Netgear's HDXB111 / XAVB101 powerline adapters now shipping

Posts with tag powerline

If you're waiting for broadband over power lines (BPL) as an alternative to cable or DSL in your area, it may be time to finally give in to one of the big companies. The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) -- a group of amateur radio enthusiasts -- has sued the FCC over its plan to speed up BPL's expansion, citing concerns that the service's radio emissions provide too many interference risks to the hobby / ham spectrum. While the FCC conducted a favorable study on BPL's potential problems, their published report had so many redacted sections that the ARRL wants to know what they missed. A D.C. district court agrees with the League, and plans for further rollout have been tabled until the FCC can come up with more facts.
HomePlug's had a rocky past, but ZyXEL's looking to take the technology to new heights with the DMA1100P HomePlug AV digital media adapter. Dubbed a "simple solution" to enable consumers to share content on an HDTV via power lines, the "world's first" DMA with integrated HomePlug AV Powerline technology includes support for 1080i streaming and HDMI output. Purportedly, users can toss content around on their home power lines at around 200Mbps and it also "automatically discovers all media files from DLNA supported devices and makes them available for browsing and playback." Granted, we'd be a wee bit gun-shy about pulling the trigger on this one, but the brave souls out there who believe that this stuff will deliver can grab it next month for $269.99.
Forget 200Mbps powerline home networking -- and don't even mention your poky 85Mbps setup -- because industry leader DS2 has just made all current gear obsolete with its introduction of technology that will enable 400Mbps theoretical speeds over standard electrical wiring. Capable of pushing five simultaneous video streams, the zippy new tech will be key for applications such as PVR networking and multi-room HD IPTV, and should start appearing in "next generation" devices slated for 2009. Luckily 400Mbps products will actually be backwards compatible with 200Mbps gear according to DS2, meaning that you should be able to reuse some of your existing adapters and extenders instead of relegating them to the gadget graveyard.
While analysts have long questioned how satellite television providers would answer the challenge of cable companies offering up bundled services with such little hassle, both DirecTV and EchoStar have traditionally partnered with DSL providers to tempt users to the dish, but change may finally be on the way. Reportedly, DirecTV's CEO recently suggested that it "may test delivering high-speed internet service through power lines in a major US city within the next year," meaning that broadband over power lines could be comin' down the pike. Notably, the company fessed up and stated that it "wasn't the only one" in talks to get such a plan in action, and while prospective test areas weren't named, the firm did say that it would probably aim for a "top 50 city where you're covering at least half the city." Of course, the talk of mergers was quickly shot down, but it's hard to think that a partnership isn't at least in the cards.
Piping internet, audio, and other bits of entertainment through one's power sockets has been available for some time now, but due to its less-than-impressive results in a majority of scenarios, it never really blossomed as a reliable networking option. Don't tell the folks at CeBIT this, however, as firms such as Devolo and Channel Vision are showcasing yet another shot at taking advantage of cabling already wired throughout your domicile. As expected, the technology converts the signals emitted from your set-top-box into an IP signal, which can then be streamed to other rooms or even other gizmos such as portable video players. Interestingly, there was no mention of HD abilities, and the Devolo system can currently only deliver the same digital channel being viewed to other areas, but the company is reportedly working on a future iteration to beam separate shows to different sources. Both pricing and availability details ran par for the course, as none of the kiosks displayed any information of the sort, but judging by the sheer interest shown here, it (hopefully) can't be too far off.









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