UK Store Wants to See an End to the ‘Cable Con’

If you keep up with current tech trends, you’re likely aware that where audio/video cables are concerned, the market is chock-full of snake oil models. Even just a couple of months ago, we linked to a story at PC Mag that compared five HDMI cables to each other, ranging from $3 to $120, and their conclusions stated that all of them displayed content at equal quality.

The real problem in all of this is that retailers couldn’t care less, because why would they? They’d much rather try to con you into purchasing a $40 cable quicker than a $5 one, so who could argue? Well, in a rare move for a retail store, the Australian electronics firm Kogan wants it to be known that an HDMI is an HDMI cable, and that’s all there is to it.

Kogan is not being subtle about it, either. In a blog post, the selling of ultra-expensive cables is referred to as being a “Cable Con”, and a “scam”, even going as far as to include a snapshot of an HDMI cable display at a store in London, which reads at the top, “Cables make a difference!”

The article targets UK stores Currys and John Lewis in particular, and to help get its point across that an HDMI cable either delivers the signal or it doesn’t, Kogan is offering a free cable to anyone who’s purchased a television at either of those two stores (with proof of purchase, of course).

All I can say is… it’s about time. I am not about to write off certain expensive cables for certain purposes, but where HDMI is concerned, Kogan is correct in its statement that there is simply no difference in image or audio quality across different cables. If your TV is for some reason more than 6 feet away from a receiver, then a better cable may be required, but that’s the only exception.

Kudos to Kogan for actually making a scene about this. Hopefully it will catch on.