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How big of a difference does the quality of HDMI cables make? I've got a 58'' plasma with Phillips brand HDMI cables running my Blu Ray, 360 and cable box. Best Buy had $230 HDMI cables and though I'd never drop that much for a cable, I'm curious how dramatic the difference is between the price levels.
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There won't be any difference, most likely. At least not in picture quality or sound. All HDMI cables are just a bunch of copper wires passing on electrical information. It's not like you can get more picture if you get a bigger cable.

The price difference comes from materials used (gold connectors, etc.) and quality of workmanship. The more expensive the cable the longer it should (theoretically) last without problems or breaking.

HDMI cables carry audio and video signals in digital form - 1s and 0s - and the great thing about digital is that there's absolutely no difference between a good quality 1/0 and a poor quality 1/0. The only way errors can occur is if the 1/0s don't register at all, and this is usually going to be pretty damn obvious because, most of the time, either they'll all register, or none of them will. So yeah, in terms of quality, there won't be any difference at all. I guess you'd expect a more expensive cable to last longer, but I really can't imagine it to ever be worth the extra cost. If you're careful, the cheap ones should last forever anyway. Just so you know, the reason more expensive cables use gold connectors is because gold doesn't oxidise (rust) over time and lose its conductivity the way copper will.

In normal cases, I agree with the two above. If you need a longer cable, http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/going-t ... ome-170624 might give some ideas. [This is not an advertisement. No money for me in this]

It actually can make a difference. There are two big factors you may want to consider when buying an hdmi cable: category and length.

There are 2 categories for HDMI cables. Category 1 (referred to as 'standard') is only capable of transferring and image of up to 1080i / 720p in quality, so 1080p is no go. Category 2 (referred to as 'high speed') supports up to 4k resolutions, as well as 3D and obviously including 1080p.

And then length. If you have a short cable (3-16 feet or so) there is absolutely no reason to worry about getting a pricier cable. Beyond that you actually will want to look at something more expensive because the build quality can have a significant impact. A high-quality copper cable can maybe get you just about up to 50 feet, but you'll be paying for it. You can easily double that range if you spring for a fiber-optic cable.

tl;dr don't even think about buying an expensive HDMI cable unless it's longer than 15 feet