WHDI Reviews – Wireless HDTV News

HP Wireless TV Connect

The HP Wireless TV Connect is a wireless HD connection kit that uses Amimon’s WHDI technology to broadcast HD signals over a wireless connection. It comes in the usual transmitter & receiver pair and it is optimized for use with desktops and laptops.

The transmitter and the receiver are designed as simple black boxes with a matte finish and strategically placed heat vents. The transmitter and the receiver units both have a nicely styled vertical stands to sit on. The transmitter also comes with a hanging bracket or clip that can allows it to be clipped on the back of the lid, somewhat like how webcams can be clipped on to laptop screens.

Set up is extremely simple since the connection is over HDMI, which is a dedicated display port. It is purely plug and play without any drivers. This also means that it can work on any computer with an HDMI out regardless of the OS.

Both units require external power. The receiver unit comes it with its own power source and it needs to stay powered at all times to be operational. The transmitter draws power from a free USB port on the computer. Both require HDMI ports to connect to. HP has thoughtfully added a USB splitter cable so that the USB port used for powering the device does not become blocked altogether and can be used by other devices. However, this device will only be able to use the USB port for data transfer and not for drawing power.

The box also contains the stands, the clip, two HDMI cables, power adapter for the receiver and a USB cable.

The kit supports video resolutions of up to 1080p @60Hz. Audio support includes S/PDIF DTS HD, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby, Digital Plus, AC-3 (5.1 channel) and HCDP 1.0. It has a transmission range of up to 5 meters (about 17 feet), which is often enough for a multi-room setup. There is no requirement for line of sight, which is a problem for many other Wireless HD kits like this.

The HP Wireless TV Connect can thus transmit full HD audio and video, including surround sound for your home theatre system. The HP TV connect is good for streaming HD videos and movies from your laptop and also for sharing photos and using your HDTV or projector as an external display for more workspace. Buyers have also reported good gaming experience through the kit because of almost negligible lag.

Since the transmitter is a large box, it is better suited to permanent set ups between your desktop and HDTV even though it is encouraged for use with laptops. However, the transmitter does not need to connect to anything other than the laptop for power and input, there are no wires tying your laptop down to one spot and you can easily move around.

Buyer reviews note that the HP Wireless TV Connect also works for computers with only VGA ports through a VGA to HDMI converter but the resolution will not reach HD because of the limitations of the VGA standard. Picture quality over HDMI is quite good with vivid colors.

The HP Wireless TV Connect is a simple wireless HD content transmission kit meant to be used for connecting TV’s and PC’s wirelessly. It is a simple plug and play solution but both the transmitter and the receiver need to be powered. The transmitter is powered through USB, so you have to have a free USB port along with HDMI to make the set up work. Which is a bit of a snag when it comes to laptops but it is okay for desktops.

One special feature that the TV Connect seems to have is support for a multitude of audio standards, which includes S/PDIF DTS HD, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus and AC-3 (5.1 channel) HCDP 1.0. One the video front it supports up to 1080p@60Hz HD. It has a wireless range of 5 meters (30feet) and the best part is that it does not require a clear line of sight. So the TV connect gives you more flexibility than some of the other wireless kits which require a clear line of sight to transmit to a receiver 30 feet away.

Even though it is marketed mainly for use with computers, the TV Connect can also be used with other HD equipment that have HDMI out. When doing this, the transmitter is powered through an external power source. The TV connector also needs to be plugged in to its power sources at all times for it to work.

For those who do not have an HDMI port, the TV Connect also works via a VGA to HDMI converter. The kit does not mention which band it is using but there’s been no reported interference issues even with other electronic devices running in close proximity to the transmitter.

The HP Wireless TV Connect is selling online for about $150, which for its features is a fairly decent price.

