Monster Cable has been drawing negative attention to itself lately by aiming lawsuits and trademark infringement claims against dozens of companies that use the word "monster'' in their names.  Monster’s campaign to secure their brand on the word Monster includes some notable victims; Discovery Channel’s “Monster Garage”, Disney’s “Monster’s Inc”, Monster Slots, Monster.com, Monster Energy drink and even the Chicago Bears for using the nickname “Monsters of the Midway”.

If frivolous litigation wasn’t enough, consider the dishonesty perpetrated against Home Theater consumer’s in Canada by Monster and Future Shop(and in the US at similar displays at Best Buy).  If you’ve wandered the aisles of Future Shop looking at televisions you’ve surely seen displays like the one below.

Future Shop display supposedly showing the Monster difference

The display ostensibly demonstrates the clear advantage of Monster Cables over “regular” video cables when connecting your DVD player to your new HDTV.  This is particularly deceiving because in fact there is no difference between Monster Cables and any other brand of cables that you can find for much less elsewhere.  The display is dishonest and confusing to consumers.  I did some sluething and examined the back of the TV used in the display, it exposed that the comparison is not simply between Monster and another brand of cable attempting to perform the same job but between cabling formats. 

The blurry picture here was taken with a digital camera of the back of one of Future Shop’s displays.  The small circle is a yellow plug, a cheap composite video connector for the “poor” image and the three cables behind (larger circle) show “Monster” brand cables providing a component video connection.  Component is always superior to composite, they’re completely different formats.  Composite cabling is not designed for digital video images and can only show an interlaced display, they’re not even in the same league.  Any brand of component cables will show a clearly superior image to the one provided by the cheesy composite video connector that came stocked with a DVD player.

To use an automotive analogy, this comparison is not showing the difference between a Ferrari and an Escort; comparing a composite with component video is like comparing an Escort and an F-18 fighter jet.  It’s a frivolous, silly comparison that only serves to confuse consumers.

Another Monster display at a different Future Shop location was even more dishonest.  This “display” was no more than a blatant sham. (below)

This “Monster Cable Difference” display was actually a presentation on a single DVD player, the display didn’t even use a Monster Cable at all.  Both poor and superior images shown in the side by side test patterns were displayed through this DVD player and a single stock composite video connector. (I unplugged it and watched the whole display come down as shown here).  The problems Monster claims are associated with a stock composite video connector are apparently a complete lie.  The display is an abhorrent example of contempt Future Shop and Monster hold for the average consumer. 

For the record, any component connection will give you better resolution than composite, and component is required for any HDTV resolutions including 480P from your DVD player.  Even a cheap composite video connector is unlikely to display all the blemishes Monster claims in its display, in fact the picture above seems to show a stock composite video connector is just as good as Monster Cables.