Testing Cheap HDMI Cable Testers
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ส.ค. 2024
- Hi, this video shows me testing 2 of the cheap HDMI testers currently available on the market. The reason for the video is because I was given these to test from a friend who was confused why the same cable tested OK on one tester and faulty on another one. I try and explain in the video why this is and also how the tester can have varied results depending on the HDMI cable used. A cheap HDMI cable tester like the yellow one in the video is still definitely a useful tool, but you need to understand the HDMI pins and results given to verify whether or not the cable is faulty and then you can pinpoint the faulty pin(s).
Many thanks, Vince.
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Everybody with 'modern' AV connectivity uses HDMI, but many don't care how they work as long as they just do. I'm a casual electronics hobbyist who loves breathing new life into defective electronics but didn't realize until this video just how much I needed to know this information.
Well done bud. As always, loads of geek fun to watch.
That was amazing. I love that you put such effort into learning about something you didn't understand, not only so you COULD understand it, but to help someone, BEYOND THAT, you decided to help us. We need more people like you in the world. Thank you "mate"
-Justin from the Us.
The main use for the many extra ground pins is that individual TMDS pairs should have shielded wire wrapped round them inside the cable (to prevent crosstalk between the TDMS pairs). If they don't have those connected, signal quality will be reduced. However, they are taking advantage that the cable is short length, such that it probably is less important.
Thanks for the info :-)
My Mate VINCE No problem :) It all comes down to manufacturing cost, if the cable at that length works for 1080p without needing the extra shielding, the cheaper cables often omit it. As far as I can tell, that's what makes some of the HDMI cables you see much thinner than others. As you say, the cable is just a dumb pipe, it's just the quality of signal that reaches the other end that determines it's ability for a particular resolution/bandwidth. Filtering / correcting for crosstalk/data corruption it causes at 1080p (less data per second) is much easier than at 4K (more data per second).
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#Cables short to read
@@Mymatevince probably cheap testers only test wiring continuity, more expensives ones could also test specs (speed of transmition, impedance of wiring and so on)
Very interesting reading. Thanks for sharing. So now there is a 48Gbps cable (Ultra High Speed) for 8K upwards :-)
Wow. I just found this video and was blown away by the tremendous detail and comprehensive content of the presentation. By far the best I've seen! No BS or fluff...perfectly distilled! Many thanks and cheers Vince!
Never even occurred to me to test my cables, I've loads of different ones. Well done for highlighting this Vince.
I use a 25-meter HDMI cable, works perfectly, without any problems on both the picture and the audio in 1920 x 1080 resolution. It was pretty cheap, around $ 12. He already has 4 years and I still have no problems with him. What I noticed in it is very thick, it has a 1.5 cm section, I was surprised that this price is so qualitative.
This was great information for the many HDMI cables I have. Now I just have to figure out which ones are garbage.
Ok
Great video Vince! Every time I buy a new HDMI component (TV, BluRay, etc.) The salesperson always tries to sell me expensive HDMI cables (and I always politely decline) - now I know what the story really is.
To be fair, they are ripping you off trying to sell you HDMI cables for £20+ You can buy fully wired robust cables for under £10 and dead cheap working ones for £1. I've seen £40 hdmi cables in store and the salesman told me the picture would be a better quality. I laughed and walked away.
i have lost count of how many hours of fix it videos i have watched you do but this one has to be my favourite by far. i am now going to get a new hdmi lead thanks to you 1 that lets cec work when i power on my sons ps4 i thought it was the tv but no checked my lead and cec is missing along with others.
Excellent, glad you liked it and thanks for all the other views :-)
I didn't think I'd like this series (Sony Walkman fixes and this ...) but I am hooked. I think it's Vince himself ... he can explain anything. Thanks !
Another great video with proper explanation on how those cables work. keep it up.
Problem with missing those ground connections is the HDMI signal can become unstable and often unusable. Try that cable on a Raspberry Pi 3B+, it will eventually stop giving you an image but may work fine elsewhere.
100% CORRECT. Those grounds are literally VITAL to get the signal across without crosstalk. They are required for shielding of the active conductors inside the cable... not just a commoned electrical connection.
