276°
Posted 20 hours ago

StarTech.com 1m HDMI Cable - 4K High Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet - 4K 30Hz UHD HDMI Cord - 10.2 Gbps Bandwidth - HDMI 1.4 Video / Display Cable M/M 28AWG - HDCP 1.4 - Black (HDMM1MHS)

£3.33£6.66Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

However, since WiFi and regular ethernet ports are already cheap and fast enough, most electronic manufacturers did not bother changing the hardware and software on their devices to support HEC. Picture the scene. You have a set-top box, games console and Blu-ray player all plugged into your TV via HDMI. Ethernet and Wi-Fi interfaces were readily available to TV and home entertainment device manufacturers at cheaper fees. It was the least of their priorities to make significant changes to their device’s hardware and software to support such a niche function like HEC. As you know, HDMI is the standard all-in-one audiovisual connection for devices, and you might be surprised to know that some HDMI cables can carry over the internet too. You might have heard that HDMI can carry over ethernet signals and you’re wondering if using HDMI cables to connect to the internet is a good idea.

Sony Premium High Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet

eARC basically does the same, but its capabilities are enhanced. It gets a massive boost in maximum audio bandwidth, enabling high-quality, multi-channel, lossless audio data to be transmitted from your TV to a sound system.Keep in mind that installing a cable supporting HDMI 2.0 features does not give your existing devices with previous HDMI specifications the ability to experience 4K x 2K resolution, 3D, audio return or Ethernet. It’s the A/V and Data equipment that has these features – the HDMI cable merely has the capability to support them. Features that were added by the HDMI 2.0 specification: It is true that you can find ethernet being used in home applications, but for the most part, all devices use WiFi. This is one of the main hurdles HEC had to overcome and, for the most part, didn’t. There is one area where HEC was implemented, although in a much different way. This is the reason we see ethernet included in most HDMI cables produced today. Best Uses of HDMI Ethernet Channel/HEC Connectivity

HDMI with Ethernet: What is it and How Does it Work? HDMI with Ethernet: What is it and How Does it Work?

Since 2009, HDMI cables have builtin ethernet capabilities, but not many people are using HDMI cables to connect to the internet. There aren’t even many devices that support the internet over HDMI. Why is that? Is it more efficient than ethernet cables or is it a useless feature? Should you buy an HDMI cable with ethernet?

Using your HDMI cables to transfer the internet can save you a lot of hassle when it comes to wiring. It can also offer you a stable, secure, and ultra-fast connection depending on your devices, moreover, there are ways to extend them as well in case you need to (our guide). To gain a better understanding of how this technology works, we should first explore what HEC is. What is HEC / HDMI Ethernet Channel? So, unfortunately, ethernet over HDMI is pretty much dead because it’s too complicated to build equipment that supports it, and the alternatives are much better. However, the channel is being repurposed in a couple of ways which we’ll talk about below. HDMI Audio Return Channel (ARC) and HEC: Certified or tested cables have been tested to make sure they work reliably, and that they’ll support the resolutions and gaming/AV features that they should based on their category. Otherwise, there are a few cables with different swivelling or 90-degree connectors that might make it easier to use them with a screen that’s in a constrained space or mounted on a wall. An HDMI to Ethernet converter lets you connect a standard HDMI cable on one end and a Cat5 / Cat6 network cable on the other end, giving you audio/video output over longer distances without any quality loss. However, it’s a niche use-case for the average consumer and costs a lot of money to set up. As high definition A/V technology continues to advance, the specification for HDMI equipment and cabling is continually updated to ensure reliability and maximum performance. Version 2.0 is the latest version of the HDMI specification, as issued by HDMI Licensing, LLC. What you should know about HDMI 2.0:

High Speed HDMI with Ethernet vs. High Speed HDMI | Multicom High Speed HDMI with Ethernet vs. High Speed HDMI | Multicom

