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Question: TV Coax Cable / connectors

#1
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9/8/07 at 7:29am
  • Joined: September 2007
  • Post Count: 2
My question is: everything that I read says the type connector you use (aparently gold plated has best connection) is very important...

1) If this is so, why does the cable company give you silver plated wires?

2) Why is my outlet for the cable that comes out of the wall not gold plated? (I suspect most people's are not)

3) The same question for the composite connectors as well

The reason I ask is I purchased gold plated coax cables and tried my TV with silver plated coax cables first and than gold plated cables and I really didn't see any difference...

Also when I did the same thing with my dvd player I don't notice any difference either whether I upgrade from silver plated to gold; or from composite cable to s-video cable...I really think this is all a scam ...or are my eyes not working correctly or is the difference just so small between them?

Please let me know your advice / oppinion.
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#2
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9/8/07 at 1:18pm
  • Joined: December 2003
  • Location: Charlotte, NC
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Re: Question: TV Coax Cable / connectors

The chances of you noticing any difference between gold and silver connectors is slim to none -- as there is probably no difference. (Note that I don't think you'll find anyone on a home theater-related forum saying that there will be a difference).

Now your statement about s-video vs composite is a different issue all together. If you have a decent tv and dvd player there should be at least a small difference between the two. And component should provide an even better picture.
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#3
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9/8/07 at 2:08pm
  • Joined: July 2003
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Re: Question: TV Coax Cable / connectors

There are so many other factors to getting a better picture before using a steel, silver or gold plated cable.
There are articles that while some cables are more expensive and they test better on a scope it doesn't translate into a better picture when viewing or listening.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,121777/article.html
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#4
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9/10/07 at 11:17pm
  • Joined: October 2006
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Re: Question: TV Coax Cable / connectors

I've come accross this exact situation with my cable company (cox). When we first bought our house we had major problems with cable. The cable guys would come and check every connection in our house and say the gold connectors were really bad and were the cause of the problem. We had some small tv's in the bedrooms with cheap gold ended cables they claimed were causing whole house problems. They changed all the cabled to thier steel/sliver looking ones. Problems remained, they then blamed it on ....get this one.... air getting to the inside of the little hole on a unused port on a 5 way splitter they installed originally (the main splitter in the house "smart box"). Ok replace splitter to eliminate unused port that had air entering the hole to a 4way and problems were still there. Now they are telling me they are going to charge me for the numorous calls of problems. A few days later and the cable company had 4 trucks 10 houses up for a few hours and we havn't had problems in years now. Since then I installed a couple more gold cables, another splitter with a air exposed port and still no issues.
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#5
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9/11/07 at 11:11am
  • Joined: November 1998
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Re: Question: TV Coax Cable / connectors

I do not think that silver plating or gold plating on the plugs or the wire end in the middle of the plug makes a difference in reception but both silver and gold don't corrode as easily as copper or steel or brass.

Unplugging (unscrewing in the case of some antenna coax plugs) and replugging twice should clean off the exposed ends sufficiently.

Video hints: http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

.

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#6
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9/11/07 at 11:23am
  • Joined: February 2001
  • Post Count: 3,219

Re: Question: TV Coax Cable / connectors

Silver is just too much of a hassle to properly maintain I prefer nickel.
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