@jqubed Apparently there are enough big buck folks who have no clue about how to buy A-V gear. They certainly are not A-V geeks who happen to have money. They're people who have money and happen to want A-V gear.
@RedOak@mweinberger@stinks I just consider it $5 to support this community, and shipping's always free. It might not be logical but it keeps my brain free of vmp worry. I'm sure Mediocre likes it that way.
@djslack I wonder whether that is really true - or is it more profitable for Mediocre to have folks not on VMP. (Assuming VMP folks order more than one thing per month - especially if they are cheap bastards like me who never buy anything more expensive than 20-30 bucks.)
@RedOak The added encouragement to purchase more stuff and/or the extra 5$ if you make no purchases with VMP, probably balances out with paying for the $5 shipping without VMP.
Though I agree with @djslack that its always good to support the community with a consistent income source.
@mweinberger@RedOak does have a point. I think @Snapster has mentioned that some "VMP bait" sales are conducted at a loss for them without shipping charges. People that don't buy at least one item a month probably don't often leave their vmp memberships going.
@mweinberger Even with the "refund" for months you don't use it, you still do better to cancel a month after your first VMP purchase and then start VMP back up with your next purchase. But precisely because of this, I tend only to buy more expensive items where the $5 doesn't threaten the deal -- plus impulse buys the balance of the month following that purchase.
I'd almost rather they slap $2-$3 into the price of everything and call shipping free. I'd buy more. Like today. /shrug I guess I should thank them for saving me cash.
To be clear, nobody should ever pay full price shipping at meh. That's insane. Take the "free" month of VMP every time. So I wouldn't make many comparisons to how much you'd spend versus straight shipping each time.
I still have unopened 10ft cables I bought from graveyardmall.com when they were 10 for $10, 2 years ago, yet they seem to be a good deal......shit I am almost might do it.
@somf69 lol... I was about to mention that I'd gotten 10 ten foot cables for $10 from somewhere a while back but couldn't remember where... I've used or sold or given away most of those tho, so...
@baqui63Tartan (Blue Jeans) Cable? They have bumped up to $13 for the 24awg... but the thinner ones are still way under 10 for 10 feet :) (also on amazon just search Tartan cable)
@cjrhoades Probably not - but the answer is complicated. Under certain circumstances, it may pass 4K @ 30fps. The single channel spec on HDMI 1.3 is 10.2 Gbit/s, but most all 4K requires maximum total TMDS throughput of 18 Gbit/s for 60 fps. THAT SAID, 4K 30fps over a single channel works on HDMI 1.3, but usually not natively.
@TheTexasTwister The article was written long before HDMI 2.0 - and for most applications, the article was correct when written. If you want to natively support 4096×2160p/60 Hz with audio over a single link, you HAVE to use a 2.0 cable.
Panasonic made the best set in the world and I wept when they discontinued plasma production.
Agreed. I own two of them and couldn't begin to number how many arguments I had with people over the years of the merits of Panasonic plasmas over anything else. Heartbreaking that I'll never be able to replace them.
So there I was...minding my own business just waiting for Tuesday to come around and boom...there she was. She's not super pretty but damn is she cheap...in all her splendor, Five Dolla Special. A woman so manipulative and alluring she can get you to buy just about anything for $5. Do I need 4 hdmi cables...no. Fuck, so I even need one...no. But you can bet your ass I just picked up 12 of these fuckers for no apparent reason. She's a dangerous bitch. Just like her twin, Twofer Tuesday.
@studerc Late one night I went to a store that said it was open 24 hours. When I arrived the clerk was locking up for the night. Perplexed I told him, "You're sign says you're open 24 hours."
Today's item would be particularly useful to someone setting up a home theatre or HDMI switch box where short "patch" cables are preferred, and they are behind the equipment so color doesn't matter...
@jqubed Especially when his is so bad. I tried to impart the knowledge through a joke I once heard, but, alas, it seems the lesson was lost in translation.
I absolutely have a box of wires. Creatively enough it's labeled, with a sharpie of course, "Box O' Wires" and resides in my closet. There are one or two HDMI cables in there now. Does it need four more for $5?
Four feet isn't very long unless you intend to use these with a computer and monitor setup or if your components are in very close proximity to your television, receiver or soundbar.
@TheTexasTwister Or if your components themselves are close to each other. Like maybe the receiver and Blu-ray player and Roku and TiVo are within four feet of each other, which mine all are. I could use two foot cables, probably.
Only my TV needs a longer cable, and it's already got one. OK, everything else already has a cable, too, but it doesn't hurt to have spares, and maybe I can clean up the rats' nest.
