Just to shim in the HDMI cables discussion, I also used to think that there all made equal until recently. All my HDMI cables are monoprice cables except one. They range from the 6ft cable to the 2ft and have all done their job flawlessly except in one case, the connection from my WDTV live to the receiver. For some reason, when I use one of the monoprice cable (I've tried a few with different length), I get this "sparkling" or "white snow" (similar to what some people get when a vacuum get plugged into the same circuit as the TV). I don't know if it's static, shielding problem but no matter the cable, it always happens. When I put an old 12ft Belkin cable that I had on hand, the problem disappeared. It's been like this for a year now without problem. A few times I tried to put back the monoprice cables but the problem comes back. I can't say I fully understand what's going on...and since I never had problem with the other cables (other than their stiffness), I never replaced them.
Hmmm, very strange. I wonder if it was a bad batch or the particular model of cable. Where did you purchase them from? I have several Monoprice HDMI cables, 3-6ft and 1-15 foot in length coming out of my cable box all connected to an AVR and they all work fine. I was particularly concerned about the longer one, especially in the case of the cable box where connections AND performance can be real finnicky, however, I have had them all connected for over a year now with no issues and of course, none of the picture anomalies you describe.
