rMBP with wireless HDMI to TV @1080p?

[striker33]

Hi guys,

Would something like this...: http://www.ebuyer.com/257588-xenta-...av511wh?utm_source=google&utm_medium=products

...allow me to wirelessly stream from my rMBP, whilst it is in clamshell mode, to my TV, for things like light gaming and watching movies @1080p?

Lag or picture quality shouldnt be an issue.

Thanks in advance.

 

[SDAVE]

Why waste money? Mountain Lion is around the corner and you can just get an Apple TV ($99 USD) to do that.

Also ML will be free for you rMBP owners.

 

[striker33]

Why waste money? Mountain Lion is around the corner and you can just get an Apple TV ($99 USD) to do that.

Also ML will be free for you rMBP owners.

Airplay is dependant on your network, and isnt exactly lag free, as well as being compressed. Its also dependant on OSX. Will still be needing Windows for certain games.

 

[SDAVE]

Airplay is dependant on your network, and isnt exactly lag free, as well as being compressed. Its also dependant on OSX. Will still be needing Windows for certain games.

You are definitely going to get lag with anything that's wireless.

Why don't you just get an HDMI cable and connect directly? And just get a wireless XBox 360 controller and play your games on it? Or a wireless keyboard/mouse combo so you can play from far away?

Cheaper solution and no lag.

That device you're looking at is definitely compressed as well, there's no way to send uncompressed data over the air, especially HD @ 1080p without some type of compression. AirPlay uses Intel QuickSync to compress with H264, which mind you, is a great compression format and very advanced. I wouldn't be surprised if that device you posted uses the same compression scheme.

 

[Vexed]

Airplay is dependant on your network, and isnt exactly lag free, as well as being compressed. Its also dependant on OSX. Will still be needing Windows for certain games.

Could you explain the Airplay being dependent on your network part for me?

 

[Stetrain]

Could you explain the Airplay being dependent on your network part for me?

AirPlay works over your WiFi network, so it has to share bandwidth with other devices on the network. The devices he linked to connect directly to each other via dedicated radios.

 

[Fortimir]

Has anyone figured out or know of a way of connecting a MacBook to an AppleTV ad hoc?

 

[jarnold]

You are definitely going to get lag with anything that's wireless.

That device you're looking at is definitely compressed as well, there's no way to send uncompressed data over the air, especially HD @ 1080p without some type of compression.

What about this?

In the features of the device it says:
Uncompressed HD Video/Audio hybrid transmission quality equivalent at wire transmission

Not saying your wrong I just don't know what the means lol hybrid transmission?

 

[SDAVE]

What about this?

In the features of the device it says:
Uncompressed HD Video/Audio hybrid transmission quality equivalent at wire transmission

Not saying your wrong I just don't know what the means lol hybrid transmission?

I have no idea what they mean by that but let me tell you, there's no way to send stuff over the air without compressing it down the line somewhere. OTA is analog but it needs to be converted to something else when sending/receiving digital data.

Same goes for Antenna over the air HD content. You can see microblocking when you watch certain channels.

 

[striker33]

I have no idea what they mean by that but let me tell you, there's no way to send stuff over the air without compressing it down the line somewhere. OTA is analog but it needs to be converted to something else when sending/receiving digital data.

Same goes for Antenna over the air HD content. You can see microblocking when you watch certain channels.

Ok then, compressed, but not to the point where its noticeable

Connecting it directly is out of the question unfortunately as I dont feel like trawling a 20ft HDMI cable across the room.

 

[SDAVE]

Ok then, compressed, but not to the point where its noticeable

Connecting it directly is out of the question unfortunately as I dont feel like trawling a 20ft HDMI cable across the room.

Run a nice under the floor cable and put an outlet behind your couch |

Anything wireless is bound to have issues. I'm sure there are high end industrial grade HDMI-to-HDMI transmitters, but those cost a fortune.

 

[Panini]

Sounds like gaming is your major issue here.

If that is the case, you really only have two options, and Airplay isn't one of them - I've found it lags even on graphically intensive iPad applications.

