This Just Saved me $100,000 - Totalphase Cable Tester
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- čas přidán 29. 06. 2024
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Will this one piece of incredible test equipment actually save us time and money in the long run?
Check out TotalPhase's Advanced Cable Tester V2 at lmg.gg/L5v9O
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CHAPTERS
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0:00 Intro
1:05 Linus picks a fight
1:40 Unboxing
2:32 Internals
4:24 So many cables
5:23 Initial tests
7:20 Professor Riley lesson!
9:22 Time for some testing
10:51 Conclusion - Věda a technologie
When you review a monitor you should run any included cable through the tester.
100% this
Or any other peripheral with a detachable cable. A warning about a good peripheral having a bad cable packaged with it would be nice so I don't return the peripheral itself instead of replacing the cable.
big YES
Great Idea!
The included cables are probably actually really good
Would love a whole array of testing through the common cord brands you find online. All the amazon best sellers, the best buy brand, newegg, memex, etc, and stack them all up together in a battle royale.
Keeping this as top comment.
@@MrGamelover23 +1
Also be interesting to call out BS manufacturers who slap VESA certified labels on garbage.
yes
This comment will RISE
Do they still have that $1,000 HDMI cable they did a review for a long time ago? That would be a great cable to test.
that would be a fail FAIL
I'd love to see that cable tested
wasn't that like an active cable with video processing build in? Or am i mixing something up? Active Cables would never pass a tester like this.
@@Klokopf52 The one mentioned here: czcams.com/video/Zgy5fX-VPCs/video.html is one with solid silver core, and isn't active. But maybe there is also one with signal processing though, havn't watched all ltt vids ;D
It would be super interesting to see that test. I would expect it to pass, but also have no real world advantage over a random $10 cable of the same length that also passes.
I lost an insane amount of time troubleshooting "premium" very expensive DP cables for my 1440p 144Hz new display. It actually was making my PC not even power on. In the end i learned that many manufacturers cut cost on DP cables by sorting PIN 1 to +5V while it should have +3.3V something along these lines. Long story short i tried a few premium cables and non did 1440p/144Hz/Freesync/HDR. In the end the most inexpensive cable i bought was the most reliable and it actually had specs on max bandwidth supported. I find it ridiculous how many cables had no info on the box on what exactly they support bandwidth wise or if they did had weird pin out on "non-essential" pins.
preach
So in the end the best option is still to buy the cheapest and pray. Great, I've been doing that forever.
Because they know most people don't know/care. I bet you that the average person doesn't know that there is such thing as a new standard of HDMI from the first version
I even know people, who don't have 4K TV, cause it's pointless to them, when their 1080p Full HD display work fine just fine. I may be because 4K television per se is having a very hard time arriving around here tho...
Which brand?
I’d like to see LTT cover the Amazon basics cables to see if they are worth buying.
I used to swear by these, so I hope so.
Facts
Yeah, Monoprice and Amazon Basics are the obvious and low hanging fruit.
They're not, Amazon Basics are invariably inferior versions of products that Amazon is having ripped off over in China.
I don't know if they are better standardized now, but I remember buying a pair of HDMIs, and while one of them worked normally the other one got affected by electric interference any time someone flicked a light switch.
If you guys still have the $1000 HDMI cable lying around, you could test them to see if they have something unique in them.
Definitely this one
They should I remember Linus buying a super expensive super fast best in class cable
Holy shit, i was going to say that too
yeah they should test the apple luxury cable
If he doesn't, and he's perfectly willing to lose way too much money on a video, he could redo it with a bunch of different scam cable vendors.
I really love that you offered to do testing. The only thing to be wary about is your sampling size. Pulling a single model of cable from a manufacturer SHOULD give us a good idea of what they're generally putting out, but it could technically have some variances that put it above or below spec.
To really "stick feet to the fire", as it were, you'd pull several of the same cable, preferably from different locations so you theoretically could be getting items from different manufacturing runs/lots.
Alternatively, getting a new one and thus testing the same model across time could give us a semblance of a "sample", with better consideration for consistency, improvements, or degradations.
So are we going to find out if Anker is actually the best brand? I would like to see the difference in the different Anker Powerline USB-C to USB-C cables, I went with the PowerLine II 10Gbit, becuase it supports ultrafast speed and also the full 100W USB-PD. So my ultimate question I want answered is which is the best cable in terms of electrical resistance of the power wires.
Seconded! Shopping for quality USB-C cables is awful.
Thirded!! Interested to know how Anker cables test as well.
If it's just resistance you could probably rig something up in an hour, not spend 100grand
@@TheCarpenterUnion sure, anyone with a basic knowledge of electricals can do that, but this is us chiming in to Linus asking which brands does the audience want to have an insight on in terms of quality of cables.
@@TheCarpenterUnion yea I do have an LCR meter and various USB meters/loads, but it would be nice if LTT put cables head to head, or gave it to GN and they can spreadsheet it up!
