Hacker News Reader

Comment by jrockway | Hacker News Reader

One advantage of more expensive cables is that they look nicer and feel a bit more solid. But fortunately, Amazon ruined that industry with their "Amazon Basics" line. Those are some of the best cables I've ever seen, they come in easy-to-open packaging, and they're dirt cheap. A two meter HDMI cable is $7, and it's nicer than any other HDMI cable I've seen.

I feel sorry for people that go to stores to buy things. What a waste of time and money.

View on HN

I've never bought Amazon's because Monoprice's are about half that ($3.50). Monoprice's cables seem to be of great quality too - they're noticeably better than some of the $20 cables my parents have paid for at retailers.

+1 for Monoprice. Their prices are great, they have a large selection of cable types and lengths, and they are speedy.

With Amazon's convenience and large selection, it's hard for these niche shopping sites to gain any mindshare on me anymore. When I'm looking for something esoteric I usually check Amazon first and then possibly google product prices to make sure the price isn't substantially cheaper somewhere else. For me to switch away from Amazon at any place that hasn't been "grandfathered" in my mind like Zappos and Monoprice, you'd have to do it via price first, and then keep me with some sort of convenience or other hook.

I don't bother searching on price anymore. Amazon's $4 same-day or overnight shipping always makes up the difference. I have money, not time :)

True, Prime has pretty much obliterated every other retailer from my memory. It may not make them money directly, but it's a brilliant business move overall. Monoprice and Newegg are the only others that I even try now.

i've been a prime customer for a while as well.. and i love the convenience and guilt free shopping.. but i did notice that prime items are almost always more expensive then very similar items not available for prime shipments. so, the shipment cost is more likely split between amazon and the customer...

+1 Monoprice is the best place to get cables of all sorts, IMO. And overnight shipping is only $4.95!

+100 to Monoprice. Someone needs to either clone Monoprice's business model in Europe or they need to expand. If you can do that you will own my credit card for the next 10 years.

i was not aware of monoprice, thanks!

Couldn't agree more. I work in A/V services and we use Amazon for HDMI cabling. Often we have needs for 50, 100, and 200 ft HDMI cables, and Amazon is by far the best bargain. We use them multiple times, and they take wear and tear like a champ.

Another point just on HDMI in general: people sometimes wonder if a 200+ ft HDMI will lose picture or audio quality -- it doesn't. At least with these Amazon cable, they're still as clear as always.

Did you read the article? All or nothing, that's basically how HDMI-cables work.

I don't think aspir said anything contradictory. His point was additive to the article, just addressing another possible mis-conception about these cables.

>One advantage of more expensive cables is that they look nicer and feel a bit more solid.

How often do you actually feel or see your HDMI cable? If you're setting things up correctly, you shouldn't be doing either very often.

Depends on your use case. I have a DVI->HDMI cable I lug around in my bag to hook my laptop up to HDTV displays at offices, etc.

I'm in A/V services, so we'll use and reuse 50-200ft stretches of HDMI, and the Amazon HDMIs are top notch. Of course, we're not the typical user of HDMI, but FWIW, they are pretty solid.

""When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.”

I'd prefer that the carpenter build the strongest/lightest product, only worrying about looks where someone can see it and strength where it matters.

To me the value of solid wood throughout is durability. If a composite material was better why not use it?

Steve Jobs was referring to plywood as an inferior material used not for any advantage except cost and ease of installation. His point was that if you care about quality in an all-encompassing way, not just as a means to an end, you're going to care about the quality of things that your customers will rarely or never see.

And yet, HFS+ is still there.

>I feel sorry for people that go to stores to buy things. What a waste of time and money.

When I want something I often want it right now. Not next week, not even tomorrow. As soon as physically possible and I am willing to pay extra for that convenience.

I also like to handle mechanical before I buy it. Seeing a video of someone else handling it isn't always enough.

B&H Electronics in Manhattan actually seold me a 6 foot HDMI cable for $13. So its not "stores suck" its "most POS overpriced stores like BestBuy suck"

Reply on news.ycombinator.com