Your TV takes a 3.5mm stereo jack input? Never seen that before, usually they're RCA type connections.
Anyways, the difference between the two video cable is that the single one has gold plated connections. Does that really matter? It may if you were dis-connecting/reconnecting often. The gold plated connection may help in connection longevity. But in reality, it most likely won't matter because of how often you plan on making the connection over again. Most likely no more that 5 mate/demates at either end.
The only other difference is that the single VGA cable has ferrite cores at each end, while the combined cable doesn't. So what do the ferrite cores do? Here's a blurb from a site I found:
Some manufacturers put a ferrite core on the video cable to reduce radiated radio emissions from the cable shield. Radio emissions that possibly could interfere with your television or radio reception for example. Even BNC cables sometimes need ferrite cores because it is the outside shield of the cable that acts as the antenna. It depends on how noisy (from a radiated emissions point of view) the video card is. After all it is the video card that is producing the radiated emissions to begin with monitors simply amplify the signal. This is also why some video card manufactures put filters on the output video signals that sometimes reduce 2D performance at higher resolutions.
So it boils down to what video card you have? I've heard of some ATI cards that include a ferrite core kit, so one could be safe to assume that if your card is an ATI you may be better off with the single VGA cable and be done. But then, you have to figure out, if your running that length behind the wall, is there a chance that it could come in close proximity of an AC path?
This would then deem the combined cable the better choice...or is it? Sure it is triple shield, but is the shield tied at both ends? If so, this could add to a potential ground loop. The shield is for sure tied to ground at the HTPC, so in the very least, if the combined cable's shield was tied only at one end, then you'd want to make sure that end went to the HTPC prior to running the cable behind the wall.
In all honesty, I'd go for neither. Run two CAT5e cables (two for future use) and select VGA and an Audio Baluns. This way, if you get better equipment at either end, then you only need to worry about upgrading the Baluns, and not the cable.
by scottw on Sat Sep 06, 2008 7:34 pm 
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