Dr Strangeport: How I learned to stop worrying and love the Displayport KVMs 

Wendell's Mom: no Wendell I'm not going to get you a $15k cable tester for Christmas Wendell: but all the other boys have got one, Steve even got a fan tester. So unfair!

God, whoever is pairing stock cables that don't work with their own monitors should be shot into space.

Your KVM switch saved my work-from-home life as old ConnectPro KVM almost drove me to insanity. Thank you for the brilliant work, Wendell.

This was super interesting! A year ago I got a Surface Pro 7 with a usb-c port and DP1.4+dsc support, but after none of the hubs worked for 4K 60Hz I started digging. As it turns out intel had problems with the dsc implementation, and even removed the DP version from ark. It was annoying, and made me question a lot of reviews of the docks and hubs.

"This was a quick look" -Wendell I hope one day we get the LONG version.

There's a reason why I bought all of my cables from you when I bought my dual monitor four computer KVM from you. That reason is that I didn't want to have cable issues 🙂

I love how nerdy Wendel is ... $15k cable tester :P

This is the first time someone adequately explained to me why some cables are better than others and why even "audiophile" digital cables can have merit. Thank you Wendell and Level1Techs for this!

I was playing Zelda Breath of the Wild on my Nintendo Switch connected to my Dell U2717D via HDMI and encountered a screen blacking out issue in a specific scene. In the early sections of the game, there's a rock monster mini boss battle in one of the Hyrule forest areas. When you deliver a hit, the screen would flash white, which sometimes caused the display to black out/reset. As the Nintendo supplied cable was still connected to my TV, I thought nothing about using the existing HDMI cable plugged into the Dell monitor. Since then I've learnt about cable quality, and that not all HDMI 2.0 / 2.1 cables are as they claim to be. (Bear in mind the Nintendo cable is not even rated at HDMI 2.0, but the quality is much better and has no issues).

Great piece of content, please do usbC alt modes and hubs next!

I dream of a future, where all hardware manufacturers have this level of passion, to make products that do not suck. Alas, greed would never allow it, but I can dream, dammit!

I had to watch that twice before I felt I was really following. There was a lot of info packed into that video. Certainly does explain a few issues I've encountered with display adapters

Thanks for the in-depth analysis Wendell!

Best thumbnail in the history of thumbnails. Instant thumbs-up

Really cool video.. Seen the graphs what the wires are, but this video really explained everything really well, and went even further .. good job!

One of the better commercials I have watched lately :)

Well that was... the bomb! XD Can't wait to see that front panel testing.

Any news regarding active DisplayPort 1.4-to-HDMI 2.1 adapters that actually work? Don’t even care about VRR anymore, just looking for 4K/UHD 120 Hz/Full-Range RGB so no chroma subsampling. Edit: Don’t post a comment before completely watching a video 🙃

Wonderful video. That thing with a DP cable working with one GPU and not with another, I tried that and mystery explained finally! Would love to see a video detailing how Thunderbolt 4 works in combination with a discrete GPU with the Alder Lake platform when the motherboard has no DP IN port at all. I can't seem to find any information on this how it works, if it works at all?

26:35 "Ahh, yes! Ze terroir of zees chip will compliment perfectly ze frequency response character of my cable!" *Chef's kiss*

I am just a lowly simpleton, but this video has motivated me to learn the science of the things you speak of...thank the gods my good man!!!

With all the similarity between all these different devices, it's a little surprising we don't have some unified design yet with the only real differences are the run lengths and maybe connector to prevent compatibility issues. Like you said, if everything is reinventing PCIe, it'd be really cool if they just switched to using different versions of PCIe. Then instead of trying to take a Displayport cable and find a way to run USB on it, we'd just change from a PCIe3x1 cable to a PCIe3x2 cable for example. Though there are almost certainly issues with that method that I'm unaware of, it just would be cool to get all this shit on the same page.

So glad to see someone elses office is just as messy as mine!

Thank you Wendell. Can you make an in-depth video about the abysmal state of dongles and why most of them are so bad (including multi-hundred dollars ones)?

