HDMI-CEC Consumer Electronics Control

What HDMI-CEC is

Press "play" on a Blu-ray remote and a working CEC chain will power on the TV, switch the TV to that input, and start playback — that's the user-facing point of the protocol. CEC was defined in the original HDMI 1.0 spec released by the HDMI Founders (Hitachi, Matsushita Electric (Panasonic), Royal Philips Electronics, Silicon Image, Sony, Thomson, and Toshiba) on December 9, 2002, and was later expanded — notably in HDMI 1.2a on December 14, 2005, which fully specified CEC features, command sets, and compliance tests, and again in HDMI 1.3a.

Underneath the marketing, CEC is a one-wire bidirectional serial bus carried on pin 13 of HDMI Type A and Type E connectors. It's based on the CENELEC AV.link protocol — an open-collector line, somewhat like I²C, passively pulled up to +3.3 V and driven low to transmit a bit. The CEC wire itself is mandatory in every HDMI cable; actually implementing CEC inside a TV, AVR, or source device is optional.

Commands and feature set

The CEC command set covers fourteen feature areas: One Touch Play, System Standby, Preset Transfer, One Touch Record, Timer Programming, System Information, Deck Control (transport — play, pause, stop, fast-forward), Tuner Control, OSD Display, Device Menu Control, Routing Control (input switching), Remote Control Pass Through, Device OSD Name Transfer (so the TV can show "PlayStation 5" instead of "HDMI 2"), and System Audio Control. One Touch Play is what lets a source device tell the TV to switch to it and start playback; System Standby is what lets a single power-off propagate to every CEC device on the bus.

System Audio Control is the feature most home-theater owners actually feel. When the TV detects a CEC-capable audio device on (e)ARC, it hands volume authority to that device — its own speakers mute, and the TV remote's volume up/down/mute keys are translated into CEC volume messages directed at the AVR or soundbar.

The relationship to eARC is worth being precise about. Per the HDMI 2.1 spec, eARC has its own dedicated data channel and discovery/pairing handshake and is technically not required to use CEC. In real-world firmware, however, most TVs and soundbars gate eARC behind a CEC setting — turn CEC off in the TV menu and eARC audio output usually goes with it, which is why "no audio over eARC" troubleshooting almost always starts with "check that HDMI-CEC is enabled on both ends."

Manufacturer brand names for CEC

Every major TV maker brands CEC under its own marketing name. Samsung calls it Anynet+; LG calls it SimpLink; Sony uses BRAVIA Link, BRAVIA Sync, or "Control for HDMI"; Panasonic uses VIERA Link, HDAVI Control, or EZ-Sync; Philips uses EasyLink; Pioneer uses Kuro Link; Sharp uses Aquos Link; Toshiba uses CE-Link or Regza Link; Mitsubishi uses NetCommand for HDMI or Realink for HDMI; Onkyo uses RIHD (Remote Interactive over HDMI); Roku labels it 1-Touch Play; AOC calls it E-link; the Funai/Sylvania/Emerson/Magnavox group uses Fun-Link; Insignia and Westinghouse use INlink; Runco uses RuncoLink; ITT and Thomson use T-Link; Hitachi just calls it HDMI-CEC; Vizio and Hisense label it "CEC." Different stickers, same underlying standard.

Interoperability is partial rather than total. The core command set — One Touch Play, System Standby, System Audio Control — generally works whether a Sony source is feeding a Samsung TV or any other mix. But each vendor is also allowed to define its own vendor-specific CEC messages, and those messages are valid only when the same vendor produces both sender and receiver. On top of that, manufacturers cherry-pick which optional CEC features they implement: one device may handle volume control but ignore input switching; another may pass through power-on but not power-off. "Supports CEC" on two spec sheets is not a guarantee of clean handshake.

Enabling, disabling, and ongoing relevance

On modern LG TVs (webOS 6.0 and webOS 22), HDMI-CEC is enabled at Settings → All Settings → General → Devices → HDMI Settings → SIMPLINK (HDMI-CEC) → ON. On older webOS 4.5–5.0 TVs the path was Settings → All Settings → Connection → HDMI Device Connection Settings → SIMPLINK (HDMI-CEC). On non-LG sets the toggle lives under HDMI-related submenus rather than audio or display, but exact menu paths vary by manufacturer and firmware version — check the maker's current support page rather than relying on a generic walkthrough.

The most common reason users disable CEC, or its sub-features, is unwanted auto-power behavior: an Apple TV or game console waking briefly causes the TV to power on and switch input, or shutting the TV off drags every connected source down with it. Granular toggles tend to be the better answer than a full off-switch — disabling CEC entirely on the TV side will typically also break (e)ARC audio output, so most owners want to suppress the power chain while leaving audio routing intact.

CEC is not a legacy feature. It has remained part of every HDMI specification since 1.0, including HDMI 2.0, HDMI 2.1, and HDMI 2.2 (released June 2025). The pin-13 wire is mandatory in every HDMI cable regardless of speed grade — Standard, High Speed, Premium High Speed, Ultra High Speed, Ultra96 — so a 48 Gbps gaming TV connected over an Ultra High Speed cable carries CEC on the same single wire a 2003 set used.