The HDMI cables at Monoprice are generally $10 more to get them "gold-plated."

DOes it really make a difference?

Im going to guess no. Its my understanding the digital either works or doesnt and if a cheap cable with no gold works, one which is pure gold and hand terminated by the Dali Lama Himself wouldnt make it better.

I could be wrong thou. I just bought 4, 2 foot HDMI cables from blue jeans and the whole order came to $56.00. They all work great. I was at BB today and saw 1 HDMI cable for $250!! Thats right $250!!!!! Salesman said it was because of stonger pins etc.

Well I'm going to guess yes!
Since gold dosen't tarnish the connection should be more stable than connectors that oxidize.

But gold sometimes means gold color and not actual gold. Actual gold plating is usually so thin it doesn't last long. A high moisture content is required to effect galvanic corrosion between dissimilar metals. If it does take place, it corrodes the weaker metal. If the jack does not have gold plated connectors, gold plated cables in a high moisture environment can be a bad thing. In such an environment, the important thing is to match the metals in the jack and the cable end.

For any metal to metal connection, gold plating reduces the chance of corrosion. So for HDMI gold plating does help.

For an optical connection, it serves no purpose.

I posted this in another thread. Look at Periodic Table of the Elements (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.corrosionsource.com/handbook/periodic/periodic_table.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.corrosionsource.com/handbook/periodic/&h=480&w=580&sz=19&tbnid=G4wY8RtD2Q3CMM:&tbnh=111&tbnw=134&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dperiodic%2Btable%2Bof%2Belements&start=1&sa=X&oi=images&ct=image&cd=1) You will see Cu, Ag, & Au (Copper, Silver, & Gold in that order) stacked on top of each other in the "Transitory Metals" area.

Suffice it to say, that Cu, Ag, & Au are (again in that order) good, gooder, & "goodest" conducters.

For any metal to metal connection, gold plating reduces the chance of corrosion. So for HDMI gold plating does help.Real gold plating helps the gold plated connector. It can hurt a non-gold connector it's mated with. In dry environments, it really doesn't matter. In wet environments, tin on tin is better than gold on tin.

I thought silver was a better conductor than gold, but since it can tarnish gold plate is usually added.

Silver is better than copper and copper is better than anything else. Both tarnish easily. The length of passage of electricity through connector plating is near zero. Resistance only matters as length of run increases.

The HDMI specification puts minimum requirements in place for any HDMI connector and cable, no matte what material or color they are made with. We designed the HDMI spec so that any cable that meets the specification will be able to reliably transmit the HDMI signal between compliant devices.

How does one know if a cable meets specs?

All HDMI cables are required to meet the HDMI spec- no exceptions. However, it is difficult to closely monitor every HDMI cable due to the large number of cable manufacturers and products coming out.

Some general guidelines we recommend:
-look for the HDMI logo, and this tends to be used by manufacturers that clearly understand that the logo can only be used for products that have been compliance tested.
-look for a SimplayHD logo, which is a separately run testing service that checks cables to the highest HDMI standard called a Category 2 cable (i.e. 1080p tested).

If we find devices which do not meet the spec and/or cause failures in interoperability, we do our best to take actions to address it, and we welcome feedback from consumers to report on any failures they have seen from specific devices.

All HDMI cables are required to meet the HDMI spec- no exceptions. However, it is difficult to closely monitor every HDMI cable due to the large number of cable manufacturers and products coming out.

Some general guidelines we recommend:
-look for the HDMI logo, and this tends to be used by manufacturers that clearly understand that the logo can only be used for products that have been compliance tested.
-look for a SimplayHD logo, which is a separately run testing service that checks cables to the highest HDMI standard called a Category 2 cable (i.e. 1080p tested).

If we find devices which do not meet the spec and/or cause failures in interoperability, we do our best to take actions to address it, and we welcome feedback from consumers to report on any failures they have seen from specific devices.

I don't believe the HDMI cable I ordered from Mono has the logo.

Back to the OP's question, go for the gold in life but not in HDMI cables. If it works you're golden. Okay, okay, I'm stopping.

I don't believe the HDMI cable I ordered from Mono has the logo.Refers to the source and reception equipment, not the cable. Don't worry about it.

I wonder what version of HDMI monoprice is selling? Crutchfield's recent catalogue has a great article on HDMI.
Also:
If your digitial cable or satelite feed is coming in using co-axil, what's the point? Isn't co-axil analogue? So it's already a down-graded signal, so why send it through HDMI or even component? Just use co-axil to go from your receiver to TV? Can someone explain this?

Even though the signal is coming in on Coax, I have chosen to utilize the HDMI link for continuity within the overall system, reduction of cabling, and to have one device providing the input switching for the system.

PS3 ----------------------------\
Cable box ---------------------\
Extra input --------------------/ OCTAVA HDMI switch ------> Plasma
Pioneer dvd 59avi------------/ with toslink ------>Receiver

Turn on the receiver, TV andsource and the HDMI switch selects the source.

Prior to HDMI intro my HT had over 50 various video and sound connection points
With HDMI the number of connection points is less than half.

Though Coax the cable provides transmit a digital signal for the digital channels. So the digital cable boxes take the super compressed digital signals, uncompresses and distributes the sinformation to the TV. The uncompressed data can be sent to the TV in analog or digital; 1. digital processing HDMI or the analog processing (component, s-video, or composite outputs. Some of the cable boxes have the ability to upscale the video, for instance (480i to 480p).

What really sets blue ray and HDDVD apart from the cable signal is cable is heavily compressed where BR and HD are not.



"Digital Cable allows for the broadcast of EDTV (480p) as well as HDTV (720p, 1080i, and eventually 1080p). By contrast, analog cable transmits programs solely in the 480i format (the lowest television definition)."

As far as HDMI goes, I like it. The cable clutter of my HT is slowly diminishing.
Gold HDMI vs no Gold. interesting. Not sure how much difference I would see but I for one would like to see a test bewteen the two.