This is the problem we have with USB-C right now. Every connector looks the same but they aren't the same. Just because it fits doesn't mean it's compatible.
Yes and no. Assuming standards are followed, they *are* compatible, but they don't have the same capabilities. What I really dislike about the situation is that you can't tell what a specific cable can do just by looking at it.
@@samiraperi467 that's one thing. Every port on any cable should be Thunderbolt XY (or whatever) compatible by standard so that it doesn't matter which cable you grab for a given task. But not only that. The protocols aren't even standardised. My Google phone doesn't charge on a Samsung cable or vice versa and so on. No matter how much your smartphone could handle or the adapted could deliver. This was way easier with mini USB. But now it is like before the days of charging via USB. Every phone needs its own cable and adapter again. And this goes for everything where USB C is involved.
This exactly. From display outputs to PCIE tunneling. You don't know what's what. Past that you don't know if the cable you are using even supports the bandwidth for those capabilities. Even more problematic is power delivery. We already have different standards using the same connector that aren't compatible. In more extreme examples we have examples like early USB-C to type A cables or the Nintendo switch that lead to fried devices.
The USB cable itself should be colored because you dont know what speed is can use. I got one that can handle 65 watts and one that can handle 100 watts. They are the SAME color other then the color of the cable.
Isolated? Where? On the board I guess, because definitely not inside the cable, so we could just use the same cable there. Because the USBc cable is already being abused for literally everything anyways xD
@@LuLeBe Its isolated on the PCB. Its part of the ethernet standard. I guess you could force a USB cable for that, but there are less twisted pairs inside a USB cable, so we would need a new standard for that. Also crimping it "in the field" would be a pain. One of the good things about ethernet cables is that you can fit them trough small holes and then crimp then with inexpensive and simple tools. For USB its not so simple.
Actually, Ethernet has its place in houses. Run wire to remote access points to extend your network beyond what Mesh can do. You can't daisy chain Mesh, all access points must connect directly back to the main gateway. So, it has to be in the dead center of a house. This causes issues in homes where you don't really have a choice where the main gateway lives. On top of that, some people want to extend their network outside or have big houses. Mesh won't always cover a whole house because again you can't daisy chain.
@@OgdenM You can daisy chain mesh. Depending on the devices, you can daisy chain them in terms of WiFi only, or Ethernet daisy chaining. You couldn't do this in the past but we got past that. Do you think orbi or Google is going to have people running wires all over their house? They wouldn't sell any units if it was that complicated.
1:58 You put the HDMI plug in the wrong way. I saw the animation and felt an internal pain of broken computer parts. When I rewatched the scene I knew why.
I would have liked if he talked more about USB potentially replacing regular power outlets, which is what is being alluded to in the thumbnail with the picture of the toaster with the USB-A cable.
@@vadnegru there would have to be some plugs for stuff like heating elements, but wouldn't it be much safer if most of a house's wiring was low power?
I think we're currently in a pretty sweet spot between one cable and lots of cables. And looking at the mess usb is making with they naming and supported protocols it's probably a good thing 1 single cable isn't a reality (yet)
It's like USBIF is shooting itself in the foot by letting members get away with stretching the truth about standards compliance by loosening those standards, letting greed of their members take over the common goal of actually universally compliant standard.
There won't be 1 cable to rule them all, because by the time that tech is developed, everything is likely going to be wirelessly connected. Power hungry appliances like certain monitors or power supplies will likely never lose their cables.
@@Not_interestEd- Correct! Except all those wireless devices will need USB cables to charge them. And they will all require different levels of power delivery... Oh wait. We have that problem now.
@@finkelmana charging through wireless exists, although that would require a cable to do..... ehhhhhh........ I'd say if any cable will rule them all, it's gonna be USB-C
@@Not_interestEd- Wireless charging really is just a step above being a novelty. It is EXTREMELY inefficient. Most of the power is lost. It also has no range. As for USB-C, being the future of charging? Nope. USB-C cannot be *THE* universal charger. The wires inside simply do not have the mass support higher amperages. Not to mention USB-C cables are far more expensive to make. Its fine for low power devices, but for anything that takes real current, its just not good enough.
@@gamagama69 There is such a thing as USB-C HDMI Alt Mode, but it kinda sucks cuz it doesn't support 4K@60FPS or HDR. I dunno why they gimped the standard that way when DisplayPort Alt Mode works just fine for those features.
Too this day it's still blow my mind my laptop outputs a 1440p 240hz signal through a single USB-C cable. Remembering when I used to plug in the red, white, and yellow AV cables to my old TV from my PlayStation2.🤣
I know I'm not alone here, but holy crap that last point really hit home. The amount of times I've laid on the floor and unplugged everything out of the back of my PC and then had to plug everything back in again, in low-light conditions, is kind of absurd. If everything was the same connector I would definitely have to label it all.
it is not impossible. While older units had compressor rated up to 800W, modern ones are around 100W. Energy efficient and small units can do with compressors as small, as 40W. However, for the most time we do trade insulation for extra storage volume
There is Alt. mode for USB-C for passing analog audio out & mic in and AFAIK some phones use this and give you just a very short USB-C to female jack passive "dongle"
a nice thing about ethernet cables is the fact that even if it breaks, you can simply cut it and replace the plug with a new one for like what? 20 cents? maybe less, as long as you know how to do it, you can't repair USB cables this easily on your own
Literally can just splice those ends together by twisting wires and tape. If ya wanna be cheap, a lighter + a grocery bag will suffice. The real bitch is those damn connector ends, which are very fragile, which most people don't wanna bother buying new ones of and soldering.
