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ASUS WiCast EW2000 1080p streaming solution reviewed: 'lots of wires for wireless'
It's a modern day dilemma, really -- you'd love to hang that flat panel on your wall, but the wireless technologies available to mere mortals in the year 2010 just aren't up to snuff. Wireless power is a pipe dream, and even wireless HDMI has its drawbacks. Case in point: ASUS' new WiCast media streaming solution. Introduced last month in conjunction with Amimon, this high(er)-end streamer is theoretically capable of transmitting 1080p material over the air, with 3Gbps at its disposal. Trouble is, critics at AnandTech found that there were gobs of wires to connect before anything started to stream "wirelessly," and moreover, they noticed significant artifacting in Iron Man 2 even with just five feet separating the receiver and transmitter. The good news is that the WiCast isn't platform / machine-specific, but that luxury comes with a price -- you'll have to connect three cables (two USB and an HDMI) to your laptop and a receiver box to your HDTV. In the end, there seems to be just one real winner: Monoprice.
ASUS to ship gargantuan NX90J this month, plenty of other laptops soon
ASUS doesn't seem to have an issue introducing new laptops. ASUS does seem to have an issue belting out release dates alongside those announcements. Thankfully, a whole slew of the company's newly revealed machines were both priced and dated at a media event last night in the Big Apple, and the most exciting (or horrifying, depending on perspective) news is that the David Lewis-designed NX90J will be shipping this month. Yeah -- your time to run and hide from the world's next 18.4-inch lappie is just about up, with a pair of models set to land prior to October for $2,299. There's also a Bang & Olufsen-infused 15-incher for the more sensible among us, as the N53Jf (shown above) will bring a Core i5 CPU, NVIDIA's GeForce GT425M GPU and a business-minded design to US shores within the next fortnight for $999. The ROG G73Jw that we heard about earlier in the year is also destined to ship this month for $1,799, and the outfit's new WiCast EW2000 wireless streamer should hit channels this week for a buck ninety-nine. Hit the links below for all the nitty-gritty.
ASUS teams with Amimon on WiCast EW2000 1080p streamer
Keepin' it varied, are we ASUS? Just a few months after we peeked a pair of WirelessHD-equipped laptops at ASUS' Computex booth, in flies this -- news that the company has aligned with Amimon and joined the WHDI Consortium to boot. It's hard to say if the introduction of the WiCast EW2000 is in direct response to HP's Wireless TV Connect, but it sure looks mighty similar in practice. The two-piece set connects to a PC via USB (it's USB powered, too) and to an HDTV via HDMI. Once you're setup, you can stream 1080p video (including Blu-ray and DRM'd material) straight to your tele with under a millisecond of lag, and better still, you could connect it to an HDMI-equipped set-top box or game console for cordless machine-to-device magic. Mum's the word on price, but there's a delightful promo video ready to get you amped up about it just past the break. Update: ASUS pinged us to say that it'll ship on September 15th for $199.99. Start saving!
