[Chris_TV]

I have been told that Gold Scart cables show a better quality picture through them.

Is this true and if so how better is the picture?

[Astaroth]

The theory is that a gold to gold connection will be better than steel to steel and therefore there will be a cleaner transfer of the signal from the source to the cable and then again from the cable to the display/recorder. There are some people who say that a gold to silver connection though is worse than a steel/copper to steel/copper.

To be honest wouldnt read anything into gold plated connections. If you look at scart cables you will note that the cheapo ones dont claim anything, the low price cables (under £20) make a big thing about being gold plated terminals but if you then look at the mid to high price cables (like QED, IXOS to name a few brands) they arent gold plated and make a big deal about the cable itself and nothing on the connection itself.

[diablo]

Most of the scart sockets in the equipment you will be using will be nickel plated steel. There are theories that using gold plated scart leads with these will set up a bad electrolytic reaction, especially in a humid environment.
Gold to gold is the best contact, but if you haven't got gold sockets then nickel to nickel is probably best.
The most important thing is that the cables are decent quality and each of the individual wires inside it are shielded.
Nickel scarts will form some mild corrosion, but this is easily fixed by unplugging them occasionally (every 6 months?) - plugging them in again will be abrasive enough to clean off any oxide.