HDMI is home to a family of technologies that power most of our TV setups. From eARC to Dolby Vision, HDMI can still do things that DisplayPort can’t.
One of these technologies is HDMI-CEC, which in theory, simplifies device control when you have many of them connected to your TV via HDMI. You can use a single remote to turn everything on at once, with automatic connection to the correct video input and audio output. When it works, you don’t need to think of your entertainment hub as a collection of disparate devices.
When it doesn’t, though, everything starts to unravel. That’s exactly what started happening to my setup a while ago. The moment I added some complexity to the setup, HDMI-CEC completely dropped the ball. Phantom input switching and audio output conflicts forced me to disable the setting rather than fight it. I traded the convenience of HDMI-CEC for manual control, but I’m glad I did.
HDMI-CEC worked well until it didn’t
One fine day, it just gave up
For several years, my TV setup has remained fairly simple. I had my Hisense smart TV connected to an HDMI soundbar, and HDMI-CEC worked as it should. Even after adding Apple TV 4K into the mix, I could turn everything on with a single press on the Apple TV remote. Basic functions, like controlling the soundbar’s volume or turning Apple TV off to power off the TV and soundbar, worked well. Things were great until I decided to connect a PlayStation 5 to the TV as a second input.
A few weeks in, the PS5 started waking from rest mode randomly, hijacking the TV by switching the input to the other HDMI port. This weird behavior naturally interrupted our viewing experience. Turning the PS5 off completely and manually switching back to the Apple TV input was getting on my nerves.
Of course, this problem doesn’t happen all the time, but it occurs often enough to become a nuisance. Disabling the HDMI Device Link setting on the PS5 severed the automatic communication between the console and the TV. The background updates and network wake-up events on the PS5 could no longer affect what was running on the TV. I was fine with that, but another problem surfaced later.
Related
I stopped using HDMI-CEC, and I’m not going back
Now my devices stay off until I turn them.
Even the soundbar started losing track of the HDMI-CEC chain
HDMI-CEC was becoming more useless
The abrupt input switching disappeared after disabling HDMI-CEC on the console, but a few months later the soundbar developed an odd issue. Controlling the soundbar volume with the Apple TV remote used to be seamless, but the same action had started to kill the connection between the soundbar and the TV. Two out of ten times, the TV switched to its onboard speakers, resulting in a sudden increase in volume.
The obvious annoyance of switching to inferior speakers and having to manually re-establish the HDMI connection with the soundbar became far too frequent. Disabling HDMI-CEC (Control TVs and Receivers) on the Apple TV 4K eliminated this behavior, indicating that the handshake failure was caused by HDMI-CEC. I had to use separate remotes for the soundbar and Apple TV 4K, but at least the setup stopped glitching.
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Your TV is hiding its best HDMI port, and it’s probably disabled by default
It might be why your PS5 doesn’t perform like it should.
Disabling HDMI-CEC was the only permanent fix
My watch is ended
Since I had to disconnect the Apple TV 4K from the soundbar, I also had to turn the TV on manually. Switching from a single remote to fiddling with three was definitely more inconvenient. However, I can live with this instead of the unreliability of HDMI-CEC. Reading other people’s experiences on Reddit, I couldn’t find any consensus on HDMI-CEC, either way. Some users never found anything to complain about, while others completely swore off the feature.
When I had fewer devices, HDMI-CEC almost always worked flawlessly. Only after adding more devices to the chain did it start getting overwhelmed. And this is a trend I came across on Reddit. Home theater setups with a soundbar, receiver, console, and streaming stick are most affected by HDMI-CEC glitches. Those using all devices from the same brand reported a much more consistent experience. HDMI-CEC was supposed to enable disparate devices to communicate seamlessly, but it seems that manufacturers’ implementations have left a lot to be desired. Your mileage may vary, but my stint with HDMI-CEC is done.
HDMI-CEC isn’t as seamless as most people believe
It almost seems like a background feature in the way it functions, but it’s still not reliable enough to fully achieve that. Some users never face problems for years, while others, possibly with more complex setups, can’t get rid of them. I had to disable HDMI-CEC permanently for peace of mind; otherwise, I would have gone crazy with all the random input and audio switching.
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Using the right HDMI port on my TV made a bigger difference than I expected
Don’t make the same mistake as me.
For more insights on HDMI-CEC and related experiences, you can find the detailed article here.
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