More LTT race to the bottom - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 11, 2024, 10:50:47 am
content: Apparently, this is entertainment.Among several lowlights...Solder timestamp 10:24:https://youtu.be/t52UW5bXkbs?si=vVXKi7EmPptxfvsD&t=624The video is fifteen minutes of your life you won't get back. I suggest waiting until you've had a few tinnies before watching, because that's probably the best mental level to be at.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 11, 2024, 11:00:41 am
content: Couldn't they find something to "mod" by adding "RGB"s to?

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 11, 2024, 11:56:53 am
content: Meh, I found it amusing. Each to their own.(The LCD fault was almost certainly something on the timing controller or panel going bad, rather than the pixels themselves. Interesting to see the impact that very low temperatures had on that monitor.)

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 11, 2024, 02:03:27 pm
content: Quote from: tom66 on October 11, 2024, 11:56:53 amAfter a few drinks, many things will be. ;-)

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 11, 2024, 09:15:28 pm
content: Wasn't going to watch originally based off of the thumbnail but actually looks interesting, I'll check it out thanks.

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 11, 2024, 09:20:04 pm
content: Quote from: thm_w on October 11, 2024, 09:15:28 pmLOL! Make sure you've swallowed a case of Labatts first! ;-)

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 11, 2024, 09:34:10 pm
content: Maybe they should try holding the hot end of the soldering iron next time. That would be a proper homage to Jackass TV series / movie.

author: John B
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2024, 12:29:19 am
content: I think LTT is entering the "Top Gear" phase.

author: MrMobodies
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2024, 12:39:48 am
content: I didn't watch all of it I just seeked through.What a waste of solder. I did find it funny at first but the way he said:Quoteas if he was told to do it.QuoteThe way he said that sounded to me like it was some sketch made of them on the Saturday Night Live show.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 12, 2024, 12:46:40 am
content: Quote from: Howardlong on October 11, 2024, 10:50:47 amThat's completely tame compared to the likes of WhistlinDieselThere is a market for this kinda stuff.I've destroyed / blown up multimeters before, and it's been poular, so

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2024, 12:50:41 am
content: Well, remember the whole crisis drama, many predicted the death of LTT. And they're still there, they did what they had to do to survive.And this video made over 1 million views in 24 hours. That's insane.Of course, it's not for everyone. But apparently, it's for many.The LTT channel was always about entertainment. But sure the changes they had to make after the "crisis" have made them a lot, uh, "smoother". That's a lot more "painful" to watch for people who used to know them before, IMO, but apparently it works. So. It's a business.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2024, 12:51:47 am
content: Will it blendHydraulicPressChannel

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 12, 2024, 03:04:44 am
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on October 12, 2024, 12:50:41 amWhat actually changed?I rarely watch it, but I don't see any difference?

author: hans
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2024, 07:51:44 am
content: This style of video isn't new for LTT.Just because they waste 1 spool of solder, we should now be butthurt about it? Ugh. At least the joke about "dont worry it was leadfree" was well timed.They have "wasted" perfectly working computer components on so many occassions, with useless overclock builds or janky setups that will inevitably leak. Look at what happened at Linus' house and one of his watercooled server-PCs. It leaked all over his "more precious" gear (high end PCs, storage, UPS) and then is like "ugh this shouldnt have happened but we rushed it"I was actually surprised to see the PC boot up with a couple tubes of thermal paste in the socket. Nobody needs to know what happens, but now we do.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2024, 10:28:55 pm
content: Quote from: EEVblog on October 12, 2024, 03:04:44 amI rarely watch it as well, so take that with a pinch of salt. It just looked more "politically correct" to me.But otherwise, they still spend outrageous amounts of money on their videos and waste a lot of hardware, but that's entertainment. I guess the 1M+ views in 24 hours are well worth the investment.Anyway, whatever they did, they handled the crisis pretty well.

