My little HDMI cable rant

[Sheamus]

I agree with you, it would be nice for them to include it in the box with the system, but to try and think form the manufacturers point of view. The reason I believe for this is cost. They know that every one that buys a ps3 or 360 has a tv that has SD connections, but it's not the case for hdmi. To include a cable in the box, regardless of how much it costs sony or microsoft, is a waste if the consumer does not use it. By selling their own brand of cables, at huge markups, is a way to recoup some of the costs of making a system. I know the ps3 was sold below cost for a long time and most likely the same for the 360 as well. business is business, they are just out to make a profit.

 

[Nutcase]

Agreed on the first part and as for the second I could indeed be mistaken but from my understanding of the new bundles the cables they bring will be SD only, so no more of the "rasta" cables like someone calle dthem earlier.

I checked, and you were right, I was wrong. They are really now putting in composite cables after a long history of shipping component cables, despite that more people have HD displays than ever before. This goes way beyond nickle and diming into bullshit territory. The consoles' real pricetags actually went up almost as much as they dropped the prices. >:[

It looks like MS built in a bonus fuck-you to people who have a HDMI display and separate audio by placing the AV port and HDMI port extra close to each other, so that those people can't use the regular cable to get audio and an HDMI cable to get video, but need to get MS' own ridiculously priced adapter. This is one problem the PS3 does not have.

Buying an audio-capable HDMI receiver has never looked like a better idea. Folks who have one of those, or use the speakers on their TV, just have to buy a generic HDMI cable and they are set.

 

[Symp4thy]

You didn't get an HDMI cable? When I bought mine it had a split cable, one ending with the regular pins and the other with the HD pins. How long ago did you get it?

I apologize if this had been addressed already, but I think you are referring to the component cables (the green, blue and red ones). An HDMI cable is different.

 

[Beltom]

You didn't get an HDMI cable? When I bought mine it had a split cable, one ending with the regular pins and the other with the HD pins. How long ago did you get it?

I apologize if this had been addressed already, but I think you are referring to the component cables (the green, blue and red ones). An HDMI cable is different.

Ah, my mistake...
(Awkward Silence)
Well... I'll just walk myself out then. "shuffles nervously over to door"

 

[GloatingSwine]

It looks like MS built in a bonus fuck-you to people who have a HDMI display and separate audio by placing the AV port and HDMI port extra close to each other, so that those people can't use the regular cable to get audio and an HDMI cable to get video, but need to get MS' own ridiculously priced adapter. This is one problem the PS3 does not have.

A problem which can be resolved with a stanley knife. Crack the big fat grey plastic cover off the standard cable and it will fit in alongside an HDMI cable. Just.

 

[EMFCRACKSHOT]

My 360 elite came with one and my ps3 came in a bundle from game with one. My elite and my first 360 also came with the hd av component cables. I guess i got lucky

 

[Symp4thy]

You didn't get an HDMI cable? When I bought mine it had a split cable, one ending with the regular pins and the other with the HD pins. How long ago did you get it?

I apologize if this had been addressed already, but I think you are referring to the component cables (the green, blue and red ones). An HDMI cable is different.

Ah, my mistake...
(Awkward Silence)
Well... I'll just walk myself out then. "shuffles nervously over to door"

Ha no worries. I actually don't know all that much about the topic either, just what I picked up from watching my roommate. From what I gather, the component cables will still provide HD, just not to the degree that HDMI cables will. Also, the HDMI cable wraps all those separate pins into one, simple plug. Again, don't take this as fact, I could very well be wrong. It may not even be possible to have varying "degrees" of HD.

 

[Beltom]

You didn't get an HDMI cable? When I bought mine it had a split cable, one ending with the regular pins and the other with the HD pins. How long ago did you get it?

I apologize if this had been addressed already, but I think you are referring to the component cables (the green, blue and red ones). An HDMI cable is different.

Ah, my mistake...
(Awkward Silence)
Well... I'll just walk myself out then. "shuffles nervously over to door"

Ha no worries. I actually don't know all that much about the topic either, just what I picked up from watching my roommate. From what I gather, the component cables will still provide HD, just not to the degree that HDMI cables will. Also, the HDMI cable wraps all those separate pins into one, simple plug. Again, don't take this as fact, I could very well be wrong. It may not even be possible to have varying "degrees" of HD.

No, your right. I just checked the box my 360 came in and looked at the graphic showing what comes in each set. The regular 360 just says composite and component (HD), while it says that the Elite has composite, component (HD) and HDMI.

