If you’ve bought a new TV recently, you’ve more than likely heard talk of “HDMI” connectors or cables. To most, this just sounds like another weird tech abbreviation they will never understand, but HDMI is becoming to video what USB is to data: A standardized high-speed cable that connects your HDTV to your computer, DVD player, gaming console or other device.

HDMI stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface and is used to refer to the type of plugs and cables that transfer all-digital video and audio signals in one package. This type of connection is set to replace the old HD standard, which was the three-headed Component cables (the red, green and blue ones). The idea of the HDMI system is that it consolidates 5 to 9 cables into one while simultaneously increasing the quality of the video and audio output by bypassing the digital-to-analog conversion of Component.

To get an idea of why HDMI cables may be a worthy investment, take a look at these side-by-side comparisons between 1080p through HDMI, Component and regular Composite (RCA) cables:

The images are all from the same Blu-ray Disc freeze-frame of the porcupine character from Chicken Little. You can see the difference between the crystal clear all-digital 1080p image, the slightly blurry and “steppy” Component image, and the horribly blurred Composite image (this is even more obvious when seen in person). Keep in mind that some of the blurriness and stepping in the Component and Composite cable images may be caused by the analogue image processor within the TV. Even so, there is little argument against HDMI giving you a better picture.

So why are people confused? Well, if you go to an electronics store, you’ll find a wide range of HDMI cables that are priced anywhere from $10 to $400 without any real explanation of why there are such dramatic price gaps. And you’re not the only one who is confused. Over the last year, a debate has been raging in the tech community over whether the more expensive cables are actually better.

For many years, Monster Cable has been a mark of excellence in audio cables, and rightly so. When it comes to analogue equipment (such as stereos), sound quality is very much dependent on cable quality. With the introduction of HDMI however, things have became a little more complicated. I wrote an article about this topic a while back if you are interested in the details but basically, digital and analogue worlds are very different. To clear some of the confusion (and to promote their products), Monster Cable put on a show in Downtown Vancouver to demonstrate why not all HDMI cables are created equal. Noel Lee, The Head Monster (yup, that’s his title) and his colleagues took us through a detailed and highly technical demonstration of what happens when you have a bad quality cable.

So was there a difference? Absolutely. Does it matter to the everyday user? Well, that depends. If you ask Monster, they’ll answer that you should always buy the best (i.e. Monster) cable your budget can afford. But in reality, that cable might be way more than you actually need. Let’s break this down:

If you have a 56” 1080p plasma TV with a top-of-the-line Blu-ray player and a PS3, you should get the top-of-the-lineMonster HDMI 1000HD Ultra-High Speed HDMI cable to go with it. Pushing the content from your players to your TV through cheap cables would be a bit like drinking Cristal Champagne from a dirty Starbucks cup.

On the other hand, if you have a 37” 720p LCD TV with a standard DVD player or a cheap HD-DVD player, the difference between a cheap and a more expensive cable is negligible, so buy the cheap one and spend the rest of your money on better speakers.

Why is there a difference? It all depends on how much information goes out of your players and into your TV. Right now, very few players are able to output full 1080p video at 120hz with 7 channel audio, which is what the top cables are designed to do. Moreover, very few TVs are capable of displaying such a signal. Your cable should therefore match your equipment.

Monster (and the people at your local store) will tell you that you should always plan for the future and get a cable that will be able to handle the equipment you are going to buy a year or two from now. But let’s be serious here. Most people stick with their TVs and players for years (the TV we replaced over the holidays had been in our household since the early ’90s) and when we get new equipment, we usually get new cables as well. In addition, the half-life of tech product prices is about one year, so when you do get your next TV and player that has all the bells and whistles, the cable you need will more than likely cost half as much as it does now.

That said, based on the impartial demo live infomercial Monster gave us, their cables do outperform the competition by an alarming margin. Some of the expensive competitor cables demoed, like the German $380 Ohelbach and an equally expensive cable bought at a local electronics retailer, were astoundingly bad. So there is some truth to the saying “you get what you pay for” as long as you buy it from the right company.

What’s the final word? If you’re going to buy an HDMI cable for your new HD setup, go to a store with a 30-day exchange policy, find the cheapest cable, take it home and test it. If something seems off, like the image being jittery, there’s pink snow in Hawaii or there is no image at all, take the cable back and exchange it for a more expensive one. Be forewarned that just because it says “HDMI,” it doesn’t mean it’s the real thing. If you bought it at an unknown shop for next to nothing, it’s quite likely a knockoff. For most people, a low-end Monster cable like the Monster 300 for HDMI will do just fine. And if you have one of those top-of-the-line setups…well, then you can afford to shell out the big bucks on the Monster HDMI 1000HD Ultra-High Speed HDMI and get the best cable on the market.

Still confused? Leave us a comment and we’ll be sure to clarify any of the above details!