The Gefen EXT-WHDMI can transmit HDMI signals up to 30 feet without wires.
(Credit: CNET)Sure you can get 30 feet of HDMI cable for $35 from monoprice, but the coolness factor of the $800 Gefen EXT-WHDMI, a wireless HDMI system with a 30-foot range, cannot be denied. And according to our tests, the system actually works--albeit not quite as flawlessly as the cable.
The idea behind wireless HDMI is that some installations, particularly wall-mounted flat-panel TVs and ceiling-mounted home theater projectors, just don't look right with scads of wires dangling from the bottom. To hide those wires you typically have to pay an installer scads of cash to run those wires through the walls between your display device (TV, projector) and source components (Blu-ray player, cable box, etc).
The Gefen EXT-WHDMI is one of the first wireless HDMI systems available, and it eliminates the need to run wires through walls. Its relatively short range means it's not designed to transmit across the house, or even from one room to the next, but the transmission is strong enough that you can hide the receiver behind a TV.
Our testing, which compared the Gefen EXT-WHDMI directly with the Sony DMX-WL1, did reveal some differences. The Gefen introduced a bit of false contouring, an artifact we found somewhat more objectionable than the Sony's flaws. But the Gefen remained more stable, and it handles the current holy grail of video formats, 1,080p/24, whereas the Sony maxes out at 1,080i.
Read the full review of the Gefen EXT-WHDMI.
Belkin FlyWire: A wireless HDMI product that's due later in 2008.
(Credit: Belkin)HDMI has certainly had its growing pains, but the connection is finally beginning to deliver on its original promise: a single-cable solution for delivering high-bandwidth, all-digital HD video and multichannel audio. HDMI is nearly universal in the home video market, present on all current HDTVs and Blu-ray players, as well as nearly all HD-capable cable and satellite set-top boxes; DVRs; game consoles; AV receivers; upscaling DVD players and recorders; and network video streamers such as the Apple TV. In fact, you realize just how convenient HDMI is when you come across a product without it--I'm looking at you, Nintendo Wii--and then have five cables (three component video wires plus two-channel stereo) instead of one crowding the back of your home entertainment system.
But one aspect of the HDMI promise remains unfulfilled: wireless HDMI. It's an attractive idea, especially for anybody with a wall-mounted flat-panel TV or a ceiling-mounted projector: have all of your HDMI-capable gear running into an AV receiver or HDMI switcher with a wireless HDMI transmitter, and have the TV equipped with a matching receiver--thus allowing you to have all your AV sources across the room from the actual display. We've been hearing about it for years, but to date, there are few--if any--products that you can actually buy. Here's a quick update on the wireless HDMI products we've heard about to date--including when (or whether) we can expect to see them:
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Gefen's HD video recorder still has HDMI inputs, but the recordings will now be encrypted.
(Credit: Gefen)Gefen is adding hard-drive encryption to its High-Definition Personal Video Recorder to ensure that it won't become an easy avenue for video piracy. Doing so will bring the product into line with other commercially available set-top recorders and DVRs, all of which encrypt video recordings to ensure they won't be played back outside of the device.
The addition of encryption follows a dialogue with CNET that was initiated after the Gefen HD PVR was highlighted on Zatznotfunny. Blogger Dave Zatz noted that the Gefen was a unique product: not only did it have HDMI inputs--a usually unseen rarity--its recordings were completely unencrypted. That meant that enterprising techies such as Zatz (and fellow enthusiast "AVeNVy") who were willing to crack open the Gefen and yank out the hard drive were able to view high-def recordings from their cable box as standard (albeit undoubtedly massive) H.264 video files when they connected the drive to a PC. Such unencrypted/non-DRM video files are the holy grail of video pirates, who could take those files and put them on file-sharing networks. Imagine, for instance, a whole month of high-def HBO movies as Pirate Bay torrents, and it's easy to see why Hollywood studios tend to demand tough encryption standards from hardware manufacturers.
When contacted for comment last week, Gefen specified that the device was "preserving HDCP [High-Definition Copy Protection] on output." But a subsequent communication from the company's representative has since clarified the issue:
Gefen did not anticipate that users would void warranty to crack the unit and use the internal drive in this fashion. The company is currently in the process of encrypting every internal drive of every HD PVR so this situation will be corrected.
The product is brand new, so it's unclear how many of the pre-encryption models are already in the wild. But if you see one of them on eBay going for more than the $1,000 list price, you'll know why.
HDMI ports: You can never have too many
(Credit: Amazon.com)HDMI isn't just for HDTVs any more. As the high-def movement continues to march forward, HDMI connections are becoming standard equipment on everything from cable and satellite boxes, DVRs, game consoles, AV receivers, and DVD players to network media devices, PC video cards, and even camcorders. That means even a fairly modest home theater setup--say, an HD DVR, PlayStation 3, Apple TV, and a DVD recorder--could have three or more HDMI-equipped AV sources. While many higher-end TVs and AV receivers are beginning to sport three or even four HDMI inputs, the industry standard is still stuck at around two.
Traditionally, HD aficionados suffering from an HDMI deficit would bite the bullet and run their sources via component once they ran out of HDMI inputs. But doing so obviates the whole advantage of HDMI to begin with; in addition to losing any fidelity advantage offered by HDMI, you quadruple or quintuple the cable needs (three separate component cables, plus one or two for audio) per source. But there's an easy and straightforward solution: an HDMI switcher. Switchers have one simple task--toggling between multiple inputs--and they can expand the number of available HDMI inputs to your HDTV or AV receiver by a factor of two, three, or even four.
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