Alright, I’m going to say this once because apparently half the people on this board still think the yellow composite cable that came free in the box is “good enough.” It isn’t. It was never good enough. It is a disgrace. It is the cable equivalent of eating steak through a straw.

I picked up the Monster Component Video Cable for my Toshiba DVD player and Sony Wega, and yeah, I know, Monster is expensive, the packaging is obnoxious, and the guy at Best Buy acts like he’s selling NASA equipment when he rings it up. Whatever. Plug it in and tell me you don’t see the difference. You won’t, because you’ll be too busy staring at actual color separation for the first time in your life.

Composite is garbage. S-Video is respectable. Component is the promised land. Red, green, blue. Clean signal. No dot crawl. No smeary reds. No skin tones that look like everyone in *The Matrix* has liver failure. You put in *The Fifth Element* Superbit or *Attack of the Clones* and suddenly your TV stops looking like a motel room and starts looking like a home theater. That’s the point.

And no, I’m not saying you need to take out a second mortgage on cables. Don’t be stupid. But don’t spend $1,500 on a television, $300 on a progressive-scan DVD player, and then connect it with a cable that looks like it came out of a cereal box. Signal chain matters. Source matters. Display matters. Cable matters. This is not voodoo. This is basic.

The build quality is solid. Thick jacket, tight connectors, color-coded right, no cheap plastic feel. It actually grips the inputs instead of hanging there like a wet noodle. You run this from your DVD player to the component inputs and the picture snaps into focus. Not magically. Not “night and day” like every lunatic on AVS Forum says about everything. But enough. Enough that you notice edges are cleaner, colors are more stable, and the image has less of that analog soup look.

Test discs: *Toy Story 2*, *Gladiator*, *The Phantom Menace*, *The Fifth Element*, and *Fight Club*. Animation benefits big time. Clean lines, better saturation, less crawling around edges. Live action is subtler, but still better. Flesh tones look less radioactive. Dark scenes hold together better. Text and menus look cleaner. You don’t need a PhD. You need eyes.

Compared to the no-name component cables, is Monster worth it? Depends. If you can get decent Acoustic Research or BetterCables for less, fine. I’m not married to the brand. But compared to the stock composite cable? It’s a massacre. Compared to S-Video? Still better, especially if your DVD player does progressive scan. If your TV only has composite, I’m sorry. Save up. Seriously.

Complaints? Price, obviously. Monster charges like they discovered copper. The packaging is ridiculous. The marketing is worse. The salesman will try to upsell you until your wallet files a police report. Ignore him. Buy the length you need, not a 12-foot python because some polo-shirt goblin says “future proof.”

Bottom line: if you’re serious about DVD, you need component video. Period. You bought the widescreen set. You bought the discs. You brag about your subwoofer. Stop feeding your display garbage and pretending it’s fine. This cable does the job, looks clean, locks in tight, and makes your DVDs look like DVDs are supposed to look.

Upgrade from composite immediately.

S-Video guys get a pass.

RF modulator guys need prayer.

’Nuff said.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5876091&forum_id=2).#49952764)