author: niconiconi
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2024, 10:10:34 am
content: Overall, I think LTT is close to running out of ideas, especially in this era as semiconductor manufacturing approaches its bottleneck, making the PC industry slowly coming to a halt. There's simply no interesting computer hardware to review or tinker with on a monthly or yearly schedule. LTT was able to do a daily video schedule in the past, but now it's becoming increasingly impractical.Quote from: John B on October 12, 2024, 12:29:19 amWhat do you mean by "entering"? Even in the early days, it has always been the Top Gear of PCs, which is the only reason to watch it. For example, all early viewers in China back in the 2010s became aware of LTT from his "Whole Room Watercooling" project video, which was fansubbed and became hugely popular in the PC hardware community.Quote from: tom66 on October 11, 2024, 11:56:53 amI always see LTT as a pure entertainment channel, I found many LTT videos are entertaining over the years. Some even well-exceeded my (low) expectation of the technical content contained within. One video was a troubleshoot process of the interrupt storm problem in a storage server, another was about Nvidia removing the artificial limitation of virtualization in their drivers (I was absolutely astonished was I saw that video - I actually get an original and useful tech tip for real, rather than unboxing and ads?). One video had a 30-second explanation of switched-mode power supplies, another even touched the topic of eye diagrams and signal integrity.But some are just painful to watch, and they give people nothing but facepalms. I totally lost it when they made a video on converting a battery-powered IoT thermostat for line power - 80% of that video was just Linus who was struggling to solder a tiny surface-mount 3.3 V regulator. This is nominally a 1-minute task, but Linus turned it into an epic battle because they couldn't have even bothered to get the through-hole version of that regulator for 50 cents, and instead used a random reel of surplus stock from their previous project that happens to include some regulators. They couldn't bother to use an adjustable version either and used a 3.3 V fixed one, and had to solder a series resistor which made the output voltage load-dependent. Like, seriously? This is a team that employed professional EEs, and even had infotainment videos that discussed topics such as signal integrity. Then suddenly they are doing this instead? For the drama certainly, but all EEVBlog forum members would understand my bad review...

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2024, 11:01:11 am
content: We were pretty happy six years ago when I was working at SiFive and we got this on LTT:I actually had never heard of LTT before that. Goes to show I'm not a g4m3r into blinging out my rig with RGBs I guess....

author: flipper
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 15, 2024, 10:10:14 am
content: Quote from: Howardlong on October 11, 2024, 10:50:47 amIt’s silly, but harmless silly. It’s their solder and it’s not gonna stop the Earth rotating. As he said, at least it’s lead-free, so useless junk anyway, so no loss.

author: Ice-Tea
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 15, 2024, 10:21:14 am
content: Here's the thing... I have actually been drawn to sticking a soldering iron in a spool of solder.Let he/she who has never done anything with solder purely for the entertainment value cast the first stone ;-)

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 15, 2024, 09:27:55 pm
content: It's a business, they make millions of views on YT and a ton of cash from their various activities. So, it's a successful business by any metric you want to throw at it, and they managed to get out of the drama they had gotten into pretty well.Whether it's interesting for a typical EE is another problem entirely - it rarely is. But the entertainment value is a personal opinion.I personally wouldn't find sticking a soldering iron into a solder spool all that fun, but to each their own. On the contrary, I actually have one rather large solder spool (leaded) that I had bought when I was still student and still have some left of it. Of course, I've bought many more since then, but I have kept this one as a souvenir. But I did enjoy melting lead when I was a kid. So, yeah.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 15, 2024, 11:13:46 pm
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on November 15, 2024, 09:27:55 pmExplains a lot.I enjoyed melting screwdrivers and spanners by shorting them across truck batteries. Or filling plastic bags with oxy/acet mix then shooting them with a .22.And a few less safe things I won't mention. One involved heavy screw top steel jars scavenged from a nearby abandoned mercury mine and turning them into IEDs.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 15, 2024, 11:14:21 pm
content: Quote from: hans on October 12, 2024, 07:51:44 amI don't think it's just that. LTT used to be good years ago, when he actually did proper product reviews. Those days are long gone. LTT seems to be geared towards teenagers, who still think he's "cool", as opposed to any serious viewers. He's in MrBeast territory, and that's not a good thing.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 15, 2024, 11:19:06 pm
content: Quote from: brucehoult on November 15, 2024, 11:13:46 pmWell, I was also doing water electrolysis directly from mains at some point. Water was boiling almost instantly. That was fun. Good thing social media wasn't a thing back then though.