Vince, thanks so much for posting this. You’ve helped me understand the confusing world of HDMI. I have had an intermittent audio/video drop out when watching 4K and HD content, despite having changed cables. I was looking to buy a tester to eliminate cabling as the culprit. I’ll get a yellow one but will be wary of the results. Very informative.
Probably the older cables had all the connections wired up but these days they have to penny pinch to save money and production costs so only connect the important wires up. If you want all the connections then you have to pay more. You get what you pay for.
Vince you deserve a milion subscribers mate you and your channel are just awesome!!! Keep up the good work!
He's passed the one-third-way mark by now. But yeah, totally agree that he deserves the remaining two thirds.
Totally agreed
The cable tester is also sure to show a short circuit in the cable? If the cabel manufacturer did not give the wires on each pin only some of them connected with each other, then the tester may show this as an abnormality. It's mainly about ground type wires. In cheap cables, they often save on anti-interference shields. Both cables work properly, but one is less immune to interference. You should strip the cables and see how they are made. How many wires are made and how anti-interference shields are made. But that would destroy them.
Probably be handy to mark the ground indicators on that yellow tester, that way you know if a cable is broken, or just cheap and you don't have to memorise the pins :)
Yeah, definitely a good idea :-)
That is a brilliant idea!
Loving the walkman videos 😃👍
What an amazing video! Thank you so much for teaching about testing HDMI!
Thank you for this very, very informative video. It has told me why some cables work and some don't. I thought the version of the cable reports how many pins are connected.
Even the fat cable don't have all pins connected. I have lost hair on my head because of not all pins are not connected.
NO! its not missing ground, just united into one of the pins or just miss some of the signal wires. Ground is what close the circuit back. DON'T mistake GROUND with EARTH wires, GROUND is often negative or shielding on your circuit but EARTH is that 1.5M steel rod nailed in your backyard -> connected to your house power grid EARTH pin in sockets and thunder catcher guard on the roof.
long time watcher first time commenter on your channel great videos vince ...have you ever thought about doing a fix video on the humble TV remotes that buttons dont work bad signal everyone has them for everything thought you could go through a few common problems and fixes cleaning and dismantling just a idea for a video thanks old mate vince love your electronic fix videos
cheers
james D
Thanks James, it is a great idea. I fixed one of my dads remote controls a couple of years ago where the buttons weren't registering, all it needed was cleaning the contacts on the inside. If I come across the problem again then I will definitely film it :-)
Good Idea .... I don't even know how to open one of mine and the manufacturer has discontinued service, so I am out of ideas.
@@rocketrider1405 i replaced a couple of remotes about a year ago on ebay just find the model number on the remote and search ebay most that come up are chinese reproductions but they work then you have one to fix when old mate vince does a video to help to know what to look for to fix the original remote hope this help you
cheers
james D
@@Mymatevince i could send you a couple but i live in australia and the postage cost would be prohibitive and you dont have the device that its made for so testing would be impossible ...glad you liked the idea my old mate vince
cheers
james D
hey, that's worth a try ... thanks JD !
I would love to see a follow-up video where you open up the testers to see how they work and try and deduce why the cheapest one showed the cables as good.
Awesome video as always and just fixed a game boy game (Pokemon Yellow) not saving when installed a new battery but after a reflow of the save chip (sram) the game now saves.
Nice one did not know you could get hdmi testers exist learn something new every day thanks
Thanks for watching :-)
Wow, thanks for the heads-up Vince. I have a network cable tester that is similar to your better (Orange color) tester, that type is pretty good. It's better to have a good shielding on the HDMI cables, especially if you have several cables next to each other or if they are near a power adapter, etc. It shows that we need to be careful where we buy our cables from.
Vince, you does a good job and thank you for your sharing
Hi Vince, Great video. I'll be picking up one of those HDMI testers, found one for about £16 on Amazon. cheers fella. Maz
Thank you for such an informative video on this subject. I would definitely think my cable was bad if I did't know what the different pins actually do, as you have described so well for us in this video. I'll probably by a tester like the (orange) one you show here.
