Canare DIY video cables vs. store bought (1 Viewer)

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I know a lot of you have made custom DIY video cables using Canare coaxial cable and crimp-on RCAs.

My question is, did you see a visual improvement with them vs. the store-bought composite or component video cables you were using before? If so (or if not), what kind of display are you using?

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[ChrisWiggles]

I just went with blue-jeans Belden 5BNC-5BNC cable to start with because I have a long 30 foot run to my CRT projector. The more critical the task and the longer the length, the more important the cabling.

The most commmon thing you'll see is ringing or high frequency falloff with poor cabling. Quality cabling need not be expensive. In fact, boutique cables are probably among the worst offenders in terms of poor technical quality.

 

[lloydMon]

bluejeanscable.com rocks. I can't imagine making them when you can buy it so cheaply.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

Indeed, it is a good deal if you're buying a moderate amount of cables. If you have a very complex system or need to run a very large number of cables, it can be cheaper to make them yourself. It's just that the strippers and crimpers are not particularly cheap, so you could end up spending $100 on just the tools for not that many cables.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

What does that look like – i.e., what do you look for on your display that shows you have that problem?

Regards,
Wayne

 

[ChrisWiggles]

ringing/ghosting will happen and be most visible on long runs, it can look like EE, or you can have a faint ghost to the right of the image most easily visible on black/white vertical lines, especially thigns like black text or cursors on a white background. Rolloff you have to look at a frequency sweep, it's best if you can scope it, but you can also do a visual check, it's just harder to see unless its a more sever problem.