Thread for Linus Tech Tips Video Suggestions

[LordKitsuna]

please please please test DC to DC power supplies in the lab. ones like these industrial units. i am trying to make as most efficient use of my solar system as possible. which means using the 48v dc directly wherever possible, but I've never head of any of these brands and I'm scared to risk my expensive system on an unknown power supply! i know it's not exactly mainstream interest but would love if you could also toss dc to dc psu into the mix for the solar nerds out there

[japers]

I want to set up an offline or LAN only password vault. I was wondering if an old NUC might be the ideal candidate for something like this. Would love to see a video on how to set something like this up with good, stable, supported open source solutions after things are constantly being hacked. 

 

I tried a yubikey but to be honest it was severely underwhelming and just created more problems. The fact that all it really does is act as a master password without actually providing any kind of smart authentication is ridiculous. The fact that their software doesnt just check to see if the key is actually plugged into the system and automatically logs you in is annoying and the fact that so few companies actually support it makes it essentially a pointless purchase.

 

Why there isnt a company out there creating consumer/prosumer hardware password vaults that are self contained and open source is beyond me.

[FuuMasta]

How about testing the new Dyson Vacuum Robot :)

[Hops]

Medical Implant BLE Signal Saturation
Hi LTT, long time lurker, first time poster. Recently I got a neurostimulator implanted in me to stop neurological pain. The interesting thing is that when I go out to any event with more than 50 people I can't connect to or adjust the implant profiles at all on the remote even with the remote physically overtop the implant. I've got an IT background and dabbled with Amateur Radio but I lack the testing environment to show the manufacturer engineers how badly this current connection limitation is and to show just how saturated the 2.4Ghz spectrum is for Bluetooth. I'd love to be a Guinea Pig in your new faraday chamber if there's any way to simulate mass amounts of bluetooth devices outside the chamber, then show how fast and easy it is to connect to the implant remote inside the chamber. Hit me up for implant manufacturer name and specs on the installed implant as well as remote data. Thanks for your time, and btw I live in the lower mainland.

[xSteff]

Hey there! Would there be any interest in trucking telemetry and management hardware/software? I would be happy to introduce some people to share some our engineering work and solved challenges (: Cheers!

[kenial]

Hi! Not sure if you guys got wind of this yet or not, but it seems that there may  be some recent driver changes that have caused ML workloads on consumer cards to be less than optimal. May be nothing, but something that could be interesting if true. LLaMA and SD have allegedly been impacted.

[Chris_UK]

Saw this ad thought it would be interesting to do a more tech related piece about it, and why its happening (if true)

 

 

[Hurin]

Hi All,

 

With the understanding that Linus already has some "beef" with Plex. . . here's yet another increasingly frustrating issue with Plex (and more specifically, the underlying google exoplayer on nvidia shield's Plex app).

 

This has been a long-standing issue (reports are at least as old as Feb 2022).  LTT could really help in applying pressure on Google/ExoPlayer and/or Plex to (pardon my language):  "Fix their "

 

NVIDIA SHIELD AS BEST PLEX PLAYER

Those who crave uncompressed/lossless audio while using Plex to view their media in a home theater environment have only one optimal choice:  The NVIDIA Shield Pro.  Only the Shield will DirectPlay MKVs and use HDMI passthrough for uncompressed/lossless audio signal, handing it off to home theater receiver for processing.

 

DOLBY TrueHD/ATMOS PLAYBACK GLITCHES

But, alas, on this only solution, there is a problem:  On blu-rays with seamless branching, the MKVs generated playback with sound that routinely drops out and/or gets out-of-sync at the seamless branching boundaries.  This is evident on everything from The Martian to The Empire Strikes Back.

 

ENTER GOOGLE EXOPLAYER AS VILLAIN!  

The media player used by Plex on Shield/Android is Google's ExoPlayer.  A ticket was opened (by yours truly) back in August (2022).  But, alas, they have resisted fixing it or acknowledging (rightly or wrongly) that it's their player to blame.  Though they did reproduce/confirm the issue.

 

The chronology of ExoPlayer Team's responses can be (fairly, I believe) characterized as:

1. Did you say MKVs?  Well, I googled and found a post on a Dolby forum where someone who works for Dolby says that their testing app won't play MKVs.  So, I'm going to reinterpret that to say that TrueHD/Atmos isn't supported inside MKVs.
2. Oh, that didn't work?  Okay, well, then your MKVs are bad.
3. Oh, there's no evidence that they're bad, MKVs ripped by different apps all have the same issue, and there's some evidence that competent care has been taken by the MKV ripping software to do it right?  Well, nevertheless, you have to prove (somehow) that these MKVs are not malformed by obtaining non-existent specs and docs from Dolby.  We will not help you with this.  Meanwhile, we'll ignore several examples of other players (both hardware and software) experiencing this same (or extremely similar) issue.  When pressed on this issue, and in contrast to how those other players handled this, we'll merely reassert that the MKVs are malformed, and stand on the principle that it's more important that we not fix this through a work-around (if the media is in fact to blame) than provide our users a good playback experience.  Yet, we'll abandon that principle and use a patch provided by the community if someone does it for us!  (I'm paraphrasing and maybe being a bit hyperbolic here, but that's a fair interpretation of their stance.)
4. Silence.