1. Get a long HDMI cable, you could maybe hide it under a rug or under the floor. Connect this to your mac and get to gaming. This is assuming you will be using a mouse and keyboard (which I highly doubt if you will be playing on a TV).

2. Get one of these and put your mac next to your TV while it is connected to HDMI. If you haven't already you may need an Xbox 360 controller for windows (but I have heard it's possible to use normal Xbox 360 controllers with windows with some sort of software/driver hack). Now you have basically turned your mac into a more powerful version of an Xbox 360.

I recommend Skyrim since it's optimised for Xbox controllers (i.e playing it on PC with an Xbox controller is 100% identical to playing on Xbox except you get better graphics and mods).

Don't get that wireless HDMI transmitter. More than the choppiness you will find that latency will be a huge issue - especially for gaming. For movies it will be fine, though.

 

[striker33]

Sounds like gaming is your major issue here.

If that is the case, you really only have two options, and Airplay isn't one of them - I've found it lags even on graphically intensive iPad applications.

1. Get a long HDMI cable, you could maybe hide it under a rug or under the floor. Connect this to your mac and get to gaming. This is assuming you will be using a mouse and keyboard (which I highly doubt if you will be playing on a TV).

2. Get one of these and put your mac next to your TV while it is connected to HDMI. If you haven't already you may need an Xbox 360 controller for windows (but I have heard it's possible to use normal Xbox 360 controllers with windows with some sort of software/driver hack). Now you have basically turned your mac into a more powerful version of an Xbox 360.

I recommend Skyrim since it's optimised for Xbox controllers (i.e playing it on PC with an Xbox controller is 100% identical to playing on Xbox except you get better graphics and mods).

Don't get that wireless HDMI transmitter. More than the choppiness you will find that latency will be a huge issue - especially for gaming. For movies it will be fine, though.

I have wooden floors as well, so its definitely out of the question getting a long HDMI cable

I think your second suggestion is most plausible, combined with some sort of stand or case for my MBP to sit under the TV or behind it.

I have seen some very vague reviews on that wireless HDMI kit, but it doesnt appear to cause any choppiness or lag when someone played something like MW3 on 360, and there'd be no obstacles in the way of the receivers, but £120 is a lot of money for very new technology. The reviews on eBuyer say its great for gaming etc, but I'm guessing most of the users dont exactly have a hardcore background in it. For instance, I can easily spot the difference between a 2ms and 5ms panel, or can detect any nominal amount of input lag (BF3 on PS3 was HORRIBLE), so it may not be worth the risk.

 

[Panini]

I have wooden floors as well, so its definitely out of the question getting a long HDMI cable

I think your second suggestion is most plausible, combined with some sort of stand or case for my MBP to sit under the TV or behind it.

I have seen some very vague reviews on that wireless HDMI kit, but it doesnt appear to cause any choppiness or lag when someone played something like MW3 on 360, and there'd be no obstacles in the way of the receivers, but £120 is a lot of money for very new technology. The reviews on eBuyer say its great for gaming etc, but I'm guessing most of the users dont exactly have a hardcore background in it. For instance, I can easily spot the difference between a 2ms and 5ms panel, or can detect any nominal amount of input lag (BF3 on PS3 was HORRIBLE), so it may not be worth the risk.

You're a lot like me, then. The first thing I noticed when getting an HDTV was the display lag, and that kind of thing bothers me a lot. Now, there s=is a slight variation between displays, like 2ms-20ms, but those are insignificant when compared to any wireless lag. If you're like me, you will also find that you play your best with a wired mouse/controller than with a wireless one. The controllers only have to transmit movement info, a few KBs per second at most. When you look at this HDMI transmitter, it is easily in the high MBPS range, and even then, we can safely assume it is transmitting compressed data.

If this is the case, (compressed data obviously takes more time to put on the screen than raw), you will easily have an extra 20-200ms of lag on top of that. Like I said, for casual gaming, it's nothing - even the Kinect sensor has a 600-700ms lag, but if you're going to be playing FPSs, you will definitely notice the latency. If there wasn't any downside to it, then we would hear about next gen consoles implementing this technology. It's obviously not ready yet.