I'd love to see a publicly available spreadsheet of brands who's cables you've tested and found are in or out of spec. It'll help people avoid giving money to dishonest companies and help them avoid the same issues you've had.
yes, PLEASE!
Hire me! I'll do it! 🤘
I would like to see that as well, but that doesn't help the company sell these bad boys.
YESSSSS
Or even a website at that point
As an electrical engineer, I approve of the over simplification of the eye diagram. It was well done for the non electrical engineer common folk. I did not expect to hear differential signal jitter being mentioned on this channel ever. Well done Riley.
Why mention you are in electrical engineering ?
@@gl4989 It shows even someone who's job uses this kind hardware everyday, that he recommends this for someone who didn't go through the learning that this person went through.
@@gl4989 ?
@@gl4989 Because it's relevant to the point of his comment. As someone who fully understands the issue he is in a better place to judge how well Riley was at explaining in a simplified form (and I do agree, it gets the point across enough for a general level understanding of it which really helps if anyone who watched this later wants to dig deeper into the field. Having a way to mentally realize the subject you are studying does wonders for retention).
I felt smart until I realised it was simplified :/
I love what LMG has become. Seeing things grow and evolve through the years has been really gratifying. Quickbits, tech news, the main channel, heck even the merch. The success is obvious but do you guys really understand what that success means?
That's success is (the meta-organism that is society) saying hey we really like you!
I like the random videos about his home improvement projects where he rants about the glossiness of paint or those broke azz smart light switches.
I would love to see just a google sheet of what brands/cables pass or fail. Then, when your fans (US!) are looking for a cable for our setup, we can pop open the sheet and know what is safe or unsafe to buy based on the standard we're looking for
Half a semester of electrical engineering in less than a minute with Riley. Amazing segment.
Riley is so cringy. He's about as funny as a rubber crutch. He's such a try hard.
@@littlejackalo5326 Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
We were thinking the same thing!
@@littlejackalo5326 you got ratio'd
Jitter analysis, I still shudder at the memories
I want a video of you testing all the cables you have, I don't care if it's 97 hours long I'll watch it
This made me laugh
I fully agree
oh a sick live stream would be nice
Public database of all cables tested with all test results for FTW
yes
I want a place that makes this device available for the public so that I can test my cables.
Find your nearest makerspace and you'll be testing your cables in no time at all.
I love the premise here, doing actual scientific testing on products that consumers realistically cannot. Will separate fact from fiction when it comes to reputation vs value. Just beware of companies sending you golden samples, or downgrading their product to increase profits after receiving a "mark of approval" on your test.
Oh yeah, can't wait for the LTT cable tier list! Very exciting stuff.
Id actually love more cable videos
Honestly though this would be really useful
me. isnt . bot..........,.
just kidding but i would love a cable tier list
no joke
Here's an idea: When doing a product review for products that generally come with a cable (such as monitors), throw in a blurb about the bundled cable (pun not intended but not avoided either) and its quality. Sometimes those cables can be real garbage and you actually do better keeping the one you already have. Other times, the one you already have is garbage, and the one included is pretty decent.
Just a little thing to throw into your already existing content.
They should 👍
So many people buy new expensive monitors, only to find out there's something "wrong" with it, but many find out that it was a bad cable.
and ofc ps/xbox cables
Can confirm the cable that comes with serious x is definitely 2.1
As I have a 8k tv
That can run in 4K 120hz
And can do so
This is definitely solid. An easy way to add value to their existing stuff.
This is the first stupidly expensive niche product linus bought that I actually think will be worth it for him.
March Madness... get 64 cables, seed the most expensive ones in each of the four brackets, and make a competition of it. I am sure the viewer with the most accurate predictions would love to win whatever extra goodies are laying around your work tables.
Linus: I'm worried about manually soldered wires.
Also Linus: let me tap my screwdriver on all the internal bits.
Not just this video, but every time you hear that metal scraping a chip or solder point, I grate my teeth. Not only for the nails on a blackboard sound but potential damage.
It's not like the top of a chip does the important bits
@@JaredConnell naked flipchips would tend to disagree. Also, a slip-up is very easily made.
In a later video he had an old Mobo he tried to start it by jumping the header pins with the LTT screwdriver and apparently the coating wasn't conductive or something I think
I would like to see a "budget brand" vs "premium brand" cable test covering each of the cable types you can test. I'd suggest the cables to be tested to come from Best Buy, Newegg, Amazon and so forth. It would be very nice to see which type is really better and when we *SHOULD* spend more on a cable vs less on the same type of cable.
Sounds like a fun video idea!
test them by manufacture brand, most cable have a manufacture , even it it ever som hard to find sometimes
@@mareli82 this would be the best way. No use in saying "brand A's HDMI is perfect, but its DisplayPort sucks". I want "ignore brand A, trust brand B"
Especially Walmart. House brand. That should be real entertaining.
