Now, all bets are off if there is significant noise coming from outside sources! There I'd imagine the MC cable's improved shielding, etc., would eliminate a large quantity of outside noise, which itself could conceivably add substantially to the picture quality degradation. So there you could be looking at the cable eliminating 75% of the source of, say, 10% of the noise, for an overall improvement of about 8%.

Which I have to say, I would pursue.

Now consider for a moment that you live in a dormitory like I do. Right off the bat, you've got a lot of noise coming from the power outlets. And even though I've got one of the better Monster power centers, I still get a significant amount of noise into my video sources. Add to that the fact that I've got a pluthera of wires going in and out and crossing all over the place behind my computer desk, things are bound to get a little messy. When I compare my monster video cable to a standard one, I can see a big difference.