Monday, December 29, 2008

Cable Gymnastics.

Well... we are back in the realm of a 15 minute project taking two hours. But, as Mr S. points out - if we get a project done in one day, it's an improvement.

Today's project was threading cables through the walls. Which gave us an opportunity to use this toy. I'd almost forgotten we'd bought it.

We'd bought a PS3 a couple of years ago, but none of the game companies ever released any appealing titles. So, it sat mostly idle. Finally this year, they've gotten their act together. So - it was time to send a dedicated HDMI cable from the TV to the PS3, instead of having to use an HDMI switcher or manually switching the cables.

We had our cable ready. Threaded it through the wall, only to find out the wall ate about 2 feet of it. You may not think this is weird, but I do. We are threading it pretty much in a straight line to come out a foot from the corner. I'd only think it would eat one foot to account for the turn around the corner. The cable didn't reach the PS3. And just let me mention, trying to get to the cable inputs after the TV's on the wall is a test in flexibility.

Anyway. This caused us to have to go to three stores looking for a longer cable. Sure - we could have gotten a cable at the first store. But, um....I'd forgotten about how the digital transition would jack up the prices for all the cables that run from your television. I'm not paying a hundred bucks for a cable. Are they high?

Since we were planning to pick up a cable on the way to doing something else, we picked the stores which were on the way to were we thought we were going. Best Buy. Which BTW, the return isle was jacked up today. Packed. I didn't check out the buying patterns of other areas. I was just going in and out. Our Circuit Shitty store had already been shut down. So we wound up at Target. Since it was right across the street from the closed Circuit Shitty store.

Mr S. is now able to play Dead Space for 50 bucks. Half of the price of Best Buy. Those Monster Cable guys have a Madoff style fraud going on. Yeah - maybe a bit of dramatic exaggeration. But, a hundred bucks for a cable People? What a racket. Mind you, I have 2 HDMI cables on my TV. Ridiculous. I guess I'd mistakenly thought that now HD TV's are less expensive, the cables would also become less expensive. Not so much.

3 comments:

  1. Yeah cable prices at retail stores are outrageous. If you don't need it right away you can find a cable online for a couple of bucks.

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  2. We finally broke and bought a Wii for Christmas. Sarge is relearning why his Playstation had sat unused for so many years. He sucks at games.
    I bought a Star Wars one, and I relearned that I SUCK too.
    We can pretty much only play tennis, golf and bowling.

    Our TV is HDMI ready, but I hate the thought of throwing down $50 for a cable.

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  3. If you are less impulsive - you can buy them online for like 10 bucks. Just like Anon says.

    At the Snarkolepy house, small projects like this get trampled - so paying up when the impulse hits, gets the job done.

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