Recently, my mom purchased a Samsung HL-R5067W. Over the past few months, she was able to get a new Samsung progressive scan DVD player for free or low cost, and this past weekend, I helped her get the unit set up with her TV using the HDMI connection. For some reason, I didn’t notice the included HDMI cable, so we went off to Best Buy to pick up a cable.

Holy freaking expensive… we found the cheapest Monster cable at around $95. The cheapest HDMI cable was $63 for a 4′ cable. That’s over $15 a foot. How crazy is that? These cables cost as much as many DVD players out there. It’s unbelievable.

As HD becomes more popular and HD-DVD or BluRay roll out, the prices will come down, but right now it’s a big disincentive to having HDMI components. Anyone have any ideas on why these cables are so expensive? No computer cable is so costly and I can’t imagine that the home theater equipment needs higher tolerances than a data interconnect.