Does the HDMI cable matter that much?

[Annabell]

Yes and if the 1's and 0's are dropped you get no signal at all. The sparkles are where the signal is almost so weak as to get nothing.

So no difference between a cheap or "top of the range" HDMI cable provided both work.

It's not like old coaxial cables and analogue transmissions and that's the point a few of us were trying to make (although not very well in my case admittedly!)

I thought it was difference was that the sparkles were you get some picture, but you'd get the sparkles all over the place?

But yeah, as long as both work, there's no real difference. Only go for middle of the range stuff if you really need them, like, if you're doing a big project, or need an extra long cable. There's some other differences between your cheap cables and the more expensive ones that are outlined in Madcat's articles, but they're for real aficionados who are building a huge home cinema or something, rather than you, Joe Bloggs who is just hooking up his new TV. And honestly, even some of those differences are just bells and whistles you don't even really need either.

 

[SFCable]

Agree with this, It depends cable quality.