GefenTV Wireless for HDMI slings 1080p over 60GHz airwaves
By Darren Murph 
posted January 20th 2010 10:02PM
posted January 20th 2010 10:02PM
posted January 20th 2010 10:02PM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
Now if only someone could make the powercord wireless, one would have a truly wireless solution for a home HDTV.
@JT88
It's not wireless.... you still have to connect the box to your tv!
@JT88
Can wireless power be "secured" or can other people can tap off your wireless power? I don't think you can encrypt electricity...
@JT88
There's one already.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/07/haiers-wireless-hdtv-lacks-wires-svelte-profile-video/
@yejun Thanks - I missed seeing that article!
Does it use any sort of standard?
I'm also skeptical of this because of the 30ft limit (!?). You can get a 30ft CL2 22AWG cable for...... $30. So, I don't understand the point of this, or forsee a scenario where an installer wouldn't just say, "or, I can save you $800 by pulling a cable".
@clara
Its for retrofit. Say you want to mount a tv on a wall that you can't pull wires to or past (ie rock, brick, etc).
@impunchy so you will have to stick this box under ur tv and have a cable run to it. hmmm kinda pointless until they come out with a usb dongle sized recever
@impunchy
For something as expensive as this is, I think I will stick with cables. This way I can preserve image quality from reception issues and save my wallet from debt issues. If the sight of cables bothers you, then run then through the walls which depending on how you do it, shouldn't cost more than $10-50.
@clara
Its for the folks buying Lexicon $3500 Blu-ray players.
@impunchy: Except 60 GHz wouldn't make it through a brick wall, and probably not a sheetrock wall. I wouldn't want to sit in between these things either...unless it was cold in the room.
Not enough under a grand for my budget. I don't get why this technology is so slow to roll out - Belkin even canned their version as they couldn't charge a mainstream-friendly price.
30'? That's not going to cut it. Hell, in a 2 bedroom apt. My back room is at least 50- 70 feet away.
@forecastmantis
Don't feel bad, it won't really make 30 feet most of the time. It's not wifi, it's VERY local. The idea is to avoid wiring behind the set.
@xberxinfinity
i see you're a bit lost? let me guide you into oblivion.
This would be handy for beaming a TV signal into your bathroom!
I have a pile of Gefen HDMI switches and repeaters that NEVER worked right. I spent hours and hours on the phone, switching out firmware chips (talk about cludgy!) and randomly changing dip switches. They NEVER worked right and I finally had to replace the whole mess with another brand. IMHO, Gefen is overpriced CRAP!
replace a $30 cable with a $999 novelty ... makes sense to me. of course i poop money so i never think about that.
Great, so instead of a 2' HDMI cable and a blu-ray player, I need 2 x 2' HDMI cables, a blu-ray player, and 2 other boxes the same size as my blu-ray player.
I know this is fairly new technology so this is going to be expensive at the start ... but $999 is still reasonable when you compare this to the Panasonic Z1 54" Plasma TV with similar technology coming in at $5500 (about $3000 more than the same size step down model V10). That extra three grand is for wireless technology and of course, the 1" thin panel due to the fact that the works are in a separate box.
Oh ... and the design team that came up with that GefenTV logo and box itself ... needs to go back to art school.
If this was like maybe $100 I would buy it. Since I am in a condo I can only do so much with cables. This would actually work pretty nicely and allowing me to move the components from under my TV to somewhere else, like in a closet that I am just not able to run cords through the walls or attic. but for $1,000, not worth it at all. I can afford it no problem but to me it's like throwing my money away.
@Brian
dont you need a line of sight with transmitters in this frequency range? i dont think it would work in a closet.
@weirdo557
Unless I am completely wrong, but I don't think I am, you wouldn't. RF wouldn't need LoS. But anything in between can cause a weaker signal.
@Brian
60GHz are 5mm in wavelength. That radiation won't diffract around objects bigger than 5mm. Needs Line of Sight.
This frequency is only one class below Far Infrared.
Finally 1080P wireless :) Good Work!
They've been saying this was coming for years. I remember a $300 unit that was promised like 4 years ago.
This kind of thing would be very handy in a projector setup. It's annoying to sling cable 20 feet around a room to the projector and hard to hide that much cable.
That said, for $999 you could pay a contractor to come in and install HDMI in your wall :S
I don't understand. Why would anyone pay just under a thousand dollars for this, when you can have someone come out and professionally install HDMI jacks in your wall for about 1/3 of that cost? I could see it being a possibility if you're renting, but I think you'll be hard-pressed to find a landlord who would frown on you giving their apartment something to boost the resale/re-rent value.
Given how picky DHCP handshaking is, I doubt this will comply. You can probably expect a black screen at the worst, and a down scaled 480p image at best.
Some info: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Feetimes.jp%2Fnews%2F3617&sl=ja&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8