@sroemerm I understand, I do, but in this case they can't be making money on these. They are probably losing money, since Monoprice sells three foot cables for three bucks (with a choice of colors, so there's that), and Monoprice doesn't pay for packaging or meh's markup.
@sroemerm@craigthom Not to mention, at this point you're not supporting Monster, you're supporting Mediocre. It's not like they're drop shipping every order directly from Monster.
My regular-square-spoon containing a dozen hdmi cables will be on its way soon... Solved the problem of being too lazy to go on monoprice to ease swapping out between mohu, Apple tv, Xbox, and roku several times over. Probably won't use them all before a new standard comes out to replace hdmi.
That has to be the smallest cable box I've ever seen. It would take at least 5 or 6 of those boxes to constrain my collection of obsolete-hoarded cables.
Was about to kill the VMP until something useful came up - nicely done Meh.
This is the kind of thing I'd be tempted to buy and then attempt to resell at a profit on Craigslist, but that seems like a lot of work for a measly profit.
Walked outside today to find a large box from Meh (15x15x22) and mentally reviewed "what the hell did i order from Meh that's this big?" I thought I must have won some kind of prize.
Turns out, a dozen HDMI cables is this big. Monster packaged them in fancy retail plastic (as pictured above) and packed them four to a case. Said case is a decent size box, and then if you get three of those I guess you're starting to hit a serious size.
The cables? They look fine. I'll hook some stuff up with some of them tonight or tomorrow to quit doing the hdmi shuffle.
@djslack My Chromebook arrived in a similar box. There were a whole lot of bags of Texas Air, on top of a much smaller box. I only ordered one Chromebook, but there was space for many.
@djslack unpacking my shipment of cables turned out to be actual work. I hate the amount of garbage I produced. I'd love to put it back in the box and ship the pile of plastic and paper straight to monster. All it would have needed would have been a rubber band per cable and a padded envelope.
@einrad@djslack I thought the same thing and I only ordered 4. Saw this big box, figured it was from meh, couldn't for the life of me remember what it was, opened it and thought, 'what the fuck.' Seriously, one little poly bag would've been sufficient enough to even hang on a hook in a retail store. Fuckin' Monster...
@djslack That was almost exactly my reaction too when I saw the massive box on my porch. When I broke open the first case I can't convey how happy I was that the blister packs were the easy open perforated back kind. Having to cut open a dozen of those without the easy open back would have been dangerous! I ended up unpacking them all and tossing them into one of the small boxes and they took up about half that small box.
Just unpacked a box full of plastic shells, fancy booklets, and more disclaimers than I know what to do with. Quite a haul for the recycle bin.
Oh yeah - and four severely kinked HDMI cables. Seriously, I think the poor packaging design is why they dumped these. I'll be amazed if a couple of these even work!
@dlansdowne The two I've tried both work. I have an OLD LCD tv in the guest room with only 1 HDMI input. I have a little adapter/splitter thing that allows me to plug up to 3 HDMI devices into it. Due to the close proximity of the Roku and Bluray Player to the adapter, I don't need long cords. These 4 footers work great.
Specs
Condition: New
Warranty: 1 Year Monster
Estimated Delivery: 1/12 - 1/14
Shipping: $5 or free with VMP
What’s in the Box?
4x 4ft HDMI cables
Pictures
Retail packaging
HDMI plugs
Time to organize!
Price Comparison
$27.80 at Amazon (2 reviews, fulfilled by Amazon)
Find a relevant price comparison? Please share it in a comment in this thread
Warranty
90 days
noooooooooo
Monster of a deal - meh time
White and only four feet. Only meh can make something so universally useful still not worth only a few bucks.
$15 for 12 HDMI Cables, I'll never run out again.
I think I paid about $30 for the first HDMI cable I bought like 10 years ago...
@ruouttaurmind some still do, I see it happen at best buy :)
@thismyusername This is ridiculous:
Although worst price per foot comes from this third party seller: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/audioquest-diamond-6-6-high-speed-hdmi-cable-dark-gray-blue/1306739267.p?id=mp1306739267&skuId=1306739267
@thismyusername I heard that with these, the 0s are rounder and the 1s are sharper. With AudioQuest, you get what you pay for.
@djslack Best Buy's Magnolia sub-brand is code for "deep pockets customer... will never feel the difference in their wallet".
@RedOak Got to admire their marketing... Going after the "if it costs more, it's better" crowd is great when it works.
@RedOak If I was that kind of customer I wouldn't do that shopping at Best Buy.
