I realized the evolution of HDMI from a TV that couldn't even use ARC
Hello.
As I mentioned in my previous article, I have recently returned to my old hobby of audio once again.
What I have been doing lately is a very modern combination.
Using a Bluetooth receiver to play audio from an iPad through my audio system.
The audio source is on the iPad
It's easy to operate
But I want to play it through proper speakers
When I connected it via Bluetooth, I was convinced that "Ah, the output device really does matter."
At this point,
I hadn't thought deeply about HDMI or TV sound.
The next thing I started to worry about: "TV sound"
As the time I spend listening to music on my audio system increases,
I have started to become bothered by the poor quality of the TV sound.
The dialogue sounds thin
The sound doesn't project forward
There is a huge disconnect with the visuals
Maybe it's my age, but the news audio is hard to hear
The TV itself is still working fine.
But the sound is clearly outdated.
So, I decided to try out a soundbar.
That was when I first became aware of the terms "ARC / eARC"
While choosing a soundbar, I kept seeing unfamiliar terms in the spec sheets related to HDMI.
ARC
eARC
Since my only understanding was that "HDMI is for connecting a PC to a display," I honestly didn't get it at this point.
It was only after looking it up that I learned...
that HDMI has a way to
send sound back out from the TV
to an external device.
...Only to find out that my TV didn't even support ARC.
This is where I faced reality.
My TV doesn't support ARC. After all, I bought it before the Great East Japan Earthquake...
It has an HDMI port. But, it lacks an audio return function. In other words,
The latest eARC is obviously impossible
Even ARC is unusable
A TV from an era when the very idea of returning audio via HDMI didn't exist
However, looking at the soundbar side, there was salvation.
The "other path" called optical digital output
The soundbar had,
HDMI input
Optical digital input
attached to it. The TV also has an optical digital output. So,
👉 TV → Optical Digital → Soundbar
I connected it using the classic route from a slightly older era. Honestly, my expectation was just, "Well, I hope it gets a little better."
Result: Even so, the sound was on a different level
The moment I turned on the power, turned on the TV, and played the sound.
Dialogue is clearly audible
The sound projects forward
The video and audio are finally in the "same era"
I'm not using ARC or eARC. Even so, the difference from the TV's built-in speakers is obvious. It occurred to me here. If this TV supported ARC, it would have been much easier.
That's why I realized the evolution of HDMI
As a result,
Bluetooth → Music
Optical Digital → TV Audio
HDMI (ARC / eARC) → The "current standard" that lies beyond it
I ended up understanding this flow in reverse order and what I realized was that
the understanding that HDMI = video is already outdated
TVs have become "playback devices"
if you don't know about technology, it will pass you by without you ever using it
is what I learned.
The most interesting point in terms of IT literacy
The lesson this time was that
sometimes you can only understand new technology by encountering an environment where you can't use it
because it was a TV that couldn't even use ARC, I understood
why ARC was created
why eARC became necessary
much better, conversely.
Summary: An old TV was not a bad teaching tool
As a result, now I have a
TV that remains old
connection via optical digital
significantly improved sound
setup, which is a realistic and compromised configuration but through this whole process, I was able to properly understand HDMI, a standard I thought I knew. If you,
are dissatisfied with your TV's sound
think HDMI is just for screens
have heard of ARC / eARC but don't really understand them
If there is anyone like that, I would first like them to try just "getting the sound out." I learned about the evolution of HDMI from a TV that couldn't even use ARC.