VUDU Wireless Kit: it adds WiFi to your VUDU

There's not much explaining to do once the name of this product is read aloud, but we'll humor you anyway. The recently announced VUDU Wireless Kit is something we dreamed of having when testing the thing out in our own labs, but we suppose late is better than never. The package contains a pair of 802.11g adapters -- one for your VUDU set-top-box and one for your WLAN router -- that creates a "secure, self-contained wireless network" for transferring material from VUDU's servers to your device. The going rate for this bundle is $79, but you can knock $29 from that if you purchase it directly from VUDU with a $299 STB. Now, the real question here is this: will this thing function reliably (wireless HD has been shoved under the rug for a reason, you know), and will it function reliably with HD content. Any guinea pigs out there willing to check?

[Via CEPro]

[KEROLiUKAS @ Jun 5th 2008 10:56AM]

IDK about this, but with my DivX Connected box, switching from wireless to wired showed a huge improvement, if you can stick with wired, it will be much more enjoyable.

[Dave @ Jun 5th 2008 11:08AM]

You can also use a WRT54G with DD-WRT for about half that.

[Rob @ Jun 5th 2008 11:18AM]

Wait, you have to buy the pair, one for the Vudu unit and the second one for the router. I think this is a lame excuse to rip you off. The unit costs $300. Then $80 for the wireless adapter. This adapter method is similar to what MS did with the 360. And here I was thinking TiVo was being slick with their USB network adapters.

[farfisa @ Jun 5th 2008 11:46AM]

So... WuFu?

[LordJohnWhorfin @ Jun 5th 2008 1:20PM]

Why exactly would someone pick this thing instead of an AppleTV? (short of being one of the rabid Apple-haters that seem to troll these forums)

[Steffen Jobbs @ Jun 5th 2008 1:40PM]

I don't know. Maybe because they have their heads screwed on backwards? Or can't do without HDMI. Or they may not want the extra features that comes with AppleTV such as music/iTunes, photos, user video and internet video. A lot of intelligent people think that iTunes Media Store is just an empty site with nothing on it.

Well, you know the old saying, "Different strokes for different folks".


AppleTV and 3G iPhone FTW.

[dwr50 @ Jun 5th 2008 2:37PM]

Sure... send me one for free... and I'll test it.

[Kevin C. Tofel @ Jun 5th 2008 2:49PM]

"will it function reliably with HD content?"

Vudu boxes already work reliably with HD content wirelessly, so why would this be any different? Vudu indicates you need around 4 Mbps bandwidth to download and watch HD content without stutters. Check the Engadget & EngadgetHD archives for the testing we did to stream OTA HD via WiFi back in 2005. That required around 19 MBps and generally was usable. 802.11g should be generally be more than adequate to stream Vudu HD if your pipe is fast enough to pull it down in the first place. If not, Vudu will buffer it like it does today.

Long story short: I don't understand why the question is even being asked. ;)

[Z Monster @ Jun 5th 2008 8:29PM]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320025&Tpk=asus%2baccess%2bpoint

I guess its essentially on of these. I have one and its great. Its an ethernet wifi adapter so to the device it looks like a wired ethernet connection. It also can be an access point. I've used it for a mini HTPC and an Xbox360. works great with both.

[Jaque-o @ Jun 6th 2008 5:10AM]

Wow, Vudu-Excited !!!!

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a217/Dabird-private/vudu_banner_left_logo.png

Makes it look so much more kinky doesnt it