10/10 recommend thick tip pens so in the future if you ever do these again we can see these a little better at a lower resolution (a mobile data user). On a side note the display port cable that came with my monitor even has blackout issues at 1080P 165 Hz. I wonder if it's a decent cable or not

8:25 RX Vega 64 has poor display port link training? I see. I suspected my issue with my Valve Index was a link training issue, because I can unplug the display port cable and plug it back in or power off the headset and turn it back on until the link works and then it works fine for the entire session. It is interesting to know that there is a potential physical layer tx parameter adjustment for this that is exposed in the driver rather than needing to fumble around behind my computer with my headset on half the times that I start VR. (The issue also did not happen with my original HMD, only with the warranty replacement one I got after I broke the first one)

I enjoyed this, understood some of it and other parts went over my head.

I'm so glad you took the effort to do this stuff. I just bought one of your KVMs because my expensive amazon one started crapping out after a year of use and never handled 120hz 5120x1440 correctly.

I just started down the DisplayPort KVM rabbit hole yesterday. Perfect timing.

Thx Wendel - hope to get one of your KVMs. Was hoping to hear more about the actual KVM, but still interesting about the cables.

thank you for all that you do wendell!

Awesome, explanation.

Man, can't wait until the USB-C with power delivery KVMs are released!!! Save us Wendell!

The video I didn't know I needed, and that I was interested in! 😅

That thumbnail is gold.

Is it still March?

Awesome video, Wendell. Sending it off to all my techie kids, making sure they watch it...

Thanks professor

The title alone is worth at thumbs up! :-)

thanks Wendell

You should have mentioned what common mode noise is when you talked about the ferrites.

The rack mount fan noise in the background couldn't be more Wendell.

I would love to hear a drunk Wendell rant on display port cables now!

Another interesting video, some of the best cables I have are the cheapest ones you could buy.

More, more, more! I love this content.

Thanks. Good explanation. Display port is a complicated protocol. Could you do a brake down explanation for HDMI?

14:01 DSC is not lossless. It is marketed as "visually lossless", meaning that it is actually lossy but the losses are not (supposed to be) noticeable by the human eye.

I love it when Wendell goes full Wendell !

That was very informative. I recently got an RTX 3080 and I've been having issues with random noise and screen blanking. I tried all the software stuff on the forums but nothing helped. I just swapped out the cable with one I had on hand and so far no issues, but I also ordered (what I hope is) a higher quality one.

I was able to use to the infomation in this to help make a screen that I use work better when power it on or if. Turns out garabge or damage cable. The cable it using is at least 4 years old. Running a 2k 60 hz screen

Good job!

Very good video, thank you

Great information :)

So the cable being broken is way more complicated than you think... But the solution is the same when having problems with video peripherals: 1st step of troubleshooting after narrowing it down to just the screen, replace the cable with a known working cable (with this video making me amend it with "... In the same configuration as the problem system.")

pre-emphasis indeed; best buy has been solid as far as what OSD tells me on 1.4DP; mines monitors are the ones what with gsync qualifications (stickers) so they might be lieung like a cheap rug maybe?

Nice Tech Talk Wendell. I have been using synergy for allowing me to move between my 3 computers. Last time I used a kvm was a decade ago. Maybe I should consider looking at one of your offerings some day.

Any time he goes to the whiteboard I'm excited.

fantastic video!

Makes sense now why my cable matters adapter/dock thing can do 4k@60 over usb-C with usb2.0 for peripherals. They must use that AUX channel for the usb2.0 data. Every other usb3.0 enabled adapter only supported lower resolutions and usb 3.0.

Oh god I hope you/someone is working on that 'lunacy' lol it sounds super useful

Ahh, A white board presentation. I miss those :(.

I just gave up and went for optical displayport cables, which solved all the weird issues I was getting

This is the video I never knew I needed

I'm really jealous of this mans IQ

25:57 Regarding Apple and hotplug: I think pedantry only describes situations where the pedant is correct, but doesn't apply to those who are wrong. Apple seems to be using the protocol incorrectly if I understand correctly, so that's not pedantry. (This comment is more like it, unless I'm wrong somewhere.) Unrelated Q: Can I drive a 4K120 TV with HDMI inputs only with your KVM switch, switching between a desktop PC (has DP and HDMI) and a laptop with Thunderbolt or USB-C + DP? VRR would be an optional nice to have.

eDP was designed as a replacement for lvds displays in laptops... Which is where it mainly gets used afaik. Using it for external displays was never the intent afaik. I mean that's why it is called an embedded display port eDP.

