[rickforrest]

I'm strongly considering the Silver Serpent from bettercables.com. This cable will run between my Skyworth 480p dvd player and my NEC vt540 projector. I'm going to pay the $10 extra to have RCA connectors instead of BNC. it will run about $225 for the 24 footer.


I'd love to hear the opinions of the AVS forum experts. Here's the blurb:


BetterCables Silver Serpent VGA Breakout Cable

Engineered for video excellence. Our vga breakout cables are suitable for critical runs even as long as 200 feet or more – even with HDTV signals. Perfect for HDTV, Home Theater PCs, video scalers and any situation where signal quality should not be compromised. This cable enables your equipment to reproduce the best color saturation, black level and detail possible. We doubt there is a higher performing component cable available ANYWHERE at ANY price. The cable features solid 75-ohm silver-clad copper center conductors, hard-cell high-density foam PE insulation, 78 percent velocity of propagation, low 17.3 pF per ft capacitance, impedance-matched 75-ohm RCA or BNC connectors and triple shielding for unmatched RF and EMI interference protection. This cable is also NEC CL2 rated for in-wall use. THIS CABLE CAN BE USED AS A 15-PIN TO 3-CHANNEL COMPONENT VIDEO CABLE AS WELL. -NOTE THAT THE CABLES LONGER THAN 3 METERS DO NOT HAVE THE SILVER MESH APPLIED.



thanks,


rick

 

[MrWigggles]

Rick,


It is my opinion that you'll be fine with the Premium level from better cables. I've never seen one of their cables in person but I know how they are made.


I've never used silver cable before and I don't quite understand why it would outperform copper. If you want it to look pristine, that is your own decision. I don't think you'll see a bit of difference between the any of their cables on a 24' run for a 480p sources. Maybe a small amount at 1080p or SXGA at 85Hz+, but not at 480p.


Look for ghosting. If no ghosting exists, you've got a good link.


-Mr. Wigggles


------------------

The Mothership is now boarding.

 

[Yianni]




The few purchases I have made from BetterCables have all been excellent. I purchased a 24 foot run of Svideo cable as well as RGB breakout cable. No probs whatsoever and nice quality.


Running long on Svideo can cause signal degradation, but when I hooked up my Svideo amp, I saw no Improvement.



Johnny

 

[HTbuff]

You can make your own using Belden 7710A(3x RG-6)

or 7794A(3x RG-59). These cables are made just for RGB signals and the like. For runs that short even the miniature 59 cables work fine. This cable is pretimed to < 5nS. It's rated frequency and attenuation is way more than usage for component video requires.

 

[Swampfox]

VGA breakout cables are hard to make. I make all my cables except breakout cables. There are a handleful of AV cable companies that make good, well priced cables. Bettercables is one of them.


SM

 

[Rgb]

I agree with Mr. Wigggles.


I've had a BetterCables Premium 10 meter DB15-Db15 VGA cable since last fall. It connects my HTPC (currently GeForce2 Ultra) to a Mits XGA LCD.


Absolutely pixel-perfect alignment with no "smear", pixel jitter, shadows or ghosting across adjacent pixels. These types of signal degradation are easy to spot on an 8' wide image. I had slight ghosting and smear with a generic 25ft SVGA triple shielded cable from another vendor (for less than 30 bucks, it was a good starter cable though!). With the phase and tracking tweaked on the projector, [email protected] 60Hz is pixel-perfect, which I could not achieve with the cheaper cable.


Save the money and go Premium.

 

[rickforrest]

Thanks for the responses, guys.



[This message has been edited by rickforrest (edited 06-12-2001).]

 

[cubsfan]

How about some more input on this, with other, and possibly less costly cables.

 

[JJ Davis]

I've checked Better Cables website several times and do not find a "premium" grade cable - only the siler serpent. Can someone please tell me how to locate the premium level cables?


Thanks,


John

 

[rickforrest]

They seem to have removed them from their catalog. I guess they don't want to cut into the Silver Serpent sales. When I ordered mine via phone several months ago, the salesclerk tried to convince me to get the Silver Serpent instead, but I didn't bite (ha ha). I went for the Premium.


I suggest you call them and ask them what's up, see if they're still available.


rick

 

[cubsfan]

bump

 

[Dave E in TX]

Well I have both a 8M Silver Serpect VGA Breakout from BetterCables.com and a 1M VGA breatout from AVCable.com.


I also tried to buy the regular cable from BetterCables. At first I was told it would have to be special ordered. Then I was told it might not be available with RCAs. Then, I was told it was dropped for quality reasons. It was clear they did not want me to buy one, but rather upgrade to the silver serpent which was "in stock and can be there tomorrow". Because my LT150 was already home I went for it. I'm not particularly fond of "bait and switch" as a business tactic, and normally avoid places who do this.


Since then I ordered an AVCable for my DVDO. It appears to be just as high quality, with thicker shielding on the RCA wires, reinforcements around the rca plugs, and would have been around $100 for a custom 8M. If I had to do it again, I'd go with the AVCable.


In fact, if anyone wants to buy a silver serpent 25' for $200 shipped I'll sell it and get the AVCable.


I also ordered a bunch of interconnects from AVcable and I couldn't help but drool all over them. My subwoofer cable is a work of art.


-Dave

 

[dcarl]

I've had good results with cables I've gotten from Markertek. Their 25' VGA breakout cable is $83.

-Dave