Display interfaces rarely spark much discourse in hardware circles. Most people would use the included wires for their TVs, monitors, or gaming consoles, and that's usually fine. It's worth noting that, while similar, the two dominant standards serve quite different purposes.

You can expect to find an HDMI cable with your new smart TV, a Nintendo Switch 2, or any other streaming device, while DisplayPort is the go-to choice for high refresh rate monitors. There's no way to go wrong with either (as long as your video is being output), but knowing what each does can help you make smarter purchase decisions, avoid compatibility issues, and identify use cases.

An Ethernet channel for shared connection

It's rarely utilized or mentioned

A lesser-known HDMI feature is that, since HDMI 1.4, the format has supported the HDMI Ethernet channel (HEC). In addition to carrying audio and video data, compatible HDMI cables can also transmit network data between connected devices. This means that you can use a single wired internet connection and share it across a smart TV, gaming console or an AV receiver without running separate Ethernet cables or relying on Wi-Fi connections for each unit.

This feature is especially useful if you've got older home theater equipment, such as an audio receiver that either lacks Wi-Fi capabilities or has issues with the adapter. If your receiver supports HEC and is connected via HDMI to a smart TV that does have Ethernet, you can share that connection through the HDMI cable itself, making it able to stream your media.

Your devices can communicate with each other through HDMI

Which means you can benefit from an ecosystem of devices

Most assume that HDMI, like DisplayPort, is unidirectional, and it's only plugged in to get picture and sound. What often goes unnoticed is that HDMI also carries control signals. Through HDMI-CEC (Consumer Electronics Control), devices connected over HDMI can communicate with each other, effectively forming a small, local ecosystem inside your setup.

You have probably leveraged this feature many times by using your TV remote to control audio devices like speakers, sound bars, and maybe your Xbox Series X, without having to reach for the designated controller for each. This is a particularly useful feature from a user-experience perspective, as it significantly reduces friction and helps your setup work as a unified, cohesive system rather than a cluster of independent boxes.

Latency Indication Protocol ensures audio and video are in sync

Quite literally dubbed "lip sync"

Audio and video sync issues aren't new, but they can become more apparent as setups grow layered and complicated. Whether it's dialogue that doesn't match lip movements or footsteps that land a fraction too late, actions that precede sound in video can be genuinely immersion-breaking. When you add a soundbar or an AV receiver to the mix, each device can introduce its own processing delay, exacerbating the problem.

Latency Indication Protocol (LIP) resolved this issue when it was first introduced in HDMI version 1.3 by automatically synchronizing audio and video via a delay. Instead of forcing you to dive into buried audio delay menus and manually fix the sync issue by adjusting millisecond after millisecond, LIP allows for connected devices to report their latency and automatically compensate in real time.

Auto Low latency mode kicks in when gaming

HDMI switches the display to "game mode"

Modern smart TVs are excellent at post-processing video. Dynamic contrast, motion smoothing, and noise reduction are well optimized to make movies look cleaner and more cinematic. The problem is that these very enhancements can introduce input lag, which is the last thing you'd want when playing a latency-sensitive game like Fortnite on your PS5.

HDMI 2.1 introduced the Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) to solve this problem. Whenever a compatible console or PC detects that a game is running, the display automatically switches to low-latency mode without requiring you to manually adjust settings on the device. When you exit the game, it reverts to the default processing profile for streaming media.

More than just a video cable

HDMI and DisplayPort both display pixels just fine, but HDMI's real strength comes from its features that make connected devices cooperate and communicate with one another, enhancing the user experience. Through CEC, LIP, ALLM, and Ethernet support, the interface clearly provides more than just a way to input and output video. When a collection of your otherwise isolated devices work together as a single ecosystem, it reduces friction for you as a user, and that's why it can be worth keeping these features in the back of your mind.