Does anyone have any recommendations for component cables? I need a length of about 18 to 25 feet and I'm hooking up a progressive scan dvd to a plasma screen.

rhinocables.com

Their standard grade is better than almost any store brand available. Their higher end models barely add any benefit.

Use monster cable. The mid grade (monster 2) looks awsome. The cable isn't cheap ($59 for 6.6 ft) but well worth it. I use them myself and the quality of the picture on my dvd is amazing. You should also get a "power center" which filters your power, cable or satellite signal, and surge protects.

Monster 2 is an inexpensive RG-59 type cable. Similar bulk cable would cost about $.20/ft, I imagine. Let's see, add $20 for 6 connectors and $59 looks like a bit of markup to see the word "Monster" on your cable.

You might want to try some RG-6 cable to see if you can beat "amazing".

Monster cable is the most overrated and overpriced cables being sold.

"If there's Monster, Monster, Monster on the label, label, label you will like it, like it, like it on your cable,cable,cable."

Sherrr!

I use Belden 1694a, probably the best RG-6 money can buy. And it's not all that expensive.

I use Tributaries Delta series cables:

[Link: tributariescable.com]

$120.00 for 8 meters. Works great with my DVD and my HD receiver.

Rob
[Link: geocities.com]

When I first started using Monster Cables I was very skeptical. I thought they were over priced and over-rated. It took a lot of convincing and believe me I’m not an easy person to convince. Let’s just say I will now use nothing but Monster Cable. It’s a difference you can actually see and hear.

I second RhinoCables. Almost twice the cable that Monster is for half the price. IMO Monster is to cables what Bose is to audio.

Jon

I used some Tributaries and mostly IXOS cables from England (Gold Series). In your case, I suggest you use component cables to hook your DVD player to your plasma, which will give you the best picture quality. If you want to hook up your satellite dish to your plasma, S-video is the only option availabe. Try to avoid the composite cable, even if it's all gold.

BOSE is audio?

IMO and the opinion of many, Monster is overpriced and overhyped. It's not the worst, but you could get better for much less. As spiky said check out Rhinocables. Another company is avcables, very high quality custom stuff for less than Monster.

Jon

I'm going to go completely against the stream here. I've just recently installed a Sharp XV9000 DLP using 25-30 feet of cable. My installer insisted on showing me some experiments using different cables. We compared Component Monster, Tara Labs, IXOS and Digital Grade Quad-Axial RG6. We did many, many comparisons. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to undermine the value of my other components.

The Quad Shielded RG6 worked fine and I saw no discerable difference. The final thing going in the favour of the Quad-axial was that I didn't have to worry about interference from eletrical lighting wires. It was much easier to push/pull though walls and terminate later. We used (5) for RGBHV; DVD & HD, (2) for SVHS and (1) for Composite.

I'm very happy with the results. But I don't think the companies selling Mega expensive cable will agree.

This message was edited by sward on 02/07/03 00:36.

Tributaries and Analysis Plus both make all types of high quality cable.