Testing out the RocketFish WirelessHD® Adapter (the RF-WHD100, if you want to get technical) was a bit of a difficult task; my HD setups both have their components directly underneath them. The solution? Beam HD from one room to the next!
That’s not really what the RF-WHD100 is made for, so it didn’t work out well for me. The WirelessHD® adapter is meant to be used by people who are looking for a cleaner setup for their wall-mounted display or who are looking at using a home theatre front projector – both of which are more elegant solutions if you’re not using large runs of cable. My setup, on the other hand, had an HDMI cable snaking around a corner, with both transmitter and receiver sitting on stools in order to maintain some equality in height – crucial for a good signal lock. It worked, but it’s naturally not anything you’re going to see in anyone’s home.
I tested the RF-WHD100 in a few ways and the results were impressive:
- 1080p video was transferred from my source components (in this case a receiver sending the image signal from a Blu-ray player as well as video sent directly from an Xbox 360 Elite)
- 1080p video and HD audio were transferable without any apparent signal loss
- video quality was excellent; there was no lag that I could perceive, even when using the WirelessHD® Adapter with games.
So where’s the downside? Well, the units have to be within 10m of each other, on the same plane, and within line-of-site. It’s understandable given the amount of data being transferred and the frequency it’s been transmitted at (a whopping 60GHz!)
The units also run hot and each features a small fan. They’re not terribly noisy, but you may notice it in a small space (then again, if you’re in such a small space just RUN SOME CABLE.) My dreams of seeing my HT equipment stored in an environmentally controlled closet, quietly secreted away from my flat panel was dashed. Perhaps we’ll see a non line-of-site revision in the next iteration.
The upside is that it works – and if you’ve got a setup that could benefit from it, wireless is a great (albeit expensive) way to go. If not, it’s worth sticking with the home theatre stand until such time arrives that we’ll see efficient, cool, NLOS Wireless HDMI. Don’t hold your breath though, it’ll be a while.
Two things on my mind:
1. 60GHz? Phones and other wireless devices normally run at 2.4 – 5GHz, so that number is a slight shock even with the information being sent. I’m curious to what the highest power rate is these days in home consumer electronics.
2. This thought may be a touch old fashioned, but if a wireless HD adapter’s signal strength COULD be powerful enough to bypass walls in a house, at what point does one’s ambient living condition change to a state of detriment towards health? Living in the vicinity of large power generators can have major adverse effects towards brain function and while that type of field is a LONG ways off in commercial devices, is that ultimately the route we’re taking with everything going wireless, or is there an intrinsic difference between the types of fields being generated?
60Ghz will never be able to go through walls, doors, etc. No way.
I have heard about WHDI, that works at 5Ghz and does pass 1080p/60hz through walls with same/higher quality.
I have about a dozen different wireless apps now in the house. I’m surprised I haven’t grown a second head yet.