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Hi

Is it possible to use the ethernet embedded in HDMI for internet connectivity - i.e. can the Beam (or my LG C2 TV) bridge its ethernet to my home router, meaning that I don’t need two physical connections?

 

Thanks in advance

You need eARC for that, so a Beam couldn’t, but a Beam 2 might. Depends on the Beam 2 and the TV both supporting it. I’d be surprised if ether of them do right now, and super surprised if they both did.

The answer is yes, “but”. The “but” part is that this will probably not work well. You’ll need a couple boxes, first to compress the video, transmit on the LAN, then expand the video at the display. Your LAN might be 1GB, but you need 18GB to do full 4K, more for 8K video. That’s why the video must be compressed. Further, consumer grade networking might be OK for a single video feed, but will not handle multiple video feeds very well. While such a device might exist somewhere, I’m not aware of any video over LAN boxes that handle HDMI-ARC. That does not mean that this sort of box cannot arrive in the future.

Pro’s will use this sort of technique for multiple displays in bars and such, but they provide proper network support, and don’t need HDMI-ARC.

If you dig enough you can find wireless HDMI boxes that work over short distances. These boxes are very sensitive to room conditions -- and, potentially, how many bodies are in the room.

The answer is yes, “but”. The “but” part is that this will probably not work well. You’ll need a couple boxes, first to compress the video, transmit on the LAN, then expand the video at the display. Your LAN might be 1GB, but you need 18GB to do full 4K, more for 8K video. That’s why the video must be compressed. Further, consumer grade networking might be OK for a single video feed, but will not handle multiple video feeds very well. While such a device might exist somewhere, I’m not aware of any video over LAN boxes that handle HDMI-ARC. That does not mean that this sort of box cannot arrive in the future.

Pro’s will use this sort of technique for multiple displays in bars and such, but they provide proper network support, and don’t need HDMI-ARC.

If you dig enough you can find wireless HDMI boxes that work over short distances. These boxes are very sensitive to room conditions -- and, potentially, how many bodies are in the room.

I don’t think the OP is asking for wireless, they just want to use the Ethernet wires that are inside an HDMI 2.1 cable, part of the eARC spec I think.

@controlav has pretty much answered, but

https://thehometheaterdiy.com/hdmi-with-ethernet/

It’s a shame HEC didn’t catch on as Wifi can be fickle and the alternative is a bunch more wires and potentially one more powered device (network switch). 

The answer is yes, “but”. The “but” part is that this will probably not work well. You’ll need a couple boxes, first to compress the video, transmit on the LAN, then expand the video at the display. Your LAN might be 1GB, but you need 18GB to do full 4K, more for 8K video. That’s why the video must be compressed. Further, consumer grade networking might be OK for a single video feed, but will not handle multiple video feeds very well. While such a device might exist somewhere, I’m not aware of any video over LAN boxes that handle HDMI-ARC. That does not mean that this sort of box cannot arrive in the future.

Pro’s will use this sort of technique for multiple displays in bars and such, but they provide proper network support, and don’t need HDMI-ARC.

If you dig enough you can find wireless HDMI boxes that work over short distances. These boxes are very sensitive to room conditions -- and, potentially, how many bodies are in the room.

Thanks for the response, but I’m not sure I’m explaining what my requirement is very well.

What I have:

Right now I have a baby switch behind the TV with 3 connections 1) “upstream” to the home FTTH router 2) to the Beam2 3) to my LG TV (and of course, the TV and Baam2 are interconnected via HDMI and can “talk” eARC).

What I would like:

What I would like to do is save having to use the switch - so the TV (or the Beam) would become the switch. So if the TV was “downstream of the Beam 2, it could use the link to access UHD content from Netflix etc. If we reversed roles - with the BEam 2 “downstream” of the TV, the Beam would only need to use the connection to pull audio content I’m streaming from the web as well as commands.

Right now I have a baby switch behind the TV with 3 connections 1) “upstream” to the home FTTH router 2) to the Beam2 3) to my LG TV (and of course, the TV and Baam2 are interconnected via HDMI and can “talk” eARC).

This is what I have, as the only other alternative is Wifi. There is no ethernet interface implemented in the  HDMI ports of either the Beam or LG TV. Even if there were (in both ends), if you use eARC (in place of ARC) it would disable the ethernet because eARC uses the same pins.

Right now I have a baby switch behind the TV with 3 connections 1) “upstream” to the home FTTH router 2) to the Beam2 3) to my LG TV (and of course, the TV and Baam2 are interconnected via HDMI and can “talk” eARC).

This is what I have, as the only other alternative is Wifi. There is no ethernet interface implemented in the  HDMI ports of either the Beam or LG TV. Even if there were (in both ends), if you use eARC (in place of ARC) it would disable the ethernet because eARC uses the same pins.

Ah - OK - guess I should have read the specs - so it’s eARC OR ethernet - got it, thx

 

so it’s eARC OR ethernet

 

eARC or ARC, because the ethernet part of HEAC (HDMI Ethernet and ARC sharing the same pins) doesn’t actually exist in reality even though it’s in the 1.4 spec (and in some cables).

Hi @benbgg 

Thanks for your post!

For clarity, the short answer is no.

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