HDMI Cables - is there a difference in quality?

Question

I see them ranging in price from $10 to $200. I have an hd cable box to my hdtv. Nothing special. Is there any noticeable difference between cables or is it just like the old stereo cables where you could spend hundreds of dollars on gold plated cables which really weren't much better for the typical user?

Answer 1

There are differences, but basically they work or they don't (see the article at the 1st link). For normal short connections a budget cable will give essentially identical results to an expensive cable.  

For in-wall or longer than 10' connections consider better cables (e.g. Bluejean Cables ... see 2nd link for more info on HMDI cables and prices) ... but you don't need to buy Monster (or similar price) cables.

Answer 2

The other guys are right. I just wanted 2 points

Belden is one of the top wire manufacturers in the world. Many of your high end cables actually use wire that has been manufactured by Belden.

I would recommend using a cable that is about 30 bucks.

$10 will probably be really cheap and have crappy connectors.

You do not need the braided cables either unless you are in a conference room or something and people will be stepping on the cable.

Answer 3

I have to agree - you can buy higher priced/better quality cables - but the signals are DIGITAL. This means they tend to be insensitive to the cable.

I use a $38 HDMI cable from my HD cable box to my TV from BlueJeans.  I also bought one of their cheaper ($24) Chinese cables and tried to do my own A/B testing and I could not tell the difference.

But I use the Belden based cable for my system because that brand has a good reputation.