[ChristianTTI]

Don't buy expensive HDMI cables! HDMI is a standard. If the cables don't meet the minimum requirements of the standard, they wouldn't be HDMI cables! There are, however, different versions of the standard - according to hdmi.org: "For Adopters, the latest HDMI Specification is v1.3a and the latest HDMI Compliance Test Specification (CTS) is 1.3c." As long as you buy a v1.3 cable, you are getting what is needed for the latest in HD video and audio.

Buying a Monster (or other premium manufacturer) cable made sense in the days of analog data. Analog data quality is directly dependent on signal to noise ratio, and any interference will degrade signal quality. Therefore, well constructed, well shielded cables provide cleaner signals, especially over long runs.

Digital information is different. In comes in packets that are sent multiple times. For an ATSC broadcast, if you receive about 70% or more of the information that was sent, the decoder can reconstruct the entire signal. If the interference is too severe, blocks of information will be lost (this is why audio gets choppy and video breaks into rectangles), rather than "static" interference in analog devices (in analog, the interference is always present - the more interference, the more "static").

If you don't see your image breaking into blocks or hear audio dropping out, you are likely getting as good of a signal as possible on your HD device (i.e., TV). Buying a more expensive cable cannot improve upon this.

The first few HDMI devices I purchased included the HDMI cable (these were upconverting DVD players about a year and a half ago). I have since purchased the cheapest HDMI cables I could find (at Fry's & online) for any further needs.