1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,640 Ever wonder why there's a special HDMI port on the back of your TV that says ARC next 2 00:00:04,640 --> 00:00:07,760 to it? Even though it looks exactly the same as the other HDMI ports? 3 00:00:07,760 --> 00:00:12,920 ARC stands for Audio Return Channel, and it's sneakily one of the HDMI's best features, 4 00:00:12,920 --> 00:00:19,240 with a few caveats. To put it simply, ARC sends an audio signal back down the HDMI cable to an AV receiver 5 00:00:19,240 --> 00:00:24,800 or a set of speakers, such as a soundbar. You just need to make sure both devices support ARC. 6 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:27,960 It's relevant when you're using external speakers instead of the ones built into your 7 00:00:27,960 --> 00:00:32,160 TV. There are lots of folks with this kind of setup who aren't necessarily home theater 8 00:00:32,160 --> 00:00:37,520 or tech enthusiasts. Built-in TV speakers are often lacking in sound quality, partially because they have 9 00:00:37,520 --> 00:00:41,800 to be made rather small to fit inside the thin, thin TVs we're used to today, and partly 10 00:00:41,800 --> 00:00:45,240 because manufacturers are typically much more concerned with picture quality than they are 11 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:49,600 with sound quality, meaning external speakers are extremely popular. 12 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:54,040 Without HDMI ARC, you'd have to use at least one additional cable to send sound from your 13 00:00:54,040 --> 00:00:58,320 TV to your external speakers whenever the content you're watching originates from the 14 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:02,480 TV itself. So we're talking about situations where you're watching over-the-air channels with 15 00:01:02,480 --> 00:01:06,800 an antenna, or using built-in smart TV apps for streaming content. 16 00:01:06,800 --> 00:01:11,400 Of course, if you've connected any external sources like streaming devices, cable boxes, 17 00:01:11,400 --> 00:01:15,880 Blu-ray players, or game consoles directly to the TV, and you're just using a soundbar 18 00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:19,360 instead of a full-fledged home theater system with a receiver, you'd need some kind of 19 00:01:19,360 --> 00:01:24,200 cable to connect your TV to the soundbar, regardless, whether it's an HDMI cable or 20 00:01:24,280 --> 00:01:28,680 a TOSLink cable, or just some old-school red-and-white RCA cables. 21 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:33,640 But HDMI ARC is still useful if you're going the soundbar route, as the newest version, 22 00:01:33,640 --> 00:01:40,280 called eARC, can carry 32 channels of uncompressed audio, meaning it'll work with fancy object-based 23 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:46,280 round-sound schemes like Dolby Atmos and DTSX, technologies which TOSLink and RCA don't 24 00:01:46,280 --> 00:01:50,520 support. And of course, if you've got one of those soundbars that can pass through HDMI video 25 00:01:50,520 --> 00:01:55,240 signals from multiple external devices, you can just connect everything to the soundbar, 26 00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:59,600 have a single HDMI cable running from the soundbar to your TV, and take advantage of 27 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:04,120 HDMI ARC just as you would if you had used a traditional AP receiver. 28 00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:08,760 But despite the obvious benefits of HDMI ARC and eARC, there are some situations where 29 00:02:08,760 --> 00:02:15,360 you might actually not want to use it. Probably the biggest issue with ARC is that it's usually coupled with a feature called 30 00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:20,560 Consumer Electronics Control, or CEC. In theory, CEC is a good idea. 31 00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:24,080 It's the feature that allows you to control the volume on your receiver or soundbar with 32 00:02:24,080 --> 00:02:29,620 one remote, causes the audio system to switch off whenever you turn off the TV, and switches 33 00:02:29,620 --> 00:02:33,680 the input automatically when you fire up an attached device like a game console. 34 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:38,080 I personally hate having multiple remotes, and I love these quality of life improvements. 35 00:02:38,080 --> 00:02:44,560 But the problem is that all these different gadget manufacturers can and do implement CEC 36 00:02:44,560 --> 00:02:50,240 in different ways, meaning that devices don't necessarily talk to each other properly, resulting 37 00:02:50,240 --> 00:02:56,040 in weird behaviors, the power switching off when you don't want it to, and even audio 38 00:02:56,040 --> 00:03:03,840 coming out of the wrong speakers. Although CEC and HDMI ARC are technically separate features, many TV manufacturers design their 39 00:03:03,840 --> 00:03:09,200 software to where you cannot turn off one feature without also turning off the other, 40 00:03:09,200 --> 00:03:14,640 leading to CEC glitches becoming a common gripe for folks who use HDMI ARC in their 41 00:03:14,640 --> 00:03:19,320 setups. This can be especially infuriating if you have a receiver connected to a cable box as 42 00:03:19,320 --> 00:03:24,440 cable boxes tend to be cheaply designed and ripe for CEC hiccups. 43 00:03:24,440 --> 00:03:32,200 There are a couple of ways to avoid these glitches. If you have a simple setup that only handles stereo sound or conventional 5.1 channel surround, 44 00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:37,560 you might consider using additional cables like TossLink or RCA instead of using ARC 45 00:03:37,560 --> 00:03:45,320 at all. If you really want to be a hacker, you can keep ARC and disable CEC by covering up pin 46 00:03:45,320 --> 00:03:50,400 13 on the HDMI cable. But please don't sue us if something goes awry. 47 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:56,960 Thanks for watching guys, if you liked this video hit like, hit subscribe and hit us up in the comments section with your ideas for topics that we should cover in the future.