Eh a the Tool you need to press a Jack costs like 300$ or more you can buy cheaper ones but 99% of those are faulty, unreliable and most likely don’t get the job or just for a short time. A jack that doesn’t need a special tool costs like 10-35$ depends on cat certification and quality
@@freewayross4736 I've never had a problem using a basic crimper (quality of what you'd get from home Depot or Lowe's). Doubt both of mine would have added up to $100, and I can't remember the last time I had to redo an end due to a fault. I don't do terminations daily, but I've used it at least 100 times and with various rj45 connector brands.
The one thing i don't like about USB C is how small and fragile it was, especially on the lower end side. Like, cheap USB A is pretty decent, durability wise.
I agree. It's not just fragile, but the small size makes it harder to get a good grip. Pulling out a USB or HDMI plug is easy because you can get a good grip, so you pull it out straight. USB-C is very small, so sometimes people wiggle it side to side while pulling to get it out. That's not gonna be good for the plug or port in the long run.
I work in school IT support. We service Chromebooks and Lenovo laptops (for staff) that have USB-C as the charging port. We have numerous devices with bad USB-C ports that we cannot fix nor replace the USB-C port. It would be nice if the ports themselves were modular. That way if they go bad, we can easily swap out the port. We don't have tools, training, parts, and most importantly, time for those types of repairs. If the device is still under warranty, we have a repair partner who can usually do warranty work. However, if it is out of warranty or it doesn't cover that damage, we're out of luck.
USB-C ports and cable tips are pretty durable when compared to USB micro-B, mini-B, lightning, and mini-HDMI. I will say that USB-C ports are difficult to repair, unless they are on their own daughterboard. The one issue with using USB-C for charging, is that's the port that gets the most use, and it's usually the first to need repairs on laptops.
The funny thing I've noticed is that alot of android smartphones have a "proper" way to insert the USB-C charger. But the charging cables themselves don't show anything like that. So if I insert the USB-C cable on the wrong side then the phone will charge slowly instead of fast charging.
For networking, at least, the SFP approach seems like a pretty neat compromise between a bunch of things here. Having a common interface for a transceiver that you can make whatever you want (from a DAC cable that only goes a meter, to a fiber transceiver that can go multiple kilometers) is super powerful.
Pity there's a vendor war with SFP's where one vendor's SFP slot will not talk to another vendor's SFP module. Not all vendors, but the major ones do this, yet the modules are all made by like 2 actual manufacturers.
I wish TOSLINK was not just for audio. Just think about monitors supporting fiber optical cables out of the box, instead of needing active HDMI cables.
This is a really good idea, toslink should speak USB protocol, so it can carry ethernet, data, display (but not power though) if the connector is broken, just cut it and crimp a new one. if it breaks in the middle will be a problem though.
I work at Best Buy. So many accessories still have USB A style ports it is insane. A lot of laptops do use usb-c for power but I barely sell any usb-c accessories.
Analog signals through USB, specifically audio, IS a thing. It's called audio adapter accessory mode. It uses the USB 2.0 datalines to transfer stereo audio.
Yeah, that's why there are Lightning to audio and type-C to audio that are nothing but an adapter with no real electronics of their own. While analogue audio might work a certain way, that can be actually replicated digital without special converter chips. It's just *better* if done that way.
good script, covers a lkt of points and presents in a new thoughtful way to look at the problem statement. thanks for this one. good luck for the next one.
Also, even though usb has Made connecting all type of devices pretty Easy, it Is not the beat way to connect everything by far. Having issues with audio performance, bus sharing, even bad physical connection. I'm really glad it Is not the only connector.
There was a 3.5mm Jack in that first screen of connectors followed by an explanation saying they were all digital 👀 I understand with remotes and triggers it's technically digital but NO I SAY 99% of uses are analogue. I know you guys like to be accurate:)
There is also an analog standard for USB type c as long as there is a dac inside the device. This is an optional part of the spec and isnt used in budget devices but most cheap adapters that you can find will say what phones they are compatible with because those are the phones that work with that optional spec
@@habilain ah they were used for BNC input at one point and are used in hifi for digital so I'll let those slide because it's replacing toslink in modern hifi for digital signal
@@xathridtech727 that's correct, though nearly all the time when you use a USB adapter the adapter itself has a fax built in, in early USB c when phones started to remove the 3.5mm it was common for them to have an analogue output rail though now it's almost exclusively requiring of a DAC, so when you plug in USB c analogue headphones which don't have a self contained DAC into a new device it spits an error code of device not supported, as it's shorting the digital signal outputs. The devices are short protected though so it just reads an error message.
@Linus Tech Tips I highly doubt that the real LTT appreciates anything you’re doing. There’s also not a “Part 2” of this video. LTT never does “Part 2”s of any of their videos.
I have a video suggestion about Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. How does one really use it? Does your car need to be 'enabled' with it? Does your car need a screen? Do you connect your phone to your car via wire or wireless? Is it simply something that runs on your phone and audio is played through your car speakers? I don't really know how I'd get started and if my car supports it.
I remember when fiber optics first started becoming cheap and efficient enough to be used for low volt signal transfers. I figured within ten years it would be used in everything. Especially peripherals. Instead wireless became the norm wich has much higher latency than even old school metallic conductors lol.
