Regular video cables or gold plated ones?

[macgvyer]

I have a box that converts analog video to digital video. I can use the svhs connector or the standard 3 cables that hook up from a VCR. my question is this there are the regular 3 cables that cost about $7.00 or they have the monster gold cables that cost about $30.00. What is better to use the regular or the gold plated cables. Do they make such as differnce?

Thank you
Corey

[SquirrelXss]

Yes they make a differnce, as far as reliablility. But why not go with the gold plated ones so you can look like a rich pimp who has 24k gold plated everything.

[rsuave5]

gold is a much better conductor and also will not tarnish so your signal remains true over long periods. monster cables in general are better in design and manufacture i love um

[ZippyP.]

Personally, I think gold plated monster cables are a scam. Just get some decent cables and you won't have any trouble.

Gold will not oxidize and that's why it's used for electronic contacts, not because it's a great conducter, it's not. I've never had an oxidation problem but it can depend on the environment, heat, moisture etc.

As for cable size, bigger isn't necessarily better. Unless your cable is really long then average size cable is fine.

[txpharoah]

Sorry, not a scam. Gold plated, SHIELDED, cables are the best. MONSTER is the best known brand, and the costs are fair. The cheap cables use cheap materials.

Do cheap ones work? Why, yes, some of them do. I still have two that work, out of the 14 or so I started with about 3 years ago on my new setup (they came with the video systems).

Will they last as long as MONSTER? Not from my tests and experiences with video in the past decade. Are they AS GOOD? No, not often.

I still have some of my first MONSTER cables in use, almost 9 years old at this point. The other cheaper ones have been used to tie up tree clippings and the such. I use one to hold my gate shut in the back yard.

If using coax, get RG6 cable, and not RG55. The Radio Shack brand of coax is just fine.

Never buy your cables at Walmart.

[FOO]

The shielding tends to be skimpy on cheap cables but
that's only has a noticeable effect at high frequencies (RF , cable tv)
The characteristic impedance varies from 75 ohm more with
cheap cables. but again it probably won't affect video frequencies much.

In short you won't notice any signal degradation until they actually break.

Also FYI, Gold on tin-lead or tin nickel makes a worse connection
that tin/lead tin/nickel on itself. It's unlikely that
your VCR or capture input has gold.

[LanEvo7]

You should get gold plated, but you don't need to spend excessive money on monster ones.

[ebenton]

Gold will not oxidize and that's why it's used for electronic contacts, not because it's a great conducter, it's not. I've never had an oxidation problem but it can depend on the environment, heat, moisture etc.

Elements with a small number of valence electrons permit a lot of free electron movement and, therefore, readily conduct electricity. Copper, silver, gold, iron and aluminum all are good conductors. Each has only one or two electrons in its valence shell, and such elements tend to give up their valence electrons easily. Because free electrons move from atom to atom in these elements, electrical activity occurs readily.

Some metals conduct better than others. Even though copper, silver and gold each have only one valence electron, their conductivities differ. Silver is the best conductor, copper is second, and gold is third. The conductivity levels differ because of the way each element packs together into a solid structure. Silver atoms pack more efficiently than copper atoms and thus have more electrons that are free to move about and interact with one another. Copper, however, costs less than silver, so it is used more often. Silver is not used mostly because of tarnishing.

But as far as noticing a difference in video/audio quality between cable connector materials, there are probably a lot of other factors, mostly relating to the quality of your equipment, that affect things more than cable material. Besides, only the connectors gold. If the entire cable were gold, that might make a difference, but they sure would be expensive cables, and break easily, too!

Some (if not most) anecdotes about quality improvements after switching to gold connectors could probably be attributed to the placebo effect.

[ZippyP.]

Some (if not most) anecdotes about quality improvements after switching to gold connectors could probably be attributed to the placebo effect.

I agree. On the other hand, it is useful as gold resists oxidation therefore it's a good material with which to make electrical contacts. If you have a lot of humidity or live near salt water it might be good to have.

[Nelson37]

Of all the things I tried to improve capture quality, the $30 Monster Cable was the least noticeable - no detectable difference.

They DO, however, look cool. This advantage is compounded by the fact that most cheap cables look like crap.

There is also some value to at least knowing that the cables are NOT the problem.

It would be interesting to know how many people with very hi-quality screens and inputs, and sharp eyesight, can truly see a visual difference with the better cables.

[SHS]

First all you all have it wrong the Monster Cable connector on some are really Brass with a Gold plated.
On the other hand some Monster Cable connector are gold plated on tin-lead or tin nickel connector

[Jester700]

Also FYI, Gold on tin-lead or tin nickel makes a worse connection
that tin/lead tin/nickel on itself. It's unlikely that
your VCR or capture input has gold.

Good point. There have been articles about gold/tin connections in PC memory (old 30 & 72 pin simms) going bad, where "like" connections stayed good.

I've never seen a picture quality difference in cable. Better ones ARE more reliable in general, but IMO monster is usually overpriced. I also really dislike some of their bogus claims in some of their other products (instrument & audio cables), so I choose not to support them.

[SHS]

Jester700 that had do with brass and tin connections with 72 pin simms which do not mix very well which know as gold leads but it really brass not gold

[Jester700]

Jester700 that had do with brass and tin connections with 72 pin simms which do not mix very well which know as gold leads but it really brass not gold

OK. But the articles I read implied that it was the fact that the metals were dissimilar that caused the problem, not a specific chemistry problem between two specific metals. If it IS, in fact, a problem specific to those two metals, why would they choose THOSE metals for a common interface?