying for convenience, rather than for brand name.
Stormonu
NeoGrognard
For the first time in over ten years, I had Black Friday off. Been wanting a big-screen TV forever, and I ended up talking myself into going to the local Best Buy at about 12:30 AM.
Line was reasonably short - I was in by about 12:45 AM. I ended up picking up two 26" LED tv's for the price of one to replace our 17" computer monitors, and HDMI cables - at $19 per cable, not bad. Also walked out with a $40 blu-ray player and a sack of DVDs that'd been marked down to $9 a season. All stuff I'd been planning to get a some point and really felt like I got a reasonable deal on it (some of it's going under the Christmas tree).
Next day, I managed to talk the wife into replacing our monstrous 32" dying CRT TV with a big-screen. I wanted a 55", she wanted something about the size of the TVs I brought home last night. We settled on a 46" that was very decently priced. I was going to grab one of the cheapo cables and on a whim, got talking to one of the staff about why some of the cables were so damn expensive. After the talk, I did end up buying one of the more expensive Monster cables (a $70 hit to the wallet), with the understanding I could bring it back if I felt like it wasn't worth it.
So, got home after setting the whole shebang up with the cheap cable first attached to the new blu-ray player, I popped in Star Wars (New Hope) DVD [not even a Blu-ray version] and played the last bit - y'know, the attack on the Death Star.
The colors looked a bit wrong and I could see some garbage pixelation on the screen. Thought at first it was because they weren't the Blu-ray versions.
Then I changed the cables out - and wow, it made a noticeable difference (to me). Enough I won't be taking it back and exchanging it. Now, I won't say it's worth it overall - you've got to be on a really big screen (remember, mine's 46") and fairly close to notice the difference (our couch is positioned about 3' away from the screen), but if you're a detail nut it's worth investigating. For most folks - or for just regular HD TV, I'd go with the cheapo HDMI.
Now, if I can just get Netflix to work properly on the smart TV, I'll be doing good...
Line was reasonably short - I was in by about 12:45 AM. I ended up picking up two 26" LED tv's for the price of one to replace our 17" computer monitors, and HDMI cables - at $19 per cable, not bad. Also walked out with a $40 blu-ray player and a sack of DVDs that'd been marked down to $9 a season. All stuff I'd been planning to get a some point and really felt like I got a reasonable deal on it (some of it's going under the Christmas tree).
Next day, I managed to talk the wife into replacing our monstrous 32" dying CRT TV with a big-screen. I wanted a 55", she wanted something about the size of the TVs I brought home last night. We settled on a 46" that was very decently priced. I was going to grab one of the cheapo cables and on a whim, got talking to one of the staff about why some of the cables were so damn expensive. After the talk, I did end up buying one of the more expensive Monster cables (a $70 hit to the wallet), with the understanding I could bring it back if I felt like it wasn't worth it.
So, got home after setting the whole shebang up with the cheap cable first attached to the new blu-ray player, I popped in Star Wars (New Hope) DVD [not even a Blu-ray version] and played the last bit - y'know, the attack on the Death Star.
The colors looked a bit wrong and I could see some garbage pixelation on the screen. Thought at first it was because they weren't the Blu-ray versions.
Then I changed the cables out - and wow, it made a noticeable difference (to me). Enough I won't be taking it back and exchanging it. Now, I won't say it's worth it overall - you've got to be on a really big screen (remember, mine's 46") and fairly close to notice the difference (our couch is positioned about 3' away from the screen), but if you're a detail nut it's worth investigating. For most folks - or for just regular HD TV, I'd go with the cheapo HDMI.
Now, if I can just get Netflix to work properly on the smart TV, I'll be doing good...
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