Is there a true difference with HDMI cables?
depends. At 1 meter you are probably OK unless there is a serious issue with a cable, but for longer runs and "harder" content you can get intermittent problems. I had a friend that had a HDMI cable with 3 meters (so not too long but not too short either) sometimes he would get these green spots on the screen, he thought he had an issue with the TV, then the player, but in the end it was just a bad cable