Smart TVs are loaded up with ports nowadays, and they vary widely in value. At the top of the list sits HDMI, and it’s not uncommon to see people fill up every single port. It took me a while to finally start digging into more of what my TV has to offer, and yes, that includes the Ethernet port.
A lot of people swear by the Ethernet port on their TVs, but I can’t consider myself to be one of them. Several years ago, I would say it was a great choice for people for stability reasons, and while that’s still true, those issues aren’t exactly ones I run into much these days. Ever since switching over to Fiber internet, and before that, honestly, I haven’t felt the need for an Ethernet cable. I still use one for my PC since it doesn’t have Wi-Fi, but everything in my house is perfectly fine without one. Yes, this also includes my TV. Although my TV has an Ethernet port sitting right now, it’s just collecting dust, and that’s for a few reasons.
The TV Ethernet port just isn’t very good
I don’t see the vision
There are a lot of factors working against my TV’s Ethernet port, and the biggest one is the fact that it’s nowhere near anything that would let me plug it in. I’m not going to run a cable down my stairs from my office to the living room, and I also don’t plan on drilling any holes into my walls at the moment. Simply put, an Ethernet cable isn’t feasible for me from a logistical standpoint. Even if it were, I wouldn’t be plugging one in any time soon.
My TV, and probably yours too, is capped at 100 Mbps. Now, that’s perfectly fine for a TV, as you don’t need that much at all for streaming shows and movies. However, my Wi-Fi can hit a number much higher than that, and I don’t have to plug a cable in for it. As I said, I don’t need blazing-fast speeds, but I’d much rather connect my TV to Wi-Fi and call it a day than figure out how to run a cable through my house for something I don’t need. I don’t have connection issues, so there’s really no point for me to plug in my TV.
I won’t stop you from plugging a cable into your TV if it works for you. There are even workarounds that let you unlock higher speeds, but I just don’t think it’s worth it for me. If that sounds like something that you want to do, then more power to you. There’s obviously a reason people plug in their TVs, and enough people must do it for manufacturers to continue including a port on the TV in the first place. Even TV streaming boxes such as the Apple TV 4K and Roku Ultra come with Ethernet ports — with the former option being an actually fast port. I’m sure many people use these ports on a daily basis, but I’m just not one of them.
There are benefits to the cable other than speed and stability
Free up the network
A big reason many people use Ethernet, even if it’s slower than your Wi-Fi, is to free up network space. Having everything on your Wi-Fi network can lead to slowdowns and congestion, especially if you have many things connected at once. Since I’m in just a 2-person household, it’s not really a big deal for me, since the devices being used at any given time are kept to a minimum. However, adding several phones, TVs, laptops, game consoles, etc. into the mix all at once can lead to some problems.
The Ethernet cable alleviates those problems by giving a connection straight to the TV or whatever you plug in. This takes it off the Wi-Fi network completely, and it means it won’t be affected by anything else clogging up the network. It’s really nice for things that rely on having a constant connection, like a game console when you’re playing online. Of course, you will have to figure out how to get cables to where you want them to go to make this happen, and that’s the roadblock that I’d have.
An Internet speed test shows my connection is very fast, and that it can handle multiple devices streaming in HD quality. That’s certainly true, but I haven’t been able to truly stress test it to see if it can actually handle all that. I hope that I never have to cross that road, though. I’m perfectly fine with things the way they are, and I hope I don’t have to rely on using a cable in the future. I’ve done that in the past when my Wi-Fi wasn’t nearly as good, and it was a hassle. Fortunately, that was back when I was living with my parents, so they were the ones who had to figure out how the wires ran and not me. In an increasingly wireless world, I’m glad we were finally able to get Wi-Fi to a point where I don’t feel reliant on a hardwired connection. That’s obviously not the case for everybody, and in a busy home with lots of devices, an Ethernet cable or two makes a lot of sense. For me, I’m going to avoid using them for as long as I can, but I do have plenty of them in my closet ready to go if stuff hits the fan.
