Question about Audio/Video cables

Well, I broke down and bought a DVD player. As always with a component, I threw away the factory cables. In the past, I replaced them with Monster cables. The price has jumped a great deal lately, so I want to ask this question. Is there an equal or better to Monster that is the same or lower priced? I have heard of Canare, Nordost and MIT but do not know much about them. Anyone want to jump in and give suggestions?

Dana, I respectfuly point you here:

http://www.audioreview.com/Cables/PLS_1584crx.aspx

I have found this site has a WEALTH of info about all things audio/video.

I have bought due to user recommentation many times without problem. And it has saved me from buying crap before too!

Originally posted by sunspot:
Well, I broke down and bought a DVD player. As always with a component, I threw away the factory cables. In the past, I replaced them with Monster cables. The price has jumped a great deal lately, so I want to ask this question. Is there an equal or better to Monster that is the same or lower priced? I have heard of Canare, Nordost and MIT but do not know much about them. Anyone want to jump in and give suggestions?

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Sunspot,

Unless you have very long cable runs, very expensive cable is unnecessary. I have DVD cable runs of about 8 feet for one of my DVD players, and about 35 feet for the other. In that case based on my experience you will see some (fairly subtle) degradation of the picture and you should buy a superior cable, but even there I don't believe that you need "super" expensive cable like Monster cable. I use a fairly expensive excellent grade of cable (Don't remember brand or expense; it's been a while) But it's certainly not as expensive as Monster cable or similar products.

Brightnorm

Bushman. Thanks for the link. I'm off to peruse it.
Brightnorm. My runs are 2m at most. I can see a difference between factory and superior cable at those lenghts. I think on my DVD that the macro-protection interferes with the signal. It fades from clear to dark in a 10 second cycle. Swapping cable to put a Video 3 Monster on cleared the video right up. I tried an Acoustic Research cable and it did not help at all.

I have been very happy with the Radio Shack premium cables.

As someone who will never own the A/V system that he truely wants, (Unless I win a really HUGE lottery, that 4 mil lottery just won't cover everything!) I really want the best from my system, but economy is important also.

Unless your system is a ultra, state of the art EVERYTHING, (read EXPENSIVE!) I think the Radio Shack cables are very nice.

Originally posted by sunspot:
I think on my DVD that the macro-protection interferes with the signal. It fades from clear to dark in a 10 second cycle. Swapping cable to put a Video 3 Monster on cleared the video right up.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Sound like to hookup your DVD through a VCR to your TV.

Now, you mean you get rid of the macrovision by swapping a video cable while others have to patch their firmware!!

I am not that familiar with home audio products but do work for an A/V company and deal with professional audio. I our line of work Canare has no equal however it is not cheap.

Originally posted by sunspot:
Bushman. Thanks for the link. I'm off to peruse it.
Brightnorm. My runs are 2m at most. I can see a difference between factory and superior cable at those lenghts. I think on my DVD that the macro-protection interferes with the signal. It fades from clear to dark in a 10 second cycle. Swapping cable to put a Video 3 Monster on cleared the video right up. I tried an Acoustic Research cable and it did not help at all.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Sunspot,

I'm glad that worked for you. I haven't seen a similar problem on the many systems I've watched, but the important thing is that you were able to fix it relatively cheaply.

Here is a marvelous little gadget that can solve a number of viewing problems and also facilitate certain possibly desired procedures. You'll understand what I mean when you click on it. I am not suggesting that I own this, or that anyone should use it for non-standard procedures. I am also not in anyway endorsing the particular vendor, it was simply a convenient eway to display the product.

I can tell you, however that this is a quality product that does everything it claims to do in a highly competant manner.

SIMA COLOR CORRECTOR

Brightnorm

OH. Stop being so coy. The SCC has the ability to strip away the analog Macrovision copy protection (both types).

However, I don't believe that it will remove the digital copy protection (e.g. trying to copy to a DVD-R or Mini-DV).

However, no one really cares that much abvout copying high resolution DVD with digital sound to a low resolution VHS with two track sound.

Sunspot: I think you just had a bad cable (not a poor quality one) but just a bad cable that wasn't letting the full signal pass through.

FWIW-the Sima unit will allow copy from DVD->S-VHS.

BuddTX. I do not have state of the art (no lottery in Alabama) equipment but it is mid-range. I checked out MIT cable and one cable was listed at $9995.00 USD. Ouch. I think I will go with the Monster. I can snag one off Ebay for about $50 for the A/V set of three at 2 meters.
RY. I have heard of folks running cabled through two VCR's and defeating the #%&@ macrovision.

axolotls. Thanks for the tip. I bought two AR cables and did not try the other one yet. I will also look into the SIMA unit.

www.accessories4less.com

check out the Acoustic Research Line of cables..
David

CPF Noobie

My friend tried an expensive cable in a LAN for the server.
He tried a cheaper cable, no reduction in performance(he tried the test with ping, file copying, and benchmarks).
Super cheap cables will degrade performance, but you don't need the expensive ones.
With the money you save, you can buy a better piece of hardware that will really improve performance.
"I checked out MIT cable and one cable was listed at $9995.00 USD."
What cable is that? fiber optic?
Unless you really need it for your application, go for a cheaper cable and better hardware.

I found a company called Kimber Kable and the average price is about $80 a FOOT!!!Yikes. The only problem with Canare is they sell componets not ready to plug and play. I found some Monster cable on Ebay fairly cheap.
I find Acoustic Research no better then Recoton. I think I will look into a SCC. I don't copy but I don't like to have crap added to my signal.

I knew CPFer's can answer any questions. What a geat place this is.

What band of DVD player is it? Did you check if it can be patched?

It is a Magnavox. What do you mean by patched? It has RCA's out and a S-video out and a digital audio out.

Originally posted by sunspot:
It is a Magnavox. What do you mean by patched? It has RCA's out and a S-video out and a digital audio out.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Some DVD players can be patched with firmware to remove the Macrovision (so I heard ), similar to upgrade your computer bios.

I don't believe Magnavox is among them but you can check the users review on this list if you interested.