author: John B
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 15, 2024, 11:32:57 pm
content: TikTok Microwave Oven Transformer Challenge

author: flipper
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 16, 2024, 01:06:24 am
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on November 15, 2024, 09:27:55 pmAs a teenager I used to greatly enjoy taking air gun pellets and other lead scraps, and melting them down in a tin held by some coal tongs in our fireplace and pouring them into various forms. Very therapeutic.

author: jh15
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 16, 2024, 01:55:06 am
content: Reminded me of AVE/Boltr youtuber burning precious roll of TP in his wood stove when it was almost unobtainium.

author: flipper
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 16, 2024, 08:11:21 am
content: Quote from: jh15 on November 16, 2024, 01:55:06 amThat was a lie and a myth that the masses swallowed. There was more than ample TP supplies, despite fake news reports.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 16, 2024, 10:57:24 am
content: LTT makes videos that viewers want in order to bring in revenue. If their style of video is shifting it's because people want that style of video and it brings in more money.The effect you're seeing is mostly them appealing more to an audience that is shifting in age/generation.It partly that newer generations have different priorities on what they enjoy and it's partly that you are getting old and grumpy at change.There's also the effect where a channel starts inching slowly into more generic content with mass market appeal because it expands their user base and brings in more revenue.I don't think this is happening all that much with LTT, but it can be hard for a company to notice it happening due to how slow it happens.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 17, 2024, 12:51:37 am
content: Quote from: flipper on November 16, 2024, 08:11:21 amI was going to say, while there were some reported shortages in some stores locally because of morons, I don't ever remember not being able to obtain toilet paper? If nothing else, you could easily order it online through Who Gives A Crap or similar.

author: Postal2
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 17, 2024, 03:08:16 am
content: Advertisement of "Nokian Tyres", why not use old ideas?

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 17, 2024, 06:40:18 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on October 12, 2024, 03:04:44 amHe is building a testing lab to be able to do very serious videos. We are talking about million dollars spent on equipment, anechoic chamber, power supply testing rig with DC loads and R&S oscilloscopes. Automated scrips to run them. Very serious.

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2024, 08:26:45 am
content: Quote from: tszaboo on November 17, 2024, 06:40:18 amWell, he’s been using it as a stage set for a few videos, if that’s what “serious” means.Having all the gear doesn’t mean much if you don’t know how to use it or why you bought it.For example, the power supply testing rack set up was as a result of him asking a salesman to deliver the biggest and “best” setup, better than a well-known power supply manufacturer. I haven’t seen anything on it other than a “Look what I‘ve got video”.Meanwhile the likes of Gamers Nexus have delivered far more with orders of magnitude less.

author: Ice-Tea
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2024, 09:57:22 am
content: Quote from: Howardlong on November 18, 2024, 08:26:45 amDon't think you have been looking hard:https://www.lttlabs.com/articles/psu/corsair-rm1000x-shift

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2024, 11:13:52 am
content: Quote from: Ice-Tea on November 18, 2024, 09:57:22 amPlease don't tell me they used > $150k of TE for that. Oh they did. Hopefully they got a ping out of it!And they don't even need the $9900 ON/OFF Controller, but they bought one anyway. By LS's own admission, it "is completely redundant... why do we need an ON/OFF Controller? I don't know". I guess the salesman knew his mark!

author: Ice-Tea
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2024, 11:26:23 am
content: Quote from: Howardlong on November 18, 2024, 11:13:52 amObviously, 150k on that article would be ridiculous. But the idea seems to be that they can pretty much toss a PSU (if we keep to this example) in the machine and an article rolls out on the other end which may help consumers making an informed choice. If they can easily flesh out a reliable database of 'reviews' like this, it starts to make some sense.Linus stated a number of times he doesn't expect to make a profit on labs. He considers it a community service and foundational work for his videos. Some of the choices can be questioned, and I wonder about the level of the engineering input of what they do sometimes. But I don't think you can question the intentions.

