As if this dead horse hasn't been beaten enough, a Pittsburgh reporter is pleading with the public yet again to turn a cold shoulder to those wildly packaged, generally overpriced cables that catch your eye. As we've seen time and time again, "gold plated" and "speed-rated" cabling essentially produces the same image as sturdily constructed alternatives that ring up at substantially lower prices, and it's no surprise to hear that confused HDTV buyers are still being lured into dropping hundreds on wires that offer up little additional value in return. Another tip put forth by Aaron Saykin is to make sure you're picking the best type of cable for your particular application, and of course, we'd recommend avoiding big box retailers for your cable needs and surfing over to one of the many e-tailers that offer similar items in less fanciful packaging for gobs less money. So whether you're planning to go all out on a new home theater setup, or if you're simply looking to wire up a snazzy new component, just make sure you're not padding someone's pocket in exchange for a fantastically attractive marketing campaign.

[Image courtesy of GaffleTopia]