[Luke_Y]

Radio Shack Gold single "Audio/Video" cable. Is it audio or video. Chu?

See Here

A cable that is marked "audio OR video" I take it that it would be a "video" cable in actuality but I am not sure. If it is a "video" cable than it would appear to make a nice cheap digital audio interconnect.

On the same subject, a friend suggests that with the Radio Shack Gold series cables- all cables would be the same as the "video" portion of a cable set... i.e. a bundled 3 cable A/V interconnect is actually 3 identical "video" cables and it would also be the same as a "component" video cable. He suggests that "subwoofer cables" and "Digital Coax".would also be the same as the video cables.

I have no idea if this is true or not, but have no reason to doubt it as I believe that a proper video cable would work fine in all those applications. It seems that if the cost difference was negligible in volume purchase it would certainly be recouped in ease of manufacturing.

I have heard that Radio Shack has been very forthcoming with cable specs. Has anyone ever gotten that level of specs from them. Chu, I think you are quite knowledgeable in this area if you are reading do you have any info, opinion, or insight?

[Bob McElfresh]

The rules are:

- Video cables must be made with something called "75 ohm" coax.

- Coaxial Digital cables must be made with 75 ohm coax

Audio cables can be made with ANY of the popular types of coax (50/75/110/300 ohm). Video cables make dandy audio interconnects.

If a cable is labeled "Audio/Video", likely it is 75 ohm coax.

Quote:

a friend suggests that with the Radio Shack Gold series cables- all cables would be the same as the "video" portion of a cable set

A few years ago this was true. Some people were buying the A/V cables for $20 and using them for cheap component cables. But later, someone tore apart some of the newer cables and noticed the Video cable in the set was different from the L/R audio cables. (I guess they caught on about the cheap component cables trick. )

I dont know about the current crop of RS cables.

[Mark Murphy]

I'm using something similar to that (3 ft instead of 6gt) for a digital coaxial connection for my HD tuner. It works great for me.

[Chu Gai]

From Radio Shack I obtained the following informaton...

Quote:

The specifications of the 150-1563 and 150-1564 component video cables
are as follows:

Conductor -- 7 x 0.005 Copper (20 AWG)
Insulation Diameter -- 0.136
Insulation Wall Thickness -- 0.053
Insulation Color -- Yellow / Red / White
Insulation Compound -- Foam Poly
Braid -- 4 x 0.005 Copper
Braid Coverage -- 58.80%
Jacket Diameter -- 0.725 x 0.235
Jacket Wall Thickness -- 0.039
Jacket Color -- Black
Connector -- Gold-plated encapsulated RCA plug with spring
Connection -- Crimped

Regarding the A/V cables, from a pdf they sent me (obiously scanned) I can dig out the following information for comparison...
Conductor -- 7 x30 Copper (22 AWG)
Insulation Diameter -- 0.136
Insulation Wall Thickness -- 0.053
Insulation Color -- Yellow / Red / White
Insulation Compound -- Foam Poly
Braid -- 4 x 0.005 Copper
Braid Coverage -- 58.80%
Jacket Diameter -- 0.725 x 0.235
Jacket Wall Thickness -- 0.040
Jacket Color -- Black
Connector -- Gold-plated
Connection -- Crimped (I assume)

Further, they state that it's the yellow cable that's the video. I presume that's simply a color issue as there's nothing in the pdf to indicate any of the three couldn't have been called 'video'. In addition, both cables are 75 ohms according to the Shack.

Hence while the AV cable doesn't look as nice, there's no reason it couldn't be used for something like a meter or two length. See the link at the top of this page http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=156221 for additonal comments regarding component video connections. Given the gauge, you should be able to 'guestimate' the maximum length, no?