AV cables and connectivity to LCD TV

[Reality Bites]

I've had my new Tosh 32wlt66 now for a few days and have been constantly playing around with the settings to get the best picture possible.

It's not bad at the moment. Still get some poor pixelation on weak signal channels and broadcasts but it's pretty good.

I've been looking to upgrade the scart cables but wanted the opinions of people who have done this to see if it's worth doing. And if so.....which type to get.

I've been looking at the QED P21 scarts for £25-£33 each. will get one for DVD and one for sky.

any thoughts?

 

[Energize]

Its not really worth it tbh as long as your scart cable is rgb. Wont get rid of the pixelation.

 

[Reality Bites]

mmm......i know the av and hi-fi mags like reviewing things for the sake of it sometimes, but a upgraded cable has to be better than the 99p thing you get with tv's?

 

[Oops Dead Again]

I use the QED P21 for sky to plasma and it is a quality cable, got mine for £22.95

 

[Energize]

mmm......i know the av and hi-fi mags like reviewing things for the sake of it sometimes, but a upgraded cable has to be better than the 99p thing you get with tv's?

As long as you've got rgb scart you will barely notice a difference it isnt worth paying more for, its only for component and better that you need to buy a decent cable for, and even then its not worth spending much on unless its for 50 meters or something stupid. No cable will fix the pixelation anyway. Ive used £20 cables before and there has been no difference. With these sort of cables its usually the placebo effect that make the picture look better.

 

[Reality Bites]

I use the QED P21 for sky to plasma and it is a quality cable, got mine for £22.95

did you notice any difference in the PQ?

 

[Goatboy]

Any improvement you get will be minimal, if you have the cash spare then it may be worth it but don't expect to notice a difference under normal viewing conditions - you'll need to get up close and swap cables to appreciate it.

 

[Reality Bites]

Thanks for all the replies.....

Seems other forums agree with the reponses here....an upgrade to a £5ish cable may have small benefits but anything more would be a waste.

 

[kidloco]

I disagree, I recently ditched a £10 vivanco cable I was using and replaced with a QED Silver Refrence cable I got off the bay for £14 the differance was very impressive.

depends how good the source and sreen are i guess

 

[Richiev4]

Hi

I have 4 scart cable behind my setup, and had a shadow down my screen, I replaced all the scart leads with new ones an the picture as cleared up immensely.

The cheap cables you get with your gear are usually badly shielded hence the shadow on my screen. Replaced the cable and now have a clear picture.

The new flat cables came from a supermarket of all places, only about 8 quid each.

Rich

 

[Tesla]

I think a lot of expensive cables are a waste of money.

These £100's kettle leads, I think they're a joke. The same with digital cables, I have yet to hear any differences between various digital coax cables.

The coax cables I make up myself are very good and I have a 6m one from PC to AMP which works fantastically.

As long as your scart cable is well shielded and also fully pinned then there will be little to no improvement. Unfortunately, cheapo scart leads are quite badly shielded (despite being fully pinned).

I changed all my bog standard scarts for some Thor scart cables which were about £20 each.

The difference was HUGE! I even plugged in the old scart and new scart at the same time so I could compare both at the same time (both running in RGB).

Gold connectors are a bit pointless, I've never seen a TV with gold sockets and gold PCB traces etc...

I run a AV business and carry a load of cheapo scarts and a well-screened scarts that look the same (ok they have gold connectors but it's hard to source screened cables that dont). Some of my customers see a huge difference (I dont tell them which one they are viewing, so it's a blind test).

Some customers see no difference at all.

At the end of the day, AV is very subjective and down to the individual. You sould like you have a Keen eye so I would say upgrade your Scarts but I would be reluctant to pay over £20 per cable. Certainly not over £25.

There are probably other ways you can improve your picture though. By correctly calibrating the brightness, contrast. It makes a huge improvement. A greater improvement than almost any cable.