The "Monster Difference" Is Easy To See When You Compare HDMI To Crappy Composite Cables
Engadget says they've caught Fry's electronics and Monster Cable pulling a fast one on their customers, again. They first noticed this cute little display last year, but it's apparently still being used. Here's how it works.
Two TVs are set beside each other along with a sign that says "See the Monster HDMI Difference." Trouble is, the "Monster set" (on the right) is connected to its source via an HDMI cable, while the "non-Monster set" (on the left) is connected via composite cable. As in, the lamest looking signal next to using an RF modulator.
Sketchy.
Monster "HDMI Difference" scam still kickin' in Fry's Electronics [Engadget]
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I'm confused. What does this have to do with Mini Golf?
I will admit I own a few Monster USB Cables, which were bought during a woot!off for a grand total of $1.99 each. They blink and have a cool outer sheathing, which made them look cool, which is why I bought them. I am only using one which is attached to my 1TB external drive and does bather my room/office in a soothing blue flashing light at night to guide my way.
Whenever i see something like this going on at a store, I like to swap the cables :)
Take three of those cheap composite cables and hook up the component video -- then see who's laughing. ($70 for 4 feet versus something like $9 for 6 feet for roughly the same picture.)
I call shenanigans.
@legwork: They blink. Blue. And they have ions and remove pollution/toxins from my body at night through my feet, like a tree removes toxins from the air and transfers them to the ground. But they blink.
@humphrmi: We have a call of shenanigans! Everyone please fetch your brooms while the call is investigated!
I dont know about any other best buys but the one I worked at in the Hometheater dep. we used to hook up the tvs one with hdmi and the other with component or composite cables to tell the see the difference and thats for calibrations monster and regular cables and 120hz and non 120hz tvs its all a big scam make sure you do your homework before going to these places they are all after your money.
@RattedOutAnneFrank!_GitEmSteveDave: Not bad. I thought you had to buy those funky color changing insole things for that effect.
Have extras?
Linking to Engadget, huh?
Looks like you're really over Gawker now.
Well they originally caught an 'unnamed retailer' the first time; and now an Engadget reader took pictures of them doing it at Fry's. I'll have to go to my local Fry's and see if they are doing this.
Stay Tuned.
@Your friends can call you HoJu!: They won't be over gawker until they hire someone to fix gawker's fail code. I had to reload the page ten times before I could reply to your comment.
Am I missing something in the photo? Aren't HDMI cables flat? Both cables in the photo appear to be round like an S-video cable. If it were composite cables, it's be 2 of them, 3 if you include the audio. *blinks*
@RattedOutAnneFrank!_GitEmSteveDave:
I didn't even have to uncollapse the comment to know what the reply was!
+1
@RattedOutAnneFrank!_GitEmSteveDave: wait, do they slowly turn to blinky brown cables? where do the toxins go?
They're both Monster Cable. "See the Monster HDMI difference" is just "See the HDMI difference" with added branding.
"See the Monster difference" would be a lie, but that's not what the sign says.
@allstarecho: The picture on the left is a composite cable, which are the red/white(audio)/yellow(video) cables you used to hook your SNES to your TV up with. I *think* you're thinking of component cables, which have 3 video inputs and two audio inputs (red, blue green (video) and red/white(audio)).
The picture here is cropped so you can't really notice it, but if you look at the source pic on engadget, you'll see that it's actually the same set these are hooked up to, and that the top plug in on the set (that the monster cable is hooked into) is an HDMI port.
@allstarecho: hdmi connectors are flat, the cables can be round or flat depending on the brand.
... as noted above, it's the Composite standard itself that is crappy - the cable is likely fine.
Please don't write malinformed headlines :)
Don't forget to switch them!
When you buy monster cables, make sure they come pre-seasoned for best performance.
Monster Cable = Monster Ripoff
@allstarecho: well they don't really need audio for a simple demo of video quality. Also, while I thought the same thing, the cable for hdmi can be round like a normal cable, but the connector is flat which you can't really see. After that it's clear that the two TVs are using different connection which is obviously not composite.
Funny. Appearing just below the text on the source site was the following Google Ad:
The Offical Cash4Gold
Get Cash For The Holidays. Sell Directly To The Refiner!
www.Cash4Gold.com
I guess writing about scams is an indicator that Google should show scam ads in the same place?
@litrock: Some local shops do pretty good too. A local computer store around here doesn't rape you for HDMI/DVI/Cat5/5e/6/USB/et al. cables.
@RattedOutAnneFrank!_GitEmSteveDave: I bought a set of Monster Home Theater cables from a woot. Was like $20 for the set, even came with some component cables and a coax subwoofer cable. That's the only time I ever buy Monster.
I once bought a Monster Power surge protector for my computer when I went to college. This was before Monster became the crappy company they are today. Paid $20 for it at a college bookstore and it still works perfectly today. Only Monster product I own and only one I will ever own.
@PunditGuy: True story: I saw this advice posted on a certain "Answers" website and somebody actually asked, "But the connectors are different colors. What color should the red, white and yellow go to?"
@theczardictates: If you care about colors that damn much most stores sell packs of electrical tape in different colors. Just pick the colors you want/need, use the color on both ends, and match it up with the ports on your device and TV. Or, you could do what I do and hook them up one-at-a-time.
That's a pretty outrageous scam Fry's is pulling. Cables are cables, especially ones that transfer a digital signal. It's just 1's and 0's.
@Michael Belisle That was 8 years ago. Everything was different 8 years ago. AIG was respectable back then for one thing.
@DogiiKurugaa: 8 years ago? That was like yesterday.
8 years ago, I was a junior member of the Best Buy sales cabal. And we did, indeed, have a demo in the TV room that we told verbally told customers was the "Monster cable demo". On paper, of course, it was the Composite vs. Component demo.
I knew full well that Monster Cable was not a good company and that their products were worthless (but I bought them anyway, because they were shiny and I had a hefty discount).
One word "Monoprice" - Google it. ")
Monster Cables maybe expensive (actually no doubt to that statement with regards to many Monster Cable products), but they are not a scam as their products do actually work.
A scam is when you buy something and it does not work.
Let's reserve the "scam" description to products deserving of the word..... TV infomercials hawking male enhancement pills comes to mind.
480i vs 1080p. Great comparison.
The coup de gras would be the composite signal comming from a VCR and the HDMI signal comming from a Blue Ray player.
@OsiUmenyiora: For the most part cables are cables. But be careful when you get to limits. I'm not promoting Monster cables in any way, But try running Gigabit ethernet over 100m on some no name brand Cat6. Same with HDMI. It has length limits. If you wanna go over that limit, make sure its a quality cable. (and there are many other quality cables out there for decent prices)
Yes, there was. Back in the late 90's and early 2000, Monster was a big name in audio cables. They sold high durability cables that came bundled with lifetime warranties, and they didn't cost much more than the generic brands.
Just about anyone who knows about buying electronics knows that Monster Cables are the biggest scam outside of protection plans. If you have to buy cables, do it online, where you find sites that don't mark up the things to hell and back.