I was looking at HDMI cables on cables for less. They have a standard quality cable and a high quality cable with quite a price difference. Does anyone have any experience with these? Is the quality that much different? Is there anywhere else that sells the same quality for a better price?

They are all basically the same.

www.monoprice.com

I actually quite like the Apple HDMI cable. For $30 at 13 feet, it's not too bad a price.
We've used them at work (computer and A/V rental).

You might give eBay a try for HDMI cable. You can get anywhere from a 8 foot cable to a 25 foot HDMI cable with gold contacts for anywhere between $15 and $25 and the shipping is reasonable. I recently bought a 25 foot cable and including shipping it was $18.00

Butch

How can I tell which ones are the best quality? Is there a noticeable difference? I have seen some for $8 for 6 feet, then others at the same site for $40 for 6 ft.

There is not a difference between the very expensive cables and the cheaper ones. I would just make sure they have gold plating and it will be fine.

So if I understand this correct, the apple cable at $20 and 6' long is the same as the 6' long monoprice cable for $4.79? Why would cables for less have 2 different quality cables? I know the big box stores really jackup the prices on cables, but is a $4.79 cable as good as the ones they are charging $90 for? Maybe I am asking the same question multiple times, but I just do not want to buy something that is not going to show the HD image as well. Thanks for the input!

This has been asked thousands of times in literally hundreds of forums.

You won't see a difference between a $10 Hdmi cable and a $500 Hdmi cable. It's a digital signal. Ones and zeroes. They either make it across the cable or they don't.

If you want another reason for the difference, besides name branding, I have seen cables that differ just by the thickness of the internal wires (22 AWG vs. 24 AWG vs. 26 AWG). The thicker the internal wire (smaller number), the less chance for signal loss. However, there are specifications in the HDMI standard that dictate the minimum power output for any HDMI source. No store would sell cables that are too thin to properly deliver the signal over the specified cable length (based on the power output rating defined in the HDMI standard). So, any cable you buy from anywhere will perform just fine if the device creating the image provides the correct level of power according to the specification.

Another reason, for Monster cables, is special injection something and special wire materials, or something or other. Basically, they claim the have less signal loss based on their cable's construction. That is not significant in this instance, because, as jonjandran mentioned, the HDMI data is a digital signal.

If you are unaware of what that means, that means that the information comes across the cables as a voltage of either 0 volts (for a 0) and 3.3 volts (for a 1). I don't know the actual voltage value for an HDMI '1' (could be 5 volts), but the idea is the same. Now, the devices reading the data will allow some tolerance in these values; i.e. 0.5 volts will still be recognized as a '0' and 2.8 volts will still be recognized as a '1'. So, buying the thicker more expensive wire will reduce signal noise/loss and keep the '1' signals closer to 3.3 volts than the thinner cables might (especially over longer distances). However, the thinner ones don't horribly degrade the signal's voltage level, so you may get a voltage level of 3.2 or 3.15 volts. Still within the tolerance for any digital signal.

So, you are fine with the less expensive cables for an HDMI video signal.

I know this is an old post but for anyone reading this late (like I did), I have used monoprice cables A LOT. The cables are excellent quality and have NEVER had a problem. **See previous posts about digital signals ad nauseam**

For my plasma I use monoprice HDMI cable -> monoprice HDMI wallplate -> monoprice HDMI cable -> Plasma, I have no signal or video problems at all. Don't waste your money elsewhere.

I get all my cables at monoprice, i've bought HDMI, DVI, some of the audio fiber,and some of thier spooled speaker wire and it's all worked out fantastically. For the price they can't be beat in my experience.

Check out www.geeks.com for 25 feet HDMI cables of very good quality, for $22, they also have 15 feet and 6 feet for $9.50 and $7.50 respectively.

As an update, I bought a $5.47 cable from cables for less. I used that and compared it to an $80 cable I recieved from a friend, and to my surprise, I could not tell the difference. My CFL cable was only a 6 footer, but it worked just fine. So, the moral od the story is DO NOT waste your money on expensive HDMI cables!!!