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

[ccl13]

List of topic I would like to see:

(Haven't read through the thread so some below must be duplicated. Sorry about that.)

 

Brand product ratings. Just how good are products of each brand.

- BTW some of the cables requires more attention, like DP cables, or USB-C cables (especially ones with USB3.2 10Gbps or Thunderbolt 3 capabilities). They are much less consistent in my experience.

 

Product longevity. Test a good product, and after like 1000 insert and remove, does it still work the same (Linus done similar stuff before on USB-C cable).

 

Validate manufacturer claims (s**t manufacturers said). Like is gold plated connector really making a difference, something like that.

 

Converter / adapter tests. There's a huge amount of adapter / converter on market, although I think some of them fall outside of cable tester scope (like converters with active circuit to do data translation), some of them should be tested for their claim. Like USB-C to USB-B converter, mini-DP to DP converter, or some of those extension cables, things alike.

- And actually a special kind of converters - some of those novelty connectors, like magnetic USB connectors, dual side USB-A connectors.

 

--

 

Also, I wish there's a test module for PCIe extension cables. It gives me a huge amount of headaches too, I could say even worse than DP cables.

[MultiGamerClub]

A spreadsheet of what brand lies or passes.. Could be useful..

[Lamphobic]

This is so exciting I made an account for it. I've had a horrible time with cable issues on long cables.

 

Personally ultimately I just want known good cables for various standards at various lengths I can buy. I would unironically actually pay for a trusted source of this information because it just doesn't exist. Anything else is just entertainment (which I would enjoy but really would find the trusted source vital).

 

At this point I don't even care about the price. I'm tired of the buy a bad cable -> buy another cable (maybe it solves the issue maybe not) loop. There are so many problems where I would love to be able to rule out cable issues at the start rather than randomly. Hundreds of hours of my life saved. 

[MarcusTutorials]

Is it possible to test audiocables?

Like XLR or Headphone Jack to see who gets the best quality out of it, with less interferences in audio. 

For musicproducers this will be very helpful  

[pi4a7a]

Test some of the supposedly 2.1 HDMI cables from known brands like Ugreen 

[domo0607]

I think that testing HDMI to displayport cables and compairing them to HDMI to displayport adapters would be really usefull, remebering back to one of the first times that you tried to use an 8K tv and how painfull it was to diagnose that it was the addapter that was breaking it 

[AbydosOne]

2 hours ago, YASH SHAH said:

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

1 hour ago, Pufferfish1223 said:

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.

1 hour ago, Ceremony64 said:

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 MOSHU, a kind of brand name for display cables from china.

Someone at LTT can correct me if this is wrong, but I assume the tester only generates a signal analogous to a worst case electrical signal for each protocol, not an actual display signal that could be converted. It tests the electrical characteristics of a length of cable, not the abilities of adapter chips.

[bandthingy]

investigate how old cable standards have aged, or are still surprisingly valid (in certain circumstances) compared to new standards

[rice guru]

I would love tests on audio brand cables. 

[Fantos]

Test the „Premium“ Apple cables and other kind of well known brands. Buy multiple of them to check consistency and maybe length to check for variations. Use the cables for a month or so and tell us the result.

Quality cables are a pain in the ass to get. And the „helpful“ Amazon reviews don’t really help. 

[TrentP]

I like that LTT is going back through all different kinds of products and showing us that GPU's,Cables,Monitors, etc. are not exactly what they claim they are. Its nice to have a good guy to help everyone out.

[Gork]

26 minutes ago, Fantos said:

Test the „Premium“ Apple cables and other kind of well known brands. Buy multiple of them to check consistency and maybe length to check for variations. Use the cables for a month or so and tell us the result.

Quality cables are a pain in the ass to get. And the „helpful“ Amazon reviews don’t really help. 

OMFG! this!!! Amazon's reviews are so hit and mis you could do just as well be playing battleship.

lol one of the worst things is the engrish.  Or like someone just typed in a bunch of hype bullshit. you know things like :

XBOX 1 KILL EXTRME CABLE FOR LONG USE!!!

(hdmi, lmi, abc, efd works worth apple, pc, windows, android ios, los, snes and blah blah blah)

 

and in small deets: 200000000000000 FULL BRIDGED RECTIFIER!!! REVIEW WIVE STAR!!!... ships timbucktu japan! 6 year wait.

 

and all the reviews say:

most awesome cable, best thing ever, gave me a hard wong! 

etc etc copied over and over.

 

I got  regular " HDMI cable. It might be amazons. I'd need to check. works mostly ok. White is a little off and has a very slight blue tint to the display.  On the other hand it wasn't to expensive.

[Grokepeer]

5 hours ago, ColinLTT said:

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 https://lmg.gg/L5v9O

 

Buy HDMI 2.1 Cables
On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/894XSiV
On Best Buy (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/9eKNo
On Newegg (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/MQpe

 

Buy Thunderbolt 4 Cables
On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/jlsY
On B&H (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/ljOyEj
On Newegg (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/MTj3nd

 

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

It would be really great if you guys could test out some 2RCA cables for audio systems. I was looking into a new cable for my headphone setup but I don't want to waste $50 on a cable that introduces a ton of noise into my headphones after I paid so much for the entire system. I bet there will be other people interested too as the audiophile community has grown a lot in the late years.

