Hey does anyone know a good place to buy a cheap/good hdmi cable?

You're in luck. There was a study done in Popular Mechanics that showed that no-name (aka cheap) HDMI cables are just as good as the 100$+ Monster Cable ones. As for buying one somewhere, you're probably better off buying online.

Thanks. I know Rico mentioned a site before but the name escapes me.

Wal-mart. $15.

My home theater (mostly used for music; I only have a cheap-ish 36" tv) cost about $15,000 and I can say that Monster has turned into a company like Bose or Nike- That is, they have a big name, so they know they can offer products that are little better than the norm, at ridiculously high prices. I used to buy it exclusively, and I can say after lots of experience that it's all hype. They use the same manufacturing methods and equipment as most other companies. The only thing they do somewhat better is insulate.

The only Monster I buy anymore is 10 gauge speaker wire, and that's only if it's on sale. (I biamp, so I have to buy 2x more) and find their wire offers good clarity. Then again, alot of other manufacturers do too. It's all about not buying total crap, that's all. Mid-range priced cables are better than the dirt cheap ones, but virtually identical to the expensive ones.

One place to go for cheap Monster cable is XS Cargo. I've seen $50.00 wire for $10.00 there (sounds good, but that's just how much it was worth in the first place), and they seem to get alot of stock in. Just DO NOT buy any electronics from there! My wife bought a DVD player from them, and when we opened it the case was crushed, and had a big greasy boot print on it. We returned it, and got a defective unit, which we returned for another defective one. They are all refurbished... badly! I have the same player (Philips Divx DVP642) from Wal-Mart for the tv in the bedroom, and it has worked perfectly for 2 years now. XS Cargo has a no return policy, and you're almost guaranteed a defective unit on every exchange.

Anyway, IMNSHO, Monster = 90% lots of $$ to afford PR and exposure. There is no groundbreaking technology in the mix. Even if there is a difference with a Monster product, it's so negligible that it is not worth the extra $40.00. You'd have to be a piece of high-grade recording equipment to notice the difference.

PS- Sony is a joke.(Had to throw that in, lol)

Or if you have Eastlink, get an HD cable box (or another if you already have one). It comes with all sorts of free fabu cables like Component and HDMI.

monoprice maybe

I've been told that costco has good prices on HDMI cables. $15-$20.

I just buy them wholesale through the family business... I can't actually help anyone by getting cables for them at those prices but I just thought I'd rub it in a little.

Also, I agree with what Grifter mentioned about Monster Cables. I've seen a few videoblog shows (I know videoblogs are lame but that one Kevin Rose did after he left TechTV was pretty good) where they dissect the cables and most of what you get with them is better insulation, which is good, but doesn't make enough of a difference to justify the price really.

I just looked into it more and the show I like was Systm (http://revision3.com/systm/) but i haven't watched it in forever.

Cheapest places I found on the net were
http://www.tigerdirect.ca and nc1x.com. Substitute I for the 1 and add www.

Pricey cables definitely do not make a difference.

ha i can 100% say that that is 100% false.
i have monster hdmi cables and i have no name. BIIIG difference in quallity.
i bought a dvi to hdmi cheep cable form mb and the signal is crap goin to my hdtv. but when i use my monster hdmi 400 and a monster dvi to hdmi adapter it looks 10x better.
so be carefull i can sell you a monster hdmi cable for about 30 40 bux. its used but works well. ill have my new 2m monster cables by monday

i buy all monster cables. after my expireence with cheep cables ill never go back.
come over and ill show you. anyone can clearly see that there is a big difference.

http://www.southernillinoisan.com/artic ... 725785.txt

Good find Doc. As soon as I read "Digital" in that third paragraph I knew where the article was headed.

Tee hee.

I don't think you can take the link I posted as 100% truthiness. Granted any decent cable with the appropriate shielding should be fine, but if you were to use, say, telephone wire, its cable would just be a big antenna and grab any crap out of the atmosphere, and filters can only do so much. I haven't looked at the HDMI spec, but if it is being used with DRM, it must have some pretty strict signal to noise requirements.