On Thu, 29 Mar 2001 06:44:34 -0700, Warren Young wrote:

>In another thread -- on dubbing VHS tapes -- I opined that using better
>cables had an affect on the quality of the dub. Several People Who Know
>piped up and told me I was full of s***. So, I decided to test my vague
>theories.
>
>I tried a super-cheap composite video cable (one step up from a chain of
>paperclips ;) ), one of Radio Shack's finest (I know, that turn of
>phrase sounds sarcastic -- I mean the heavier cable, with metal
>connectors and gold plating), and one of Monster's bottom-of-the-line
>cables. I played the SMPTE resolution chart from the Video Essentials
>DVD on two different players, and captured for 5 seconds at 720x480 with
>the Pinnacle DC1000. Then I examined the captured AVI.
>
>Result: all six captures (3 cables times 2 players) showed virtually the
>same image, 425-450 vertical lines before everything blended together.
>There was also roughly the same amount of noise in the dark gray areas
>with all three captures.
>
>I then repeated the test with a bog-standard S-Video cable and another
>Monster cable, this time an S-Video one. Again, 425-450 lines.
>
>That all tests came out essentially identical suggests that the limiting
>factor is the player and not the cables, but 425 lines is plenty,
>considering that none of my TVs can manage that much. :)
>
>So now that my illusions are shattered, all I can say about high end
>cables, at least as far as it comes to NTSC video, is that they're
>better built. Does anyone out there know of cables with similar build
>quality to high end audio cables, but without all the exotic materials?
>I'd rather buy them pre-made, but I've got the basic skills to build
>them myself if that's the way to go for quality without paying a lot --
>I would just need to know where to get quality parts.

Dunno 'bout the last (I buy most of my parts from,
uh, "RS"...;-). Thanks for an interesting post!