A great thing is that we got rid of large parts of the myriad of charge/power connectors for small stuff, like when I can use same cable to supply power to my phone, flashlight, laptop, Zigbee hub or microcontroller, including data when relevant.
Using one port for everything means you can do more things with limited ports. My laptop has a charging port, 3 USB ports, an HDMI port, a VGA port 💀, an ethernet port and headphone and microphone ports, even though I don't think any microphone even uses that port. It's either USB or XLR. If USB controlled all monitors, my laptop could have 5 USB ports, which means up to 5 monitors if keyboard and mouse can be plugged into a monitor. If my laptop also got powered by USB, that's 6 monitors and you can charge through the monitor.
The solution for having different types of cables all using the same USB-C connector is to have a universal standard colour code for both connector and the port for different cable types. You put the yellow connector into the yellow port, the green connector into the free port, etc.
I recently wanted a small USB C cable capable of transferring video (to connect my phone to a screen). Seriously, I searched ebay and amazon for about an hour, all these "charging only" cables etc. Worst of all, I can never be sure the cable actually supports it because the descriptions are so bad. I went for a thunderbolt 3 cable. The spec has a meaning there.
One thing I'm surprised you didn't bring up is power delivery. USB-C can deliver enough power to run an intergrated-gpu laptop but good luck getting it to deliver the 230w required for a modern gaming one, or the utterly ridiculous power deliveries for desktop replacements
Still, I wish they would at least implement pass through for ethernet over USB and HDMI. That way I could just have one Ethernet connection to the TV or monitor and every connected device could receive internet that way.
well the idea is that once we reach the One Connector we also reached the One Specification, or at the very least the One Connector is compatible enough to not break
One way would be to have a unique visible or physical shape and color on the ends to correspond to what it's meant to do, similar to the colors used for USB 1.0-3.0, before they threw it out of the window since then.
If every connector looked same the it should do all of it for eg if a laptop has just 4 type c ports then all those ports should be capable of display out ie hdmi, display port then normal usb connection then charging the laptop ie everything could be handled by each of those 4 ports that'd be much more user friendly and awesome to have!
It is incredible how many things use usb, given the fact that the connector is really not mechanically good (the connector itself is sturdy), there is basically no 'hook' mechanism to prevent slipping, and the 'contacts' are (in certain devices) sheer luck...
The 3.5mm Headphone Jack STILL EXISTS(I have a Smartphone that has that type of jack as I love Wired Heaphones(they give clearer,never need no charging,are lighter and more cost effective and very long lasting too)
It seems to me the answer to the confuse a cable situation would be to have the system be able to recognize the device that’s been plugged in and give some kind of a visual or audible notice to the user. For instance, let’s say you plug a USB-C cable into the wrong port on a PC and then plug the other end into the monitor. The monitor could send a pilot signal out to the computer, which would have logic in it to identify what wants to communicate with it. If the port is not of sufficient level to support the peripheral, it would then send a signal back. This might be able to be done with both devices off, just using the standby power. there could be lights on either the cable or the device that would come on briefly to let you know that the ports are not compatible. Plugging in and seeing a quick red light at last for three seconds on the back of the monitor or the back of the computer would give a quick indication that the ports are not compatible. additionally, if you’re plugging in a device, like a hard drive, a monitor, a printer, etc., if they have any form of a screen or LED, that could instead be used to indicate to the user that there’s a problem with the connection. The color of the light or the message on the device could give more information. For instance, if the LED is full RGB, then the light blinks, or be different color as much as we see on other small devices to give the user information as to whether the cable is the problem, the compatibility is the problem, or other things that I can’t think of at the moment. This would initially increase costs, but costs would be somewhat reduced by not having to support many different input output, standards. Additionally, a standard for the color of the various ports, much like what is used for 3 mm jacks on the back of PCs to differentiate between mic, input and headphone output on a PC, could be used on USB ports to give another indication as to the purpose of a specific port. for instance, a port designed for video speeds, and below could be bright blue, while a port, that is only sufficiently fast for keyboards could be white. And we could revert to the old standards of pink, pale green and whatever the line output color is to indicate USB ports that could be used for analog signals.
I thought this would be about power delivery. Theres a good point about making things that are under 100w just power delivery. Might be more expensive though.
Well technically even tought Ethernet cable can't be repalced by USB, the connector itself can, for everyday usage at least, since you can buy really cheap an Ethernet-to-USB dongle(external Network card) and use that for connecting it to the PC(or more commonly notebooks). Not server-grade, but works perfectly for everyday usage.
The keyboard & mouse connectors were also triggered by keystrokes/moves instead of 'always listening in intervals' (aka engineered latency) And the game port: more ways of registering input than USB. (That's why early USB controllers were shit / less capable) It took years and years before they were on the same level (and I'm not even sure they are now) Those standards were designed purposely for those specific applications. And maybe... Just maybe... They're still just 'better'
Enemy of modern controller is Xinput that dumbed down all controllers into xbox 360 gamepad. 4 analog axis, 10 buttons, 2 triggers and 8 direction dpad. DirectInput on another hand were much more advanced, with 128 buttons and 8 axis.
Why not make an analogue specification for usb-c. Like if there is a specific resistance between two specific pins, it uses all the pins for analogue signals, except the middle ones for data an the outer ones for for ground. Banda Bing bada boung: 4 lanes analogue with 4 for balancing error correction.