@jqubed Apparently there are enough big buck folks who have no clue about how to buy A-V gear. They certainly are not A-V geeks who happen to have money. They're people who have money and happen to want A-V gear.
good deal, don't need 'em though.
mrewp.
I'm "plugging" this deal - meh be not
I can overlook the white, but 4ft...meh.
@wyk3d that's what she said
Can't even load the front page, but meh.
for $5, I had to.
@conandlibrarian For $5 plus $5 shipping, I passed.
Meh misses out on a good number of impulse buys (at least from me) because of the way VMP's set up.
@stinks What dont you like about it? Seems perfect to me, you can even cancel for months that you dont purchase anything if you want and save the 5$.
@mweinberger That's what I (try) to do. Great logic.
But I also agree with @stinks - this deal stinks if you don't happen to already have VMP turned on.
@RedOak @mweinberger @stinks I just consider it $5 to support this community, and shipping's always free. It might not be logical but it keeps my brain free of vmp worry. I'm sure Mediocre likes it that way.
@djslack I wonder whether that is really true - or is it more profitable for Mediocre to have folks not on VMP. (Assuming VMP folks order more than one thing per month - especially if they are cheap bastards like me who never buy anything more expensive than 20-30 bucks.)
@RedOak The added encouragement to purchase more stuff and/or the extra 5$ if you make no purchases with VMP, probably balances out with paying for the $5 shipping without VMP.
Though I agree with @djslack that its always good to support the community with a consistent income source.
@mweinberger @RedOak does have a point. I think @Snapster has mentioned that some "VMP bait" sales are conducted at a loss for them without shipping charges. People that don't buy at least one item a month probably don't often leave their vmp memberships going.
@mweinberger Even with the "refund" for months you don't use it, you still do better to cancel a month after your first VMP purchase and then start VMP back up with your next purchase. But precisely because of this, I tend only to buy more expensive items where the $5 doesn't threaten the deal -- plus impulse buys the balance of the month following that purchase.
I'd almost rather they slap $2-$3 into the price of everything and call shipping free. I'd buy more. Like today. /shrug I guess I should thank them for saving me cash.
To be clear, nobody should ever pay full price shipping at meh. That's insane. Take the "free" month of VMP every time. So I wouldn't make many comparisons to how much you'd spend versus straight shipping each time.
@RedOak I seem to remember someplace @Snapster or @Dave mentioned something about non-VMPs subsidize shipping for VMPs.
@thismyusername taste is fine but the texture... To chewy for me. Probably good for a goat.
I still have unopened 10ft cables I bought from graveyardmall.com when they were 10 for $10, 2 years ago, yet they seem to be a good deal......shit I am almost might do it.
@somf69 lol... I was about to mention that I'd gotten 10 ten foot cables for $10 from somewhere a while back but couldn't remember where... I've used or sold or given away most of those tho, so...
@baqui63 Tartan (Blue Jeans) Cable? They have bumped up to $13 for the 24awg... but the thinner ones are still way under 10 for 10 feet :) (also on amazon just search Tartan cable)
nevermind... 10, 10 foot for $10 is pretty hard to beat.
If I didn't already have a box of about a dozen HDMIs of various lengths..
@KitSkyfire I actually bought two sets of these, but canceled when I realized I had enough HDMI cable to wire all of New Jersey ten times over.
I've been waiting all year for this deal. present-fun-patch
Not interested
I fucking hate Monster . . . but this is cheaper than Monoprice. In for two on the wife's VMP account.
@Pavlov Same thoughts here. Hell, it's cheaper than the HDMI cables at my local 98¢+ store; the 3' cables are $1.29 there.
@Pavlov I totally agree with both of your assessments. Monster sux
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123869022704882969
and HDMI cables are useful...
@Pavlov agreed as well, but all the potential profit to Monster has been extracted at this price. Somebody in the food chain took a loss. No worries.
Hmm... HDMI 1.3 certified. That's pretty old. Any chance these will pass 4K+HDR with HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2?
@cjrhoades Probably not - but the answer is complicated. Under certain circumstances, it may pass 4K @ 30fps. The single channel spec on HDMI 1.3 is 10.2 Gbit/s, but most all 4K requires maximum total TMDS throughput of 18 Gbit/s for 60 fps. THAT SAID, 4K 30fps over a single channel works on HDMI 1.3, but usually not natively.
@Pavlov I don't know if this will help. Maybe not.
@cjrhoades at the rate that we replace A-V gear, that shant be a problem at our house.
A Pany Plasma before they stopped + 2 to 3 year old Samy TVs in various places. Blu-Rays and DVRs similar vintage. They're with us until they die.