I sometimes forget Wendell at some point was taught the wealth of knowledge he possesses, otherwise I naturally assume it was simply imbued upon him at birth

Displayport 2.0 will fix everything and all devices will work perfectly forever and you won't have a ton of new problems on top of the 1.2 & 1.4 headaches..

hearing what all could go wrong between the graphics card and the monitor, really reminded me off the interview with Greg Kroah-Hartman, it's a freaking miracle stuff works lol

THIS is why i patreon

Can't wait for optical cables to be the standard for DP and other high bandwidth standards/cables

Amazin video Level1 Team!

Thanks for this, good brain food 😋

ah you got the tester! good job.

Hi Wendel, could you also educate us about HDMI? Specifically how does USB C to HDMI adaptors work. And if you know a good adaptor please let me know. Thanks.

You do so well at disseminating information. I think its time to make the video. Explaining how Americans have paid for nationwide fiber! Because I honestly don't know the when, how, or why. But would really like to have you explain it to us!

eDP is in use in pretty much most PC laptops as far as I know. I mean that's where you'd expect a slim screen and brightness and color controls from software/OS/GPU.

Dear God Wendell the red on red is just a floating head and arms

The 20th pin has caused me so much problems. Even when I was using 1080 60hz displays a few years ago, I had display port cable issues.

I really like this video I learnt something pretty cool

TEST ALL THE CABLES!!

I had a DisplayPort cable that would not work when the card was in a vertical Mount. Took weeks to figure it was the cable and. It the pcie. Extension

Have you ever thought about finding a display port manufacturer which you can contract with to make level 1 techs dp cables? That way you have a reliable source of dp cables!

My Polaris also has a shady DP connection as I only have a good signal only if I downclock + downpower the card by 5-9%. They cheaped out on it and it took me years of troubleshooting to find the exact way to eliminate the short black screens. The emphasis change at driver level did not made any impact.

speaking of fun DisplayPort stuff. If I connect my monitor to my computer (via a amd polaris card) the post code display on the motherboard somehow lights up even if my computer is not connected to power, as long as my monitor has power. wonder if the 5v's are interconnected over a 20th pin ;)

Whew! Thank fuck I get by with just using HDMI on my PC/monitor and PS3/TV. ;-) But as usual, I still watched the whole video because I never want to stop learning, and there is always a small chance that I may be able to help someone in the future who uses displayport.

When i get up from my desk chair, the spring in the chair makes this pop. It causes my screens on my desk to flicker of and on again that are connected via displayport to my laptop.

No I am quite sure I do want to control my monitor from the os. I installed twinkle tray

the memes are strong with this one:) love this show

What about a USB-C or Thunderbolt dock + dual head KVM for displayport. I mean for one USB-C laptop and one Displayport Desktop

Over the years I have had a lot of issues with hdmi and dvi displays on nvidia cards. I am sure that has a rabbit hole of its own.

So then what's the point of the power pin, if it must not be connected? If it's useless, it could be dropped and we would have a (slightly) smaller connector. What am I missing?

Take my updoot to help pay for that cable tester!

So I take it display port does not handle audio as well? Ive been looking for a way to have my desktop in my rack in the other room and have a cable send display, audio and usb without too much latency. Then I could just have one little box or two, a monitor, kb&m, an amplifier & speakers in my office and that's it. All of which would be fanless and gloriously silent. So far it seems the cables lack USB and most of the boxes don't have high enough resolution 1440p uw@120hz, or only support either audio or USB. Love.to hear if anyone has suggestions, and might make for a great video topic too!

I gave up trying to use DP for my Gigabyte M32U, it would just randomly black screen using it every 10-20 minutes. The HDMI seems to work fine, I'm not sure whether it is the cables, the monitor, or the GPU.

Still rather have 10b or 12b color 1080p, than 8b 4k, as an end consumer. I can see lossless [10b or 12b]4k being useful for professional video capture and editing.

Hoping for a video explaining HDMI 2.1....now that is has been USB'd.

_______engagement_______ Edit: cable tester is sweet though

I wish thunderbolt was just.. everywhere, I'd love to use it, but I can't count on say, multiple thunderbolt outputs from a graphics card, so displayport and HDMI it is.

DP is annoying on Windows if you have more than 1 display attached. When it wakes up all your windows will have moved to one screen regardless of where they were before the screens went to sleep.