Do Monster s-video cables cause damage?

[ge0dude]

I believe this is probably the most appropriate section.

I bought a fair amount of monster S-Video cables before I realized they were less than ideal.

Now from what I have gathered, it seems the issue is a "death-grip" issue where it grips the connector too hard, causing undue stress when connecting and disconnecting.

My question is, would these cables be appropriate to use in the background if I use a patch panel to do my switching?

They would rarely be plugged or unplugged. Let's say 4 times within the span of 10 years.

Would this be a reasonable situation to use them? Or should I try to steer clear as far away as possible from them? It would be a shame not to be able to put them to use, since I have at least 5, maybe more.

[latreche34]

S-Video cables specifically are not designed, or should I say poorly designed to be plugged and unplugged regularly, I've used all kind, brand name, no name, bundled with VCRs, they all suck at plugging/unplugging, The cheap ones have less tolerance so they are on the loose side and easy to slide in and out but electrical connection is not perfect.

If you do a lot of connecting/disconnecting I suggest you use short pigtails, one side S-Video connected permanently to the VCR or capture device or any video device you may have, the other side is BNC (Y-C). then use a BNC cable that has the BNC sockets on both ends to connect to the pigtails of the sending and receiving devices, So that way you only need to unplug and plug the BNC sockets from the pigtails and leave the pigtails' S-Video ends connected permanently to all your devices.

[timtape]

Yes and this applies to any connector type including the common RCA connector. A short and lighter extension lead with less heavy connectors is safer for the deck. Sometimes a heavy cable should be supported to prevent its weight pulling against the deck's sockets. Some later decks used sockets actually soldered to an internal printed circuit board. Constant plugging and unplugging of signal cables could fracture the signal connections at the PCB.

So called monster cables are often only necessary on long cable runs. For normal short runs of a meter or so they can have questionable benefit.

[Gary34]

Quote:

Sometimes a heavy cable should be supported to prevent its weight pulling against the deck's sockets

I have started doing that with my blue Jean cables. The blue Jean cables are really heavy and have what is probably an excessive amount of shielding.

[dpalomaki]

Quote:

...heavy cable should be supported to prevent its weight pulling against the deck's sockets

Good point, Goes more than double for smaller gear such as camcorders typically used for Video8/Hi8 transfers. Their connectors tend to be more fragile, are connected to weaker boards, and more difficult to reach to repair if broken.

[BarryTheCrab]

I can only find shorty pigtails that are splitters, so I plug in 1 and ignore the other.
Is that bad?