WHDI Reviews – Wireless HDTV News

The ASUS U43JC-X1 14-Inch Bamboo Laptop is projected as an all out entertainment laptop. It is a well-powered laptop with a 2.4Ghz Intel Core-i5-450m processor at the core of it. It also has a turbo boost feature that can take the processing power up to 2.66Ghz. It features a Nvidia G310M Graphics solution with 1GB of dedicated VRAM and NVIDIA’s intelligent graphics switching Optimus feature to save power. It comes with 4GB of DDR3 RAM (maximum) and comes with WiFi (b/g/n) and of course, WiDi.

WiDi, as you might know by now, is Intel’s very Wireless HD content streaming technology. It cannot be purchased on its own and to get it you must buy a laptop or PC that comes with WiDi. However, since it comes built in to your system, it has the advantage of working seamlessly with your system. No set up hassles and no blocking the precious few ports that a laptop has. This is the true advantage of WiDi — being set up right on the mainboard.

Talking about ports, this one also has HDMI out, so if you already have a wireless kit that accepts HDMI out, you can then simply plug it in to your own system rather than buy the Push2TV appendage. It also has a USB 3.0 port, which promises a blazing fast speed of  4.8 Gbits/s. Doing that math, that means you can plonk down 25GB in 70 seconds flat. So speed is not an issue with the U43Jc-X1.

The display is quite standard but good quality. 1366×768 LED backlit LCD display, which means it covers resolutions of up to 720p. The laptop comes with Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit pre-installed and it has an 8-cell 5600mAh battery that promises up to 10 hours of battery life. Of course, that is under testing conditions. Under real life conditions, you can expect around 5-6 hours of battery life under moderate usage. Too much video or gaming will definitely lower that mark down further.

The ASUS U43JC-X1 14-Inch Bamboo Laptop is selling on Amazon for $900 right now and it is quite a value for money deal.

The HP Pavilion dv5-2130us laptop PC is a 14.5 inch diagonal (13366 x 768) HD LED bearing device. It is positioned as an entertainment hub more than anything else, which explains it carrying WiDi with it. It is powerd by an Intel Core i3-370M Processor (2.40GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) and has 4GB DDR3 SDRAM memory, expandable up to 8GB. Storage is in the form of a Serial ATA hard drive and it comes with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit pre-installed. Graphics is handled by the inbuilt Intel HD graphics chip. It comes with an integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN, Wireless LAN 802.11b / g WLAN.

There is a 5 in 1 memory card reader, 3 USB ports (2.0), one HDMI, VGA (15-pin); 1 RJ -45 (LAN), 1 Headphone-out and 1 Microphone-in. One good thing about it is that you can video chat in low light conditions due to it’s built in TrueVision HP webcam. It also has Lightscribe for custom CD labels. The laptop uses the puffy HP ClickPad and full size island size chiclet keyboard making navigation easy.

But my main focus is the WiDi that it comes with. It streams your media content, from photos to videos and music, right on to your HDTV and to your home theatre set up by extension. However, you will have to invest in a Netgear Push2TV adapter for your HDTV separately. It does not come with the laptop, which is a bit of a let down. However, having WiDi inbuilt makes sure that you do not have to plug in a separate dongle and it also gives you easier access to your media files. WiDi is an Intel developed technology, which also means that it works seamlessly with the laptop. So there’s no setup to be done. The HP Pavilion dv5-2130us laptop PC is going for $610 on Amazon right now, which makes it good value for money.

The ASUS O!Play Air – Wireless N TV HD Media Player has gone through a recent upgrade to become one of the most robust HDTV media players around. With its built in high speed WiFi capability and high expandability, it has become one of the best devices around for those who want to playback their digital media content on their HDTV’s.

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HP has been busying unveiling multiple consumer grade laptops lately and they include models that have 3D and wireless HD media streaming capabilities. They are high-end models that focus on good audio, video and over all performance. They are definitely entertainment oriented models and are looking to replace other consumer electronic gadgets in the living room.

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