Please stop talking, you're reminding me how much money I waste. Just last night talking with a buddy about new video cards, thinking about throwing around $300+ to replace a card which is already above average. Enough to make a non-PC enthusiast break out in a cold sweat! Can only imagine how much automotive mechanics must laugh at their customers (myself included). Having done some minor work myself the cost difference is massive, the convenience of having someone else do the work is steep but hey, that's part of being a convenience.
I don't follow what you're point is. It will be illegal to advertise them as 1.3/1.4 etc, so companies will have to market them as 'Standard HDMI', or 'High Speed HDMI', or some others. That means they will just price up the High Speed one (or the 'High Speed with Ethernet' cable), even though it will serve the exact same purpose for most people who are buying HDMI cables. Can you not see that? The new descriptions are here EDIT: In fact, unless I'm reading these guidelines wrongly, companies are not allowed to state the version number of the cable right at this minute in time. This cannot be true though seeing as a quick hdmi search on amazon shows that they are all being sold with their version numbers. These are the official guidelines (page 7): That is pretty clear companies cannot sell cables with their version number, whatsoever. This is obviously not happening though. They had a one year grace period to change their product descriptions to the new cable names, which ran out on November 18th 2010. Obviously most companies are still selling their cables as 1.3/1.4, but its technically illegal according to page 13 of the guidelines. It seems that its HDMI Non-cable products that are allowed to use the version number only when a specific feature of the spec is also shown:
Its disgusting how they lie to customers... I remember when my mom puchased his HP PC 5 years ago, how the rep was making pressure on her to take the extra warranty. I was saying ''Don't take it, enyway everything that can individually broke will cost less then their 200$ warranty'' the rep was mad at me "How do you know that !!!''. First time in my life I was close to punch someone lollll
Illegal means they are breaking the law. If this is just an industry standard, it's not law, nobody will be sent to jail for breaching it.
Companies that manufacture and sell HDMI cables are bound by licensing agreements. If a company violates the licensing agreement then the HDMI organization pursue recourse in a court of law. In that sense, it will be illegal to feature the version number on the packaging. Not that it meant much in the first place. The version compatibility had such a loose testing standard that just about any company could advertise a cable as any version number and get away with it.
Well it means they could sue you for not complying with their trademark and logo usage guidelines, but with so many not currently complying I hardly think its a major deal.
What exactly is the problem with them requiring HDMI cables to be marketed either as 'Standard' or 'High Speed'? How is that worse than marketing them as a v1.3 or v1.4 cable?
There's a difference though, it's not just about spending more than necessary. Overkill hardware actually provides an increase in performance, even if you don't make use of it.
I used to work for DSG group (PC world/currys etc) and can safely say i worked with a few people that opted this conning policy as it looked good on there sales for the day. I ended up walking out of the job as i felt i was ripping people off selling them things i knew i could build for less. Walked out and set up my own computer business, never looked back since. But yeah, majority of sales reps will do what they have to do to look good on paper at the end of the days sales figures.
Here's a response to an email I sent to comet with basically the same text as my OP - "Dear Mr Street, Thank you for your e-mail Having discussed this issue further with the manager of our Leeds Crown Point store, he did confirm that the set-up is a comparison display in store for what comes free with our products, and the upgrades that are available to purchase. he further advised that this display is has only ever served this purpose only not any other. I apologise if you felt otherwise and can advise that the store manager will discuss this matter with the colleague concerned to ensure that there is not any confusion with regards to this display with future customers. Due to the time that has elapsed since the purchase was made, this matter would not be able to be investigated further and I can confirm the store manager stands by his decision. I apologise for any inconvenience caused to you or your mother." If the guy hadn't have said it's a £20 HDMI cable vs a £60 HDMI I would believe this a bit more, the fact that he did say that suggests to me that he's been told about the cable by someone (his manager?)
You should take a hidden camera with you to record them saying that. Would be interesting to post that to the consumer watchdog.
Well I'm not Dom Littlewood! I wish I had, I doubt it would be difficult to replicate it in a different store though. Seems common practice. Mentioned it to my Dad and he said he was in a Comet in Stoke and a sales rep was trying to sell and woman a £60 HDMI along with her TV and DVD player. Luckily my Dad told the lady that she didn't need it because there was one already in the box. EDIT: Perhaps I should send a link to this thread to Watchdog or something? Reckon it would work?
Typical scam. A friend of mine who knows how to build his own PC/install a water cooling system (in other words is not a noob) also fell for this same scam and bought an expensive HDMI cable telling me it has a better picture quality. I told him not to be such an asshat. HDMI is digital. A standard low cost HDMI cable will give you the same results.
Unless you have some proof that this wasn't an isolated event then I don't see the point/need in taking this any further. There's no reason why companies shouldn't be able to try and get customers to buy a more expensive versions of an item they may need. Nor is there anything wrong with hooking up two TVs, one with a cheap hdmi cable and one with an expensive HDMI cable, and then trying to convince the customer that they really can see a quality difference between the two.
Well as I said in my original post, it wasn't a cheaper Hdmi vs a more expensive one. I agree with what you're saying if that was the case. Perhaps you should read more than half of the post before you offer your opinion Edit: don't expect you to have read the whole Thread though I did say a few pages back that it's not te first time it's happened to me Personally. A store in Leeds that closed last year asked my mum during her purchase period of the blu ray player what size tv do you have? I said what difference does that make? He said well the bigger the tv the more you have to spend on the Hdmi
