I just thought that I’d add to my last post on HDMI cables with an analogy I thought of. To put it simply, the notion that there will be any difference in picture quality between a $5 HDMI cable and a $400 Monster cable is exactly the same as saying that putting your videos on a more expensive USB drive will make them look and sound better, or that a more expensive memory card in your digital camera would make you photos higher resolution – that is, completely ridiculous, and completely wrong, for obvious reasons.
Simply put, all of these mediums are just moving a bunch of ones and zeros. Given that describing a one or a zero from a wave is far less prone to error than an analog signal (I’ll put up a diagram of this soon), you can be pretty much assured that your cable, USB drive or memory card will transfer the data exactly as transmitted.
So to sum up, Monster Cables are a downright scam, (as are any other company that sells pointlessly expensive digital cables to consumers), and essentially all the claims that they make on their packaging (like better quality picture, richer sound) are all false. Of course, if you ask the salesperson at the local department store, they’ll try to flog the most expensive cable to you, and make up implausible (and wrong) reasons about why you should buy the more expensive one. But remember that they are just out to get the commission, and most of them will tell lies to sell it to you – unless they are genuinely taken in by the scam.
While I disagree about your contention that just because “it’s just 1s and 0s” so there can’t be any difference, there are other reasons not to buy from Monster:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/26/monster-cable-at-it-again-sues-mini-golf-company/
Cables are a high profit center, and they are overpriced. BUT, a well engineered cable will outperform the bargain bin cable. Just because it’s digital, does not mean the signal can’t be degraded by a poor cable.
Chris, you are right that a bad digital cable can disrupt the image, but if a cable is HDMI certified (I believe that all the cables on Monoprice.com, including the $3 HDMI 1.3 Category 2 ones), you’re pretty much guaranteed that it will carry a visually flawless picture.