I tried a lot of cables. Honestly, even the super fancy ones were pretty disappointing. Go cheap.
I’m actually shocked there don’t seem to be any dedicated cable testing websites 🤔
Big cable conspiracy
On an unrelated topic, as a Spanish speaker, I always read your name as Uncle Joe
🤔
Hi thio :)
weren't you the one who used to make all the troll videos of "how to increase your wifi speed" and all that
Would love to see a video about the cables that come with monitors. I find the process informational and relaxing. Also, keep a log of companies cables to see who consistently meets specifications.
that was a surprisingly good "dummies" coverage of an eye diagram.
I'd love to see how different adapters can affect signal rigidity, like usb-c hubs to HDMI, or display-port to USB-c
Might be tricky as the tester machine probably needs a bespoke tester head that has 'usbc + hdmi' ports on it...otherwise you'd have to introduce 2 adapters, one to test the cable, and another to test the adapter - at which point you have more points of failure and couldn't be sure what caused the problem.
Would love to see this. I get massive signal integrity problems using wireless peripheral dongles on USB hubs with power pass-through like USB PD. Massive headache.
Theoretically, it shouldn't at all. Since the signal is first digitized and then reconstructed from it's samples. Where the issue might occur is if the receiver is of bad quality and the signal is not sampled correctly before being reconstructed.
it'd be interesting to show the difference between simple adapters and active adapters that have to reprocess the signal
@@pietheijn-vo1gt theoretically, maybe. However, as this video shows, sometimes the specs ain't up to snuff. You make good points though!
I would watch a cable testing stream just fyi
I second this.
@@brandondavid321 yeah...totally willing to 'keep score' while someone at LMG is running cables through their specs.
+1
If you could make bets it would be better
@@Mack_Dingo next project for floatplane devs lol
Paused video to say Riley's class on cable signals was superb and taught me so much in such a small time. Bravo sir, 👏
Would be great to have a comparison/test of Active and Fiber Optic Hdmi Cables. These are often the only solution for longer HDMI runs for 4K/8K (For a projector install for example).
Wow, as an electrical engineer I was impressed with "prof Riley" - the eye diagram and the explanation were on point.
Yeah sometimes i wish i was taught by people who gave a shit about teaching . That's something rarely you see in electrical engineering .
Was just gonna comment the same. Saw the eye diagrams and was like "oh cool, eye diagrams!" ... and then came the unexpected, and frankly really quite good, Rileysplanation.
Not really to be honest... That was not a definition of an eye diagram, you sampling instance in the x not time.... And again you are looking at the effect of ISA generated by the cable filter response.
Also I'm not sure how that thing can generate that bitrate with just that two fast ADC and DAC. I would have imaged a big multi thousands dollar FPGA with on board driver for such applications. I don't wanna say bs bit I think that box is "cheating" in some sense. Driven such high borate produce heat and don't see heatsink smell BS to me...
Alberto Vaudagna its really not that difficult to test a cable
I agree. I have spent a lot of time at a LeCroy scope taking measurements such as these and I am not sure I could describe eye diagrams any more succinctly than this. Bravo, Riley!
Riley’s whole bit was pure perfection. You better never let this man leave LMG
Agree, great explainer.
Yeah he was great, flawless performance
It was so amazing well done Riley! You’re so much better than that engineering guy who thinks he’s funny!
Riley is such a dork, I love him
I was just thinking the same! pay that guy double!
Never change Linus, never change ... ... this pure good energy and vibes. Through all those years :-)
Excellent review. I love the product concept, now i just have to see if i can get a demo! Thanks for showing this.
idea: whenever you test a monitor/tv, test the included cables.
That idea is actually super helpful
I don't think it is needed, since manufacturer standardized them so that the device you are buying give you optimum performance.
Good idea
@@chocolatecandybar4319 Thats right. A manufacturer would never cheap out on cables. They only care about our experience.
Along the same lines, perhaps a video showcasing different company's included cables. I'd love to see how the new xBox and PS5 cables stack up
I’d be interested to know about how Amazon basics long hdmi cables fair
I want to see all the Amazon Basics cables tested, including USB A and C
I have had nothing but success with Amazon Basic tech, especially cables, both video and pro audio. Id be interested in that video too.
Just so you know, it's 'fare'
English homophones are low-key fucked
@@deadnamemcdonald8601 As long as I don't have to read "should of"
I had a terrible time with the Amazon basics HDMI cord my school provided for me when my cable broke. The next few months it would cut out at least two times during class for like 30 seconds totally killing the flow of class. I finally gave up and bought my own.
Got a couple of thunderbolt cables always seem to get interferance from these , is this because they are trash ? I would really like to find a good one, but they anit cheap. Can anyone recommend a good one ?
It was so cool to see you guys stepping up to a great industrial piece of gear like this. I have never used this device but cables can be a real problem for anyone. We had to use a way more expensive network analyzer for the same thing. Not only did it cost 10X it really did not do as good of a job. It was always SOP to test every cable in a test setup prior to testing. Super creds to LTT
Linus's excitment over throwing away crappy cables, i resonate with that.
