CEDIA 2007 - Day 1: Us vs. Monster Cable, Sony's New Projectors and Toshiba on HD-DVD
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Manveer Wasson on September 5, 2007 11:45 PM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Monster insisted that its branding was to help the consumers decide which cable was right for them, despite one audience member warning that having so many "standards" may do more to confuse the consumer than educate him/her. We also had issues with the ratings, so we posed two questions to Mr. Lee. The first question was a desire for more technical detail on how the various speed rated cables differed from one another; Mr. Lee seemed to imply that the thickness of the "pipe" is what determined how much bandwidth you could send down a single HDMI cable, we wanted to know more. Unfortunately, our request was not met, Mr. Lee said that there are too many factors to take into account to answer such a question here but listed a number of factors such as how the cables are cut, connector assembly and distinct eye requirements of higher bandwidth HDMI.
Much to our surprise, Mr. Lee did answer our next question. We stated that cable "speed" and the ability to transmit a signal was directly related to cable length, but we wondered how fast the lower speed rated cables would be at shorter distances. Take the lowest end Standard Speed HDMI cable, Mr. Lee mentioned that at 2m it would be capable of transmitting around 12Gbps of data - nearly as much as Monster's high end Ultimate High Speed HDMI cable. Mr. Lee requested that we didn't quote him exactly because he didn't know the specific bandwidth rating at 2m off the top of his head, so don't take the 12Gbps figure to heart - but we would suspect that the actual number is somewhere around there.
The point being that Monster's high end cables are definitely necessary for very long cable runs, but most consumers aren't installing their HD-DVD/Blu-ray players more than 1 - 2 meters away from their TVs, where these ultra expensive cables are not necessary at all. In our opinion, Monster would be doing the consumer a greater service if it simply replaced speed ratings with length ratings: e.g. buy cable X if you need 0 - 10m, cable Y for 11 - 30m, etc...
Noel's counter-argument to our length rating proposition was that customers could buy these expensive HDMI cables today and be future proof for higher bandwidth implementations of HDMI that may come down the road. Our bet is that you'd still be better off buying good, cheap HDMI cables today and replacing them when necessary or that the HDMI connector would end up getting replaced before the time you'd need to upgrade your cables.
We did appreciate Mr. Lee's honesty in stating the futility of using even Monster's own high end HDMI cables for short runs, we just want to see less confusing marketing to consumers who will inevitably be pushed towards Monster or other expensive cables.
In order to compete with no-name cable manufacturers, Monster will also begin selling a HDMI cable in a box which is unrated, not "certified" but competitive with other cheaper cable available on the market.
Monster also introduced its Cable for Life Performance Guaranteed program; if your 1000-series (Ultimate High Speed) cable becomes obsolete because of a change in spec, Monster will replace it free of charge. Again, depending on the length of cable you're buying, you'd probably be better off simply buying cheaper cables when you need them rather than attempting to future proof your cables. It's sort of like an extreme case of the argument for purchasing SLI ready motherboards/video cards.
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Adul - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
I feel sad for those that buy into the monster cable marketing. I been getting my cables from monoprice lately. Nice well made cables for cheap. Wish I told that to my neighbor before he drop money on it. Oh well next time :)MGSsancho - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
yeah i got a 50' dvi -> hdmi cable from mono price. works great. its just massive. makes my man hood feel bad at times. Monster does have a point. the original spec for hdmi was a <5gbs link. then the spec was increased to 120hz, 24b color, then 1440P resolution. all in all the bandwidth requirement was increased to >12gps. Then they got spart. the increased the spec, but never upgraded the spec on the cable. So, current hdmi cables are fine for current stuff like PCs, HD stuff and game consoles. anything higher that that (1440P) I will worry about it when i can buy a $2000 1440P TV, receiver, player, and content.About the STR-5300ES, how is that any better than the Onkyo 805 fpr $1000 (has all the same features except bravia link) and if you want the Silicon Optics HCV blah 10bit REON up scaler, the onkyo 875 sells for $1800 (msrp). oh and onkyos 905 has burr brown oamps.....
Oh well Congrats to Sony bringing more competition into the high end gear!!!!!!!!
Duwelon - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
I'm so sad for Monster that consumers don't want to pay a 1000% price markup on their cables. I bought a $5 DVI-HDMI cable about 6 feet long and it delivers a brilliant image to my sony 1080p TV.pervisanathema - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
Monster Cable's business model depends on the ignorance of consumers and peoples' blind attraction to shiny packaging and a slick sales pitch. It's common knowledge among the enthusiasts and educated consumers that Monster is the cable world's equivalent of Bose. Slick marketing, massive markup, inferior product.Locutus465 - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
Except Bose speakers (at least their real surround speakers) actually do sound great, and are high quality. Basically, you really do get something out of spending more on your speakers vs. cheaping out (like I did). If you cheap out you can get decent, but not amazing sound, if you spend extra cash, you get amazing... With monster, you really don't get anything at all.(qualifier, yes you need a decent receiver to go along with your shiny bose speakers for things to work out well).
SilthDraeth - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
I doubt monster makes crappy cables. There just isn't a need to pay the additional price.LoneWolf15 - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
Monster is also dependent on making sure big box stores like Best Buy only sell their brand of cables and no other, so that people who absolutely gotta have their new home theater working today (without travelling around to buy things) will spend the big bucks as opposed to being patient, going somewhere else or mail-ordering them, and saving the cash.
Best Buy (and some others) have learned that it nets them huge profits too. Same with computer cables (Geek Squad and Dynex). $33 for a USB cable I can pay $10 for anywhere else? Highway robbery --and enough to stop me from buying other items at their store as well.
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