We have learned a lot about HDMI with ethernet. It was designed to help manage systems without the need for a multitude of ethernet connections. While the idea was sound, when it came to real-world applications, there just wasn’t enough to make it financially feasible to design compatible devices. For most devices, a WiFi connection is just more convenient. Requires a proprietary 2-level commercial grade mobile scanning app available for Android and Apple and also in the top 10 China app stores 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.

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An HDMI cable with Ethernet relies on HDMI Ethernet Channel (HEC), a protocol introduced right alongside Audio Return Channel (ARC) with the HDMI 1.4 release in 2009. It provides a bidirectional network data delivery link between two HDMI-connected devices, allowing them to share an internet connection at speeds of up to 100 Mbit (12.5 Mbyte) per second. The Belkin ProHD 1000 Series High-Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet is perfect for connecting peripherals to your HDTV:

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. 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. It’s also worth mentioning that an HDMI cable with Ethernet costs mostly the same as any other standard high-quality HDMI cable. The Concept Behind 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:

HDMI Cables - Different Cable Types HDMI Cables - Different Cable Types

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. 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. 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. Interestingly enough, HDMI Audio Return Channel, the feature most soundbars and television sets use for audio, uses the same pins as HEC. In some cases, these two are combined into one term – HEAC – but it’s not very common. In short, an HDMI cable that is labeled as High Speed or ARC compatible is also HEC compatible. HDMI cables can carry the internet just like an ethernet cable does. Since HDMI 1.4 was introduced in 2009, this has become standard for most cables. All you need to do is make sure your devices are HEC (HDMI Ethernet Channel) compatible, which is rare.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? 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.

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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. Many of these pins are connected to twisting pairs of wires that are wrapped in a protective layer. These are called shielded twisted pairs. What HDMI with ethernet cables do is use wires that are usually designated as straight-through wires to be twisted pairs like the others. This allows for the internet data to be transmitted over these pairs. 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 The idea of HEC was to connect one HDMI cable with ethernet from a modem or router to a TV and then all the devices that are connected to that TV via HDMI can also benefit from the internet connection (Gaming consoles, Bluray Players, etc). It would allow you to use one cable for all your connection needs (audiovisual and internet) instead of having to use separate connections. Why Didn’t Internet over HDMI Catch On? Without ARC and the paired wires used for HEC, the audio can only go one way. This feature enables TVs to transfer audio instead of just receiving it. Most ARC ports will be labeled as such. They can even transfer other information like surround sound data.The other function of the HEC paired wires is CEC. This feature allows for IR (infrared) data to be transferred across the cable. What this does is simplify the number of controllers you will need to manage your system.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. HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) is a specification that combines video and audio into a single digital interface for use with DVD players, digital television (DTV) players, set-top boxes, and other audiovisual devices.