Wait until they encounter the final boss
I’m always impressed that they got this wrong even with USB-C. Here’s hoping that they finally make USB-D round so “orientation” does not matter.
Ive never had a USB-C with orientation issues. What am I missing?
Wow, It’s almost like we had a reason for different kinds of wires…
I remember getting a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card for my laptop to use my enormous external DVD drive. The only DVDs I had at the time were X-Men, Star Wars Episode 1, and Nothing But Trouble.
USB, the jack of all connectors, master of none.
Blame the standards group. There are so many things USB is excellent at but they have been horrifically butchering the implementation.
They need to mandate compliance. Each accessory should support a basic level of features. Packaging and listings should include a facts table which shows the support for the various features. You shouldn’t have to guess.
But let’s talk about the features. Oh. My. God. Let’s talk about it.
USB-PD is great. But they don’t have to support it. Or they can have their own implementation which is also compliant. Or their own implementation which isn’t.
Oh, but you can connect your headphones into the USB port and play music! Well, only if the device, cable, and headphones support analog audio. Or if the device, cable, and headphones support digital audio. But if it supports digital audio, both devices must support synchronous audio. Or asynchronous. Or adaptive. And none of these are cross-compatible.
Well, that’s annoying. At least video isn’t bad. You can use it to connect directly to your monitor! Just make sure it’s DP. Or HDMI. Or VGA. Or MHL. Or VirtualLink. Only DP and HDMI are cross-compatible.
They also can support Ethernet. Or they might not. They could support ThunderBolt. Or they won’t.
They have to be at least USB 3.0. Sorry, 3.1 Gen 1. Wait, 3.2 Gen 1x1. Oh, I mean SuperSpeed USB 5Gbps. Ah, fuck, never mind they changed the standard again - USB1/2 are fine.
But at least manufacturers are happy to put the specs on their packaging and listings, right? I’m sure there isn’t any natural incentive to hide this information so they can sell inferior products.
Woah, worse than i thought.
That’s right, it goes in the USB-C hole!
I heard the voice
Slow charge speed detected.
Scart is missing. Well i’m not sure anyone misses that jank
Then most people get advertised higher quality for their DVD player not knowing they have to switch it to “RGB mode” first, therefore the entire effect being placebo.
SCART is the most glorious analog video connector ever devised. No one can convince me otherwise. When I was a kid, it really put this idea in my head that we can actually do some pretty damn neat shit here in Europe. 🇪🇺
Understandable omission. It was only really in use in PAL regions.
Oh such a crisp picture though, when compared to the rf coax.
Plugging that in by touch was always good for a laugh.
I still use toslink. How else am I supposed to get audio to my DAC?
Realistically, I prefer USB 9B) over toslink for my DAC, but I am more confused how HDMI and DP are being shown as outdated.
usbc 😅
It has USB-B, toslink, and coax. Coax and toslink can’t be used simultaneously. I use USB to connect to my PC and I have an HDMI audio extractor pass through thingey that has toslink so I can use my PS5 with my DAC.
I just came a little.
Use toslink for all. Does the USB connection to your PC and/or HDMI extractor work with digital signals like Dolby whatever?
Even if it uses digital over the USB connection, I prefer that toslink is only one-way so that my soundbar and PC each have their own volume controls instead of sharing a single volume.
My favorite fucked-up thing from the past was the Macintosh circa 1990. The disk drive on this thing had no eject button – to eject a disk, you just did the oh-so-fucking-intuitive thing of dragging the disk icon over the trash can icon. But they did very conveniently place the big knobby power button for the whole computer (which looked exactly like an eject button) right above the disk drive. I spent a year constantly powering off the computer every time I wanted to just eject the disk.
Apple has always been an excellent example of how not to design a UI.
I would love to chain up some Apple UX/UI designers and force them to watch my 90 yo mother try to use her fucking iPhone.
At the university I went to in the 90s, there was a bank of 5 Macs. Each one had a printed label next to the power button instructing users that it wasn’t the disk eject button.
EU regulations are pretty cool
Ahhh yeah, that’s the good shit right there.
It is still cool. Cooler because of its age. It’s the OO. They even named it something funny, tossers.
And a good place to look if you want simultaneous audio. Snyone hard of hearing can have a separate audio stream.
I thought that galvanic isolation was pretty much toslink’s only true advantage nowadays? Don’t see why you can’t have dual audio with traditional wires.
Oh, idk. Sounds like you know more than I do.
I just know. I’ve had good luck plugging headphones into them and not having the audio “switch” to that as the sole audio out and disabling the speakers.
I spent two hours today explaining the difference between USBC plugs meaning USB 3 — USB 3.1, USB 3.2, and thunderbolt 4,and the differences between all of that, and how they would affect the performance when my buddy was shopping for an external drive bay enclosure. (You bought a server with TB4 ports, get that TB4 enclosure! Those drives are set up in parallel, so let’s eat that speed!)
I literally had to explain the differences to him for two hours. Not because he was stupid, but because it’s absurdly complicated.