@TheTexasTwister The article was written long before HDMI 2.0 - and for most applications, the article was correct when written. If you want to natively support 4096×2160p/60 Hz with audio over a single link, you HAVE to use a 2.0 cable.
@RedOak I hate you for using the words "Pany" and "Samy"
@RedOak Panasonic made the best set in the world and I wept when they discontinued plasma production.
@CloneCommander perhaps you're hate-prone. Relax dude.
@Pavlov http://www.cnet.com/news/hdmi-2-0-what-you-need-to-know/
@Pavlov Thanks for the update.
@Pavlov
Agreed. I own two of them and couldn't begin to number how many arguments I had with people over the years of the merits of Panasonic plasmas over anything else. Heartbreaking that I'll never be able to replace them.
So there I was...minding my own business just waiting for Tuesday to come around and boom...there she was. She's not super pretty but damn is she cheap...in all her splendor, Five Dolla Special. A woman so manipulative and alluring she can get you to buy just about anything for $5. Do I need 4 hdmi cables...no. Fuck, so I even need one...no. But you can bet your ass I just picked up 12 of these fuckers for no apparent reason. She's a dangerous bitch. Just like her twin, Twofer Tuesday.
@studerc nice try,
meh marketing team
@BkrT it would be sweet to have a job working for Mediocre.
This 6.5ft hdmi cord (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003L1ZYYM/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_8VkIwbZXPM44F) for $5.50 would be more useful then four 4ft cords,imho.
@BkrT but thats only 6.5 ft...here you get 16 ft for less...thats just fucking math bro.
@studerc Late one night I went to a store that said it was open 24 hours. When I arrived the clerk was locking up for the night. Perplexed I told him, "You're sign says you're open 24 hours."
He replied, "Yeah, but not all in a row."
Today's item would be particularly useful to someone setting up a home theatre or HDMI switch box where short "patch" cables are preferred, and they are behind the equipment so color doesn't matter...
@studerc Stop trying to make us think we need math, teacher man.
@jqubed Especially when his is so bad. I tried to impart the knowledge through a joke I once heard, but, alas, it seems the lesson was lost in translation.
@TheTexasTwister Steven Wright said it first !
@BkrT Depends on your setup. Shorter cords transmit better and you have less cable to hide/secure if you don't need a long cord.
@TheTexasTwister oh lordy lordy...i thank ya sir. Mesay brain not so good an i dont no them jokes or math.
It was a joke dude. Chill.
@jmbunkin Yeah, I used to love his work. I remembered the joke, but I couldn't, for the life of me, remember his name. I must be getting old.
@studerc I was just messing with you. Sarcasm doesn't translate well through ordinary text.
I absolutely have a box of wires. Creatively enough it's labeled, with a sharpie of course, "Box O' Wires" and resides in my closet. There are one or two HDMI cables in there now. Does it need four more for $5?
Nah.
@Mac454 Mine is labeled "K. Bells".
This website from Denon describes the different types of HDMI standards. These are HDMI 1.3.
@TheTexasTwister This CNet article explains more about HDMI cable technology.
I massage my livestock every evening.
Nice timing! I'd just plopped a 2 for 8 bucks deal in my Amazon cart.
@borisparsley +1 for the sbemail
Four feet isn't very long unless you intend to use these with a computer and monitor setup or if your components are in very close proximity to your television, receiver or soundbar.
@TheTexasTwister Or if your components themselves are close to each other. Like maybe the receiver and Blu-ray player and Roku and TiVo are within four feet of each other, which mine all are. I could use two foot cables, probably.
Only my TV needs a longer cable, and it's already got one. OK, everything else already has a cable, too, but it doesn't hurt to have spares, and maybe I can clean up the rats' nest.
@TheTexasTwister
^-- that's a pretty amusing spec for a 4 foot cable.
@RedOak Maybe these make for good wall insulation?
I would not buy Monster Cables on GP....regardless of the price.
@sroemerm I understand, I do, but in this case they can't be making money on these. They are probably losing money, since Monoprice sells three foot cables for three bucks (with a choice of colors, so there's that), and Monoprice doesn't pay for packaging or meh's markup.
@sroemerm @craigthom Not to mention, at this point you're not supporting Monster, you're supporting Mediocre. It's not like they're drop shipping every order directly from Monster.
purple-eclectic-land
(apparently a real place in India)
@baqui63 Don't tell @Barney.
PURPLE!
@baqui63 @Pavlov @narfcake Awwww. I love purple.
@Barney I know. I meant to tag you but forgot. Thanks, @Pavlov
You win this round, Meh.
