And Xtreme Mac sells their's for $19.99?
*sigh*, here we go again *puts on his noob slapping gloves*.
The cable that you get from Belkin is a quad shielded cable, it will also probably be Oxygen free and almost certainly be 24 carat gold plated. The reason this is important is because of an engineering term called "matched load". But I'm getting ahead of myself.
When you apply a voltage to a node in a citcuit the classical model is to asuume that the applied voltage is instantly present at any other nodes connected to it by wire. This is an acceptable model for real life because the velocity of propagation for copper based wire is approximatles a third of the speed of light and therefore the effect is instantaneuos.
We also assume that the copper wire is lossless, that is it has no resistance. This however is not true and there is a characteristic impedance associated with the cable which can be derrived from the inductance of the wire and the capacitance from the signal wire to the earth wire.
When one is transferring high bandwidth signals, DVI is approximatley 150Mhz if memory serves, this is no longer an acceptable model. The voltage should be treated as an almogmation of sine waves propagating down the copper.
When the propagating wave meets an inconsistancy in the characteristic impedance of the circuit then there is a reflection. This reflection super imposes itself ontop of the incoming signal and distorts it greatly. This is further impacted by the face that as the reflected wave reaches the source it is reflected again and causes further distortion.
However, when there is a matched load present at the termination of the transmission line there is no reflection at all. For there to be a good connection between the source and the load all the physical connections between the connectors must be *perfect*. This is not possible with normal materials because oxide forms on the surface of the material and forms a high resistance boundry and hence many reflections.
This is why the cable from Belkin is so much more espensive, the gold plated connectors and sealed/chielded cable all help to improve signal fidelity. However...........
All of the Above is applicable to an analogue system, however this is a digital system. When you have a digital signal either the signal is recieved or not, so the quality of the cable does not affect the quality of the system.
So, in conclusion, if you have an analogue system buy the most expensive cable you can afford. If you have a digital system buy the most expensive cable that you require to maintain a reliable connection.
I have attached a few traces I obtained from a Time Domain Reflectometer showing what happens when there is a short circuit, and open circuit and a matched load.
Chris