Tell me about it. I’ve been trying, unsuccessfully for over a month to find a proper USB-C adapter that will give me both USB-A 2.0 and a 4K 120Hz output from my phone via HDMI. (It has to be USB 2 because 3.0 and up ports steal bandwidth from the HDMI port on the adapter). You’d think it would be a simple task, but even the adapters that claim to support 4K @ 144Hz still drop the connection down to 30Hz every time I increase the resolution beyond 1440p. Hell, at this, point, I’d just be happy with 60hz.
All I need is a simple adapter that will allow me to use my phone as a PC at a decent refresh rate, until I finally find the time and patience to sit down and figure out why the hell my PC won’t POST after I replaced the CMOS battery. Yet this has proven to be an impossible task.
Does your PC have DDR5? Do you get a black screen and spinning fans when you power it on? If so, let it sit powered on the black screen for literally 30+ min. It may be memory training and they, for some absurd reason, give zero indication they are doing so.
I’ll give it a shot but status code 15 is for memory training, and it gets past it just fine so IDK.
USB 2.0 supports the bandwidth of a 4k 144Hz HDMI signal lol?
No. You misunderstand. I need USB-A 2.0 ports on a USB-C 3.0 adapter because USB-A 3.0 ports will steal bandwidth from the HDMI port on the adapter, causing my 30Hz issue. Therefore I need a USB-C 3.0 adapter that has a USB-A 2.0 port on it for my mouse and keyboard to prevent that from happening, allowing the HDMI port to use the full bandwidth it requires to send a 120Hz signal @ 4K. Problem is that I can’t find any such adapters. But all my research says that it should exist.
Oh I think I get it.
You want a USB 3.0 hub that has only USB 2.0 ports for the peripherals so that all the bandwidth is used for HDMI and not the peripherals.
I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure USB 3.x never supported 4k at 120hz with HDMI. Only thunderbolt could achieve this nativley.
There is a way with DP alt mode which worked using some bonus display port protocol magic which is why the suggestion is to use a DP to HDMI adapter.
Actually I’m pretty sure even DP requires at least 3.2 but I would need to check.
HDMI 4k @120Hz was added in USB 4.0 which won’t work if your phone is only 3.x.
You need a hub that supports DP alt mode so that it won’t downgrade the output: https://www.reddit.com/r/UsbCHardware/comments/1dahjah/psa_usbc_bus_powered_dock_with_dp_14_alt_mode/
I think yout phone needs to support it too though, otherwise it won’t work.
By “USB 3.0” I should probably clarify that I meant more like 3.x, or whatever standard supports the DP standard I need to achieve at least 60Hz minimum refresh rate @ 4K (ideally 120hz but I’ll take what I can get). You see, I’m old so from my perspective this USB 3+ shit still feels new and confusing for me, even having done a little bit of research. But I digress; you’ve pretty much got the gist of what I’m trying to say now.
Anyway I have a Z Fold 7 so I don’t think my phone the limitation, here. But yes from what I understand, an adapter that supports either DP Alt Mode or DSC (Display Stream Compression) is what I need. Or both. I’m still not sure, cause one such adapter I tried claimed to support alt mode but my phone still stubbornly refused to go beyond 30hz above 1440p. I’ll look into that reddit post; thank you.
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OK, so my first reaction to reading your post was “what the fuck”, and my second reaction was “there’s gotta be a better way to try to do this”.
What are you trying to do? Because whatever it is, you’re trying to do, I think the best way to solve your problem. Is to rethink your approach. There’s gotta be a better way to go at this.
I’m a tech guy (I’m sure that applies to pretty much anyone on Lemmy) so maybe an outside view will help you solve this problem
Again, what are you trying to do? What problem are you trying to solve? Because, from what you’re telling me, you haven’t been able to solve the problem, so maybe trying to come at it from a different angle will present you with different solutions.
I get that you’re trying to output 4K video from your phone, but what are you trying to output that video too? And is outputting video from your phone the best option? Can you output video from another device to the end device?
What is your total solution here? What is your end solution? What is this all look like in your final video set up? Is there a better solution than using your phone?
All I want is a simple USB-C adapter with these ports:
- A USB 2.0 port (or two) so that I can connect my wired mouse and keyboard
- A HDMI 2.1 port that supports 4K 120Hz
- A USB-C pass-through port charge the phone.
Modern Android smartphones will go into a PC-like desktop mode when they detect that an external monitor is connected (complete with a taskbar, and apps running in a window, just like a PC). Therefore I want to do that with my phone so that I can have something that resembles a desktop PC until I find the time to fix my rig.
The problem is that I can find no such adaptor. They all revert to 30Hz at resolutions above 2560x1440. I’ve been told that a workaround is to get a simple USB-C to DP adapter, then a HDMI to DP adapter, then just use a BT mouse and KB. I don’t want to invest in a new mouse and keyboard just for that, plus converting the signal to DP means I’ll lose ARC and then my home theater speakers won’t work, forcing me to use Bluetooth for audio as well. I don’t want to go investing in bunch of Bluetooth crap just for a temporary fix. All I need is a simple adapter that just works with my existing equipment.