Cheers from Sweden:)
I learned alot today, check HDMI cable before buying. Thanks
Not sure about the CEC pin turning on you TV/Monitor but it does allow your TV remote to control a media player that supports it ie Raspberry Pie with Kodi.
Hi Vince, don't know if anyone has pointed it out already but UHD is not your TV's version of HDR, it's a variant of 4K. Great channel.
Hi, sorry I got confused. On this TV the HDR is called HDMI UHD Colour which is turned on. I can't remember when I turn it (UHD Colour) on and off if it looks any different on the top right info that the TV gives :-)
A good multimeter with sensitive ohms resistance measurement will instantly spot a failure in the cable by showing increased resistance. You'll even be able to wiggle the cable around and watch in real time on the meter to see how this changed the conductivity.
The other thing about ohms resistance testing is that it will detect copper vs copper plated aluminum right away. The only trick is you need to make a good strong contact to metal with good leads.
UHD (as in HD, Full-HD, Ultra-HD) is just equivalent for 4K, and hot HDR. Hope this helps :D
haha the paper on paper visual, damn I laughed so hard.. love your videos! been a long time watcher, first time commenting! Keep it up! Waiting for your continued walkman videos until you hit the same I am working on
Hey i just watched lots of your videos again and they are great! Especially the wii u and switch coat
Thanks :-) Haha, oh yes the Wii U coat. I enjoyed that one a lot :-)
Fab video, I wondered why my Switch only worked on my 4k display with a certain cable! keep up the great work
A general rule is that the thicker the cable, the better the quality. Those thin cables usually use various ways to cut corners in order to save cost.
R U SURE??? I HAVE A 'FAT' GRUNDIG CABLE BUT SEEMS FAULTY.
Also waiting for the next walkman here! Im addicted now hehe
Exceptional video. 👍
the main data pairs are actually coaxial so you have a twister pair with a shield around it for each of those pairs.. this type of wire is pricey enough cheapo companies omit it. if you have a cable that can do only 720p that means the pair are not only unshielded, they are also not twisted together.
DC resistance in these cables will not have much of an effect especially at small distances compared to impedance (AC resistance), which is sqrt(R^2 + X^2) where X is the reactance (in cables we're dealing with inductive reactance of the wires). You're dealing with very tiny currents, but high frequency. And inductance will cause distortions. Although at long distances DC resistance might have an effect. But noise will definitely be an issue, especially at high data rates, if you do not have proper shielding and twisted pairs or if the shielding isn't properly grounded.
Edit: If they use very small wires and aluminum or steel then yeah, the difference against slightly thicker copper wires is gonna be noticeable. But using super thick copper isn't gonna make much of a difference.
Thanks for sharing the info :-)
Thank you for the great info!
Information is golden, thank you.
The missing grounds means the cable is missing the corresponding shielding for that signal set. This is probably why thr cheaper cables with opens on those connections don't work well or at all with "4k" signals.
Very informative video!
very good mate...i am your fan now from australia...keep it up
Up Next: testing HDMI cable tester testers :P
i like how you explain everything !!
the old hdmi cables are much better quality than these newer cables
i remember hdmi cables packed in with first generation dvd players being super quality
Why delf so deep in something like this... XD
I love it!
The lack of individual grounds definitely deteriorates the digital communication. These should be there. hey're not necessary for 480p and 720p (although some circuits might have trouble even at those resolutions if the individual grounds are not there). It's plain filtering.
The grounds missing is exactly how those cheap hdmi to ethernet adapters work. It just breaks hdmi out over 2 ethernet leads. 2 ethernet cables have only 16 conductors (8 on each) so there are at least 3 wires missing.
Thanks for the info. I did wonder about them in the past and now I know. Thank you :-)
I do get hdmi cables from daiso and they suppport 4k meaning even if its 1.75 USD it has all the pins connected
The missing grounds are probably causing interference and HDMI is a digital signal so the tv is probably saying to the cable "what is this i can't use it so im just going to ignore u" and it won't do anything (pata had the same problem with the 40 pin cables when older hard drives got faster and that's why the 80 pin pata cables are needed to put a sata hard drive in a original xbox or a PC [the extra 40 wires are between the data cables to clean up static and noise so what a PC trys to send to a hdd or a cd/dvd rom actually gets where it needs to go to make 1 bit and data going back to the PC does the same])
The HDMI cables you get for free with every Nintendo console are very high quality
You friggin brainiac..... Love it!!!