I was really hoping he would take a pair of scissors to them, but alas...
The pain of a cable that is intermittently failing. THE PAAAAAIIINN.
I’d kill for a video seeing if the “Amazon basics” recommended cords are up to task
yes!!! lmaoo
Narrator: "They weren't"
Nah they're not. It's just a basic cable.
The USB 10 gig cables from Amazon are some of the only ones I can get to work
@@zxcvb_bvcxz Then you have many problems with your hardware, its not the cables.
Would love to see cables included with products tested so we know whether we need to buy a separate high-quality cable with a product or not.
Revisit all the HDMI/Ethernet you've reviewed over the past few years. Especially the EliteCore Ethernet Cable.
I'd love to see an investigation of so-called "certified" HDMI and Display Port cables from Amazon 🤔
That would be a good idea, showing if Amazon can deliver valid cables would make the selection process easy for people around the world, but it would make sense to test a number of them to get an averaged result.
would fail miserably, amazon has a bad cable track record, remember when all those chargers and surge protectors just melted and caught on fire?
Wonder what would happen if he tested those $100+ cables that give you better pictures quality and have a USB port for powering something.
Sounds like snake oil to me
@@bland9876 yes or those overly expensive audiophile USB cables, like the Curious Cable
Almost anything that says "certified" is probably BS
I'm curious if that rediculously expensive "diamond" cable is still in stock. I'd love to see that on the machine.
The $1000 cable from wireworld featured in "useless tech over $100"
I am absolutely shocked that this wasn't even mentioned in the episode. : /
tbh I did forget that episode. But hell ya, I guess we all wanna see that cable.
You might see that it actually conducts and insulates better, even though it doesn’t matter at all.
Immediately thought this too
@@smogstreaming i wonder if linus even remembers that episode that's some OG shit
I am an "Entertainment Technician", and this tester could save me SO MUCH TIME... You have no idea how often I have to diagnose problems with video signals between multiple systems on a show or event. Normally everything works well, but when it doesn't a giant headeache is had and it's next to impossible to know what part of the signal path is at fault.
Yeah, nice to to have such testing device. Iam glad my Denon AVR is capable of testing HDMI cables too!
Or you could do an episode wherein you show all the brands and see if it's worth paying more for the mainstream brands if cheaper cables function to the spec they specify.
The cables they have might be years old and they probably can't at this point guarantee that they've all seen the same kind of usage. They'd have to buy new cable.
Yes, I've sworn by Anker USB A & C cables for a while now but are they really that much better? I just know they work and am worried to try anything else so would be nice to see any alternatives with just as good/better quality
i've wondered that about "generic" brand hdmi 2.1 cables vs any name brand gold plated ones
Great idea!
@@dr_tails658 maybe they should try testing the amazonbasics also... cheap price cheaper quality?
my friend was a very early adopter of this standard and got many cables that were all apparently validated with one of these machines but lo and behold they mostly didn't work properly at HDMI 2.1 speeds. most of them would not give him full resolution/hz/colour depth, or would only work with heavy chroma subsampling etc. the most common issues were the cables with active components. testers only run small burst tests and would not find overheating issues. he suspects that even some of these machines themselves are not configured to test the bandwidth of HDMI 2.1 correctly due to the confusion over this new standard. I hope when you do these reviews that you test every cable hooked up to real hardware too
Hi DeSinc!
@@Vladislav_0001 hello
The flying funny half life man is on a lmg video about a cable tester talking about hdmi 2/2.1 cables that do not meet the standard
This is supposed to be a quick and dirty test. I don't know how much the box in this video actually costs but I don't imagine it's consumer-level pricing, however it's still only quick-and-dirty level in terms of industrial certification standard.
A full rigorous test for certification takes 30 minutes (edit: it's actually closer to 2 hours if checking every resolution) and involves a EMI-free chamber with rotational capabilities.
czcams.com/video/QpRnAdC3NNE/video.html
I love the occasional interaction DeSinc has with all of my favourite CZcamsrs
LOVE the Prof. Riley segment. Didn't love how yellow he looked there, the white balance was a little funky in my layman's opinion
A head to head comparison of famous brands would be great! Specially Anker since they seem to have quality stuff for an affordable price
That feeling when Linus starts covering things you deal with in your industry.
:)
Yup, happens whenever he does networking stuff for me. lol
Good or bad feeling? I imagine it's exciting.
I'm disappointed that people take advantage of most people's inability to test cables.
On a similar note, I've overloaded a thiiiick 16g electrical extension cord because I thought thicker simply meant better. At least I learned to read gauge and wattage from that near disaster.