Back to optical / fiber connectors. Yes is does cost more but you could have a fiber optical connector with power lines running in a "one cable to ruin them all"
If the usb forum(or another group to replace them) can get thier act together(its to late with usb c unless theres major changes) to make clear marketing and labeling indications of cable/port capabilities and release products to make it easier for channels like this to test capabilities to make sure they are up to standards claimed. I truly think by 10 years from that there would only be 2 types of ports. The "usb whatever" and an analog port. With how much power and back-and-forth communication the main thing holding back cables is not ever being able to tell if the cable will work for any given thing and when it doesnt not knowing if its the cable, the port, the other port, or software level., or device. If you have a way to know all pprts and cables are compatible then its just down to software or device issue wich is the same with any port
Quest link compresses the video and sends it over as regular USB data, your computer doesn't need video output to use It. USB 3 (5 gbps) is all you need, even USB 2 can work.
To be honest, I want everything to be USB C because it would become easier to finding one when you don't have it. The fix is building versions of USB with different interfaces, names and purposes which stay in USB brand but still different for specific cases.
A usb cable with an interface dedicated to video only sounds a lot like a dp cable. And a USB dedicated to networking sounds a lot like an ethernet cable
USB is already in development hell with different cables and devices supporting different subsets of USB features so you have to make sure you have the correct cable and the correct port for a given use. Not every port and cable can output or input DP alt-mode, not every port supports audio alt-mode, not every port and not every cable supports USB-PD, etc. It is getting stupid. The last thing you want is introduce even more variants on top. Personally, I am so fed up with how convoluted USB has become, I'd be in favor of a clean-slate standard dedicated to medium-power (20-100W) high-speed devices like laptops, monitors, external storage, etc. and return USB to its original low-medium speed and power uses.
If USB became the do all. Then every cord and every plug should do the same stuff. And if something didn't produce or use an image than obviously that wouldn't matter. Then we'd never have the "wrong cable" issue.
This is the problem we have with USB-C right now. Every connector looks the same but they aren't the same. Just because it fits doesn't mean it's compatible.
Yes and no. Assuming standards are followed, they *are* compatible, but they don't have the same capabilities. What I really dislike about the situation is that you can't tell what a specific cable can do just by looking at it.
@@samiraperi467 that's one thing. Every port on any cable should be Thunderbolt XY (or whatever) compatible by standard so that it doesn't matter which cable you grab for a given task.
But not only that. The protocols aren't even standardised. My Google phone doesn't charge on a Samsung cable or vice versa and so on. No matter how much your smartphone could handle or the adapted could deliver. This was way easier with mini USB. But now it is like before the days of charging via USB. Every phone needs its own cable and adapter again. And this goes for everything where USB C is involved.
This exactly. From display outputs to PCIE tunneling. You don't know what's what. Past that you don't know if the cable you are using even supports the bandwidth for those capabilities.
Even more problematic is power delivery. We already have different standards using the same connector that aren't compatible. In more extreme examples we have examples like early USB-C to type A cables or the Nintendo switch that lead to fried devices.
@Linus Tech Tips frig off
The USB cable itself should be colored because you dont know what speed is can use. I got one that can handle 65 watts and one that can handle 100 watts. They are the SAME color other then the color of the cable.
just be glad your brand new toaster doesn't come with a cable but no brick
Mine diddnt come with either 😢
@@Mrmonke6000 wireless toaster
Yeah more e waste
4090?
To be honest, I have too many single port adapters at home now
That last bit about tech support for a universal “one cable fits all,” situation is so true it hurts.
Ethernet is also galvanically isolated. For runs inside your house that doesn't add a lot of value, but for servers and apartment buildings, it does.
Isolated? Where? On the board I guess, because definitely not inside the cable, so we could just use the same cable there. Because the USBc cable is already being abused for literally everything anyways xD
@@LuLeBe Its isolated on the PCB. Its part of the ethernet standard. I guess you could force a USB cable for that, but there are less twisted pairs inside a USB cable, so we would need a new standard for that.
Also crimping it "in the field" would be a pain. One of the good things about ethernet cables is that you can fit them trough small holes and then crimp then with inexpensive and simple tools. For USB its not so simple.
Actually, Ethernet has its place in houses. Run wire to remote access points to extend your network beyond what Mesh can do.
You can't daisy chain Mesh, all access points must connect directly back to the main gateway. So, it has to be in the dead center of a house. This causes issues in homes where you don't really have a choice where the main gateway lives.
On top of that, some people want to extend their network outside or have big houses. Mesh won't always cover a whole house because again you can't daisy chain.
@@OgdenM You can daisy chain mesh. Depending on the devices, you can daisy chain them in terms of WiFi only, or Ethernet daisy chaining. You couldn't do this in the past but we got past that. Do you think orbi or Google is going to have people running wires all over their house? They wouldn't sell any units if it was that complicated.
1:58 You put the HDMI plug in the wrong way.
I saw the animation and felt an internal pain of broken computer parts. When I rewatched the scene I knew why.
Yeah, another pain is that it floats from the bottom 😅
it can be done if you apply enough force
@@edfx by the same logic you could force a screwdriver in there 🤷
@@Ben4A or a brick
I would have liked if he talked more about USB potentially replacing regular power outlets, which is what is being alluded to in the thumbnail with the picture of the toaster with the USB-A cable.
