difference in HDMI cables

[sean10mm]

As someone who worked in the telecommunications industry, when it comes to digital transmission it pretty much either works or it doesn't. Spending more than $10 on a cable to go 3 feet for digital data transmission from your Blu-ray player to your TV is moronic.

The "more expensive cable is better" thing is based on a misunderstanding of how digital signals work. As long as the signal isn't so horribly degraded that the TV can't tell a 1 from a 0, the data transmission is essentially perfect. And if you make the transmission so "dirty" that the TV can't tell a 1 from a 0, the picture falls apart almost instantly. There is almost no in-between because it either reads a 1 as a 1 and a 0 as a 0, or it doesn't.

If you buy a cheap HDMI cable and plug it in and get a pretty picture, you're seeing all there is to see. There isn't anything else because there is no essentially no gradual drop-off over digital. There is no shade of gray.