@@andrekz9138 What is your industry/field? Also I cringed when you said you thought "thicker simply meant better". This entire trend of "thicker/fatter/heavier/heftier/bigger/beafier (or whatever you wanna call it) is better" is like one of the worst things to hit engineeering as a whole. All the chinese have to do is put some rocks in something and fools will believe it's "hIgHeR qUaliTyyyy" because it's "heavier". What's worse is when youtube reviewers say "umm it's heavy, so it feels good quality".
Sorry for the rant but stupid consumers get stupid managers to force engineers to make stupid products. Cables are one such field. Don't take any of this personally. It's a long pent up rant with a real problem.
@@monotrope It's an annoying trend because heavier is often a side effect of high quality / more durable products. 12AWG is not exactly light, and for products thicker more dense plastics are also heavy. Just people know the affect, and don't bother to look for the cause.
Gamers Nexus would have a field day with this thing 😂
I was thinking Dawid does tech. He loves buying stuff on Wish and testing it.
@@megan_alnico You can bet Steve is getting sent this by this team with a pleading face emoji asking him to get them one
lol you reeeely don't like new egg do you. lol do you much trolling they can do>
It would be nice to see some coverage of cables provided in the box with most display manufacturers. And then maybe some alternates if there are some really bad cables provided.
Love this idea ! It's MUCH needed.
you should retest the unbreakable HDMI kabel and see if it passes before and after destruction testing!
cable* :)
Understandable though considering you're Dutch.
Great idea :D
@@Creekie1337 shut up grammar nazi
@@norkshit It's actually spelling
What about the made out of silver bitch cable
Make a spreadsheet of the brands and supposed specs that they claim and add the results with a time/date stamp. A two man job of testing and data entry while you check your inventory of cables. That way you can always review them later if those same brands make revisions or new products.
THIS, rn buying HDMI 2.1 on Amazon or elsewhere is a minefield, even the certified ones, I bought two and both failed, non stop blinking and other failures
I second this. This would be so good.
An open source database of cable integrity. Wish ltt does it.
I was about to get the Zeskit hdmi 2.1 16ft cable but im getting mixed reviews, my current cable keeps flickering from time to time when send a 4k hdr 120hz signal which does not happen with the short cable, i know hdmi lenght limitations but a 16ft (5mt) cable should be possible and thats what im looking for.
This sounds like an AWESOME idea! We cannot wait to see it!
You need to test like 100 cables of every brand, type and size to even have a single significant data point. You can't just test 1 cable and say "all cables of this type by this brand are good or bad". So this is next to impossible.
I would seriously love a rapid fire series where let's say for ten minutes you spend a minute testing each capable of a certain variety or spec.
The amount of time it would save me looking for quality cables would be sublime
Glad to have you back Linus!
The Professor Riley segment was actually great. We cover this in engineering classes, both electrical and for fiber optics
Yes I love professor Riley
I'd like to see a test for the HDMI cables that comes in the new consoles (PS5, Series X, Switch)
In the same vein: HDMI cords that come with popular gaming monitors.
@@DemonWolf100 most come with display port
This. I would love to see this, considering that tech manufacturers could very well cheap out on the cables they bundle with the consoles to save money.
Ahhh YEAH!!! This was my kind of content! Lovely! I hate fake cables pushed by fake brands (or brands that does not know better) ! I have seen that SOOO much and it makes me CRAZY!!
You guys should take the tester around to random offices in your area and offer to test their cables for some kind of game. Add some fun stakes and personality and you have a show. Maybe get a sponsor to buy new cables to replace their garbage ones.
This means you’ll be doing good by removing bad cables, spreading the word locally and virtually, and making content.
OMG. Every cable manufacturer is probably shitting bricks right now because LTT can test their cables now. This is gonna be great. Can finally know what cables to avoid and what cables are actually worth the money.
Would love to see that 1k HDMI cable tested. Also, would love a video of testing different cables on a test bench to see if there are frame differences possibly. Though I know it'd probably be minuscule and more typical deviation between tests than an actual real difference.
@tan j maz actually, that's quite cheap compared to other products that can measure in the range to 10ths GHz
There wont be frame differences at all if a cable cant to 4k 144hz for example the monitor will say insufficient signal cant establish a 144hz link and downscale to I dunno 120hz 75hz
@tan j maz It's industrial equipment, you are not meant to buy these, obviously it's worth the money for LTT because of what they do.
@tan j maz making a device like this is very expensive, since it needs collects very huge amounts of data in a very little time in order to test the cables. The oscilloscopes that are able to measure these stuff can cost up to millions of dollars, and it doesn't have such software that can measure and sort the measurements like this. I guess it's relatively cheap because it's very specifically designed for HDMI cables.
@@ArmiaKhairy It is a generic redriver/retimer from TI. It has nothing in common with set multi ghz equipment. And no one in their mind would use a real time oscilloscope for that kind of job. There are VNA/BERT testers for that.
