comments:
Yes. I have Nintendo's S-Video I imported from Japan and it is no better than $8-12 generic S-Video cables, unless they're ultra cheap with what I believe is copper-cladded aluminum. The Innovation Amazon cable I tested was terrible. Meanwhile, the Gam3Gear one is good and equal to ripoff Insurrection. $7 is risky but if there's a return policy then okay risk it. The "best" seller on Canadian eBay has a good S-Video cable. Retrotink store sells one I'm sure is fine.
There is no lossless conversion of analog to digital video. You add electrical noise and lose detail with the chips that do the work. They convert the 240p or 480i to 480p digital video that the scaler or other device can then scale up to 720p or 1080p. There's no new graphical detail added but higher resolutions give the device more "room" to add effects like fake scanlines. Digital scaling can be lossless with no effects but the image will look exactly the same. Though I doubt you'll notice the difference between 4:4:4 and 4:2:2 chroma compression. Use S-Video or RGB but RGB isn't a whole lot better. Avoid Composite (yellow cable) like the plague. Don't spend over $200 to scale SNES. Cheapest RGB scalers that are good are GBS-Control and original OSSC that support Component and RGB. $140 Retrotink 2x Pro is a ripoff and you have to use Composite or S-Video since SNES doesn't output Component and it's not worth converting RGB to Component in a 2 device chain that adds noise. Instead you want the $40 AliExpress RetroScaler2x that does the exact thing with exact same quality. It is the best scaler under $100. Use a good $9-12 S-Video cable like this or this or "the best" seller on Canadian eBay. $30 tier is no better. I say this having an S-Video cable collection for SNES and PS2. Cool if you want to pay more to use RGB instead, video will be a little better. By contrast, don't go cheap on an RGB cable. You don't need CSYNC, it's no better if using quality cables.