HEC, or HDMI Ethernet Channel, comes included with cables and chip processors HDMI standard 1.4 or higher. They allow for the transmission of internet data at high speeds with better bandwidth. If you are using WiFi, you can use HDMI with ethernet to get a better, faster, and more stable connection. This can simplify your setup and opens up new opportunities for home network management. If you have an HEC compatible device, it will most likely self-describe somewhere in the user’s manual. Unfortunately, this technology is rarely implemented, and you would be hard-pressed to find a device that uses HEC. Through our research, we were unable to find any modern consumer device that uses HEC. All these factors led to HEC to be a rarely utilized tool in the consumer electronics world. While the applications for HEC may seem apparent, especially with gaming consoles and computer systems, the fact is that it never quite caught on. One factor that may not have been predicted by the engineers who dreamed up HEC is the evolution of WiFi. While hard-line connections are still more stable and secure, advances in WiFi have made them somewhat obsolete when it comes to consumer use. It seems like the engineers of HEC failed to predict the massive leaps in wireless technology, so the feature kind of became pointless. Nowadays, most WiFi cards can transfer data much faster than 100 Mbit/s.

Verdict

When you switch to an HDMI input, ARC intelligently detects it and creates a bidirectional link between the source and audio device, transmitting the audio streams to the sound system connected to your TV over a unified interface. It eliminates the hassle of plugging in multiple cables and allows users to have an overall clean setup. While most HDMI protocols work over any standard HDMI cable, you should still look out for the ones that have “Ethernet” mentioned in the specifications to take advantage of the HEC functionality. However, some high-speed HDMI cables often omit the Ethernet channel to allocate more bandwidth to the audio and video streams. On paper, HDMI eARC also makes the handshake between compatible devices much smoother and negates the need to activate HDMI CEC (which doesn’t always work properly) - so operating multiple products shouldn’t require any extra steps to get things up and running. If you have a home theater sound system or a soundbar, ARC over HDMI is a useful feature. What it does is establish a communication between the audio and video devices connected directly to the HDMI ports on your television. This means all those high bitrate formats currently available on Blu-ray discs, 4K Blu-rays and some streaming services – Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio and object-based formats such as Dolby Atmos and DTS:X– will all be compatible.

HDMI High Speed with Ethernet Cable - 99HDHS-1 - Cables Direct

One of the best and only uses for HEC in modern consumer tech is in the use of HDMI ARC and CEC connections. These technologies utilize the shielded wire pairs intended for the internet to communicate other data across the cable. They are often used in a few different ways, which we’ve explored before, but will briefly touch on again here. They communicate audio signals and control consumer elections. Think of this example. Say you have a soundbar hooked up to your TV. Using CEC, you can use the remote control for your TV to manage the sound coming from your soundbar. The TV does this by transferring that information across the HDMI cable to your soundbar. You need to make sure your devices are CEC compatible to make sure they will work in this fashion. Conclusion Requires a proprietary 2-level commercial grade mobile scanning app available for Android and Apple and also in the top 10 China app stores Unlike ARC, eARC is facilitated only on HDMI 2.1 certified devices and select HDMI 2.0-compliant products. Is there any use for HDMI Cable with Ethernet? These specs tie into the HDMI connection standards, which is why you might see some Category 3 cables listed as HDMI 2.0 cables and some Category 3 (8K) cables listed as HDMI 2.1. Basically, if you have a 4K console with an HDMI 2.0 output and a 4K HDR TV with an HDMI 2.0 input, then you’re going to need a Category 3 cable running between them, or you run the risk of only getting 4K at 30Hz.HEC is dead, but its companion protocol ARC or Audio Return Channel isn’t. In fact, ever since the release of the HDMI 1.4 standard, ARC used the same pins on the connector as HEC. Thus, they are referred to as HEAC (HDMI Ethernet Audio Control) when combined, which you may sometimes find in the spec charts of HDMI cables. Since HDMI ARC and HEC use the same pins, any HDMI cable that is marked as “HDMI with Ethernet” or ARC will work. Ultimately, I wouldn’t worry too much about finding the perfect HDMI cable, most modern ones built within the last decade should work just fine. What about eARC? On top of that, being limited by the 100 Mbit/s bandwidth and the maximum 8-meter cable length didn’t really help the case. It would have certainly been lunacy for the manufacturers to consider HEC over a dedicated Ethernet port or Wi-Fi card, as they reliably delivered better networking speeds without many sacrifices. Even devices that would benefit from HEC the most, such as PCs or laptops, do not support Ethernet over HDMI. In short, the cable has the channel for ethernet, but it won’t work because it’s very rare to find a device that supports it. To connect to the internet, most people will use a LAN cable or WiFi, there’s really no reason to use HDMI with ethernet at the moment.

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment