We recently bought 30ft HDMI cable. Chose it based on price which I recall was just over $30US plus reasonable shipping.

The cable we received appeared to be heavy duty and well made and to your eyeballs does a great job of transporting image from player to projector.

Bought a 12 ft cable at Sams Club - I recall approx. $24US. Seems to do a good job also but not any better transporting image from player to HDTV.

Personally, I think paying the monsterous price for Monster brand cables is unnecessary and the base components they use don't justify the obscene markup the apply to achieve their obscene high prices.

But if it makes you feel better spend the loot - we found it unnecessary.

We have same emotion re audio connections. Whenever possible I prefer optical audio links between players and sound system but fiber is fiber and no need to spend a Monsterous price to achieve a fiber optic connection. I buy RCA jack type cables wherever prices are lowest and suffer the consequences of good sound performance with money saved. Usually components are bunched together - players, sound system head and etc. and so the distance for audio cables is usually minimal and most any six foot wire will do a good job for the average listener (me).
goodluck

I would also recommend bluejeanscable.com. I bought two of their 35' BJC bonded pair series of HDMI cables and found them to be of the highest quality and significantly less expensive than a similar monster cable (about $110/cable including shipping to Canada).

What I found most reassuring (as I was as confused about all of this and was considering monoprice was well [but they were out of stock and it was going to be a month or more to get the cables I needed]) was that bluejeans really explains the cables, specifications, ratings which demystifies the whole buying experience. I found the HDMI reference center most useful.

Hope this helps.