Idea for testing cables: When reviewing a product with a included cable run it though the tester and let us know of a pass or fail
I came here to say exactly this call out brands that send bad cables with their products or at least if they have anything that says something like a 4k monitor that says it includes a HDMI 2.1 cable
Maybe the cables that come with consoles or monitors even phone charging cables would be nice to know more about
Thank You linus and co for again imparting us wisdom.
Surprisingly. This video is cool. Did not know this cord tester gave grafts and analytics. Vary cool.👍👍👍
"There's a lot of good we can do by casting light on brands or product lines that are not adhering to the standards."
OH GOD YES! Please rip the cable industry a new one. It's bad enough that we need a spreadsheet to understand USB standards, but having the countless crappy Chinese manufactures lying through their teeth about their cable specs just makes it all the more frustrating when shopping for them. In fact, I would be glad to donate money to send Gamer's Nexus one of those testers too.
My first thought after seeing this is how did they beat Steve to the punch!
idea: keep using the cable tester for your own internal purposes, but log all the data of which cable suppliers passed and failed, then release an occasional report on those
just like back blaze does for hardrives.
that could be rude, when Linus drives a car over a cable for a stunt, then finds it in a box months later and then complains on air about the cable.
Swiss parliament had high quality Ethernet wire installed, but it failed signal integrity test. It took a few weeks before they figured out that someone store a heavy crate on top of the cable spool, deforming the inner isolator, degrading signal integrity. Note: The cable spool was clearly labeled as "do not stack". So, the cable manufacturer and the installer where not at fault, but a random contractor caused a lot of damage, as the wire had to be replaced.
DUDE! This is awesome. Like he said "snake oil" BS with these cables is still a big problem. So many times I've been afraid of going with a certain brand or lable because I justr wasnt sure if it did what it said it would do. The placebo effect is strong too, "yeah, that looks clearer I think".
I think this channel should do a lot more cable testing, review, and sharing through videos. I built a rack personal computer to put in my home server room and ran long hdmi and usb through the ceiling and into my office. I was able to make everything work "fine" with hdmi boosters and usb active cables. But this is an area where cable quality really makes a difference.
Teacher Riley is the secret sauce we've been missing all these years
Honestly I do like the character. Erudite, overly dramatic, yet vulnerable and charismatic 🤌
And he's only allowed to use big pieces of paper
Gave a thumbs up just for that to this video hah.
Nice camo tactleneck he's rocking too. Blends right in as a teacher.
@@johnnypopstar tactleneck 🤣
I'd be curious to see the results of Linus' Thunderbolt over fiber cable that he has at his house. Not entirely sure if that would be possible, but it would be interesting nonetheless.
That segment with Riley was just brilliant. Informative and hilarious
I love it. Great video! Professor Riley was awesome in every way.
I would love to see you guys include cable tests for any included cables when you're reviewing a product. Like if a monitor comes with an HDMI or DP cable you can test if it's actually worth using. I love this kind of granular tech stuff and I am glad to finally see someone doing testing on a very grey area of the market.
I don't think the device had a DisplayPort connector. Would've been pretty sick
@@seasesh4073 It has interchangeable testing ports.
Also test USB cables included in phones to verify PD
display port would be great, wondering if affects high hz gameplay somehow.
nope. A cable with either work 100%, or work with dropouts (that are very obvious) or not work atall.
@@djenson and those dropouts will most likely result in a blackout and the monitor downscaling to a lower HZ automatically
Yooo, didn’t think I’d find you here. I claimed the aimbot too hehe
Yes, display port please! Exactly two of my many many cables work on my ultra widescreen, plus one mini displayport-to-displayport cable that works with dropouts but I NEED for work because the surface dock sucks
@@djenson Shame this wasn't mentioned in the video, now everyone will be neurotic and think their cables could be "degrading signal" in a literal sense. These are digital connectors, not analog. Analog cables can physically degrade in quality, digital ones cannot. It either works or doesn't, as the receiving end of the cable reads the signal and reconstructs the digital bits (1's and 0's) that were originally being sent, and can detect through a checksum if the bits were altered in transit
I always needed one of these in the kitchen.
This is great for when you get new motherboards, monitors, etc to make sure they are up to spec or if Manufacturers are cutting cost
I'd love to see the Quality of peripherals for a monitor for example, just add something about whether or not one should buy a separate cable or if the included one is fine.
That's actually a great idea. So many of the devices LMG reviews, unboxes, or features contain cables that may or may not be sufficient for the product they're bundled with. It'd be interesting to find out which brands bundle quality cables and which cheap out.
I concure just throw in a little section about the quality of the cables included in the review
This. For every product LMG reviews, just a quick line on whether the included cables are Good or Not Good.
That section with Riley was downright delightful, loved everything about it!
And his eye diagram sweater was a nice touch too!
I'm not sure I've ever seen Riley on-screen without being delighted, honestly
How is a diamond a hexagon?
dude gimme a whole series with that. that gen Z bill nye material right there.
