This Just Saved me $100,000 - Total Phase Cable Tester V2

[ElderHobo]

Possible testing scenarios:

- HDMI 2.1

- USB-C 3.1 Gen 2

- Reliability of cheap amazon/walmart/monoprice cables to "Higher end" equivalents and is it worth it?

- Testing Manufacturer-supplied cabling (Phones, monitors, Hubs)

- Testing cables labeled as the same rating but made of different materials. (How do they stack up to each other)

- At what length does copper, Aluminum, Gold cabling become unusable. (BATTLE of LENGTHS!)

[GameOutlaw]

I would love to see how well Amazon Basics cables turn out. My guess is a pass, but by a very slim margin

[Kilrah]

2 minutes ago, Pancake100 said:

I am looking to buy the Oculus Quest 2 to play games on my pc but to connect it I need a long cable, which is not included.

Kinda off topic but use Virtual Desktop to go wireless, works much better. Haven't tried Air Link but that's an option too, although since the lower performance on Link vs Virtual Desktop mostly comes from Oculus software Air Link is likely be less good.

[-Arcanum-]

Some thoughts:

 

1. It would be great to see regular tests of the the cables that come with monitors (and other devices) so that we will know whether they are any good in general and maybe drive the monitor producers to provide proper cables (those that do not) or stop including them altogether (to reduce e-waste).

 

2. With all of your cables that fail, have two bins, one for the completely useless ones (e-waste recycling) and ones that are ok for the less discerning people, for re-use, and then donate  that bin of cables to schools or local associations that help lower income families where the cables are better than none... 

[Gentaro]

The beloved (and hated) Samsung Odyssey G9 and the newer Neo model have issues running in the officially supported 240hz mode - you can see scanlines and experience flickering depending on what is displayed (for example a test with lots of horizontal lines triggers it). All units seem affected and in my many calls with Samsung they denied it and told me to try a different DisplayPort cable. 

 

I have tried several cables and none worked, but I'm surious if there actually are any good DP cables out there that could handle the throughput

[Velcade]

Display Port has been the biggest cable headache for me 

[Racey Acey]

Hey Guys,

 

I'd be interested to see a video on VR link cables as there is a massive misconceptions on alot of them to whether they will work or not and what they are advertised as as well as them having to be quite long cables. Also would be interesting to see on LAN internet cables if the machine does them. Thanks 

[HammeR JoE]

Hi guys,

Really what would be very awesome is if you could launch a really basic website with a db showing cables and whether they pass or not. If it could be searchable by manufacturer and model # etc, it could be the go to resource before purchasing something.

It would help so much!

[HerLastNameIsButt]

Hi,

 

I have a (in my opinion) great proposal. According to the USB specs, a USB C-to-C cable can have a length up to 4m (13ft) and still support USB PD up to 100W (source: https://community.cypress.com/t5/Knowledge-Base-Articles/Maximum-Length-of-Cables-for-USB-Type-C-Applications-KBA204034/ta-p/250571). These long cables only support USB 2.0 for data transfer, so I recommend using such cables only for power.

 

Up until now I was only able to find two cables of the maximum length that support USB PD. Those cables are:

- Monoprince @ 13USD (https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=24283)

- Startech @ 25USD (https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-4m-USB-Cable-Certified/dp/B06Y1G6GDK)

 

I really want a long charging cable, but I am not really sure whether to trust these brands. Second, there is quite a price difference between these cables. Are there any  real differences between these? Both claim to be USB IF certified.

 

[BlackSpectrum]

Please,  test that fiber optic Type C  cable that you reviewed in past want to see how good it is

From this video btw: 

https://youtu.be/Dy312cUHumk

 

[-Arcanum-]

9 minutes ago, HammeR JoE said:

Hi guys,

Really what would be very awesome is if you could launch a really basic website with a db showing cables and whether they pass or not. If it could be searchable by manufacturer and model # etc, it could be the go to resource before purchasing something.

It would help so much!

I completely agree and maybe make it a techtuber community thing... e.g. if GamersNexus gets a tester too (sure the can afford it or get a deal), LTT could test e.g. HDMI, they could test power cables, someone else could test DP, etc. 

It would help cover more, all you would need is to set up access for the techtubers that get a machine and want to contribute (and can be trusted) and then agree on a standard format to report in so that it can be added to the searchable DB. 

This would also help reduce e-waste and the collective attention from LTT as well as smaller techtubers would be a stronger driver for change

[tone_bender]

1 hour ago, Nystemy said:

Cable testers are fun. Though, the capabilities of a given cable tester can vary greatly.

 

Some can do simple stuff like check for continuity and see if the wires go where they should.
Others can test the isolation and see if the cable has some flaw, like a wire pinched in some housing or the like. (These testers can be expensive.)

Some will current test the cable, by sending a good amount of amps through it and see how much voltage is dropped over it. (Not always a practical test, especially for long cables.)

