An HDMI slot is an HDMI slot, right? Unless of course you peer closely at the rear of your HDTV as well as other HDMI-capable home entertainment components, you’ll notice a number of small labels that suggest not absolutely all ports are equal. Just what do those labels suggest, and does it matter which port you employ?

Any Port when it comes to fundamentals, particular Ports for certain Features

Whenever it comes to picking which HDMI slot to make use of which is why unit, you will find only some things that are simple bear in mind. Most importantly, whenever it question, constantly defer to your device’s manual: good labeling, bad labeling, or no labeling after all, the greatest authority may be the terms and conditions producer has set call at the manual. Not just might you discover that generically labeled port “HDMI 2” really has features that are extra you might also find you will need to toggle a setting someplace in the TV’s settings menu allow it.

The next thing to consider is the fact that for older HDMI products, such as your old Blu-ray player or cable package, any HDMI slot works due to backwards compatibility—but some ports offer extra features, which we’ll target when you look at the section that is next.

Finally, while any slot gets the work done for older HDMI-capable devices, you may positively desire to be sure you’re utilizing port that is best in your HDTV when you have a newer unit with the capacity of 4K input. If you pair a device that is new an adult slot, you’ll miss out on significant quality.

HDMI Labels Decoded

On your own HDTV that is typical set you’ll find some (though rarely all) of this after labels. Whilst the concept of the labels ranges from “pretty standard” to “set in stone” at this time, there’s absolutely no requirement that manufacturers label their ports at all—if your set just has “HDMI 1”, “HDMI 2”, and so forth, once again, check out the manual to see if some of the ports have the next features.

STB: Set-Top Box

The STB slot is supposed for usage together with your set-top package: the input unit offered for you by the cable or satellite provider . Truly the only advantage of by using this slot for this function is the fact that 1) it is often the port that is first HDMI 1, this means it is an easy task to skip to when using the input selection button and 2) HDTVs using this port designation typically have extra buttons for the set-top package (or extra functionality linked to it). For instance, your specific television might make use of HDMI-CEC to speak with your cable field on the STB port so the channel up/down buttons in your television remote is wonderful for your cable field.

DVI: Digital Movie Input

DVI ports are an old hold-over from early times of HDMI, and provide backwards compatibility with products that will output electronic video clip on a single cable but need another cable for sound. The main benefit of using the port that is DVI that your television will accept sound input from a single (or even more) for the analog sound inputs from the straight back associated with the TV and match it aided by the video clip through the DVI-labeled HDMI slot.

When would this feature is used by you? Let’s state you’d an desktop that is old you desired to connect as much as your TV to act as a media center. You could utilize a DVI-to-HDMI cable to production the video clip sign from the Computer towards the television, after which a male-to-male headphone cable to connect the sound out on your computer to your sound in in the television. To learn more about linking your computer to your TV, always check out our guide here.