Intel rolled out yet another Wireless Display technology at CES last week. Their Wireless Display (WiDi) technology can output laptop video directly to a TV using the notebook’s built-in 802.11n chips. It uses WiFi and processor chips that are already inside the latest Intel notebooks. It is able to output 720p video.
A NetGear set top box called the NetGear Push2TV, can receive the signal and connect via HDMI to your television. However, the product requires a laptop PC based on Intel’s Core i3, i5 or i7 CPUs, Intel HD Graphics, and Intel Centrino wireless chips using Intel MyWiFi.
Intel’s WiDi technology effectively treats the TV as a second monitor. You can launch a browser and stream 720p video at full screen.
Limitations include:
- 720p Limit.
- Limited Notebook Selection: Only a handful of notebooks currently support the technology.
- Not Responsive Enough for Gaming: There is too much of a delay between pressing the keyboard and action occurring on screen for gamers.
- No Support for Copy Protected Content: You can’t play Blu-ray or other copyright protected content through WiDi.
Intel says they’re working to resolve all these issues. Meanwhile, ASUS is offering the Eee WiCast, which supports full 1080p streaming. It uses the Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI) standard on the 5 GHz band that can display full 1080 video.
Meanwhile NETGEAR and Quantenna are collaborating on a 802.11n compliant access point with 4×4 Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antennas.
While the typical enterprise 802.11n AP has either 2×3 or 3×3 (MIMO) radios, the 4×4 configuration is fully supported in the 802.11n standard and can deliver up to 600MB of theoretical throughput. It operates in the 5 GHz band.
Competitors for high speed networking in the home include startup Amimon which recently announced a specification from the WHDI Consortium for its version of 5 GHz wireless that it claims does not compress HDTV signals. It uses error compression, not image compression.
Other efforts are jumping to the 60 GHz band. The Wireless Gigabit Alliance recently announced a specification for a broad range of 60 GHz apps. The Wireless Gigabit Alliance launched last May, has more than 30 companies as members, including NVIDIA, AMD, SK Telecom and TMC.
WiGiG competes another 60 GHz association, WirelessHD, using chip sets from startup SiBeam. Their chipset is being included in some new TV receivers from VIZIO.
LG which previously shipped HDTVs with 60 GHz WirelessHD built in, announced at CES a new partnership with AMIMON for their second-gen WHDI chips that sends uncompressed 1080 video over the 5 GHz band.
