I'm in the same situation as you are Michael, I bought a 35' or 40' run of HDMI cable from monoprice six years ago and it made a turn for the south on me last week. Don't feel dumb about not putting the proper lube in the 2" PVC ... dumbass me never ran any PVC!
Fortunately that's for the TV and I did do a 25' run of HDMI cable for the pre-wired front projector location so now my procrastination days of buying a front projector is coming to a halt, the CFO gave me the green light and now it's time to go shopping.
Regarding the HDMI cables, the locking mechanism is very intriguing to me also because I feel the reason my HDMI cable failed is because the connection was lacking some form of interlocking between the two connectors and I've always felt as though the current connections suck to say the least.
I am not aware of the cable you are referencing but I'd surely pay extra to have what I would consider to be a tight, strong connection.