UA-cam is only clickbait nowadays 😭
Now you could use USB C 48V 5A to have 240W. Too low for a toaster (
Agree
Very bad idea for computer security
@@vadnegru there would have to be some plugs for stuff like heating elements, but wouldn't it be much safer if most of a house's wiring was low power?
I think we're currently in a pretty sweet spot between one cable and lots of cables. And looking at the mess usb is making with they naming and supported protocols it's probably a good thing 1 single cable isn't a reality (yet)
It's like USBIF is shooting itself in the foot by letting members get away with stretching the truth about standards compliance by loosening those standards, letting greed of their members take over the common goal of actually universally compliant standard.
There won't be 1 cable to rule them all, because by the time that tech is developed, everything is likely going to be wirelessly connected.
Power hungry appliances like certain monitors or power supplies will likely never lose their cables.
@@Not_interestEd- Correct! Except all those wireless devices will need USB cables to charge them. And they will all require different levels of power delivery... Oh wait. We have that problem now.
@@finkelmana charging through wireless exists, although that would require a cable to do..... ehhhhhh........
I'd say if any cable will rule them all, it's gonna be USB-C
@@Not_interestEd- Wireless charging really is just a step above being a novelty. It is EXTREMELY inefficient. Most of the power is lost. It also has no range. As for USB-C, being the future of charging? Nope. USB-C cannot be *THE* universal charger. The wires inside simply do not have the mass support higher amperages. Not to mention USB-C cables are far more expensive to make. Its fine for low power devices, but for anything that takes real current, its just not good enough.
and for completeness sake, the real hidden reason that DisplayPort, HDMI, USBC video, etc, compete is the avoidance of patents and licensing fees
usbc video is display port and hdmi tho.
@@gamagama69 There is such a thing as USB-C HDMI Alt Mode, but it kinda sucks cuz it doesn't support 4K@60FPS or HDR. I dunno why they gimped the standard that way when DisplayPort Alt Mode works just fine for those features.
@@MikeTrieu are most usbc to hdmi adpter just dp alt mode running hdmi? cuz displayport can just past through hdmi passively
isn't Display port free to use unlike HDMI ?
@@MikeTrieu HDMI over USB-C alt mode was specced out, but effectively no one used it. IIRC it's been dropped.
Too this day it's still blow my mind my laptop outputs a 1440p 240hz signal through a single USB-C cable. Remembering when I used to plug in the red, white, and yellow AV cables to my old TV from my PlayStation2.🤣
And video were in only one of those. Meet the component, with 3 cables for video (that were actually good, with up to 1080p)
Love the animation of the HDMI going into its port upside-down.
The pain
Some are like that actually
I guess having USB c on everything for DC power delivery would be much better than having those stupid always slightly different Barrell plugs ...
As a UX designer when you said "you don't know what it does" really hit home.
I know I'm not alone here, but holy crap that last point really hit home. The amount of times I've laid on the floor and unplugged everything out of the back of my PC and then had to plug everything back in again, in low-light conditions, is kind of absurd. If everything was the same connector I would definitely have to label it all.
I want my fridge powered via USB C
Mine is! 🥶
it is not impossible. While older units had compressor rated up to 800W, modern ones are around 100W. Energy efficient and small units can do with compressors as small, as 40W. However, for the most time we do trade insulation for extra storage volume
There is Alt. mode for USB-C for passing analog audio out & mic in and AFAIK some phones use this and give you just a very short USB-C to female jack passive "dongle"
a nice thing about ethernet cables is the fact that even if it breaks, you can simply cut it and replace the plug with a new one for like what? 20 cents? maybe less, as long as you know how to do it, you can't repair USB cables this easily on your own
Literally can just splice those ends together by twisting wires and tape. If ya wanna be cheap, a lighter + a grocery bag will suffice.
The real bitch is those damn connector ends, which are very fragile, which most people don't wanna bother buying new ones of and soldering.
Eh a the Tool you need to press a Jack costs like 300$ or more you can buy cheaper ones but 99% of those are faulty, unreliable and most likely don’t get the job or just for a short time. A jack that doesn’t need a special tool costs like 10-35$ depends on cat certification and quality
@@freewayross4736 I've never had a problem using a basic crimper (quality of what you'd get from home Depot or Lowe's). Doubt both of mine would have added up to $100, and I can't remember the last time I had to redo an end due to a fault. I don't do terminations daily, but I've used it at least 100 times and with various rj45 connector brands.
@@volvo09 what are your plugs rated for? Cat5?
The one thing i don't like about USB C is how small and fragile it was, especially on the lower end side. Like, cheap USB A is pretty decent, durability wise.
I agree. It's not just fragile, but the small size makes it harder to get a good grip. Pulling out a USB or HDMI plug is easy because you can get a good grip, so you pull it out straight. USB-C is very small, so sometimes people wiggle it side to side while pulling to get it out. That's not gonna be good for the plug or port in the long run.
I work in school IT support. We service Chromebooks and Lenovo laptops (for staff) that have USB-C as the charging port. We have numerous devices with bad USB-C ports that we cannot fix nor replace the USB-C port. It would be nice if the ports themselves were modular. That way if they go bad, we can easily swap out the port. We don't have tools, training, parts, and most importantly, time for those types of repairs. If the device is still under warranty, we have a repair partner who can usually do warranty work. However, if it is out of warranty or it doesn't cover that damage, we're out of luck.
Really? That hasn't been my experience, I've had far more USB-A ports/cables die on me than USB-C
USB-C ports and cable tips are pretty durable when compared to USB micro-B, mini-B, lightning, and mini-HDMI.
