WHDI Reviews – Wireless HDTV News

V/S

The Asus WiCast is one of the multiple plug and play options out in the market right now that are challenging Intel’s built in WiDi technology. And it is no one but Intel’s fault that they are leaving so many chinks in their technology for their competition to fill in. So let’s look at the major differences in the two technologies and who wins out against whom.

The first major thing to notice about WiDi is that it is completely built in. There is nothing for the laptop owner to do except buy the receiver unit from from Netgear at $99, which is still a bit on the expensive side. But it is not as expensive as putting one hundred more and buying the Asus WiCast for $199. However, there is the slight catch when it comes WiDi enabled  laptops — they are very few in number right now and the chances of you finding the exact configuration and build you want, are slim. Also, the presence of WiDi does add a premium to your laptop. So in the end, it all works out to be fairly the same price.

Next up is the graphics and this is where the WiDi technology loses out to WiCast. WiDi is stuck to using only Intel’s HD graphics whilst WiCast is free to use any because it talks with the output of the graphics and has nothing to with the direct graphics processing of the laptop. So the graphics quality on the WiCast will be as good as your components can get.

Moving on to compatibility — WiDi is built into your laptop, so there’s no using it with something else. WiCast on the other hand will plug in to just about anything that outputs through an HDMI port. Both WIDi and WiCast will work with any HDMI enabled display/TV though.

One negative point of WiCast is that it creates a large mess for laptop users, who are the primary target audience for this. WiDi wins out with its built in approach.

So which one do I recommend? Well, since you have to be plugged in one way or another — just use a longish HDMI cable that sells for around $6-8 and be done with it.