A few questions about DisplayPort (to USB-C) cables

Hi! I hope this is the right place to ask. Since Level1 is selling a bunch of high quality DisplayPort stuff in the store I was hoping there might be some knowledgeable people around here. (The links are a bit botched since apparently I’m not allowed to include links)

I’ll try to keep it short and to the point. You can skip to the actual question a little down if you want :stuck_out_tongue: Situation: I have a relatively old ultrawide monitor that only accepts full res 60hz over displayport. And it has a single displayport input. It has annoyed me for years and recently decided to buy this cheap-ass Displayport KVM from AliExpress: /item/1005002363253939.html. So far, it works great though! I’m not exactly looking for KVM functionalities, just mostly a way to attach a second device without have to constantly unplug my main desktop. Just as a splitter I guess.

One input on the KVM is for my main desktop, and the other cable is for whatever I wanna attach. I wanted to use USB-C for that one since (I had hoped at least) that would cover most stationary and mobile devices. There are various DisplayPort → USB C cables available, but I came across this particular model on Ali: /item/4001069122612.html Which seemed very interesting as it would allow me to charge at the same time.

The actual questions:

  1. Does anyone know of a similar cable, but of a higher quality? This one from AliExpress works fine, but it feels rather thin, cheap and flimsy. It’s thinner than even my normal DisplayPort cables, yet it’s also supposed to carry up to 100W of power… I do found a bunch of Displayport → USB-C adapters with a PD port, but those were very short and/or had the PD port at the USB-C end instead of the DisplayPort end. I’m looking at a model like above, because it makes for less cable clutter on the desk cause the PD charger can be hidden under the desk and only a USB-C cable pops up.

  2. The USB-C connection for video works fine on my laptops, tables and even phones (I can now watch Netflix in higher quality than via de desktop lol). However, my GameCube doesn’t have a USB-C (video) output. Only full displayport. I figured I could just buy an adapter for that but… no. The only DisplayPort Male → USB-C Female adapter I could find is this one: B08F7KLQ48 but it explicitly states in all images and text that it only works 1-way (with the DP being the output instead of the input), which is the wrong way for my purpose. Any idea why this only works 1-way? And does anyone know of a similar cable/adapter that works the other way?

Thanks for reading if you came this far haha! :smiley:

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The convention of cable naming is from the source to the peripheral.
You’ll get more results if you search for USB-C → Displayport cables.
The reverse is completely different: Merge usb + displayport and export a usb-c with dp-alt.

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Thanks! For some reason it never dawned on me that there could be a ‘convention’ for cable naming. But it sure makes sense.

Nevertheless, moving the search terms around didn’t result in anything better. At least not in my Google bubble (and my location) I guess. Still the same very short USB-C Displayport adapters showing up with a female DP input and USB C PD input and not something like the cable I have now, nor a USB-C female → Full DisplayPort adapter (with correct direction) :confused:

I would not worry too much about the quality. As long as the cable does not get warm when charging or produces display errors, it should be fine. (Maybe it wont last as long and be more susceptible to interference from other signals, but that should be it).

There are bidirectional USB-C to Displayport cables, they are just rare. But I have never seen an adapter (because most people will probably just want to attach some Displayport-Device directly to a USB-C-in of a newer monitor. And when the cable and adapter are fixed, testing is that much easier).

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