Belkin's FlyWire Wireless HD solution ready for CES

As the war between wireless HD solutions heats up, AMIMON is looking to make a splash by partnering up with Belkin. Reportedly, the firm's Wireless High-definition Interface (WHDI) -- which was just recently HDCP certified -- will be the heart of the Belkin FlyWire aimed at streaming HD DVD / Blu-ray (among other uncompressed content) to television sets sans wires. Unfortunately, little more is known beyond that (aside from the price range, set at $499 to $599), but here's to hoping that we'll get a closer look in just a few days.

[EbonyDad @ Jan 3rd 2008 1:00PM]

This is most definitely drool-worthy. I have a plasma downstairs in the living room with D*TV HD, and would love to stream it upstairs to the media room with the 106" screen.

With this, I won't have to pay D*TV more money for a DVR or the service that goes along with it.

[b2o @ Jan 3rd 2008 6:59PM]

Unfortunately, i highly doubt the range will be that good. Also who would want to sacrifice picture quality with an HD set.

[otsis @ Jan 3rd 2008 3:43PM]

The range is 100 to 150 feet for WHDI and the data transmission speeds allow for uncompressed 1080p video data.

There is zero theoretical loss of picture quality.

[palehorse @ Jan 3rd 2008 2:32PM]

Will HDCP prevent multiple TV's from receiving the same wireless signals?

Will there be WHDI wireless sticks, similar to a USB stick, that will allow older HDMI TV's to become wireless? (place the adaptor in the TV's HDMI slot, etc)

I need to read up on this new WHDI standard... (uhg!)

[ug @ Jan 3rd 2008 3:42PM]

I can haz brain cancer?

[AirManGadget @ Jan 17th 2008 4:57AM]

Quote:
The WHDI technology uses variable protection scheme where the signal is encoded in order of importance from the LSB up through the MSB. What this means is that your low frequency content (LSB) is less protected and uses less bandwidth than the MSB (high frequency) data. The real world result of this is that your picture will break up in a less noticeable manner when there is signal issues. Having said that however, this technology is no different than any other wireless technology from the perspective that when there is even moderate signal loss/congestion/interference the results will be disastrous. Thre is no getting around the fact that you are talking about pushing over 1.5Gb/s of data across 40Mhz of bandwidth, its wireless, and its wireless in an unlicensed spectrum so there WILL be interference at some point unless of course you live in a faraday cage.

Here's the real scoop!:
The main problem is not interference but the loss of signal quality. LSB/MSB weighting factors is an age-old compression scheme, call it whatever you want. There is a 10 to 1 compression ration! Heck just use JPEG200 which has similar artifacts and get done with it. Beware though, you'll see pixellated and/or washed up video especially for fast action videos like a football game. And yeah! IT WONT WORK WITH ENCRYPTED HDMI (HDCP).
On the other hand, UWB has severe line-of-sight problems and is a single room solution.
What we really need is an encrypted uncompressed "true HD" (no compression) wireless streaming that does not have line-of-sight problems like UWB. I'm aware of at least one start-up company that has the true HD streaming solution. Maybe we jsut to wait until the next CES (CES 2009). :-)

[slumcat @ Mar 28th 2008 5:39PM]

Would this be able to accept non-HDMI sources as well? Like some sort of "router" that has S-Video, Component, etc. inputs, "translates" or somehow upconverts to an HDMI signal, and then transmits it to the TV?

This seems like it would be a great solution to the problem of hiding the wires with a wall-mounted flat panel, but my TV has just about every type of cable in existence snaking out the back, so hopefully that's a possibility. Sure there's still the problem of the power cord, but it's way easier to just put an outlet on the wall behind the mount than it is to have to snake wires through the wall every time you get a new device.