 

[Bigeyez]

Remember the demographic and audience of gamers have expanded to the mainstream. Almost anyone can say they are a gamer now. With that increased attention comes the businessman who enters the industry for money. This has been the plague of gamers since the Playstation was announced when video game consoles looked past the old guard and looked towards people who never played video games.

You have people who will take their business degree, make a product and see how much they can sell it to us by marketing how "high-tech" it is. The average video game consumer believes the rhetoric from the marketer and buys their product at the increased cost.

When President Reagan said, "Greed is good." the people took him literally and threw out all morals.

Very good point. Whats sad is those same people will then turn around and buy the $50 HDMI cables from M$ and Sony because they simply don't know any better.

 

[Nutcase]

I actually don't know all that much about the topic either, just what I picked up from watching my roommate. From what I gather, the component cables will still provide HD, just not to the degree that HDMI cables will.

The issue is that the consoles now get shipped with composite cables, which only do standard definition.

Also, the HDMI cable wraps all those separate pins into one, simple plug. Again, don't take this as fact, I could very well be wrong. It may not even be possible to have varying "degrees" of HD.

The "degrees" are resolution. The major ones are 720p, 1080i and 1080p, and the consoles output all of them through component cables just like they output them through HDMI. The only difference is in image quality, which isn't the exact same due to component being analog.

 

[j0z]

Personally, I am glad mine didn't just come with Component/HDMI cables, because I don't have either on my SDTV. I understand why they just include RCA cables. Everyone has those, not everyone has Component/HDMI.

 

[Spudgun Man]

One word eBay.

Works just as well as my chump of a freind's, Much to her disgust.

 

[Bigeyez]

Personally, I am glad mine didn't just come with Component/HDMI cables, because I don't have either on my SDTV. I understand why they just include RCA cables. Everyone has those, not everyone has Component/HDMI.

Very true. Shipping them with HD only would essentially do the exact opposite and screw everyone without HDTVs. From a business perspective if you can only ship one then you definitely go with the regular SD cables.

 

[Skratt]

It's widely known that gamers as consumers put up with a lot of bullshit that other consumers wouldn't stand for.

When we buy a PS3 and 360 we are paying for the HD capabilities these systems have. We don't have an option of buying a non-hd compatible version of these systems.

Why is it then do we get a product that comes with standard cables? Then to add insult to injury the proprietary cables made by M$ and Sony are INSANELY over priced.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16874103073 $49.99 for a 360 HDMI Cable.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16879261116 $39.99 for the Sony version.

Now If I'm dropping $300 or $400 on a product I expect to be able to use all the features the product boasts and brags about as soon and I unbox it. Especially in this generation when usually the first thing advertised about a game is how it looks and if it can run in full HD or not. Frankly it's bullshit.

Imagine I buy a brand new car. The car is adevrtised to have a top speed of 100 miles an hour, but really in order to get that car to go up 100 miles an hour I had to drop extra money into a proprietary engine modification that was triple the price of a similar engine mod made by a third party. People would be calling the BBB left and right. There would be an uproar over something like that.

And look I know this isn't a "zomgz end of the world" really big deal. And yes I know you can buy third party cables for pretty cheap. My whole point is that us as videogame consumers put up with getting shafted all the time like this.

/end rant.

Anyways whats everyone elses thoughts on things like this? Do you even care?

It's a marketing gotcha that feeds off of general consumer product ignorance & doubt. Just about every product on the market says "best with our brand widget!". So Caveat Emptor mateys!

 

[TPiddy]

There's not a discernable difference between the HD you get with HDMI and the HD you get through the component cables. There's only a small improvement with the digitization of the audio, but the poster commenting about cheap cables being the same quality is 100% correct.

With analog cables you have to worry about signal attenuation. This is when the signal strength deteriorates over the length of the cable due to different things like radio and micro waves or static. Having a better insulated cable or using gold plating decreases this attenuation, meaning that better quality cables for analog signals WILL work better.

HDMI is a DIGITAL signal, and transmits the data through packets. Since most HDMI cables are less than 10 metres long anyhow there's no worry about signal loss or attenuation because none of the outside interference will affect the data. They also have transfer checksums and such that ensure all of the packets are delivered. This is why the $10 cable will work just as well as the $200 cable.

 

[Nutcase]

Personally, I am glad mine didn't just come with Component/HDMI cables, because I don't have either on my SDTV. I understand why they just include RCA cables. Everyone has those, not everyone has Component/HDMI.

Very true. Shipping them with HD only would essentially do the exact opposite and screw everyone without HDTVs. From a business perspective if you can only ship one then you definitely go with the regular SD cables.

No, you ship a hybrid component-composite cable just like Microsoft did on the Pro models - until now.