[DimmieMan]

HDMI and display port are in a similar boat. Putting the spec on the connector would be so much help.

Even purchasing them is a nightmare these days because everything says ultra super duper fast supreme and then the fine print says it's actually just 3.0 (or doesn't say at all sometimes on online storefronts). Multiple time's I've found myself in the store flipping around the box like a rubics cube trying to find the little fine print that tells me if the cable is more expensive because it's gold plated snake oil or actually matches the higher spec I need.

[Telaneo]

Even then, I've had success with older HDMI and DP cables up to fairly high bandwidths. It's only on a longer cable and a 4K screen, as well as one 1440p screen that was just really picky for some reason, that I've had issues.

Meanwhile, the instant I want to transfer a non-trivial amount of bytes, USB 2 speeds come and make my life worse than it needs to be (or at least it did before I sat down, found decent speedy cables, bought them, and then put them in their dedicated spot for me to find the next time I need to transfer files).

Agreed on the purchase experience though. It was a pain to find decent cables, but at least it's possible to end up in a happy place.

[wtallis]

The critical difference is that USB versions keep adding new wires and active components, while the display cables largely stick to tightening the analog signal integrity requirements. Whether an old HDMI cable works for a new display is largely a question of how high the data rate is for the new resolution and refresh rate, vs how much the manufacturer of the cable overshot their analog bandwidth target.

[klempner]

USB hasn't added any active components or wires for short cables since USB C's introduction (which added emarkers and an extra pair of superspeed lanes for full featured cables)

All of the improvements in passive C cables since then are exactly the same "analog signal integrity requirements". Heck, the most common protocol for sending a display signal over USB C is literally just "send a DisplayPort signal over the superspeed lanes".

Now, USB C cables are more likely to have active retimers or redrivers in them, but a lot of that is that the highest speed signals are well above the display side. Even UHBR20/DP80 from a signaling standpoint is mostly just good old 40 gigabit Thunderbolt 3 except with everything pointed outwards (so 80 gigabit unidirectional instead of 40 gigabit bidirectional)

[Tharre]

No? Passive fully-featured USB-C cables had the same amount of wires and active components, which really is just the e-marker chip, since day one. The same 5 Gbps cable can now do 20 Gbps if the cable was made well enough.

Active cables are a different story of course, but that's the same for HDMI cables.

[wtallis]

I was including USB history before USB-C, because HDMI and DisplayPort have been around much longer than USB-C. And limiting the discussion to "fully-featured USB-C cables" is ignoring most of the real problems.

[milch]

And somehow just because the store says it's 48gpbs doesn't mean that's true either... I have a cable that is explicitly marked as 48gbps, 8k60, 4k120 compatible and yet it frequently ends up dropping the connection. Swapped to a different 48gbps cable and it works fine. Funny enough when I display the negotiated FRL speed it's only at like 27gbps, so should have plenty of headroom.

[vladvasiliu]

I think there are plenty of places that need to be up to spec and whose tolerances may add up.

I have a USB-C cable pretending to do 10 Gbps + 4K60 display port. I've used it to connect my HP laptops to my HP docking station. I have two similar laptops, 840 and 845 G8s, both with two USB-C ports each.

The 840 works as expected. The 845 only works if the cable is plugged in one specific way in one specific port. I now have a Lenovo laptop, also with two USB-C ports. I haven't tried DP-out with this computer, but Linux complains about there being issues when the dock is connected with this cable. On Windows, the whole USB stack sometimes goes foobar after a sleep/wake cycle. If, say, a mouse was initially connected, it'll keep working, but any new USB device won't, even the mouse if disconnected and reconnected. Shutting down Windows takes around 10 minutes and shows some driver issue at the end. Everything works after a reboot.

With a separate no-name docking station, everything works perfectly on the 845, but the 840 can't do 4k60 on it; it doesn't show up in the options. Haven't tried the Lenovo with this particular dock.

Both docks have DP alt mode, not DisplayLink or whatever other USB-attached GPU.

[wincy]

A huge problem for me, the only displayport 2.1a cable I’ve found that works for my RTX 5090 + 240hz uncompressed HDR 4K monitor came with the monitor. It’s amazing that it’s pushing around 80gbps through that wire and it’s an incredible visual experience.

[derideor]

Gods, this is giving me flashbacks. I had to find a usb-c to display port 1.4a cable for my Gsync Ultimate screen with 240hz. I tried out I think 10 different cables, before I found one that actually worked....

[embedding-shape]

> HDMI and display port are in a similar boat. Putting the spec on the connector would be so much help.

What if we just have different connectors for different specs? Then you'd know what supports what by what fits into the connection in the first place.

[kalleboo]

I have a box full of old SCSI cables that adapt between the various SCSI standards, it's pure hell. USB-C is a dream.

[ssl-3]

I used to have a box of SCSI cables and adapters, too. I could identify their function by sight, or even by feel if the sun got blotted out and the Earth was cooling and the only way to fix those problems was forming a correct-and-functional SCSI chain in the infinite darkness.

These days, ye olde parallel SCSI bus is gone. We have USB C, which is similar to SCSI in that the number of ways it can work is way more than 1. But because the connectors are all the same and the defacto labeling is awful, I can't necessarily identify the functions by sight or feel. If I have needs that extend very far beyond charging a phone and/or USB 2, then I don't know if any of the USB C cables that I find in a box will support those needs without testing them.

[embedding-shape]

I don't think you even have to go that far back, just USB vs USB-Micro vs USB-Mini is sufficient and maybe more commonly annoyed by people, still today :)

[lynnesbian]

There's no good reason to prevent anyone from using (say) a 1080p HDMI cable to connect a 1080p device to a 4K television, or using a 4K cable to connect a 4K device to a 1080p television.

[throawayonthe]

that sounds terrible; HDMI/DP are backwards-compatible on purpose, you can use your fancy-shmancy modern output with a now-ancient display