The Brite-View HDelight (BV-1222) Wireless Stream Uncompressed FULL 1080P HD Beam-to-HDTV In-Room Transmission Kit is a simple wireless HD transceiver kit that connects to any device that outputs to HDMI. It is an upgrade on the previous HDelight products from Brite-View and so far their products have delivered what they promise. They are not very heavy on features but HDelight line gets the job done simply and effectively without any setup hassles.

The BV-1222 is a plug and play solution like most transceivers of its kind. The transmitter unit is hooked up to the HDMI source via HDMI cable. There’s one catch however — the transmitter will suck a lot of power from your USB port unless you plug in the AC adapter that it comes with. Also, the transmitter has to have a line of sight to the receiver. The receiver has to be connected to the output device. Usually a HDTV or a projector. It supports streaming of 1080p@60Hz at a latency of below 1ms according to Brite-View. Whilst a latency of below 1ms is hard to achieve all the time, the BV-1222 is quite well suited to watching movies from local and online sources. It can also be used to play games but that does depend on whether you have a clear line of sight to ensure a steady stream. It has a range of 30ft.

The transmitter and the receiver connect to each other automatically, so it is completely plug and play. As for the sources, you can have almost anything that has an HDMI out and that now includes an iPad when you are using the special A/V connector that Apple recently introduced with the iPad2.

The BV-1222 uses Amimon’s WHDI chip for the Wireless HD transmission and that is why it can push the quality up to 1080p@60Hz and have a really low latency. It has an omnidirectional antennae which can broadcast in all directions but for longer distances, line of sight is necessary. The Brite-View HDelight (BV-1222) Wireless Stream Uncompressed FULL 1080P HD Beam-to-HDTV In-Room Transmission Kit is selling online for about $140, which is quite the bargain when compared to some of the other brands.

The D-Link DSM-750 Wireless HD Dualband Draft 802.11n Media Center Extender is an extender that enables you to wireless stream your media content from a PC running Windows Vista Premium or Ultimate. It can connect to both HDTV and standard definition TV’s and is essentially an extender for your media center PC and has an inbuilt navigation menu for browsing through your media collection including photos, videos and music on your PC.

The DSM-750 uses the draft 802.11n standard to stream content wirelessly over your home’s private network. However, due to this feature, networks working on older routers might not be supported by the DSM-750 because it requires the bandwidth provided by the 802.11n standard to stream HD content seamlessly. One good thing about this device is that is uses the 5GHz band instead of using the commonly used 2.4Ghz band to make sure that there is minimal interference.

It supports full 1080p HD resolution. However, it has a limited format support which extends to Windows Media Video 9 and MPEG-2/4. It has two different user modes though — one is its primary function of acting as a Windows Media Center extender and the other mode is called Medialounge.

The Medialounger mode is essentially meant to access media from everywhere else. Such as other PC’s that have shared files on the network, NAS drives (Network Attached Storage) and also USB drives. It has one USB port in front to attached storage drives to. In addition to all this, it also allows you to watch and record live TV, essentially acting as a TiVo (without of course using the name).

One feature that I really like about the DSM-750 is the number of different outputs that it has — HDMI, Component, Co-axial, S-Video, Composite Video and digital audio out. The D-Link DSM-750 Wireless HD Dualband Draft 802.11n Media Center Extender is selling online for about $250, which is a fairly good deal for its functionalities.

The GefenTV Wireless for HDMI 60 GHz is a wireless transceiver kit for connecting a HDMI source to a HDMI compatible output unit. With several other similar HDMI wireless transceiver kits in the market, GefenTV tries to stand out with its high-end quality and it certainly has the look for it too. The GTV-WIRELESSHD also separates itself from the competition when it comes to the price. At over $700, it is definitely not a casual investment. However, if you are serious about your home theater set up and really want  it to be wireless without any compromise on the quality of both audio and video.

