Overengineered cables?
… and while we’re on the subject of overpriced cables, I might as well rant about their close cousins, overengineered cables. I’ve seen all kinds of nonsense here. One of the most egregious things I’ve seen recently is a six-foot HDMI cable with silver-coated wires inside.
Now, don’t get me wrong… silver is an excellent electrical conductor, make no mistake. On a really long run (say, 100 feet), it could even be useful. But, and this is important, on a short cable like that, it adds no value whatsoever. And, last I checked, silver was a kind of expensive metal, you know? There have been plenty of independent tests out there that show that pretty much any standard copper-based cable will get the job done.
Bottom line: as with anything, there’s a law of diminishing returns. Once a cable works perfectly, anything else you attempt to do to it to make it better than perfect is just hype, designed to get you, the consumer, to part with more money.
Not on this curmudgeon’s watch!
I’ll agree with this if someone is using a 6 foot HDMI cable to connect directly from a Blu Ray player to a TV. What happens if a situation calls for a 6 foot HDMI cable from a Blu Ray player to a wall plate, then the wall plate to a receiver via a 50 foot HDMI cable? That 6 foot HDMI cable will create a weak link. You would need a 6 foot HDMI cable built to the specification of a 50 ft cable to carry the signal the distance it has to go.
Yes, that is true. Of course, the problem there is that that would not occur to most customers. And since so many six-foot cables are NOT built to that 50 foot specification, you could be setting yourself up for trouble in that scenario. Ideally, the wall plate itself would have a signal booster chip on it, to allow for maximum flexibility.
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