[Luscious]

I've bought Monoprice cables in the past and have not had any trouble with them (shout out to Steve if he is still there LOL). I got a HDMI cable, DP cable and a TOSLINK optical cable as well and they're all working fine. I even have a DP<>HDMI adapter cable and it's working fine too.

 

Monster Cable would be worth some scrutiny since they were one of the first on the market with their overpriced cables and bold claims. You should definitely get some of those in house for a run.

 

One type of cable that I am definitely having trouble with are those sata power splitters (Y-cable). I have searched high and low for a quality one and stumbled upon StarTech. You absolutely need these if your PSU doesn't have enough sata power connectors or you just have more drives than usual. The biggest problem diagnosing these is that you don't know if the problem is with the power cable itself or the sata cable/port. Drives randomly drop out and reappear after a reboot that's caused by Windows just freezing. And it is always the same drive so I know it's got to be the cable at fault.

 

Lightning cables are another candidate. I bought a cheap 10 foot one from Staples a while back and the connector just snapped off after some months. It was good that I was able to extract the broken thing from the phone. I am now using a Philips lightning cable and so far it is holding up.

 

In my car I have those "curly" USB to lightning and USB to micro cables sold at AutoZone to charge devices that don't have wireless charging. I find them more convenient and a space saver since they curl up when not needed. They seem to be holding up well so far for me and I guess they are more durable than regular cables.

 

Some Ethernet cable testing would be nice too, especially which ones can do beyond GbE speeds and the distances you can get with each speed option (2.5, 5, 10, etc...) Likewise it would be handy to see if the cables sold "as is" are as good as the ones you crimp yourself when you just get the bare cable to the length you need and do the ends.

[Freakwise]

1 hour ago, AbydosOne said:

but I assume the tester only generates a signal analogous to a worst case electrical signal for each protocol, not an actual display signal that could be converted. It tests the electrical characteristics of a length of cable, not the abilities of adapter chips.

according through their products page the device is basically 'only' testing a signal integrity (esp through twisted pair), so yes, a raw signal 

Quote

• Short testing - Dynamic visualization of test results
• Open testing - Dynamic visualization of test results
• Continuity testing - Dynamic visualization of test results
• DC resistance measurement for most wires, with milliohm precision on ground and power wires, ohm resolution on most other wires, continuity check only on high-speed data lines
• Signal integrity testing of data lines to 12.8 Gbps per channel
• E-Marker verification
• Lightning plug bring up/function (Apple Lightning Cables)*
• Over-voltage protection (Apple Lightning Cables)*
• Voltage recovery testing (Apple Lightning Cables)*
• Quiescent current consumption (Apple Lightning Cables)*

 

Edited October 14, 2021 by Freakwise

[luveenw]

Dear Linus - I truly hope you or someone at LTT is reading this.

 

Please, I'm begging you. Please reconsider turning your "unworthy" cables to e-waste. They might do the job for somebody else that doesn't have as stringent a set of requirements as LTT does. This is a great opportunity to reduce your environmental footprint as a company. Only 15-20 percent of "e-waste" produced globally is recycled; and vast majority of that waste is exported, to countries like India, Ghana, or Nigeria, where they are sent straight to landfill or an incinerator. California alone exported an estimated 20 million pounds of e-waste in 2006, long before the absolute explosion of disposable tech we have today.

 

Don't contribute to this massive environmental issue. Just do a giveaway or put stuff you can no longer use up on your local Buy Nothing Facebook group. Out with the linear economy, and in with the circular one!

[Bitter]

GN Steve needs this @LinusTech This is exactly the kind of validation he has wet dreams about. Guy just craves validation.

[ageekhere]

3 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

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

This needs to be tested @LinusTech

[Lebon14]

I've become a fan of Ugreen products on Amazon. So far, of all products I got and tried, all worked perfectly.

So, I'd love to see their cables get tested.

[Pitboy64]

Do This @LinusTech:
Test cables as included in the box, for products you review. 
Not all obviously, but occasionally ... some.
What company is buying crappy cables and including them with monitors, headphones, laptops, streamdecks, handheld gamers,
and the plethora of stuff that companies are stuffing cables with.
Whos cheap and whos adding good cables?
... especially test some Apple cables.  Are they really cutting edge?  Are they (like they say) the pinnacle of innovation?

[Vordreller]

Would be an interesting statistic to see how many of your cables, in that cleanup, end up being bad, rather than good.

 

A little? More than expected? WAY MORE than expected?

[Quackers101]

but how will we know the lifetime of the cable and if its a bad "batch" of cables?

of course someone in this thread stated about saying how many cables are bad or good from different brands through testing by time or new cables that you get.

[Budgeter]

Would love to see collaboration with AudioScienceReview (ASR) on this subject! Their Youtube channel is below.

https://youtube.com/channel/UCWp1NY1KXGwcOh1RxKp_-FA

[EzzyBusy]

if possible ethernet cables would be great as there is a bunch of false advertising in that area. Also in terms of brands i think you guys should take a look at top cable brands on amazon including amazon basics and other brands such as UGREEN, monoprice, anker and others. Thanks for the research!

[ConanWolf]

we should see what corners did ONN (a walmart brand) cut if any at all, ONN sells cables for a cheap price on Walmart. 

https://www.walmart.com/c/brand/onn-cables-connectors