You are at local electronics store, puzzled in excitement, and with that dorky face of yours- doesn’t help you look less intimidating to the woman waiting behind you for you to move your sorry butt out of the way. To hell with her, you are about to make the decision of your life. Should you buy the gold plated HDMI cable for $35, or the one less exotic for only $25. Unfortunately, the answer is “NO” to both. As with any other type of cable, HDMI is your standard 19/29-pin “ordinary” copper cable insulated in a thick layer of rubber. There is nothing magical going on the inside- the terms “gold plating”, “high-bandwidth”, “Full-HD”, and countless others are just there to fill the gape in between [Company name] and [HDMI cable]. You’re smart enough to know what I’m talking about- a “Belkin gold-plated HDMI cable” sure sounds erotic compared to “Generic piece of shit”.

For a display screen sitting a few feet away from a multimedia source, you need not spend a fortune on “gold plated, high bandwidth, super shielded, [insert irrelevant details]” HDMI cables. A quality HDMI cable won’t make look your TV any better if your display is grainy to start with. The converse is also true, a cheap HDMI cable won’t make your viewing any worse. It is ultimately the quality of your display that matters most.

In the end, just go for the cheaper cables and feel proud of yourself that you made the right decision. And for the remarkable savings you made, buy yourself some protection before you book a happy-time on Craigslist.