Otto Pylot
Established Member
It should be stressed that there's no requirement to certify cables with HDMI org and the cable you are refering to is one of the most affordable, yet reliable cables you can buy that isn't certified. Buying a certified cable will not nescessarilly get you anything better and will more than likely cost you more money.
It is true that the ethernet channel abilities of HDMI haven't been exploited by hardware manufacturers, but compliant cables do perform better in situations whereby ARC is used. I do believe that the ethernet channel is used in conjunction with ARC and not just eARC. HEC and ARC basically use the same 2 wires. HEC is the HDMI Ethernet Channel, and enables HDMI connected devices to access the internet without each of them requiring separate Ethernet cables. Because HEC and ARC use the same two wires inside the HDMI cable, the names are sometimes combined to HEAC - HDMI Ethernet Audio Channe.
While it is true that an ATC certified cable is not a 100% guarantee that the cable will work in all situations, it is a guarantee that the cable was tested and certified by HMDI.org (the folks who got us in this HDMI mess in the first place) to meet ALL of the HDMI 2.0 hardware specifications, and is not just marketing fluff and b.s. Premium High Speed cables are relatively cheap so it would be in ones best interest to use them. Just one less thing to trouble-shoot.
The unused ethernet channel was meant to be used for internet connectivity so a single cable could be used to do it all. That never panned out for the mfrs. Whether the enet channel was used for ARC or not is debatable. eARC is different in that the channel needs to not only communicate with the source it also has to be able to return HD Audio, which is more difficult. It is also dependent on how the HDMI chipsets are designed.