A video on each cable type taking samples from each brand would be kinda nice. Like a cable tier list!
Ethernet, display, HDMI etc. Id be interested to know how it fairs testing audio cable too! Im always buying gold connectors and things being an audiophile, would be nice to know how much effect the different conductive coatings actually have.
you are super good explainin staff...more of these videos please
When reviewing products, please test the cables that come with them as well. Curious how many companies are saving pennies by using cheaper products.
+100
Do you still have that $1000 HDMI cable that used something like .997 silver wires? I'd like to see the signal integrity test of that one.
Also, will this machine tell whether my DVI-to-DisplayPort cables are active or passive?
YESSSS THIS, that cable is literally the first thing I thought of in this video
Bro this the first thing I thought of. They should've tested it
We mean Marseille Inc. mCable 🤣
If your DVI-DP cable has extra USB input - it is active, otherwise passive.
@@lategamingwithiainjarvis WireWorld cable
This is great I can't wait to see the videos on this subject. I wonder if there is any way to see the differences on super high end cables that cost premium, and if they are worth the extra cost.
- You should do a roll-up video of when you go through your collection of cables and say what was wrong and how.
- When reviewing something such as a monitor, include the testing of the cables it comes with (including power, don't want them sneaking dodgy power cables in with expensive monitors/power supplies because you said "we generally have had no issues with power cables").
sometimes you do reviews of special cables like the wireless ones and the fancy fibreoptic ones, might be worth revisiting them.
Testing OEM HDMI or DP cables that usually come with monitors would be nice, since that is the most likely thing people will use for their systems
Facts right there using cables that came with my monitor as we speak
@@92kosta yeah, I know that, but companies sometimes tend to cheap out on things like these, so a video idea would be comparing the quality of cables manufacturers include with their monitors, because bad cables lead to more ewaste
I would love a big Excel document with all cables you've tested. Including as much information as possible along side whether they pass or fail. This would allow for quick searching before buying a cable in future!
Tho I understand this would be a huge amount of work, it would be the dream.
I second this. Also including cables available internationally, not just in NA.
@@theRPGmaster Heck yes! Expand this to an international project would be awesome. With the reach LTT has, some companies will have an awfull time while others will have many many more customers in future.
It would be a really smart idea, especially if they link an affiliate link to each cable they tested. Can make a lot of money from this
definitely a pass fail list. Would be super helpful.
GIMMIE A MICROSOFT POWERPOINT
I would love to know enough about technology that I'd be able to open up hardware and try to figure out what's doing what on the circuit board. Linus has an impressive body of knowledge under his belt!
Haha great! I learned something new with the blue eye. Thanks
Answer the question: "What is the cheapest actually good HDMI 2.1 cable?"
The only company I haven't had issues with for HDMI 2.1 full bandwidth is cable matters, for what it's worth
As soon as he publishes that answer to his 10+M subscribers, it won't be the cheapest any more.
@@DPortain it may already not be, now that it’s been posted here.
Probably some random unbranded 1$ one from AliExpress
@@christofos I buy cable matters cables all the time because I've never had a bad experience with them lol, literally just bought a new dp cable for my PC, and some sata cables for a server I'm building (and can't find where all my sata cables went post-move). At the cost of sounding like a fanboy I'll also say I love their mini HDMI to HDMI cable that I use for my Raspberry Pi lol
6:05 - _"The next big reorg, I want us to take every bin and every cable and run them through the cable tester. We take all the ones that don't pass and we throw them away."_
God I wished I had a manager that thinks about efficiency like Linus does.
The workplaces I end up people keep everything that is damaged, broken or build outside product specification. I've asked to stop ordering 10 to 15 meters DP and HDMI cables, I've asked to threw away broken or damaged tools and equipment, yet nothing changes. Even something as cheap as a scissor isn't replaced when the handle broke of, they tape it back onto it and each time I need a scissor it just bends around the handle...
I've tried throwing away things myself, but they magically end up in the storage room again... It even came to the point where I started putting my foot on death pcb's to break them in half, so nobody could pick them out of the container and put them back between other working parts... Massively annoying!
What kind of company do you work for lmao
I get trying to save costs but eventually you get diminishing returns and it becomes not worth it.
Have you tried just putting labels on things which say "Faulty"? At least that way they're not going to cause unexpected problems.
When someone needs a pair of scissors, give them the faulty one.
@@iAmTheSquidThing Does throwing it inside a bucked labeled "trash" count?
Not sure why someone would deliberately take some broken stuff out of a trash-bin to be honest...
sounds like you need a cable stripping/recycling machine. make a big cable ingot!
then make another CPU cooler out of it lol
This is super cool. Great Video!
I'd like to see you testing all the "high-end" "top of the line" cables for niches like home cinema and audiophiles. Their prices are a lot higher than other "standard" products. So is it worth it?
@@xenoklash Precisely! Audiofoolery is the field that needs it the most.
I wan to see monster cable. I think they have gotten worse.
