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A couple of days ago we ran a story relating to HDMI cables, and the current UK pricing, which many people have considered a rip off for years. Kogan got involved and they emailed us today to let us know that John Lewis and Currys responded to their pricing investigation.
They posted about this on their blog page today: “It’s time this practice ended, and we challenge Currys and John Lewis to set up two of their “Premium 3D TVs” – one with their £100 HDMI cable, the other with the Kogan £4 HDMI cable. Put them side by side and let their own spokespeople try and pick which one uses which cable. We know there’s no chance they’ll be able to and will probably ignore our challenge.
Of course, if a side-by-side blind test reveals that there is no difference between a Kogan £4 HDMI cable and the cables Currys and John Lewis stock, we expect they will immediately cease selling these overpriced, high-margin products in their stores.”
They feel strongly about their £4 HDMI cable adding “We’ve sold thousands of Kogan £4 HDMI cables around the world and have not had a single one returned for any reason – let alone lacking “durability”. What are these retailers pretending their customers are doing with their HDMI cables that makes them need £100 worth of “durability”? Do they think we’re taking the HDMI cables four wheel driving with us? You plug the cable in, it works, and you forget about it!”
Kogan got a response from DSGi, the parent company of John Lewis and Curry's.
“We sell a large range of HDMI cables with different specifications and prices tailored to our customers' needs, It's not just about the quality of signal and image that HDMI cables can provide, particularly in higher-end televisions, it is also about the protection from interference and the long-time durability of the cables.”
A spokeswoman for John Lewis said that the retailer offered a “wide range of options” with cable prices starting from £20 to £99. “We advise customers to consider purchasing an HDMI cable which matches the quality of their television's components,” she added. “For instance, a cable suitable for a premium 3D TV would not be required for many of our mid-range TVs. We pride ourselves on offering excellent customer service, and will always aim to advise our customers to buy the product that is right for them.”
Have you bought an HDMI cable recently? did you spent a lot of money on one? Did you notice a difference between it and a cheaper alternative or did you just jump in and buy something expensive?
Kitguru says: We would love to hear your views
Its always something I wondered about. I remember a friend of mine would spend £200 on a pair of phono cables for his hifi…….. maybe the whole thing is just a con.
Yeah I cant see their being much diff between a £10 and a £50 cable. possibly better isolation and materials, but whether than translates into much visual improvement remains to be seen. id love a blind test myself to see if its all shite 🙂
I had a bit of experience with HDMI cables. Bought cheap one for my 720p TV for PS3. Worked well. Then I bought 1080p TV and hooked it to PS3 through that cheap HDMI cable. It worked fine at 720P. But when I switched to 1080p screen started flickering. Thought TV was faulty. Bought a bit more expensive HDMI cable which had that protective mesh and TV was showing nice picture at 1080p without a problem. I am not saying that all the cheap cables are shit, but you have more chance of picking the crappy one when buying cheap cable. But I am opposed on buying those ridiculously overpriced HDMI cables worth of around £100
The response from DSGi isn’t a response at all. Its just rehash of their earlier claims, and its easily transparent now that they have really nothing to respond with.
I work for a Hi-End Audio Visual shop and i can honestly say that a good cable make a lot of a difference.
some of the cheap cables you can buy are fantastic but some are extremely rubbish. and yes you will see the difference between a £5 per Meter HDMI cable and a £50 per Meter HDMI cable. as for anything more expensive than this . nope , you will not get any better quality picture.
what I can say for all the expensive cables out there is that they are usual more expensive because the manufacture actually pay to certify them. ALL cheap cables are not certified! this means that sometimes you can buy a cable that won’t do 1080p/ 3D/ 1.4 etc…
well I can’t believe that the extra protection on the Expensive cables is a necessity
look at a simple Cat5 or Cat6 cable it have far less protection than any HDMI cable
I have seen and the length of them are far more than a HDMI cable and also the
integrity of data in them are far more important .they are good for 100m
but honestly how many time any of us had problem with them because they are not
protected enough
Similar problem here is the US with BestBuy selling their customers ridiculously overpriced HDMI cables; while superior quality HDMI cables can be ordered from Monoprice.com for a fraction of the price. Got a 10′ flat profile excellent HDMI cable for my latest PC build that was only $14us including shipping.
Honestly, I’ve never spent more than a few USD on HDMI cables per foot and, quite frankly, I can’t tell a difference. I have bought several of these cheap cables and only one was ever “bad” that’s just because one of the pins was broken internally. I had a similar flickering issue but as soon as I replaced it with another equally cheap cable I was perfectly fine.
“It’s not just about the quality of signal and image that HDMI cables can provide, particularly in higher-end televisions, ”
Even in their lying response they’re still trying to claim a higher quality in some HDMI cables.
Currys are still doing this, as of 27th March 2012, I walked into one in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, and there was an advert playing on one of their tvs, about HDMI cables, and advertising special ‘gold plated ones’ with better picture quality, it’s an utter scam, it’s criminal.
Anyone not in the know, after spending up to a grand on their tv, may well be tricked into buying a 50 cable, if they’re under the impression it will be better quality, it’s just sick what they’re doing..
yeah its a scam at currys over priced cables