What is HDMI-CEC and How It Works – Explained!

Dec. 23, 2020

After VGA and DVI interface connectors,HDMIbecame the standard for transmitting uncompressed video data to a host of devices. Currently, the HDMI interface is found everywhere, be it alaptop, projector, TV, gaming console, and more. If you are unaware, the reason behind its popularity is the maximum bitrate of 48 Gbit/s that HDMI supports. Along with that, it also brings features like HDMI-CEC (short for HDMI-Consumer Electronics Control) which is supposed to bring interoperability among HDMI-connected devices. So what is HDMI-CEC and how it’s useful to the consumers? Well, follow our explainer below and learn about HDMI-CEC in detail.

Here, we have mentioned the sections that we have covered in this article about HDMI-CEC. From its working mechanism to device compatibility, you can find all the information about HDMI-CEC. To navigate easily, click on the link below.

Before I get into some technicality, let me give you a simple example to explain HDMI-CEC. TVs (both smart and non-smart) nowadayscome with multiple HDMI portsfor connecting a range of devices such as set-top boxes, gaming consoles, media players, home theater, and more. And all of these devices come with their separate remotes for turning on/off the system and navigating through content and menus.

What it means is that, for multiple devices connected to your TV, you haveseveral remotes that add to the clutterand make the experience slow and frustrating. What if you want to switch to gaming while you are watching a movie? First, you need to shut down your set-top box so that no HDMI input is active and then turn on your console using the dedicated gaming controller to be able to play games.

Similarly, while you are gaming, what if you want to play content through the Chromecast that is connected to your TV through an HDMI port? You need to turn off your console toclose the active HDMI inputand then you can stream content from your smartphone.

The reason that on modern TVs, you don’t need to turn off the set-top box or gaming console to free the current HDMI input is because of HDMI-CEC. You cansimply change the HDMI input with the TV remoteand move to whichever device you want within seconds. All of this is possible because, with HDMI-CEC, devices can now talk to each other and perform certain operations that needed manual intervention earlier.

Thiscommunication between devices connected through the HDMI portis what HDMI-CEC is all about. The HDMI consortium wanted to bring a technology that lets HDMI-connected devices talk to each other and respond to instructions from a single point without having to use separate remotes. And that’s why, on HDMI-CEC compatible devices, you can use your TV remote to navigate all your connected devices, bet it a set-top box, gaming console, or media player.

For instance, with HDMI-CEC compatible devices, you canturn on both your TV and set-top box with just a press of the power buttonon the TV remote. No need to turn on the step-top box separately. Similarly, you can stream any content on your TV using Chromecast by overriding the current HDMI input, which needed manual intervention earlier. All these advantages are because of the HDMI-CEC feature that is available on many TVs.

While HDMI-CEC is the technical term coined by the HDMI consortium, TV manufacturers have their owntrade names for this technology. You can find all the TVs and devices that support HDMI-CEC from thelist below.

Frequently Asked Questions

HDMI CEC facilitates communication between multiple HDMI ports and allows instructions to pass over to other devices. You can basically perform privileged actions on another device with just the TV remote.

While basic commands for HDMI CEC are enabled by default, to use advanced instructions such as audio passthrough, one-touch record, etc., you need to enable HDMI CEC under the Settings page of your TV. You can find the trade name for HDMI CEC based on your TV from our above list and look for that term on the settings page.

While HDMI CEC can perform all kinds of actions including power on/off instructions, video/audio passthrough, and more, HDMI ARC only deals with audio passthrough.

Contrary to popular misconception, HDMI CEC does not cause input lag while gaming because it has a separate channel to transmit electrical signals.

On the hardware front, you can say that TVs launched in the last decade come with HDMI CEC support (assuming it has an HDMI port). However, TV manufacturers for many years did not implement HDMI CEC on the software side hence, not all TVs have HDMI CEC support.

Yes, non-smart TVs can very well support HDMI-CEC as TVs having HDMI ports must be CEC compliant on the hardware side. You can connect anAndroid TV Boxor a Fire TV or Roku Stick or a Mi TV Stick to make your TV fully HDMI CEC compliant.

So that was all about HDMI-CEC and what it means for consumers. As we noticed above, HDMI CEC is not just a hardware feature, but also needs software implementation. So before buying a TV set, make sure it has support for HDMI-CEC. You can take a look at the trade names above to find the correct feature on the TV. Anyway, that is all from us. If you have any questions then comment down below and let us know.

Passionate about Windows, ChromeOS, Android, security and privacy issues. Have a penchant to solve everyday computing problems.