← Back to context

Comment by daemin

7 days ago

Doesn't HDMI have built in Ethernet these days? So any HDMI cable of a certain specification is also a network cable.

I remember these things being discussed a while ago on here, how TVs use their own hard coded DNS ("for safety") rather than any network provided DNS (to avoid filtered DNS ala PiHole), how there's Ethernet in a HDMI cable, how other wireless networks are tried, and how eventually they'll go the car route and just embed a wireless modem in the device.

I am not aware of any smart TV that actively solicits a DHCP lease and default route outbound from anything it's plugged into by the 100M ethernet built into a current gen HDMI link. At least not yet. And since I think the default behavior for things like xboxes, playstations and apple TV is not to be a dhcp server and provide routing/NAT, I don't think a lot of things you can plug a TV into (also yet), would provide such function even if the TV tried.

I'm sure somebody at LG is hard at work on fixing this problem.

  • HDMI Ethernet was included in the spec 15 years ago and not a single consumer device (that I am aware of) ever implemented it.

    Idk why this is so often citied in Smart TV boogeyman arguments.

    • Because it's there and available should they ever want to use it, and most people would not know that the HDMI cable is potentially another network cable.