[dba-Tech] HDMI cable quality

My fave local vendor sells two varieties of 25' HDMI cables. I need one of
these, so I won't have to move my laptop from its comfortable position on
my desk. One HDMI cable is $17.99 and the other so-called Premium HDMI
cable costs almost twice that. What would I be obtaining for taking the
extra-expenseive route?

As the crow flies, the distance is more than 2 meters but substantially
less than 10 meters. The former, while cheaper, involves decoupling a bunch
of USB stuff and then moving the laptop closer to the TV. The latter
involves DuckTaping the cable to the baseboards so no one can trip on it --
a preferred solution, but that still leaves the other dilemma. What is
meant by "Premium HDMI cable"? Gold sockets? Something else? Should I
choose low-budget HDMI 25' cable or the higher-priced and allegedly
"premium" cable?

I've also read various brochures about HDMI spliters. My two HDMI
requirements are a Blu-ray player and my net connection to NetFlix. Is this
config what a splitter is for? And if so, how do I distinguish the two
sources? Frankly I'm ok with swapping the inputs, depending on whether I
want to watch a DVD or a stream from NetFlix, but all this is so confusing
to an old man who once lived on the bleeding edge but now feels so far
behind the edge that I have no idea what I'm doing.

-- 
Arthur