CEDIA 2007 - Day 1: Us vs. Monster Cable, Sony's New Projectors and Toshiba on HD-DVD
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Manveer Wasson on September 5, 2007 11:45 PM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
The show floor doesn't open until tomorrow, but there's already lots to talk about. Think of this as a sort of sneak peak of some of the highlights of this year's CEDIA. The show is already attracting all sorts of interest:
The day started off not with JVC's 1080p projector announcements, but with a Monster Cable press conference. The electrical engineers inside us have kept us from ever purchasing overpriced cables, but we were curious to see how a Monster press conference would unfold - so we went.
Picture this: a room full of chairs, pull down projector screen, a curious wheelchair ramp leading up to the stage. On the speakers was some quiet rap music, but upon closer inspection the song revealed itself to be a Monster Cable rap. The hook had a rapper spelling out H-D-M-I and of course reciting the company name, and no Monster Cable rap would be complete without the line "you gotta 60 inch screen."
The purpose of the ramp to the stage was revealed upon the arrival of Noel Lee, the founder of Monster Cable. Mr. Lee arrived on a tricked out Segway, painted red and black. Rolling up to the stage, Mr. Lee began the press conference.
The number one item of discussion was Monster's new speed-rated HDMI cables which you may have heard of. The premise is this: in order to help consumers differentiate between the various types of HDMI cables out there, Monster is now offering speed ratings on their cables. The bandwidth required for 1080p video + audio from a Blu-ray player is obviously greater than the bandwidth required for simple 480p from a DVD player, so why shouldn't Monster differentiate its cables for the various needs of its customers?
The speed ratings are as follows:
At the low end we have the Standard Speed HDMI cable, which is capable of > 2.23Gbps of bandwidth, priced at $49.95 for a 1m cable. Next is the High Speed model (4.95bps) at $69.95 (1m), Advanced High Speed (6.68Gbps) at $79.95 (1m), Ultra High Speed (10.2Gbps) at $99.95 (1m) and Ultimate High Speed (14.93Gbps) which will be shipping by the end of this year.
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Adul - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
I feel sad for those that buy into the monster cable marketing. I been getting my cables from monoprice lately. Nice well made cables for cheap. Wish I told that to my neighbor before he drop money on it. Oh well next time :)MGSsancho - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
yeah i got a 50' dvi -> hdmi cable from mono price. works great. its just massive. makes my man hood feel bad at times. Monster does have a point. the original spec for hdmi was a <5gbs link. then the spec was increased to 120hz, 24b color, then 1440P resolution. all in all the bandwidth requirement was increased to >12gps. Then they got spart. the increased the spec, but never upgraded the spec on the cable. So, current hdmi cables are fine for current stuff like PCs, HD stuff and game consoles. anything higher that that (1440P) I will worry about it when i can buy a $2000 1440P TV, receiver, player, and content.About the STR-5300ES, how is that any better than the Onkyo 805 fpr $1000 (has all the same features except bravia link) and if you want the Silicon Optics HCV blah 10bit REON up scaler, the onkyo 875 sells for $1800 (msrp). oh and onkyos 905 has burr brown oamps.....
Oh well Congrats to Sony bringing more competition into the high end gear!!!!!!!!
Duwelon - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
I'm so sad for Monster that consumers don't want to pay a 1000% price markup on their cables. I bought a $5 DVI-HDMI cable about 6 feet long and it delivers a brilliant image to my sony 1080p TV.pervisanathema - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
Monster Cable's business model depends on the ignorance of consumers and peoples' blind attraction to shiny packaging and a slick sales pitch. It's common knowledge among the enthusiasts and educated consumers that Monster is the cable world's equivalent of Bose. Slick marketing, massive markup, inferior product.Locutus465 - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
Except Bose speakers (at least their real surround speakers) actually do sound great, and are high quality. Basically, you really do get something out of spending more on your speakers vs. cheaping out (like I did). If you cheap out you can get decent, but not amazing sound, if you spend extra cash, you get amazing... With monster, you really don't get anything at all.(qualifier, yes you need a decent receiver to go along with your shiny bose speakers for things to work out well).
SilthDraeth - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
I doubt monster makes crappy cables. There just isn't a need to pay the additional price.LoneWolf15 - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
Monster is also dependent on making sure big box stores like Best Buy only sell their brand of cables and no other, so that people who absolutely gotta have their new home theater working today (without travelling around to buy things) will spend the big bucks as opposed to being patient, going somewhere else or mail-ordering them, and saving the cash.
Best Buy (and some others) have learned that it nets them huge profits too. Same with computer cables (Geek Squad and Dynex). $33 for a USB cable I can pay $10 for anywhere else? Highway robbery --and enough to stop me from buying other items at their store as well.
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