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2024, 11:37:29 am
content: Quote from: Howardlong on November 18, 2024, 11:13:52 amLooks to me as a part of a standardized solution to test ATX power supplies:https://quantel-global.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/8000-EN.pdfSometimes these niche testing solutions are expensive. This for example will turn on or off the DUT at any phase angle and measure a bunch of stuff together in the system. It's likely to come with standardized software to do it, so you wouldn't use a third party solution, the same way as you wouldn't want to integrate an arduino into an Ingun test jig to measure voltage.It's also just starting up, so likely they are still experimenting with the setup, and trying to make the most of it without going overboard.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2024, 12:02:48 pm
content: Quote from: Ice-Tea on November 18, 2024, 11:26:23 amThere's some nuance to that.It's true that testing all PC hardware on the market in each field and making automated testing videos/charts showing all the results won't bring in much money itself.Advertising on the videos will cover the funds needed to test/make the videos, but people watching the videos is not going to be a cash cow. Unlike the LTT store or main channel videos.But... having that test system, and owning all the test data, and being the 'go to' source for quality/value ranking of hardware puts LTT in a excellent position.Sometimes there's big money to be made but not directly from the product or from outputs of your system. The money comes from placing your company in the right position and making yourself the only/best source of something, even if you're providing it for free.If they can pull-off the labs testing thing, and they become an industry standard for pc hardware test-data/quality, they will have manufacturers lining up to pay them to test new better products because being at or near the top of the list will get manufacturers a huge boost in sales. Every big manufacturer will want every new product to be tested and appear on labs before its release and they will be happy to pay.If a company is ok paying $10k-$20k for FCC/RF/EMC/Safety testing on each new product and that cost is simply lost, they will be happy to pay $10-20k for LTT labs testing if that gives them a few orders of magnitude more than that back in extra sales. It also drives better quality products and rewards manufacturers who make them which is really good.There's a conflict of interest to pay for a review but not to pay for testing because it's all quantifiable and objective information.IMHO a lot of thought when into the LTT labs project. They know just how much money can be made if they do it right.It's why they are spending so much buying really high end test gear with proper cal certs etc.. To do it right they have to be a very trusted source of data.

author: Ice-Tea
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2024, 01:27:52 pm
content: I think their setup still falls short by a wide margin of a complete compliancy setup. I doubt they aim for that...

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 18, 2024, 02:57:37 pm
content: They've already published some results, they seem pretty good TBH. Very detailed and methodological.https://www.lttlabs.com/articles/psu/asus-rog-loki-sfx-l-850w-platinumI'd welcome a 'Labs channel' where they talk in depth about some particularly bad / dubious products that might be worth avoiding.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 20, 2024, 12:02:50 pm
content: Quote from: Ice-Tea on November 18, 2024, 01:27:52 pmCompliance testing isn't what they're going for.They don't need metrology levels of measurement accuracy, but they do need something a bit higher than your standard piece of generic test gear.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 20, 2024, 06:38:35 pm
content: Reading this somehow reminded me of a co-worker who had a penchant for chaotic 'experiments'. He had, once placed a VACUUM CLEANER, on a very high powered car audio system. Bass notes were strong, but had an AC warble.Dude also did lots of flame thrower development, to the ire of his mom.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 22, 2024, 08:59:50 am
content: Quote from: tom66 on November 18, 2024, 02:57:37 pmThat's impressive.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 22, 2024, 12:23:05 pm
content: Quote from: EEVblog on November 22, 2024, 08:59:50 amEven more impressive that they are designing everything as part of an automated test system that spits out new pages on the website as well as youtube videos.So testing is just a matter of plugging the device in and hitting go and then some new results appear on the website and new video on youtube.It really has to be that way to make any financial sense when you have to test, and periodically retest, so many products on the market in order to be a useful resource.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 22, 2024, 12:54:28 pm
content: Indeed. And it looks like that ON/OFF controller is getting use for the brownout tests. Interesting that the ASUS 850W power supply signals a power-good fault well before the rails actually go invalid due to a brownout; that suggests they are actually monitoring the primary side capacitor bus, for instance. That is the kind of thing you can only find out with good test equipment. And hey, it doesn't cost me a penny, so why do I care what they spent on it?

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 23, 2024, 04:09:25 am
content: Quote from: Psi on November 22, 2024, 12:23:05 pmYes, you have to go the whole hog for something like this.You don't spend all that coin on top end kit and then not fully automate it when you know the whole point is systematically testing every unit on the market, and being the one-stop-shop for this comparative data.