Here's one review of SOME HDMI cables, obviously it's only a small sampling. But they did rate the Monster cable the highest of this group and rated Blue Jeans and Monoprice amongst the lowest. Hmmmmmm......
I also look for things like
1. shielding, how much they have will help reject noise since it does leach into data signals.
2. UL Listing is important for those that plan on running them in wall.
3. What length they are rated at. If you buy a cheap cable, it most likely isn't meant to run at long cable lengths and adhere to the current HDMI standards.
4. Does it exceed current bandwidth specs? What happens if another HDMI spec comes out and you just installed cables that can only handle the current spec and then you upgrade equipment for the new spec and the cable you just installed doesn't work? Ooops. If I was wiring a house, I would put in Cat 7, even if I didn't need it, I may later down the road.
5. I buy cables and think in terms of them being a part of the system just like any component. I typically have more money spent on my audio system than I do for my video system, but in general, I spend about 20% of my total system price on cables. No, I don't spend $1000 on a 1 meter HDMI cable. However, if I spent $10K or more on a BluRay player and had a $200K reference projection system, then I'm sure spending whatever the most expensive cables were would not be an issue, but I might audition them before paying for them, just to see if there is a difference.
But here's my beef regarding people that put little importance on cables. First they have to realize is that the big dollar cable mfg have expensive test equipment most of us don't have, know about or can afford. they are also performing a variety of tests while they are designing the cable (hopefully), and the have various people auditioning them with various equipment. I'm sure if I owned an expensive 4K projection system, etc., it's very possible that the differences in HDMI cables will become more apparent, same thing with a good audio system. That's the unfortunate part of being an audio or video phile is the better your equipment gets, the better able you can tell the difference in cables and other tweaks. But as a rule, I wouldn't buy some off brand or no name crap for $3. If I'm going to install a good home theater system and drop $10K or more, than spending $100 or $150 for a 1 meter HDMI cable might actually be a good investment. But I wouldn't spend much more than that unless I was buying a $10k or more on a BluRay Player, and gobs of money on a video projection/high end 4K TV. But for most practical purposes, I see nothing wrong with spending $60 on a Monster Cable HDMI cable since they come with a Lifetime warranty, they've been around a long time, they are well constructed and they do get high ratings for a general purpose HDMI cable. But to generalize and say that there is no difference in HDMI cables, regardless of price? That's being completely ignorant, stupid, and just plain dumb.
As far as which companies I would be looking at, I personally like MIT Cables and Transparent Cables as my first two choices for audio/video cables. I've had the best luck with both of them.