The 35-foot 'free' HDMI cable I found in my uncle's garage was a trap

Visited my uncle in Portland last month to help clear out his basement, and he handed me this massive coil of HDMI cable, said it was from his old projector setup and I could have it. I was stoked, figured I'd save $20 on a long run for my living room TV. Got it home, uncoiled it, and that thing was a spaghetti monster with kinks every 6 inches, looked like it had been folded in a box for 15 years. Wired it up and the picture kept cutting out every 5 minutes, turns out the internal shielding was shot from all the bending. So I spent 2 hours zip-tying it to the baseboards, rerouting it twice, and finally just yanked it out and bought a $12 flat cable from Best Buy. That free cable cost me a whole Saturday, a snapped zip tie in my thumb, and a lecture from my wife about hoarding junk. Has anyone else gotten burned by a 'free' cable that was actually more trouble than it was worth?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

willow7321mo ago

Honestly I just gave up on fancy AV stuff and bought the cheapest cable that was actually rated for what I needed. Sometimes the "free" option is just a lesson in paying for convenience.

6