I own a Sony Wega Trinitron TV that I acquired about 6-7 years ago. The TV still produces great image and reasonable sound quality, but a friend of mine has suggested buying an S-video cable for my TV. Recently he convinced me to purchase the Monster S-video cables for my Game Console, and the image improvement was pretty impressive. But the quality of my DVDs has always been great with just the plain composite cables, so I wonder, could S-video cables really improve the picture as much as they did with my game console? I understand the specifics of S-video, but I'm looking for personal experience concerning the cables. Is it worth it at this point?
(My TV does not support Progressive Scan as far as I know, so I'm not considering Component Cables)
2007-01-30 17:54:17 · 9 answers · asked by jonjounin1 1 in Consumer Electronics ➔ Home Theater
You can kinda look at it this way. The quality of the picture to be improved is somewhat correlated to the amount of data you can cram through a cable. Regular composite just has one loop of wire running through. Take a look at the s-video, it has i believe 4 pins? Component is even better in that it has 3 times the bandwidth of composite which means 6 runs of wire to your tv. Finally look at a DVI or HDMI connector. It has more pins than the 3 of these connectors combined.
Long story short, in most cases the connection with the most pins is the best connection. IF your TV has DVI or HDMI on it that will give you the highest quality connection and the largest bandwith for data transfer. However if not go with component (Red, Green, Blue Cables for video only) and then S-video will still be an improvement over regular composite.
Also if your DVD player has the Progressive Scan ability make sure to go into the menu and turn that on. It will cause the player to output the scan lines progressively, withouth interlacing them and will help to eliminate pixel crawl and show motion better.
As far as the issue with monster brand cables is concerned, in my personal opinion is that it will make a difference ONLY if you are running very high resloution picture for lengths more than 50 feet and in a room with a LOT of electronic equipment. They were developed by the same engineer who designed the atom splitter. All cables will pick up distortion from surrounding electro-magnetic fields, and monster has proven to run a 99.9% signal efficiency over lengths of 100 feet. If your running just a few feet you will not see a difference. One other aspect of monster brand cables is they are pure copper (best conductor) and that they will be nitrogen injected (to prevent corrosion), shielded with all sort of mettalic foils and the ends are gold plated to prevent corrosion on that level as well. It really is a lot of protection, but you need a lot of electronics around the area to be concerned.
If your just running a couple feet from your DVD to your TV then there's not really a need to go with monster brand. You won't see any discernable difference
2007-01-31 04:41:28 · answer #1 · answered by Edwin L 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yes it will improve no matter what brand of s-video cable you buy. You won't see the difference in quality when it comes to different bands of s-video you buy. If your tv is about 20 feet from the dvd player then you should be buying better branded s-video cables. But keep in mind that if your tv will accept the component video then that will be the best of the bunch. HDMI>Component>s-video>composite.
2007-01-31 02:20:17 · answer #2 · answered by rhettje 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There's no point in buying Monster brand cables, unless you want to spend ridiculous amounts of money for no real reason.
S-video is much higher quality than composite. the best is component video (Separate RGB RCA cables), though that interface is not as common as s-video.
Just buy a $9.95 S-video cable, plug it in and enjoy.
2007-01-30 18:29:48 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
There is no need to buy expensive monster s-video cables for your DVD. It won't improve your viewing pleasure as much as your gaming experience.
2007-01-30 20:48:03 · answer #4 · answered by ED LU 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
S-Video cable is a superior option than composite cable.
But everyone is correct in that you don't have to spend a ton on "Monster Cable" brand. It's overpriced and is no beter that Radio Shack brands.
2007-01-30 20:51:55 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes, by all means. You don't need an expensive cable. Find good ones here http://www.monoprice.com/home/index.asp
You will still need the red/white connectors for audio.
2007-01-30 18:19:20 · answer #6 · answered by gp4rts 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
yes, it suppose to improve quality. also I look at it as just one cable
and less spagetti behind the equipment. I have the s-video & RCA
jacks together. though they say you don't have to have both.
2007-01-30 18:06:03 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
yes- s-viseo cables are cheap and it will give you a better picture, wait you have them for you game console just swap and see if you think its worth it, but for 5 bucks just do it
2007-01-31 08:49:05 · answer #8 · answered by bill w 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You don't have to buy S-cables. It's just an alternative
2007-01-30 18:53:06 · answer #9 · answered by louie0894 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