TABLE-TOP BLU-RAY PLAYERS HAD THIS PROBLEM -- AND FIXED IT

And yet, it is known that hardware blu-ray players suffered from the same (or very similar) issues on seamlessly branching blu-rays back when atmos was introduced, requiring firmware and, sometimes, hardware revisions to blu-ray players (Sony, OPPO, etc.).  (sources 1, 2)

 

SOFTWARE MEDIA PLAYERS HAD THIS PROBLEM -- AND FIXED IT

Likewise, software media players from Kodi to Microsoft's XBox player have encountered the same (or extremely similar) issue, and fixed it.  But the exoplayer team still asserts (even though this issue apparently predates ripping to MKVs and blu-ray players themselves required updating) the cause is bad media and even refuses to investigate at all.

 

--SOLUTIONS--

 

EXOPLAYER FIXES THEIR

Google exoplayer Team could acknowledge that this is a problem worth fixing regardless of ultimate cause and implement fixes (if their code is indeed the issue) or work-arounds similar to those implemented by other players (if media is indeed the issue).
 

PLEX FIXES EXOPLAYER'S
Plex apparently used to use a separate audio passthrough mechanism of their own design before adopting exoplayer's built-in one.  Perhaps they should look into doing that again if exoplayer continues to take zero responsibility for fixing (or even assisting with) the issue?

XBOX FIXES DOLBY VISION AND HDR10 COEXISTENCE SO WE CAN JUMP SHIP
The only potential replacement for the NVIDIA Shield for lossless passthrough that I'm aware of is the XBox.  While it can pass TrueHD/Atmos to the receiver, it currently doesn't handle Dolby Vision playback correctly.  It plays back Dolby Vision MKVs as HDR10.  Though I'm told that this might be because it gets confused with both HDR10 and Dolby Vision metadata are on the same disc.  So a solution to this might someday be forthcoming.  

 

BEGGING

The Plex+Shield Home Theater community is getting pretty desperate here.  Nobody seems to care.  And while this may not seem like the most important of problems in the grand scheme of things, it's immensely frustrating to have built a whole system around the idea of streaming your lossless media (both video and audio), only to have it fall apart like this because nobody will take the issue seriously.  In the end, the best playback experience for Plex in a home theater environment is spoiled by this situation. . . with no end in sight.  Would LTT consider bringing some attention to this issue so that an end might come into view?

Thank you for considering!

 

--Hurin

[Hexxagone]

It would be fun to see you guys do a watercooled build using parts from random companies you never heard of before.

[n3rfguns]

I had an idea for an Alex Clark build today.  I would love to see a beer helmet build.  I think Alex is the right kind of crazy to pull it off.

[Issac Zachary]

Deleted.

Edited June 22, 2023 by Issac Zachary
Unimportant idea.

[Hexxagone]

You should try to build the cheapest watercooled PC while not using preowned parts. Cheapest tubes, cheapest pump you can find, cheapest PC that can fit the parts ETC. It can go 2 ways:

1. Funny cheapest PC using parts that look shady like on AliExpress

2. Cheapest mainstream PC, if you used parts like an Intel CPU, MSI motherboard ETC. What would be the cheapest reliable watercooled build going to cost consumers if they wanted to try it themselves

[Odin_Alfadr]

Lord of the Ring Custom Keyboard.

 

Use you CNC machine to machine out an actual rock case (like rocks and silvery resin, mithril).

Use the Drop Keycaps for Dwarvern.

 

Or like Black rock w/ red resin CNC'd case and Black Speech Caps.

 

Or Wooden and green/gold resin case with Elvish caps

 

Then give them away.

[Damocles Ti]

Day 1 CPU vs Matured CPU

I bought and was lucky enough to get a 5950x (2104PGS B0 Year 2021, Week 4, Fab in Malaysia) during the peak of the CPU/GPU shortages in 2021 but mine turned out defective. Not only was it barely stable, it had 2 cores that would cause prime 95 errors at stock PBO settings, and one of them has a cache problem that causes the computer to crash outright. I had underclocked the CPU below stock to last me a couple years but that cache issue still causes random crashes maybe once every 2-3 days. So I RMAed it, I got my receipts, my screenshots of event viewer pointing to the error, and off I go for 2 weeks without a CPU.

