.:M@tyBoy:.

I purchased a LG DVD player for divx/xvid capabilities as my current player is very outdated. One of the features of the new DVD player is HD-Upscaling and the sales person at Harvey Norman asked if I required a HDMI cable. I was shocked to see HDMI cables from $80 - $300, as my DVD player only cost $120.

Later I did some online research and found that Australian consumers are being ripped off. I recently purchased from Play-Asia a 1.5m HDMI cable for less then $10 delivered. The cable works great and the cheapest I could find it in Australia was $20-$30 from eBay or $50 from Dick Smiths.

I am pretty sure that Australian retailers like Harvey Norman, JB and Dick Smiths are relying on Australian consumers thinking “I just spent $3000 on the LCD screen, its only another $100 for the cable” or they are trying to deceive consumers with statements like “24 carat gold-plated connectors ensure the best signal quality”.

Signal quality is more likely to be impacted by the length of the cable. The average consumer probably requires 3m or less of cable and I sincerely doubt they will see any significant improvement in “signal quality” between an entry level cable and the more expensive “gold-plated” cables.

Hopefully the price of HDMI cables fall once more people adopt the technology. In the mean time I suggest you do your research before purchasing a HDMI cable inside Australia.