I will say that USB-C ports are difficult to repair, unless they are on their own daughterboard.
The one issue with using USB-C for charging, is that's the port that gets the most use, and it's usually the first to need repairs on laptops.
The funny thing I've noticed is that alot of android smartphones have a "proper" way to insert the USB-C charger. But the charging cables themselves don't show anything like that. So if I insert the USB-C cable on the wrong side then the phone will charge slowly instead of fast charging.
For networking, at least, the SFP approach seems like a pretty neat compromise between a bunch of things here. Having a common interface for a transceiver that you can make whatever you want (from a DAC cable that only goes a meter, to a fiber transceiver that can go multiple kilometers) is super powerful.
Pity there's a vendor war with SFP's where one vendor's SFP slot will not talk to another vendor's SFP module. Not all vendors, but the major ones do this, yet the modules are all made by like 2 actual manufacturers.
The production quality of this video and use of motion graphics was very good.
Much higher than the average
1:58 I'm upset that the port and cable aren't facing the same way
@@Doroga05 too
I had to do a double take because I couldn't believe what I saw, lol
@@destoru same.
3:49 Linus looks possessed.
(1:57) just noticed the connector is reversed when plugged in 😅
I wish TOSLINK was not just for audio. Just think about monitors supporting fiber optical cables out of the box, instead of needing active HDMI cables.
This is a really good idea, toslink should speak USB protocol, so it can carry ethernet, data, display (but not power though)
if the connector is broken, just cut it and crimp a new one.
if it breaks in the middle will be a problem though.
I work at Best Buy. So many accessories still have USB A style ports it is insane. A lot of laptops do use usb-c for power but I barely sell any usb-c accessories.
I remember we bought a bunch of servers and was dismayed to find they were USB 1.1. Servers were usually a version behind.
At least you could add add-on card with newer USB
@@vadnegru I think that’s what we ended up doing to a few of them.
Bummer, I hoped for an explanation why household appliances don't use USB more. Especially now, that PD is a thing.
Analog signals through USB, specifically audio, IS a thing. It's called audio adapter accessory mode. It uses the USB 2.0 datalines to transfer stereo audio.
Yeah, that's why there are Lightning to audio and type-C to audio that are nothing but an adapter with no real electronics of their own.
While analogue audio might work a certain way, that can be actually replicated digital without special converter chips. It's just *better* if done that way.
i realy hate fact they removed audiojacks from some new devices makes harder to use old soud systems as amplifier with just one cable
ad ends at 3:16
4:44 that feeling when a banger starts in your game
I love that little dance at 4:40 x33
1:10 why is that person rubbing the computer like that?!
04:28 -- heeeey, isn't that the "Backroom Casting Couch" ? :O
We as a civilization can't even agree on a single power plug, socket, voltage, and frequency standard.
good script, covers a lkt of points and presents in a new thoughtful way to look at the problem statement. thanks for this one. good luck for the next one.
I feel like if a toaster used USB like in the thumbnail we would have to "waste" a power brick instead of plugging it straight in.
Also, even though usb has Made connecting all type of devices pretty Easy, it Is not the beat way to connect everything by far. Having issues with audio performance, bus sharing, even bad physical connection.
I'm really glad it Is not the only connector.
Plus having a one size fits all solution will mean that you will need to pay extra for something you don't need.
There was a 3.5mm Jack in that first screen of connectors followed by an explanation saying they were all digital 👀 I understand with remotes and triggers it's technically digital but NO I SAY 99% of uses are analogue. I know you guys like to be accurate:)
There is also an analog standard for USB type c as long as there is a dac inside the device. This is an optional part of the spec and isnt used in budget devices but most cheap adapters that you can find will say what phones they are compatible with because those are the phones that work with that optional spec
The composite cables (Yellow/Red/White) on the same screen are an old analogue TV cable, and I'm not aware of any uses of it that are non-analogue.
@@habilain ah they were used for BNC input at one point and are used in hifi for digital so I'll let those slide because it's replacing toslink in modern hifi for digital signal
@@xathridtech727 that's correct, though nearly all the time when you use a USB adapter the adapter itself has a fax built in, in early USB c when phones started to remove the 3.5mm it was common for them to have an analogue output rail though now it's almost exclusively requiring of a DAC, so when you plug in USB c analogue headphones which don't have a self contained DAC into a new device it spits an error code of device not supported, as it's shorting the digital signal outputs. The devices are short protected though so it just reads an error message.
@Linus Tech Tips I highly doubt that the real LTT appreciates anything you’re doing. There’s also not a “Part 2” of this video. LTT never does “Part 2”s of any of their videos.
Anyone else notice the HDMi goes in backwards at 1:58
Was gonna mention this.😂
I have a video suggestion about Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. How does one really use it? Does your car need to be 'enabled' with it? Does your car need a screen? Do you connect your phone to your car via wire or wireless? Is it simply something that runs on your phone and audio is played through your car speakers? I don't really know how I'd get started and if my car supports it.
at 1:58 it cracked me up to see the illustration of a HDMI Cable being pluged into the monitor in the wrong orientation.
TLDR: Because USB isn't U.
That AI art 1:20 lmaoooooo the keyboard what the helllllll
I remember when fiber optics first started becoming cheap and efficient enough to be used for low volt signal transfers. I figured within ten years it would be used in everything. Especially peripherals. Instead wireless became the norm wich has much higher latency than even old school metallic conductors lol.
the 3.5mm jack is essential as it does it's job perfectly but phone manufacturers seem to not understand that
Which is why bluetooth is the alternate choice while being wireless.
