To use HDMI ARC, you will often need to enable HDMI CEC on your devices. This allows your two devices to talk to each other and automatically detect when a signal is present. Mainly this works well. However, different brands can sometimes struggle to talk to each other. If you have a problem with this, an optical connection may cause fewer headaches! If you already have a ‘high speed’ category 2 HDMI cable, this will support all the requirements of HDMI 1.4 and 3DTV signals (with one exception – see below).

By all means, buy an HDMI cable with gold-plated connectors, but you really don’t need to pay extra just for this feature. Where Can You Buy an HDMI 1.4 or HDMI 2.0 Cable?Specified a new Enhanced Audio Return Channel (eARC). Allows the transfer of uncompressed and object-based audio from the TV to a home theater system via an existing HDMI connection. eARC also supports a new Auto Lip Sync feature. Users confirm this is a reliable budget option and it’s simple to use. If you’re on a low budget this is a great starter option. You can always upgrade in the future.

Specified a new cable type – 48G. This supports a bandwidth of 46 Gb/s and uses HDMI type A (standard), C (mini) and D (micro) connectors Although only ‘Premium High-Speed HDMI cables’ are tested up to the required limit, any category 2 cable should be fine. This is up to 3.4 Gb per second for each data pair – or a maximum of 10.2 Gb per second for three pairs combined. An HDMI cable has 3 data pairs of wire that transmit the signal, and the two different categories of HDMI cable are speed tested using just one data pair. If you want to send audio from your TV to an AV receiver or soundbar, you will often have a choice of two options – HDMI ARC or a digital optical output.

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Any other formats are optional, so the audio types available to you will be limited by the hardware you use. Yet the bit rate you see quoted will often be the combined total for all three – to get a higher number to impress you with. However, if this is not the case then you should speak to friends and family to see if they have any experience. Their opinion can help you to decide whether to buy or not. It was introduced in the HDMI 2.1 specification and allows for higher bandwidth and better audio quality compared to ARC. The HDMI specification defines each pin for a specific task. In the earlier HDMI versions, some pins were optional or reserved for future use.