CES 2008 featured many new Home Networking products with high-speed 802.11n leading the charge. Some of the Home Networking and Wireless announcements included;
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D-Link announced a new media player, the D-Link PC-on-TV (DPG-1200) box which enables your TV to play any content from any media player your PC might support.
The DPG-1200 ($199.99), frees the user from the constraints of home media servers. The device sits between your PC and TV and can communicate with any PC client. From these clients, customers can stream any media content that their various media players might support, including iTunes, Nero, Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, and more. That content can be presented on any TV or living room projector at resolutions up to 1280×720. That means the DPG-1200 enables users to access any popular content off the Internet and stream it straight to their TVs from sites like YouTube, Google Video, Veoh Networks’ and more.
As PC Magazine explains, the DPG-1200 is a small box that sits next to your TV, connecting to it via standard composite, component and VGA video outputs, and connects to the home network from there via either 10/100-Mbit Ethernet or IEEE 802.11g wireless. This last choice is unfortunate given D-Link’s emphasis on an upgraded standard, 802.11n, but for the purposes of streaming Web content it’s more than enough hardware muscle. Wireless-N users will simply need to deal with an 11g client on their networks.
You’ll still need a media extender to manage playing your TV recordings as well as for streaming HD content – the DPG-1200 does neither. But the product is a great extension to a standard media extender, giving users full access, via the TV, to even the most casual Internet entertainment. The DPG-1200 will be available from D-Link’s retail community and directly from D-Link by the end of Q1.
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Linksys has introduced two new Wireless-N routers, the WRT310N ($129.99) and the WRT160N ($99.99), as well as several new Wireless-N networking adapters including the WGA600N ($89.99), which is designed to get your living room gaming console on the new Wireless-N network.
For home media serving, Linksys is also introducing the DMA2200 and DMA2100 Media Extenders. The DMA2200 has a built-in scaling DVD player, which brings its price to $349, while the DMA2100 ($299) lacks the upscaling capability. There’s no WPS one-button configuration support, however, which both the new routers have. According to Linksys, this is in the works for later in 2008.
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Netgear announced Five Wireless-N products at CES. Netgear is using a combination of industry wireless standards and proprietary technology to beef up Wi-Fi use in home. Netgear is pushing users to run in the 5-GHz band and is using Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS), that allows wireless clients to find and configure each other simply by pressing a “sync”-style button on both devices. Netgear is using new metamaterial micro-antennas, which it claims can be clustered more tightly within its devices and can also be pre-configuring for automatic Quality-of-Service (QoS). Netgear’s two-radio 5GHz 802.11n router costs under $130, less than half the price of some rival products. One radio is a conventional 11g for legacy 2.4GHz clients. The other radio is 802.11n, which can be set to either frequency band.
Netgear’s RangeMax Dual-Band Wireless-N Router (WNDR3300), is the top of its Wi-Fi router line. The $129.99 WNDR3300 incorporates all of the above-mentioned technologies and adds simultaneous 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz wireless networking. For gaming, VoIP or streaming HD movies, Netgear’s new $229.99 HD/Gaming 5-GHz Wireless-N Networking Kit (WNHDEB111) comprises two new 5Ghz Wireless-N HD Access Point/Bridge boxes (WNHDE111). They connect to each other or to additional WNHDE111 Access Points ($129.99 each) via the WPS-based Push-n-Connect feature and also do automatic QoS to keep high-bandwidth apps safe. The two run Wireless-N in the 5-GHz band only.
- Buffalo Technology, temporarily out of the U.S. wireless market, announced new Network Attached Storage Devices, including their first dual-drive, and an external USB Blu-Ray/ HD DVD drive.
- Broadcom says their Intensi-fi chip solutions are in the new NETGEAR RangeMax Dual-Band Wireless-N Router (WNDR3300) and the Ultra RangePlus Dual-Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router (WRT600N) from Linksys.
- Atheros says its XSPAN designs will be demonstrated at the show, including the world’s first-to-market, most-compact, single-chip 802.11n solution and its new GPS solutions, featuring the single-chip receiver, teamed with ORION multimode navigation software.
- Marvell’s new 802.11n MIMO chip can do three spatial streams. The TopDog 11n-450 delivers 3×3 capabilities with three transmitters and three receivers, and is built on 90-nanometer (nm) CMOS process technology. But chip vendors are still working out the best number of antennas, and aiming towards a final standard that isn’t ratified yet.
Small Net Builder, C/NET, Engadget, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, and PC World have additional coverage.