Some can test data rate by simply clocking data through them and seeing how it degrades. (Also tend to be expensive.)

Some will actually measure the RF properties of the cable itself. (If you have to ask the price, you probably can't afford it! _{(though, for RF folks, there is the NanoVNA for a hundred bucks or such that can do a fair bit.)})

 

But a cable tester isn't magic.

They for an example won't really say much about how long the cable will survive out in the field.

They won't really inform you if you have a somewhat flaky wire connection.

 

In the end, an X-ray machine can actually be more suitable, but by the time one needs that level of certainty of the quality, then one is working with fairly high end stuff.

 

Though. This cable tester in the video is quite nice in it giving an actual eye diagram and loss figures too.

I think the best use in their case is, when something fail during filming and cable integrity can be a cause, they can verify right away.

But youre totally right, even if a cable passes all aspects, maybe next week it fails miserably for being fragile

[Mustahsin10]

What about SATA cables ?

[kokosnh]

4 minutes ago, Mustahsin10 said:

What about SATA cables ?

the 100cm SATA III, had 2 of these with problems 

[Sekvando]

i WOULD LOVE to see you test hdmi to ethernet adapter (the cheap aliexpress ones) i wuld like too see if you maby have the same problem as me that laptops and old gpu/integrated dont want to outpot picture

[Pufferfish1223]

You should get a bunch of adapters e.g. USB to HDMI, DP to VGA etc. And see how many fails you can get, or try and use a wireless HDMI thing and see how bad it is.

[LTHorn]

I'd like to see mcables tested

[Ceremony64]

I got an 5m HDMI cable over here which I doubt is capable of the 2.1 compliance it promises. It is an optical, thus unidirectional, HDMI to HDMI cable by MOSHOU, a kind of brand name for display cables from china.

 

Since I bought it 1.5 years ago, they released a new revision of the cable, that basically promises HDMI 2.1 for sure now. No joke, their product page now states the previous one is not compatible with the new XBOX/PS.  Here's a link to that shit cable: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000305467475.html

Srsly wtf?!

 

As for the issue im experiencing: Picture and/or sound drops out occasionally on my 4k OLED when running at 60Hz 4k 8bit 4:4:4 as well as 60Hz 4k 10bit 4:2:2...

 

If you guys are interested in testing this MOSHOU cable, I could send it over, including the original packaging, I just need someone to cover the shipping cost. Germany to Canada is expensive

[Gork]

One thing I'd love to see some pressure put on tech industry for cables is pick a god damn standard size and shape for  USB, and just about any other thing that attaches to another thing.  The U in unversal for a fucking cable, isn't exactly Universal if no one uses one size and fucking shape. Just infront of me: speakers: one type of plug, and since...god knows when, that'll work for just about anything, but then oh look my monitor: another plug thingy size and shape, oh look ethernet cable another one. oh look the fucking hard driveS in the computer, all of it's varius whosits and whats its even more.

Where I get just fucking infuriated is that just looking at my varius cables, nothing about the cable or ports themselves might stand out to show that it's worn out, just was bad from amazon or new egg. In a picture I posted here ages ago their's a blue cable I have as back up because every other replacement has  been bad! and it's just a fucking ethernet cable. Samething for the odd chance I need to print something.

 

 

[Gork]

can we please also put preassure and the phone and computer guys to include a fucking charger? my GD iphone? it has a wireless charging, and came with a fucking charging cable! YES!!. My  Pixel: nope? because fuck you if you drop 500 dollars on a phone, new, and expect it to come with one. Oh and google couldn't be fucking arsed to include wireless! why? because google.

[Gork]

I love the idea of having cable brands tested and the bullshit manufacturers say about them called out though.

[Gork]

The kind issues I face is that budget cables are infuratingly hit and miss on quality.

[PeachGr]

3 hours ago, alenalen said:

When you test your mountain of cables document the brands and save the data so you can do statistics on the large sample size to find the biggest offender brands.

 

ALSO: REVISIT THE $1000 HDMI!

I was expecting to see that! Let's spam it to him now

[Zodiark1593]

So how’s that thousand dollar cable again? The Silver Starlight 7 I think it was called, or something similarly cheesy. 

[drzrevolution]

This is exciting! I really hope you guys can also do tests on DisplayPort angled adapters. I took me so long to find a proper one rated for 1.4. There were so many that put 1.4 in the details but the max resolution to Hz  they were advertising weren't matching up to the 1.4 spec. Only one I could find that actually advertised DP 1.4 was this one (amazon.co.uk/LINDY-DisplayPort-Left-Angled-Adapter/dp/B083JW8CN9/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=DisplayPort+1.4+Right+Angled+Adapter&qid=1634244153&sr=8-5) that seems to work but wish it could be validated. I had to pay extra for international shipping so would be nice to know it was money well spent!