Have you seen this one? https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=44467
You won’t find a “simple adapter” with those specs, you’re solidly in dock territory and you’re going to pay a lot extra for something capable of HDMI 2.1.
I think you might have to tep up to like a caldigit hub
I’ll look into it; thanks.
Ok, I get this. My first question is:
Why?
Why is your solution for such an advanced video output setup to use your phone as an output device? Can you not use something else that is much better suited as an output device? Is that not an option?
If not, we can move forward. I’m just curious, and asking for practical reasons.
You can simply answer that it is simply necessary, and we can move on to the next steps
Well like I stated in my initial comment, my PC won’t POST after I replaced my CMOS battery and I simply don’t have the free time to tinker with it right now (Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master and it just gets stuck @ status code 7b or 99).
So I figured that I could just pick up a $50 adapter that I can use my phone as a PC in the meantime, until I get the time (and money if it’s a hardware failure) to address the issue. I just wanted a quick $50 fix that I can plug my existing mouse, keyboard, display, and home theater system into, and carry on business as usual to hold me off. Not invest in Bluetooth fucking everything just for a temporary solution. Problem is that the temporary solution I thought would be simple is actually a lot more difficult in the era of USB-C, thus proving the original point of this post. You have hundreds of different incompatible standards, all plugging into the same thing.
The fact that my comments are confusing even a tech-savvy social media network such as Lemmy says it all. Things were a lot easier in the old days. If it wasn’t compatible, the cable physically would not fit. That is no longer the case in the era of USB-C.
So your point about adapters is legit. That concept should be simple but I guess there isn’t much demand for it.
That said, I think you’ll have a much better experience with a raspberry pi. You don’t even need a bleeding edge model, I have a great desktop experience with a raspberry pi 4 model B with 4GB ram. Looks like currently $120 for 4GB ram, $170 for 8GB ram in the US. Not great prices but probably the best deal you could find and probably worth not buying 3x $40 adapters. If you need a temporary PC replacement for mostly web browsing, I recommend giving it a try.
https://www.sparkfun.com/raspberry-pi-4-model-b-8-gb.html?src=raspberrypi
Bluetooth mouse+keyboard or keyboard with integrated track pad. When you remove that as a requirement now you just need 4k120 video with passthru charging, which should be easier to find
Oops didn’t read the full comment.
I still think there’s more reusability with bluetooth peripherals than there would be with specific video cables
So this one’s like fast, yeah?
lol
He came at me with “are 40 people gonna be watching the same 4K movie at once?”
I honestly had to say “probably not”
But… Still… One can never be too prepared. He paid for all that bandwidth. It’s a shame not to take advantage of it
And, really, what’s the point in even having a set up like this if I can’t transfer a 30 TB file from one drive to another in a few seconds? It’s 2026, goddamnit, how dare you make me wait!
That’s the worst part of USB, but it’s also simultaneously the best part.
You can connect a cable to that HDD, and if the cable fits you’ll get something. Might not be the best something; could be super slow and awful. But it will be something. And that’s a reassuring capability.
It rewards those of us who do our homework. I’m OK with that.
Then again, I’m one of those dorks who really appreciate FireWire/thunderbolt
Similar thing with my sister recently … her work laptop can run a monitor off of the USBC port. She bought a second monitor, and cable for her home PC, and couldn’t understand why it wouldn’t work. I had to actually pull the specs on her laptop up on HP’s site and show her where it stated that the USBC didn’t support a monitor.
HP
You know, I’d really like to say that this is the source of all of her problems, but it isn’t. USB-C is the new universal adapter for everything, but it does not preclude universal adaptability.
Whether a computer is capable of certain things or not, is something you will have to consult a specific computers tactical manual about. Just because it has a USB-C port, does not mean it can do everything. A USB-C port is capable of doing. That’s up to you to determine.
I don’t mean to sound like a dick, but…
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
To add to the situation, the age of the device alone led me to believe that it wasn’t new enough to support video on USB-C, and I told her as much from the start.
Ummm… I wanna help…
I’m just saying that alternative approaches might reveal better results.
Perhaps we should talk about this tomorrow? Hit me up later 😊
Ahem. Remember this?
I think your tuning sponge needs replacing
Nope, that kinda looks like telecoms gear, what is it?
It’s an old IBM “Bus and Tag” peripheral interface cable. Before my time – I’ve seen 'em, but only in parts bins, not in actual use.
As with all standards, cheap manufacturing and poor labeling has ruined its perception.
Honestly, were it not for Hanlon’s Razor, I’d think tech companies are trying to sandbag open standards compliance so that standards fail and they can fall back to proprietary.
Not entirely sure I don’t think that anyway.
We used to have time to eat serial, but now everything has to catch the bus.
still better than fake “i have prepared every port that anyone has ever seen for breakfast this morning, but the kids are only grabbing one measly USB C toast as they head out with friends”
How else can you exposition that they’re a busy person living a busy life that doesn’t have time for the plot that’s about to happen to them?