Thanks,very interesting,think i might buy one.
TIL... Dollars stores are called pound shops in the UK.
Testing the cheaper cables at 4K 4:4:4 with HDR may have different results - my TV is very, very finicky with what cable it'll work with.
Great video,that was very interesting keep up the great work
Vince THEY ARE DIFFERENT HDMI REVISIONS :) lol more to it than pins and cables
Not all vias are ground best looking for all the metal casing components like the hdmi sheild
Great video I bought a onkyo home cinema and thought that it had a issue when the screen was flickering with white light I order the hdmi tester off amazon and found my hdmi cable weren't ground in ordered £9 cables 2m 5m cable and problems gone away. Thanks I never knew some hdmi cable werent ground clearly av amp prefer all 19 pin light up
Thanks for sharing the info :-)
@@Mymatevince th-cam.com/video/vIcXHWyExt0/w-d-xo.html this is the symptoms i had that lead to me to think it was an issue with Onkyo amp but turned out to be the HDMI cable causing the flickering hope that helps others
how about putting the link to your site in the description box?
Nice one Vince you have opened my eyes up to how HDMI Cables & the standard works. I just used to think digital bits 1s & 0s all of nothing signal, that has now changed thanks. How much does a decent tester cost?
What about putting the signal through the mains wiring using a HDMI over Mains Adapter.
All sorts of cables on Ebay are hit and miss, HDMI, ethernet, USB, you get absolute junk most of the time
magnets1000 I’ve had pretty good experiences with cat6 patch panel cables at least 🤷🏻♀️
Good information
Thank you! Awesome video really I enjoyed
Great video, thanks a million for the information. What would be your recommendation for a good HDMI cable tester?
Will you do a new video on the equipment you started with and progression to what you use today? I.e soldering tools, table setup..etc
Never heard of these. Anyway great video!
Totally agree with the person before me I put that more than 1k worth of subscribes your a legend. I deal with a lot of consoles old and new and because of the sets I have a lot of HDMI cables all over the place.. as a lot of my up-to-date consoles are permanent features the cables are tu led away... hence the reason why I bought the cable tester.... and checking the leaves with this tester is turned into a nightmare is there any chance that you can give your opinion on the unit below... I have put in the eBay title and hopefully wait for your comment.... the written instructions that came with it were at best sketchy....
Looking forward to hopefully your reply..
DC 9V Cable Tester Multimedia Interface Standard HD HDMI RJ45 Wire Line Finder
The position of the printed 10 on the orange HDMI tester is driving me nuts.
Hi Vince when’s the next Walkman video?
Hi there, I might try and fix one later tonight or tomorrow. Hopefully by the end of the week I should have another one live (don't know if I will be so lucky on the 3rd). Cheers :-)
My Mate VINCE Awesome looking forward to it! I’m sure you’ll sort the next one as well!
Old Wii U hdmi cable can do 4k output even though it’s a old cable
My son Vince testing testers!
Thank you for this, This is a very informative and interesting video. Im using a non powered HDMI splitter and it all works. When i turn on the SKY Q box it switches the input, So does the Sony DVD Blu Ray player.... but when i switch on the PS4 it does not auto change the splitter and i have to manually select the input. Its been this way for years and when it comes to update the ps4 i have to keep changing the input on the splitter because of the restarts the ps4 does. I am now wondering if it is in deed the quality of the cable and perhaps its missing the CNC wire. The interesting thing is that im pretty sure the HDMI cable was the one supplied with the PS4, bearing in mind i got the PS4 when it was released. But the PS4 does have a setting for HDMI link. Perhaps the cables were switched in the move. I shall swap the hdmi with the sky one and see if it does the same.
Hi, often on the HDMI Switch it has a option to power it via a 5V DC barrel jack. On the ones I have the PS4 doesn't even work on it unless I provide 5V into the HDMI Switch (I use a USB power supply). I am not sure if it will make a difference but maybe see if your one has the option for a power supply as it may be an easy fix to provide power into it.
