WHDI Reviews – Wireless HDTV News

Wireless kits are latest rage in the consumer A/V market it seems, as almost every company that has anything remotely to do with a/v is churning out plug and play solutions for wireless HD video. Iogear has become the latest to join those companies by releasing its own solution. It is yet another plug and play solution that has the two part transmitter and receiver setup. But it is not completely like what we have seen so far in the market.

The Iogear USB wireless HD video streaming kit works via the USB and not via the HDMI out like many of the competing models. Hence, it can get away with a smallish dongle that can be powered from the USB port and does not create a mess of wires the likes of which we saw on the WiCast. However, this kind of a set up also means that you are pretty much stuck to using it on your laptop/desktop. With solutions that work via HDMI, you could’ve plugged it in to almost anything with an HDMI out.

Iogear’s wireless kit is using the Ultra-WideBand part of the wireless spectrum in order to transmit video that is really high quality and fast. Strangely enough, despite using this band, it is limited to only being able to stream video content at only 720p. It can only do 1080p for stills and/or slideshows but no more.

As for HDCP protected content, the company has not said anything about supporting or not supporting it. So that part is still unknown and hence likely to delay the decisiosns of people to buy it.

It delivers 32-bit color depth along with a supported range of 30 feet, which is average. There’s also 3.5mm audio out attached to the receiver, which in turn connects to your TV/display via HDMI, VGA or DVI. You can use the Iogear kit as a mirrored desktop or an extended desktop, making it useful to professionals who want to streamline their workstations. It uses non-WiFi channels to transmit, so it will not interfere with your home network.

With a price tag $180 and the lack of 1080pHD streaming, I am not going to recommend it to anyone.