Your video thumbnail promised me a usb vs outlet… I want to see that
A great thing is that we got rid of large parts of the myriad of charge/power connectors for small stuff, like when I can use same cable to supply power to my phone, flashlight, laptop, Zigbee hub or microcontroller, including data when relevant.
Using one port for everything means you can do more things with limited ports. My laptop has a charging port, 3 USB ports, an HDMI port, a VGA port 💀, an ethernet port and headphone and microphone ports, even though I don't think any microphone even uses that port. It's either USB or XLR. If USB controlled all monitors, my laptop could have 5 USB ports, which means up to 5 monitors if keyboard and mouse can be plugged into a monitor. If my laptop also got powered by USB, that's 6 monitors and you can charge through the monitor.
The solution for having different types of cables all using the same USB-C connector is to have a universal standard colour code for both connector and the port for different cable types. You put the yellow connector into the yellow port, the green connector into the free port, etc.
I recently wanted a small USB C cable capable of transferring video (to connect my phone to a screen). Seriously, I searched ebay and amazon for about an hour, all these "charging only" cables etc. Worst of all, I can never be sure the cable actually supports it because the descriptions are so bad.
I went for a thunderbolt 3 cable. The spec has a meaning there.
without the banana scale. i wouldn't be able to comprehend this videos
Ethernet cables can also be easily cut and crimped by someone running cables, you’d pretty much need a soldering iron for USB
Do a video on the 90's computers, Retractable "coffee cup holder"... or CD drive bay as some called it.
CD stands for Coffee Desk
5:18
"Grab the cable"
"Which one"
"The Chosen One!"
One thing I'm surprised you didn't bring up is power delivery. USB-C can deliver enough power to run an intergrated-gpu laptop but good luck getting it to deliver the 230w required for a modern gaming one, or the utterly ridiculous power deliveries for desktop replacements
USB C can deliver up to 250w nowadays I believe
@@adamdavies5599 If you can show me that in use I'll be pretty amazed
Still, I wish they would at least implement pass through for ethernet over USB and HDMI. That way I could just have one Ethernet connection to the TV or monitor and every connected device could receive internet that way.
well the idea is that once we reach the One Connector we also reached the One Specification, or at the very least the One Connector is compatible enough to not break
One way would be to have a unique visible or physical shape and color on the ends to correspond to what it's meant to do, similar to the colors used for USB 1.0-3.0, before they threw it out of the window since then.
If every connector looked same the it should do all of it for eg if a laptop has just 4 type c ports then all those ports should be capable of display out ie hdmi, display port then normal usb connection then charging the laptop ie everything could be handled by each of those 4 ports that'd be much more user friendly and awesome to have!
It is incredible how many things use usb, given the fact that the connector is really not mechanically good (the connector itself is sturdy), there is basically no 'hook' mechanism to prevent slipping, and the 'contacts' are (in certain devices) sheer luck...
PS2 keyboards still have advantages
The 3.5mm Headphone Jack STILL EXISTS(I have a Smartphone that has that type of jack as I love Wired Heaphones(they give clearer,never need no charging,are lighter and more cost effective and very long lasting too)
It seems to me the answer to the confuse a cable situation would be to have the system be able to recognize the device that’s been plugged in and give some kind of a visual or audible notice to the user.
For instance, let’s say you plug a USB-C cable into the wrong port on a PC and then plug the other end into the monitor. The monitor could send a pilot signal out to the computer, which would have logic in it to identify what wants to communicate with it. If the port is not of sufficient level to support the peripheral, it would then send a signal back. This might be able to be done with both devices off, just using the standby power. there could be lights on either the cable or the device that would come on briefly to let you know that the ports are not compatible. Plugging in and seeing a quick red light at last for three seconds on the back of the monitor or the back of the computer would give a quick indication that the ports are not compatible. additionally, if you’re plugging in a device, like a hard drive, a monitor, a printer, etc., if they have any form of a screen or LED, that could instead be used to indicate to the user that there’s a problem with the connection. The color of the light or the message on the device could give more information. For instance, if the LED is full RGB, then the light blinks, or be different color as much as we see on other small devices to give the user information as to whether the cable is the problem, the compatibility is the problem, or other things that I can’t think of at the moment.
This would initially increase costs, but costs would be somewhat reduced by not having to support many different input output, standards.
Additionally, a standard for the color of the various ports, much like what is used for 3 mm jacks on the back of PCs to differentiate between mic, input and headphone output on a PC, could be used on USB ports to give another indication as to the purpose of a specific port. for instance, a port designed for video speeds, and below could be bright blue, while a port, that is only sufficiently fast for keyboards could be white. And we could revert to the old standards of pink, pale green and whatever the line output color is to indicate USB ports that could be used for analog signals.
Thank you for really taking the time to explain why I can't have what I want.
Some devices/manufracturers use USB(-C) for everything like the docking station for my office laptop.
Fun fact:You can transmit Internet by USB, i do that to thether the wifi in my phone to my pc
I do still recommend ethernet or wifi for that tho
Like Headphones with a usb plug and without an analog/digital converter arent a thing nowadays.
Damn DVI is from the 20th century? I was in high school when this came out!
