Very unnecessary. Its only a marketing scam has no performance difference or extra life span because of something like that. There is no reason to waste money on something like that. I worked for Dish Network as a satellite installer and I saw those expensive cables fail just as much as the others. Just go to monoprice and get a reasonably priced one. If it fails then your only out a few bucks instead of a ridiculous amount that should never be spent on a cable that has the exact same internals in the first place.