I got a 12'' Philips HDMI cable for about $10 a few years ago at work, it was on clearance because Philips changed the packaging. Needless to say it's longer than I'd ever need it to be, but the price was right.
Stay FAR away from Monster Cables unless they are free or dirt cheap. They are overpriced garbage with great marketing. They "look" like quality cables but they are not.
I had a number of $50 composite and component Monster cables just go bad for no reason.
monoprice.com or meritline.com are good choices for cheap cables.
One more on the dog pile for Monoprice.
I use the $2 cables from monoprice.com and couldn't be happier.
It doesn't get any more serious than a Rhinocerus about to charge your ass.
Sadly I bought Monster Cables and within 2 months they stopped working, go figure. Overpriced bullshit. I say stick with something more affordable as with the more expensive brand really all you get is jack and shit.
Thanks for all the input.
With a humble heart, on bended knee...
NO!
One more for monoprice.com
But seriously. Have you ever seen a DVD skip, or you digital cable start skipping? You are going to know without a doubt whether a cable is broken or not. Other than that, there's no difference. Digital signal either works, or it doesn't. It's not like the analogue days where maybe it was worth it to spend more because your buddy with 20/20 who sits a few feet closer to the TV can kinda tell the difference.
And you will be surprised at the build quality of the stuff from monoprice. It definitely does not feel cheap.
Just a note re: all the Monoprice recommendations - my credit card was recently stolen due to a Monoprice database break-in. While I've always been happy with the quality of the products from them, I'm pretty leery of shopping with them again for security reasons.
Luckily, my credit card company caught it before any major fraudulent charges.
I get my 6' HDMI cables on Amazon for about $4 each.
Cable quality actually matters with analog signals, because there's more information. Bad cables will degrade the signal. With digital, all that matters is that it gets through. If anything, they should be even cheaper. Radio Shack had HDMI plug ends last time I was in, but they wanted $20 each.
If you look at new devices, they're starting to include the HDMI cables. I have a feeling that we won't see these high-priced cables anymore in a few years, and Monster is probably going to focus on other products like power conditioners.
Monster cables in general are grossly over priced, and especially HDMI cables at retail. If you can find some Monster online for dirt cheap, I would go with them. Sony also makes some nice HDMI cables, but they're all pretty much the same.
The super expensive cables are actually among the worst you can buy, especially monster cable.
Their cables are often excessively rigid, which leads to breaks in the conductors because they are so inflexible, and their connectors fit way too tight which can cause damage to the ports on your equipment.
Those power conditioners are just a crock of shit. Nothing they filter out would actually affect anything to begin with, and besides, you could just get an uninterruptible power supply for the same price.
you have shitty speakers. are you using the tv ones? those suck 99% of the time. i am assuming you are indeed using the tv ones, otherwise you would route the audio signal through an optical cable to your receiver.
back to OP's question:
as mentioned, digital is either on or off. there is no distortion, there is no data loss. it will either work or it wont.
having said that, there IS a difference in quality of the cable.
what you want to consider is gauge and isolation (for running it through a wall).
isolation will only matter if you are running it for dozens of feet and behind your wall, signal may be lost if there is interference.
certain hdmi switches are finicky with the voltage so they wont work with 28+ gauge hdmi cables general. you want 24 gauge. none of this matters unless you are ordering from monoprice.com (most cable are already 24- gauge). the price difference between a 28 gauge and 24 gauge is like 5-10$ for 6ft (ie a 28 gauge cost like $4).
my recommendation:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2
(look at that, under 10 bucks a cable thats even gold plated lol!)
rule of thumb for monoprice: shipping sucks for 1 cable, order everything you need, may need, your friend may need and looks cool right away. nothing wrong with having spare cables and adapters around for when you need em. the more you buy the cheaper itll be (with bulk discounts and shipping)
Monoprice or fail.
You've been warned.
I vote for Monoprice too, despite their security issue a month or two ago. I heard they invested in some better security after the incident. I didn't know anything happened until I got a new card in the mail. I can't stand when my credit card number changes for any reason though. I memorize the thing cause I only use it online.
Last edited by Viper187; 05-23-2010 at 03:35 PM.