'Monster' digital audio coax cable, £19.99 at Comet

[jpmcbrien]

Priced at £39.99 on the shelf, scanned through at the till for £19.99.

This was at Comet in Farnborough (Hampshire), I can't speak for whether it's the same across all the stores. Fair to assume it's the same all round?

[Daneel]

If you want very high quality cables for a reasonable price I suggest bluejeanscable.

http://www.bluejeanscable.co.uk/store/digital-audio/index.htm

For 99% of people though, something like TV Cables generic is just fine (ignore profigold etc):

TV Cables - direct link (http://www.thedvdforums.com/jump2.php?url=http://scripts.affiliatefuture.com/AFClick.asp?affiliateID=17278&merchantID=415&programmeID=1462&mediaID=0&tracking=&url=http://www.tvcables.co.uk/cgi-bin/tvcables/scan/st=db/co=yes/sf=category/se=Digital%20Coaxial%20Cables/op=eq/sf=prod_group/se=Digital%20Audio%20Cables/op=eq.html?id=L6aeTRPR)

It's not that your's is a bad spot, just that monster represents terrible value for money so even at half price it's way too much.

[jpmcbrien]

Fair dues mate. :) To be honest I did take the opportunity to wind up the overly enthusiastic customer assistant drone before taking the thing to the checkout. Thing is I needed a cable ASAP today (long story) and I was able to walk in and pick it up. Ah well, maybe the Comet cable will be of use to someone. :)

Thanks a lot for the other link, I'll keep it in mind. :)

[AndyWilson]

As it's a digital interconnect the cable won't make a lot of difference anyway.

[sideshowbob]

As it's a digital interconnect the cable won't make a lot of difference anyway.

http://www.bobweb.co.uk/forums/canofworms.png

[DM]

As it's a digital interconnect the cable won't make a lot of difference anyway.

What! I paid £20 for a gold plated tos cable. :mad:

[Daneel]

What! I paid £20 for a gold plated tos cable. :mad:

Gold plating on a cable that carries the signal optically? Interesting :)

[danek]

Cables, eh?

http://www.badscience.net/?p=202#more-202

[Simes]

Cable quality does not matter for a DIGITAL signal..

There was a link posted on here once where they compared the signal carried over a top quality cable compared with that over a cheap bit of wire , joined to a rusty nail, onto some other bit of metal rubbish..Basically there was almost no difference in the signal. Because its digital the signal is either there or not.

With analogue cables , the cable quality is all important though. so decent speaker cable and analogue phonos are worth buying.

[DM]

Gold plating on a cable that carries the signal optically? Interesting :)

I was joking although I've seen them in Dixons. I wouldn't pay more than a fiver for a digital cable. ;)

[ccparkhill]

I think the argument goes that the higher quality the cable the less error correction is required.

[Uncle Nick]

I think the argument goes that the higher quality the cable the less error correction is required.

Which is cobblers because error correction is done by the pickup mechanism on your transport... before the signal is passed to the interconnects. The manufacturers of digital electronics long ago realised that anything more conductive than wet string is capable of transmitting the signal across a few metres without errors.

[Just]

Not so sure about digital video interconnects though. Crap DVI/HDMI cable over a 10metre stretch results in sparklies and other artefacting whereas high quality DVI/HDMI cable over the same distance doesn't.

[ccparkhill]

Just - would I be right in thinking that is the effect of jitter?

[Accident Man]

Just - would I be right in thinking that is the effect of jitter?

I believe the sparklies referred to in Just's post would be on account of data loss as there is no error checking with DVI/HDMI signal handling, so rather than an all or nothing scenario usually imagined with digital connections, you'll get "sparklies" on pixels where the data has been lost.

[Just]

I've not heard of it referred to as jitter, but yes sparklies and general artefacting can result when poor cable or long lengths are used to transport video digitally. As Accident Man says this is becuase there is no real error correction above sync and handshaking. Once the length or quality of the cable drops below a particular level the picture will not be displayed, but before that happens there is a gradual degredation akin to analogue audio interconnects.