Here’s an idea, stop including standard A/V cables with Blu-ray players

Manufacturers, let me save you some money. It won’t be much, but something is better than nothing. But more importantly you would be helping out the consumers actually spending money on your products. So please, stop including standard A/V cables with Blu-ray players. We don’t need anymore of them, thankyouverymuch. Every household in America already has a drawer full of red/white/yellow cables and plus, Blu-ray players shouldn’t be hooked up with them anyway.

But if you simply must include a set of cables with your players, how about a set of component cables or even an HDMI cable? After all Blu-ray player buyers are probably – hopefully – getting the player to watch high-def content and those simple red, white, and yellow cables don’t provide that last time I checked.

I understand that some companies like Monster Cable and Best Buy might be a little peeved if suddenly they lost some sales of high-margin cables, but don’t think of them, think of us. Think of the thousands of consumers that get duped into buying these incredibly overpriced and unnecessary cables everyday. As it stands right now, a salesmen can easily say you need this $120 HDMI cable because your $150 Blu-ray player doesn’t come with one.

But by simply including a basic HDMI cable, a few less people might get scammed, which is totally a win. Amazon and other online retailers always have HDMI cables for around a dollar so buy up a crapton of those and start stuffing them in with Blu-ray players.

Besides, including standard composite cables with Blu-ray players is sending the wrong message anyway. It’s saying that you, the manufacturer, are suggesting that the player will work fine with them. But it won’t. The player will only output the picture at a 480i signal with composite cables, which is no where near the 1080p capability. It’s an injustice to both the consumer and the Blu-ray format.

It’s true that maybe some people are buying Blu-ray players right now to use with their older non-HDMI and non-component equipped TV sets and they need the red/white/yellow cables to watch the player at all. But I’m sure those folks will get by just fine. Worst case scenario is that they have to make a trip to Radio Shack if they don’t happen to have a set of composite cables laying around.

There’s simply no reason to continue including old cables with a high-def player. Save the money or better yet, include appropriate cables. You do know that component cables can be used as composite too, right?

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