I was at a client’s house the other day working with the local Dish Satellite installer. He was using component cables and I asked him why. He said that he knew that HDMI cables were better but they were so expensive. I mentioned what I always hear…there’s inexpensive cables that people say don’t make a difference (I was being the devil’s advocate here because I’m aware of the differences). He said, “Those cables are junk. I can’t tell you how many times they’ve failed after a couple of months and I’ve had to go out and replace them. It costs me money. The only way to do it right is to get a cable that costs well over $30, and I can’t afford that so I’ll just hook it up with component cable…at least they’ll get HD.” This is a busy installer…there is a difference.
If you want to know details of this difference, Clint DeBoer wrote an amazing informative blog that is very complete and one of the most thorough pieces I’ve EVER seen on HDMI.