Hi,
I bought a hdmi 2.1 cable (vivify 15 feet) and when I test the cable with same tester you used I noticed that pin 14 and pin 19 are not connected. Do you know if this is a problem? Thanks, Ash
The walkman video in the works...
did you notice that the cheap thing was also missing pin 10 the HDMI clock + signal. that pin should defiantly not be missing.
Nice video.
Using a Composite to hdmi converter for GameCube?
Very interesting vid 👍
So Vince do you reckon the hdmi tester with 2 good hdmi cables and a hdmi twin adaptor would be a good way of hdmi socket testing consoles and TVs and the like?
Am I missing something, if the cable is missing some wires used for grounding... how is it that one tester showed all lights lit up, yet the other did not, when it is the cable that is missing the ground wires?
Is one of the testers testing for ground also and the other isn't, presumably?
maybe they just connected all the ground points internally in the tester, just as Vince showed with the cable connected. so that if one was working, they all would show working to prove you had ground.
Not sure if this would work. But would it be possible to use batteries with low voltage / low charge to have the signal tester output a weaker signal to test the distance signal loss scenario using cheaper testers? Probably won't be very easy to get the right voltage though...
That would only test the continuity of the cable. Signal strength is measured in dB, to get an accurate (not really necessary for consumer level equipment) measure of signal attenuation you would need a much more complex system (something that can measure the signal loss).
@@Fifury161 Ok, I see. So the wires must be carrying more than a on/off signal then? I thought they was just either 0 or 1s in a specific sequence or so to code the output honestly.
@@AleksanderFimreite Regardless of what HDMI does you can't test a cable with a power source alone to achieve the information you are alluding to... Simply using a voltage won't give you an indication of signal strength - there are a lot of complex physics involved (things like reflections and skinning to name a few). HDMI is a digital interface, therefore signal attenuation (loss) is less of an issue compared to an analogue signal. (Check out the pinouts - it uses differential signal pairs to compensate for attenuation). Over short cable runs there would be little perceivable picture quality difference between a working HDMI pound shop cable and a crazy expensive "Monster snake oil" branded HDMI cable.
Try testing it yourself - remember we are discussing HDMI cables & signals, analogue signals work differently.
Note also that whilst HDMI signals are ultimately 0s &1s they are usually transmitted as packets of information rather than a pure on/off signal - this was by design for several reasons - the main one was for content protection, another was to allow for additional information to be carried (such as CEC, USB & Ethernet).
Where can I buy not the yellow one set? Thanks.
Does anyone know a sub $50 unit that can test the speed of an hdmi cable?
I had one these cheap hdmi cables to that short out my nintendo WiiU while i just plugin in to tv
I once connected my RasPi and computer monitor with an HDMI cable like in the video and no image was shown. Searched for that, soldered one wire onto the metal shielding of both plug, problem solved.
Oh no Vince, you got a Ps Classic? Hope the spares are worth it lol!
Are pins 18 and 17 required for HDMI to work? ( 18 is +5v and 17 is DDC/CEC/HEC Shield)
18 is, but 17 isn't. But if your HDMI cable works, there must be no problem
You'd never fix the vhs video cassette player, be worth a try tho !!!!
At around the 15:30 min mark you said something about damaging the 4k TV by wiggling the cable.
If you really have a 4k or even 8k TV, then u are pretty dumb if u use Hdmi 1.4. The minimum standard should be at least version 2.0, since the signaling rate is more than twice as high as previous versions. If you limit your video data bandwidth with old and slow 1.4 Hdmi cable, you won't be able to run games or movies without them turning into a slideshow.
Also these testers are obsolete and not even checking the raw data bandwidth, since it's not about the pins for high-end cables, but rather the speed.
Cheap Chinese cables often promote the same speed of 12 or 48Gbps (4/8k cables), when in reality it's just a tweaked 1.x cable.
...What cable test fault/quality finding equipment do you recommend?...
informative
The ultimate testing-seption
Cool
Hey Vince can you post a link to the better yellow tester. Please and Thank You.
Could you do a review on outdoor solar lights?
Cheers