The GefenTV’s biggest advantage, in my opinion, is its ability to stream uncompressed HDMI 1.3 audio and video over 30 feet in any direction. And it can also maintain resolutions of up to 1080p60, which is commendable. It supports up to 8 channels of 24bit@192Khz LPCM audio — as an audiophile I find that quite impressive. It is enough to win me over. Another good thing about it is that the firmware is upgradeable via the built-in RS-232 port. So there aren’t that many hoops to jump through and it is definitely preferable over no upgrades at all. Because this is a first generation device, you can rest assured that you will see some upgrades coming downstream soon. One more feature that I like is that it is HDCP compliant, making sure that you can stream all the HD content that you have, including the protected ones.

Other than the core features, you have an LED array to indicate operational status. Also, it has a 36-antenna array, much like some of the newer routers in the market. Thanks to this, there’s a steady signal and no drops or disconnections.

The GefenTV Wireless for HDMI 60 GHz is going for $719 on Amazon right now.

The D-Link Wireless HD Media Player is a digital media player hub that wirelessly connects to your PC and also connects to the Internet via WiFi. Its features include high-quality uncompressed HDMI 1.3 audio and video. It gives remote display of resolutions up to 1080p60 to a distance of 30 feet. This wireless HD media player supports up to 8 –CH. 24-bit 192 kHz LPCM audio. The firmware can be upgraded thanks to the built-in USB port and standard connections 802.11g and b. There are also LEDs that indicate the functional status of the machine. It also comes with a powerful array of internal 36-Antenna — a recent design feature found in a lot of WiFi routers to increase signal strength and throughput. The device can out put to HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface), Coax Digital Audio, Composite Audio and Video, Optical Digital Audio and S-Video. So you are not likely to run out of options for common A/V connectors.

It comes in a compact size of 16 x 19.8 x 3.7 inches and weighs around 5.4 pounds. You can currently only get it in the US but D-Link has plans for introducing it to the other countries.

The D-Link player can stream media easily from the computer to your home entertainment system. The video playback high quality as long as the source is good. Audio is also reportedly quite good. Since it connects to your network through WiFi, it can access online services like online radio and video. You can also access media files form a USB stick. The player also supports software like Windows Connect Now.

Format support is extensive: MP3, WMA, AIFF, WAV and Ogg Vorbis. In images, it supports, JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF, JPEG2000 and GIF while in videos, WMV9, MPEG 1, MPEG 2, MPEG 4, Xvid, AVI (MPEG-4 Layer Only).

The D-Link Wireless HD Media Player Starts from $99 (used) on Amazon, which is a really great price for the amount of features it packs in. Over all, I’d say it is a really good bargain.

The Western Digital WD TV Live Plus HD Media Player WDBABX0000NBK-NESN is the upgraded version of the earlier WD TV model. It is fundamentally the same device but with upgrades in the hardware that allow it to do things that it could not do before. One of the most important feature additions is the Netflix playback capability that everyone so greatly missed in the last version.

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The Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex TV STAJ100 is a HD digital media player for your HDTV and it acts as the main competition for the WD TV from Western Digital. In essence it is a similar kind of solution where you can fit in a Seagate GoFlex portable storage drive into the player and access media from there. The main differences actually lie within the device and how it handles media files.

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The Seagate FreeAgent Theater+1080P HD Media Player STCEA201-RK is the media player only version of the device and the only difference between it and the other one is that the other one comes with a 500GB FreeAgent Go USB storage. Since most of us tend to have some kind of external storage these days anyway, just having the media player makes more sense. Seagate includes its own proprietary docking system for its FreeAgent Go line of USB storage devices, which is good news for those of us who already own one (including me).

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The Western Digital WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player WDBAAN0000NBK-NESN is essentially an HTPC in a box that has been designed solely for media playback with wireless networking capabilities along with an HDMI out and a remote control. The best part about this solution is that it works as an Internet TV solution in addition to streaming all your digital content from multiple sources. Downside is that it is not meant for connecting your other HD devices wireless to your HDTV.

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