New CPU arrived, 5950x (2244SUS B2 Year 2022, Week 44, Fab in China). I've heard about these B2s being newer revisions of the 5000 series where AMD claims no performance difference, but reviewers have noticed better temperatures. Plugged it in and it outright runs both cooler and faster than my original 5950x.

My original 5950x PBO stock

• Maxed out at 4.7Ghz single core (not even stable)
• 5.025Ghz boost peaks on desktop (5.05Ghz default max)
• All core runs at 4.4Ghz then maybe 4.2Ghz once it hits 80-90 Degrees

My new 5950x PBO with curve optimizer cranked to -30 on all cores

• Runs the full 4.9Ghz single core
• 5.175Ghz boost peaks on desktop (5.05Ghz +150 Mhz in PBO menu)
• All Core can do 4.5Ghz at 70-80 degrees

Keep in mind I don't do manual OC, just XMP/DOCP 3600 memory, and my original results are somewhat tainted by a core that is defective.

It would be cool to see a comparison video to see if CPUs actually improve over time with manufacturing and improved processes. Now I don't have the money or influence to go out and start a bounty for the earliest manufactured date CPU and compare it to a latest manufactured CPU. But this would really help me buy into the idea of buying high-end-last-gen if this is actually true. Something I think LLT can do is hunt down last gen Intel and AMD CPUs and compare performance against the earliest and latest manufacture date CPUs, as well as overclockability. It might require a decent sample size of 3+ CPUs of AMD old, AMD new, Intel Old, and Intel new.

[Big Glen]

Found this on eBay, looks like a Sony PSP development pc 

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SONY-PSP-CONSOLE-TOOL-DTP-T1000-KIT-WITH-CONTROLLER-TOWER-RARE-COLLECTORS-/404287642206?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p4429486.m46890.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

 

[Brettrobo]

Someone suggested i post up this idea after posting on floatplane chat on WAN show.
build a bunch of pc's that are exactly min spec and show what their respective games play like.
are they "playable" and what is "playable"
should the publisher update the "min spec" or is it false advertising?

[tinted]

Can you guys do a video where you explain power factor of different modern computer equipment and therefore coming up with suggestion for UPS capacity. Also, the power losses at PSU. Basically a little indepth total system power analysis. 

I was doing research for selecting UPS and even the manufacturers give rated power very low, suggesting 0.6 Power factor which I am having hard time believing.

[Gallifreyan]

On the WAN Linus was saying his projector was a bit on the loud side for his theater, so my video suggestion is
"Watercooling my Epson LS12000 projector"

[echatfie]

Just found this beast near me on Facebook marketplace. A Google branded GB-1001 google search "appliance". If nothing else it's a very cool server in a very cool chassis. Seems Linus and co like reviewing old, weird stuff like this. I'm willing to buy and ship it if you're interested.

 

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/634412688287907/?mibextid=dXMIcH

[dallaskennebeck06]

I think that it would be cool if Linus and someone else (Jake, Luke, etc.) did a 30 day challenge (like Linux for 30 days) where they tried to learn a programming language and make a program such as a video game or an app which gets judged by other LMG employees.

[Issac Zachary]

On 6/17/2023 at 5:37 PM, dallaskennebeck06 said:

I think that it would be cool if Linus and someone else (Jake, Luke, etc.) did a 30 day challenge (like Linux for 30 days) where they tried to learn a programming language and make a program such as a video game or an app which gets judged by other LMG employees.

Deleted.

Edited June 22, 2023 by Issac Zachary
I tried to expand on an idea with wrong assumptions.

[Issac Zachary]

Deleted.

Edited June 22, 2023 by Issac Zachary
Wrong assumption, impossible to do.

[Mr. Fishward]

I work for Digi-Key Electronics as a software engineer, and I recently got a tour of their new warehouse used for distributing their parts. It could be cool to see an LTT video on this new two-million-square-foot warehouse built or some general coverage about them. As someone who had been watching LTT for years before I started to work with them, I had not even heard of them. Brief overview here: 

 

[jkr4m3r]

16 hours ago, Issac Zachary said:

Could it be Basic like on an old computer so they could have the experience of how home computing was 50 years ago?

There was no home computing 50 years ago.

 

Source: Me. Schools didn't have computers either, because PCs didn't exist yet.

[GreenKuif]

@juriepretorius461719 minutes ago

Hi Linux I like to see you make a office i5 2gen 4 core PC into a gaming PC what can run new games in high resolution graphics very good , now this is my challenge from Jurie to you, thank you and it's a real challenge for you, by the way if there is somebody who can do it it is you cuz I don't know anyone else.