I'm interested to see whether the Audiophile cables maybe do have a slight advantage (or not) of being able to run the latest spec. i.e. a 1.0 or 2.0 cable but it can run 2.1 because it has better shielding.
@@xenoklash i
@@ExistentialWolfe that’s actually a great idea for a video too. Cable quality from companies over time. If there was a way to validate what year a cable is from
It would be interesting to see some "Audio-Voodoo" cables, especially the digital ones, like LAN, that are supposed to improve your audio streaming signal for so called "audiophiles"...
for analog, cable quality matters. for digital, not so much. Either the signal is clean enough to read or it's not. As long as the cable meets the bandwidth requirements, it will perform as well as all other cables that also meet it. A digital audio cable built to spec that degrades the signal such that it can not be perfectly captured on the receiving end is broken and should not be used. Full stop.
I looked up the JPS Labs cables that dms brought to demo his Abyss headphones. The high end power cord costs 10k/meter.
@@lethalantidote No. Digital cables affect sound way more noticeable than Analog cables becuase how overlooked they are. Supra cables are very cheap and the improvement is huge. Their $40 USB cable is very close to Audioquest Diamond performance.
@@allansh828 This is the exact reason, why LLT should test audio cables. I would like to see a comparison between XLR and Jack because of the countless argument of "what sounds better"
@Olivia Olivia nobody here is gonna give you money for taking your clothes off go away
"Little drunk Linus" - this should be a series of its own :D
can't wait for this series! it's gonna be a hit!!!!!
Honestly, this is such a good move. Just the fear of being called out is going to drive some manufacturers back to their suppliers, and I can see a lot more of these testers coming to market.
Seems like a galaxy-brain move on Linus' part if that was his goal here... and whether intended or not, that may yet be the result. Let us hope.
This is probably the most exciting piece of equipment I've seen LMG pick up. Knowing my past experiences with awful cables, I can't imagine the wasted time and diagnosing you have had there. Very very handy tech to have. I'm looking forward to seeing you test cables. Amazon basics, included cables with monitors, but also adapters (DP to HDMI) if it supports that.
This tool can make for some very eye-opening videos! At the office, when we released this tool, everyone came and tested their cables to find out almost half our cables sucked. Glad you enjoyed the content! Linus and his team is GREAT!
@@totalphase I know I'd certainly haul my box-o-cables up to test.
Glad to see you in the comments, I know I'd be proud of this tester. I felt underwhelmed when I first saw the unit and was expecting a basic pass/fail. But the detail in the web UI, with the port breakdown, signal captures, and other details was really impressive. The module options you have available are really slick too.
While certainly out of the price range and use case for normal consumers, I think you have a killer product for the price. Too bad there isn't a viable way I can think of to bring this into normal consumer hands. But hopefully this paves the way for some CZcams reviews for 3rd party validation for cables. Thanks Total Phase!
Seeing all the content Gamers Nexus has done since they got their PSU machine and their upcoming fan tester, I am VERY stoked for all the LTT videos to come out of this
@@angerthosenear_yt Thank you for the kind words! The Advanced Cable Tester v2 is meant for factory applications. Our goal with the tool was to put pressure on the large cable producing factories for higher quality production. We are pushing to get factories to test EVERY cable off the production line to ensure on-spec production. Of course this is ambitious but is starting to happen!
We were tired of troubleshooting users devices only to find out the issue with the device is actually not with the device but with the cable. This is extremely frustrating! Hence the Cable Tester was born!
We hope creators, like Linus Tech Tips, continue to use and love our tester while also providing useful cable information for their viewers.
@@totalphase Absolutely. I think you nailed the market segment. As some others here in the comments mentioned, a public online resource to view tests would be really neat. Either through you, or up to each 3rd party tester (but might have too much overlap / testing the same cables). That's a whole spiral of planning however. Especially due to sample size and batches of production, this may be one of the biggest problems. Similar to GamersNexus covering some recent PSUs that failed spec after the initial run within spec.
Linus's face when he got the reassurance of the red FAIL summed it up perfectly. Hours of frustration wasted in all the wrong place.
I appreciate you showed the data results from the test too. It's a technical device, so seeing the technical results without hiding things is a breath of fresh air. I've seen some technical equipment dumb things down and avoid using terms which only introduces confusion when trying to diagnose an issue. Great job there.
Can you make a video going over the other aspects of cables as well? Like the manufacturing process that makes some cables droop perfectly like a shoelace in comparison to others that spring back into weird "janky" shapes. Does it matter if they tightly wrap a good cable in packaging? What makes it so that we hear noise from some audio cables as they run across our clothes, but some don't make a peep? What kind of strain relief is the best? Stuff like that. Maybe there are more aspects to a cable that aren't complete phooey that I don't even know about.
If someone knows of a video(s) like this please share it!
Electrical engineer designing wireline custom ICs here: your eye diagram explanation was pretty much on point👍