@Tin_Foil
Could rest Maxing out this deal
My regular-square-spoon containing a dozen hdmi cables will be on its way soon...
Solved the problem of being too lazy to go on monoprice to ease swapping out between mohu, Apple tv, Xbox, and roku several times over. Probably won't use them all before a new standard comes out to replace hdmi.
That has to be the smallest cable box I've ever seen. It would take at least 5 or 6 of those boxes to constrain my collection of obsolete-hoarded cables.
Was about to kill the VMP until something useful came up - nicely done Meh.
countless-porky-nation
BTW, how 'bout a meh hat?
@RedOak I totally thought obsolete-hoarded-cables was the best ever order number... Alas, no...
@RedOak Ah! I was actually singing the little I remember of that song earlier today! It's so catchy!
passe-fun-burrito
@44R0N7 awwww best one yet
took the plunge
depressed-white-dancer (seriously?)
I can only hope that the amount of monster stuff ending up here means Monster are doing poorly, business-wise
@spitfire6006006 Ever since Beats gave them the shaft, I think they are doing poorly.
Who's to blame for these selling out before I got here?
@wew
@wew
@thismyusername
@wew I may have gotten in the last order --
ORDER # dogged-glorious-cottage
DATE January 3rd 2016 12:50am ET
STATUS Placed
@wew
@thismyusername I was never informed this was a GOAT party.
And @sligett may you always have 1 more hdmi cable than you do hdmi ports.
I tried to give you my money Meh, but these sold out as I was in the middle of checking out....
This is the kind of thing I'd be tempted to buy and then attempt to resell at a profit on Craigslist, but that seems like a lot of work for a measly profit.
wow a less than an hour sellout, haven't seen many of those lately.
not quite "gone in 60 seconds" but DAMN that was quick...
1:44 EST already sold out... Curious how many were available to begin with.
@ldibble 1236.
It's on the front page.
@djslack looks like about 20 units of HDMI. ;)
(It's all about the conversions, baby.)
Seeing Monster selling at a cheaper rate than competitors got my morning off to a great start. Thanks!
I did have a little trouble ordering at 12:03 AM EST, but eventually got my resilient-teeming-rat. Nobody deserves to see the images I found, so
Instead of monster cables I just use coat hangers. I read on the internet that they are interchangeable.
@spacezorro Wire or plastic?
@sammydog01 what kind of psycho are you? everyone knows you have to use wood hangers.
@carl669
@jaremelz
Boiling my ROOF? Shaving WHAT?
Walked outside today to find a large box from Meh (15x15x22) and mentally reviewed "what the hell did i order from Meh that's this big?" I thought I must have won some kind of prize.
Turns out, a dozen HDMI cables is this big. Monster packaged them in fancy retail plastic (as pictured above) and packed them four to a case. Said case is a decent size box, and then if you get three of those I guess you're starting to hit a serious size.
The cables? They look fine. I'll hook some stuff up with some of them tonight or tomorrow to quit doing the hdmi shuffle.
@djslack My Chromebook arrived in a similar box. There were a whole lot of bags of Texas Air, on top of a much smaller box. I only ordered one Chromebook, but there was space for many.
@djslack unpacking my shipment of cables turned out to be actual work. I hate the amount of garbage I produced. I'd love to put it back in the box and ship the pile of plastic and paper straight to monster. All it would have needed would have been a rubber band per cable and a padded envelope.
@einrad @djslack I thought the same thing and I only ordered 4. Saw this big box, figured it was from meh, couldn't for the life of me remember what it was, opened it and thought, 'what the fuck.' Seriously, one little poly bag would've been sufficient enough to even hang on a hook in a retail store. Fuckin' Monster...
@einrad @cinoclav It would've been tough for them to justify their retail price with such simple packaging.
@djslack That was almost exactly my reaction too when I saw the massive box on my porch. When I broke open the first case I can't convey how happy I was that the blister packs were the easy open perforated back kind. Having to cut open a dozen of those without the easy open back would have been dangerous! I ended up unpacking them all and tossing them into one of the small boxes and they took up about half that small box.
Just unpacked a box full of plastic shells, fancy booklets, and more disclaimers than I know what to do with. Quite a haul for the recycle bin.
Oh yeah - and four severely kinked HDMI cables. Seriously, I think the poor packaging design is why they dumped these. I'll be amazed if a couple of these even work!
@dlansdowne The two I've tried both work. I have an OLD LCD tv in the guest room with only 1 HDMI input. I have a little adapter/splitter thing that allows me to plug up to 3 HDMI devices into it. Due to the close proximity of the Roku and Bluray Player to the adapter, I don't need long cords. These 4 footers work great.