Hi my names' Jon,
This is my first post on the AV forums and i was after some advice about buying some new scart cables, would anyone be able to give me an idea of a few good quality cables that are not going to break the bank, i was looking to spend around £50 and wondered what sort of quality i would get for this, i am not up on all the tech speak so if any one does reply to to this would you be able to keep it simple please.

All i want the scart for is for connecting my Sky box to my T.V., which is a 37" LG LCD.

Also when i am watching Sky on the AV1 channel i seem to be getting ghosting from Channel 5 and i was wondering could this be down to using a cheap scart cable, or what else could be causing this to happen.

Any help would be nice, thanks.
Kind Regards Jon

[MitsiTurbo]

I would recommend the QED Sqart Reference range. Have a search for AV2110 which is the fully wired 1m version. Theyre about £40 brand new but I recently sold a couple on here for £20 each. I would say they are some of the best scart leads available. Once you have one, connect it to the TV out on the Sky box and to AV1 of the TV. Ensure that the Sky box and TV input are both set to RGB.

Hope this helps

[davepuma]

Welcome to the forum! Have a look at Thor (£18), Vivanco Prowire and Philex (both £12). Ixos do a blue range of cables that are pretty good too and all are less than £20.

Thanks for the replies, will i be able to see the difference by using one of these better quality scarts', could you tell what they will improve.

What about the channel 5 ghosting, say im watch Sky Sports 1 i get a ghost of 5 when there are dark colours on the screen.

Once again, Kind Regards Jon

[davepuma]

Sorry missed that bit from your first post. Sounds strange. How is the coax cable connected up i.e. does it go straight from the wall to the sky box or direct to the TV? If you don't have any other TV's fed off the sky box RF2 coax, I would connect the coax straight to the TV (or via DVD recorder if you use one). What else is connected up? Your AV channel shouldn't get interference at all as it's a direct connection. If the SCART cable is poorly shielded, I guess it could pick up interference, so yes a decent shielded SCART cable could fix the problem if that is what it is.

[Spiderkid]

Hi Jonny, I'll probably get my ass kicked for saying this, but I recently bought a Philips branded SCART lead from ASDA for £3.99 and it works brilliantly! Seriously, I've since connected with a decent HDMI cable and I can't even tell much of a difference! (I'm clearly doing something wrong)....

There is a school of thought that says that as long as the connections are good (and properly gold plated) then there's not a lot of point paying lots of money for cables. You can always get the Philips SCART cable from ASDA and if you dont' like it it's not a great loss - you could find a shop which sells a more expensive SCART lead in a resealable box (rather than sealed plastic), compare it and return it if you don't like it.

[davepuma]

Originally Posted by Spiderkid

Hi Jonny, I'll probably get my ass kicked for saying this, but I recently bought a Philips branded SCART lead from ASDA for £3.99 and it works brilliantly!

Hardly! If you find kit that does a good job and it's cheap, tell the folks on here. Sharing information and tips is what it's all about. I got a cheap component cable (JVC) from currys one night just to get a DVD player up and running and there was nothing wrong with it, so I didn't need to order a more expensive cable later.

Thankyou for all the advice, you all seem like a great bunch on these forums, not like some others that ive encounted on different forums accross the web, and dave the scart i am currently using is a very cheap one that came free with the Sky box, (you know, the one thats packaged with it), so i asume that there not of the best quality?

Kind Regards Jon

[Jon001]

HA...I have the same Philips Scart from asda that SpiderKid was talking about...He's not wrong either, I used it to connect my DVD player to my Samsung LE40m87 whilst I waited for my HDMI cable to arrive, and I didnt really notice much difference when I changed to the HDMI cable.
Its not a massive gamble for £3.97

[davepuma]

Originally Posted by Joniboy4844

Thankyou for all the advice, you all seem like a great bunch on these forums, not like some others that ive encounted on different forums accross the web, and dave the scart i am currently using is a very cheap one that came free with the Sky box, (you know, the one thats packaged with it), so i asume that there not of the best quality?

Kind Regards Jon

I wouldn't use free SCART cables in my system full stop. They're prone to falling apart and can break whilst plugged in, which isn't good. I have spent a few quid on SCART cables in my time (QED £50) and the ones I mentioned above are more than adequate and do make a difference. If you fancy splashing out, IXOS seem to make good quality budget cables but TBH, the Thor is bullet proof and is one of the best budget buys I've ever made.