Don’t worry, I get it. Sometimes, it’s not practical to wire anything in your home theater to Ethernet. Your router might be on the opposite side of the room, or in another room entirely. And you or your partner might object to having cables running everywhere, at least without clever wall and floor concealment that runs up the cost.
If you can swing it, there are some distinct performance advantages to Ethernet. For each item on this list, I’m going to explain the specifics of why it matters, and any considerations if you need to fall back to Wi-Fi.
It’s about more than streaming quality
As I like to remind people, your LAN shouldn’t be an afterthought in a home theater. Yes, the quality of streaming video is in large part dependent on your internet plan and subscription tiers. But your local network is always a potential bottleneck — it hardly matters that you’re paying for multi-gig internet and 4K HDR if you’re constantly running into range and interference issues. The effective speed of your internet connection will drop, forcing your TV (or add-on streamer) to scale back quality to reduce buffering pauses, assuming video doesn’t come to a screeching halt.
Consistency is Ethernet’s greatest benefit, since it’s immune to these signal disruptions. Although many TVs and add-on devices do rely on 100Mbps Ethernet — which is far slower than Wi-Fi 6 or 7 — that’s plenty for 4K and Dolby Atmos when it’s uninterrupted. Gigabit Ethernet is even better, if mostly for the sake of app and OS updates. A download that takes 15 minutes over 100Mbps might shrink to as little as 90 seconds.
If you’ve got an add-on streamer, don’t bother hooking up your TV as well. You may want to periodically update your TV’s built-in software, but only to fix any potential bugs or security flaws, so you can let that take as much time as it needs.
Smart soundbars and other speakers
Kill the lag
A very basic soundbar doesn’t need any internet connection. It’s wired up to your TV via HDMI ARC or eARC, or perhaps optical, and that gets the job done when it comes to movies, shows, and games. The issue is that some soundbars include internet functions, letting you stream music and podcasts without having to pop on your TV. In some cases, bars tie into smart home ecosystems, as well as increasingly powerful voice assistants. If you want all of these things to operate as smoothly as possible, Ethernet is the obvious way to go.
With wireless speaker systems, it is, ironically, wise to connect as many components as possible to Ethernet, the priority being whatever unit is the hub. You’ll reduce lag, as well as the chances of one or more devices dropping out if your router can’t manage everything. Sonos sells an optional Combo Adapter for this purpose, which goes to show how important it can be.
Consoles and PCs
Bandwidth wins over convenience
A game console should always get first dibs on gigabit Ethernet cables, whether it’s a Steam Machine, a PS5, or a Switch 2. I probably don’t need to explain this to serious gamer — but in case you’re new, or the partner or parent of a gamer, there are a couple of reasons. The first is that a steady high-speed connection minimizes lag in online games, where a split second can equal victory or defeat. The other is that with games (and sometimes their updates) measuring in the dozens or hundreds of gigabytes, it can take a while to download and install them, even over Wi-Fi 6E or 7. Gigabit ensures the wait will be as short as possible.
Ethernet may be all the more critical if you’re using a connected Mac or Windows PC. There are likely plenty of functions demanding internet access, with gaming and streaming just being the tip of the iceberg. There may also be regular app, OS, and antivirus updates, as well as background filesharing clients and media servers. A PC can be the hub of an entire household, not just the living room.
Smart home lighting
Hubs reign supreme
All smart lighting is wireless to one degree or another, whether or not it’s synced to the action on your TV. But I’ve been testing smart home equipment for over a decade, and I’ve come to the conclusion that unless they need the bandwidth, it’s better to invest in lights that connect to an Ethernet hub via Zigbee or Thread rather than directly to Wi-Fi.
Why? While Wi-Fi lights are often cheaper and simpler to set up, they can potentially overwhelm your router with simultaneous connections, and they can’t connect to each other to reach distant corners of your home. Crucially, Wi-Fi lights are also dependent on the cloud for automation. That is, if they can’t reach the internet, they won’t adjust on schedule, or even in response to some app-based triggers. Ethernet hubs can handle automation locally, so you won’t be screwed if your ISP goes down and you still want smart lighting for that Blu-ray you’re popping in.
