Fancy cables make any difference?

[Peter Howard]

Just bought a Japanese DVD recorder which will actually output RGB to a
SCART socket on the back. At long last I can plug something other than an
S-video adaptor into the SCART socket on the back of a Grundig 66cm
widescreen.
Naturally, there wasn't any SCART cable included in the box. However, the
nice salesman ratted around in his drawer of accumulated odds and ends and
came up with a metre long freebie cable. And he was a nice salesman. Gave me
$250 off for payment in cash.
Anyway, the cable worked fine but is a little short so I don't have a lot of
choice about where I put the new recorder.
My local choices for a longer cable are a $99 SCART cable by Monster or a
$12.95 SCART cable from Dickie Smith (which looks to be a longer version of
my freebie)
Question to those experienced with SCART interconnects. Will I truly see any
difference between the videophool cable from Monster and the Dickie Smith
item? Will I get better reliability in the long-term from the gold plated
(gold coloured?) shell and pins on the $99 cable?

PH

 

[riser]

Just bought a Japanese DVD recorder which will actually output RGB to a
SCART socket on the back. At long last I can plug something other than an
S-video adaptor into the SCART socket on the back of a Grundig 66cm
widescreen.
Naturally, there wasn't any SCART cable included in the box. However, the
nice salesman ratted around in his drawer of accumulated odds and ends and
came up with a metre long freebie cable. And he was a nice salesman. Gave
me
$250 off for payment in cash.
Anyway, the cable worked fine but is a little short so I don't have a lot
of
choice about where I put the new recorder.
My local choices for a longer cable are a $99 SCART cable by Monster or a
$12.95 SCART cable from Dickie Smith (which looks to be a longer version
of
my freebie)
Question to those experienced with SCART interconnects. Will I truly see
any
difference between the videophool cable from Monster and the Dickie Smith
item? Will I get better reliability in the long-term from the gold plated
(gold coloured?) shell and pins on the $99 cable?

The cheapy plastic scart leads are reasonable, but I got a much better
picture quality out of a $35 lead. Monster Cable is just hype.

http://tinyurl.com/4e52l

this will do you

 

[KLR]

Just bought a Japanese DVD recorder which will actually output RGB to a
SCART socket on the back. At long last I can plug something other than an
S-video adaptor into the SCART socket on the back of a Grundig 66cm
widescreen.
Naturally, there wasn't any SCART cable included in the box. However, the
nice salesman ratted around in his drawer of accumulated odds and ends and
came up with a metre long freebie cable. And he was a nice salesman. Gave me
$250 off for payment in cash.
Anyway, the cable worked fine but is a little short so I don't have a lot of
choice about where I put the new recorder.
My local choices for a longer cable are a $99 SCART cable by Monster or a
$12.95 SCART cable from Dickie Smith (which looks to be a longer version of
my freebie)
Question to those experienced with SCART interconnects. Will I truly see any
difference between the videophool cable from Monster and the Dickie Smith
item? Will I get better reliability in the long-term from the gold plated
(gold coloured?) shell and pins on the $99 cable?

PH

picture and sond quality in my opinion will be the same, however the
build quality of the more expensive cable will no doubt be better such
as the gold plated pins etc. I think $99 is a lot for such a cable -
specially considering that the scart sockets in the actual gear are
unlikely to be gold plated too

Having said that though, in this application (where the cable will
just be plugged in and left alone, not constantly moved and unplugged
like with portable or hire equipment) I doubt that the inexpensive
dick smith cable will give you any problems at all.



Try WES, I havent had much trouble with their RCA type cables in the
past - and can highly recommend their gold plated range for good build
quality at a very cheap price for what you are getting.

 

[Russ]

Question to those experienced with SCART interconnects. Will I truly
see any difference between the videophool cable from Monster and the
Dickie Smith item? Will I get better reliability in the long-term
from the gold plated (gold coloured?) shell and pins on the $99 cable?

From my experience as an ex-video tech, given the short length (1-2m I
assume) you'll see no difference whatsoever between the DS cable or more
expensive cables.

If you were doing longer runs, ie. 10m or more, you might consider better
cable, though more based on the fact that it's likely to be proper 50 ohm
cable and connectors which reduces reflections caused by impedance
mis-matches. If I were in that situation, I'd be looking to cable brands
such as Canare or Klotz rather than the snake-oil brands such as Monster.

 

[Caliban]

Peter Howard wrote:

[snip]

Question to those experienced with SCART interconnects. Will I truly see any
difference between the videophool cable from Monster and the Dickie Smith
item? Will I get better reliability in the long-term from the gold plated
(gold coloured?) shell and pins on the $99 cable?

PH

Most likely, yes. There are complaints about the cheap DS scart cable on
the DBA DTV forums.

e.g.

http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=2937&st=0&p=28651&#entry28651

The Jaycar cable seems to be better value (quality same but cheaper
price) than the Monster one.

 

[Peter Howard]

Thanks for all the replies on SCART cables. Your input was appreciated. I
ended up mail-ordering the Jaycar one.

PH

 

[Peter Howard]

Thanks for all the replies on SCART cables. Your input was appreciated. I
ended up mail ordering the Jaycar one.
PH