So today I purchased two items.
Item 1.
A new, shiny, LG progressive-scan up-converting (720p/1080i) DVD player. HDMI-HDCP out, plays WMV, DivX, has front slots for SD/MMC/xD/MS/MD/CP media, a remote control and an accompanying set of 2 AAA batteries.
I payed $99.99. Chipset, circuit board, laser, motor, tray, LCD display, case, 7 button, media readers, power cable, remote and batteries.
$99.99.
Now, how to plug it in? I forgot to mention they also throw in a composite set of cables that scream "crappy" from a mile away. That just won't do.
Item 2.
So I got a 6' HDMI cable to plug this brand new puppy into our slightly less brand new (by two days) accompanying 1366x768 42" LG plasma. As a matter of fact, I got the cheapest cable available (it is a digital cable, so the entire "gold-plated is better" attitude is completely meaningless).
The cable added $63.99.
Huh?
So for a few strands of wire embedded in rubber with $2 connectors on each end, packed in a $0.20 blister, I pay about two-thirds of all that I described above?
Something tells me that there might be a slight difference in margin here. But what is one to do?
On the plus side, I shall have this cable for at least a decade. And I cannot even begin to tell you how much, how holy-crap much better the picture is compared to our old progressive-scan 480p-at-best composite-only check-out-this-posterisation wow-how-about-that-jitter what-the-hell-is-all-that-noise-in-the-letterbox-bars DVD player. Yikes.