I still use it... like not on retro rigs even!
iam still using dvi also for pc screen . fells slighlty more responsive then hdmi for me . but maybe its placebo
Medical doctor here. Our equipment (even brand new stuff) uses micro usb rather than usb c
You're speaking to a person with a wild, self-made display port to vga because I wanted to use the hdmi port for my switch
I thought this would be about power delivery. Theres a good point about making things that are under 100w just power delivery. Might be more expensive though.
Well technically even tought Ethernet cable can't be repalced by USB, the connector itself can, for everyday usage at least, since you can buy really cheap an Ethernet-to-USB dongle(external Network card) and use that for connecting it to the PC(or more commonly notebooks). Not server-grade, but works perfectly for everyday usage.
You made a 6min video that doesn't touch on the question. Good job.
That HDMI connector being the wrong way around at 1:58 oof ouch. Having seen HDMI ports ripped apart by people..
I used a CAT6 cable to make a 30 foot usb cable. It might not meet spec, but it works
The keyboard & mouse connectors were also triggered by keystrokes/moves instead of 'always listening in intervals' (aka engineered latency)
And the game port: more ways of registering input than USB. (That's why early USB controllers were shit / less capable)
It took years and years before they were on the same level (and I'm not even sure they are now)
Those standards were designed purposely for those specific applications. And maybe... Just maybe... They're still just 'better'
Enemy of modern controller is Xinput that dumbed down all controllers into xbox 360 gamepad. 4 analog axis, 10 buttons, 2 triggers and 8 direction dpad. DirectInput on another hand were much more advanced, with 128 buttons and 8 axis.
3:47 - you know USB just won't cut it when even Linus became so frustrated and activated his sharingan.
Why not make an analogue specification for usb-c. Like if there is a specific resistance between two specific pins, it uses all the pins for analogue signals, except the middle ones for data an the outer ones for for ground. Banda Bing bada boung: 4 lanes analogue with 4 for balancing error correction.
Back to optical / fiber connectors. Yes is does cost more but you could have a fiber optical connector with power lines running in a "one cable to ruin them all"
Don't forget about powered USB or the 20v usb which are common on cash registers
Universal* Serial BUS
\*Some restrictions may apply*
1:58 MAGIC!!! The HDMI is upside down and connected perfectly hehehe
Thank you for breaking down cable lengths from metric to bananas so I, an American, can understand the scale
Would love to see you guys do a video on starlink and the future of alternative data sources!
If the usb forum(or another group to replace them) can get thier act together(its to late with usb c unless theres major changes) to make clear marketing and labeling indications of cable/port capabilities and release products to make it easier for channels like this to test capabilities to make sure they are up to standards claimed. I truly think by 10 years from that there would only be 2 types of ports. The "usb whatever" and an analog port. With how much power and back-and-forth communication the main thing holding back cables is not ever being able to tell if the cable will work for any given thing and when it doesnt not knowing if its the cable, the port, the other port, or software level., or device. If you have a way to know all pprts and cables are compatible then its just down to software or device issue wich is the same with any port
3:18 Ethernet also electrically isolates every device, so ground differences etc. aren't a problem. Ethernet is robust.
Could have mentioned the DAC in a USB C to 3.5mm jack at the end of the vid too
Ultimately, I do have a single connector for everything. I have a dock connected via USB-C which breaks out the Ethernet and DisplayPort.
And charges laptop and data for km and my usb soundbar. Blew my mind 18 months ago 😂 and maybe 4 monitors
4:40 Great b-roll moment
I want a Techquickie video about why is James so likeable.
My Quest 2 does use video over USB, actually. But it's been a pain to find the right cable, and also the right USB-C connector on a motherboard.
Quest link compresses the video and sends it over as regular USB data, your computer doesn't need video output to use It. USB 3 (5 gbps) is all you need, even USB 2 can work.
Riley dancing at his desk made my day 😂
That they plug in the HDMI cable the wrong way around at 1:58 triggers me so much 😂
Can't wait for the laps to help me buy usb cables that actually goddamn work.
I'd like to point out that the HDMI cable at 1:59 is going in backwards.
Front Panel USB C Connector for the Mainboard side would be nice!
i like how you corectly converted from international metric sistem to us banana standard. keep on the good work!
4:40 lol 😂😂😂😂
They should rename it "Not so Universal Serial Bus."
To be honest, I want everything to be USB C because it would become easier to finding one when you don't have it. The fix is building versions of USB with different interfaces, names and purposes which stay in USB brand but still different for specific cases.
A usb cable with an interface dedicated to video only sounds a lot like a dp cable. And a USB dedicated to networking sounds a lot like an ethernet cable
USB is already in development hell with different cables and devices supporting different subsets of USB features so you have to make sure you have the correct cable and the correct port for a given use. Not every port and cable can output or input DP alt-mode, not every port supports audio alt-mode, not every port and not every cable supports USB-PD, etc. It is getting stupid. The last thing you want is introduce even more variants on top.
Personally, I am so fed up with how convoluted USB has become, I'd be in favor of a clean-slate standard dedicated to medium-power (20-100W) high-speed devices like laptops, monitors, external storage, etc. and return USB to its original low-medium speed and power uses.
until you find out about the infinite versions of usb c, each cable has different capabilities
At least all new phones are being standardized to use USB C in Europe, with apple being forced to adopt it now.
If USB became the do all. Then every cord and every plug should do the same stuff. And if something didn't produce or use an image than obviously that wouldn't matter. Then we'd never have the "wrong cable" issue.