Composite video cable = subwoofer cable??? (1 Viewer)

[Thor H]

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a 8 m (25 feet?) composite video cable to hook up the VCR to the projector. Of course they messed up the order, but they gave me a subwoofer cable in stead, claiming it was the same cable (exept white in stead of black). Have I been taken for a ride?

 

[Neil Joseph]

The impedance is slightly different, 50 omh as apposed to 75 ohm I believe, but for your application, it will work fine. For a composite hookup of a VCR to a projector, you could have also used a standard TV cable with adaptors on each end to convert from F style to RCA style and it would be dirt cheap. How much did this 25' cable cost you?

 

[Chris White]

The impedance is slightly different, 50 omh as apposed to 75 ohm I believe

Neil, you may be right, but there are a lot of cable manufacturers who sell 75 ohm cables for both applications. It's quite possible that the cable he received is a 75 ohm coax.

 

[Thor H]

It was a Monster cable, so it was totally overpriced of course. (800 NOK, incl our 24% VAT (yup!), I guess it would translate to $50 - 60 in the US.) It did however make a HUGE improvement compared to the cheap RCA - RCA cable I had. It's still not on par with the DVD (that runs over S-video), but it's quite acceptable now. But it also makes you think "would the "real" video cable be even better?". Unfortunately, I threw away the box, so I don't know the impedance, but I'll check in a store.

I've always subscribed to the view that the cable business is all about snake oil, but now that I've seen it for myself, I'm ready to swallow a camel or two. So if you're forking out hundreds of dollars for a projector, don't be cheap on the cable!