Wireless Home Entertainment Systems
PC/Home Entertainment Integration through Wireless Media Players

Wireless Media Players and WI-FI enabled HT systems take home entertainment to a new level. Now, even average PC users can experience their entire collection of digital content - music - videos - photos - in full glory without being tied to a PC.

Home Entertainment and Wireless Integration: All coming together as One!

The concept of wireless integration in home entertainment is more than just adding a set of wireless speakers in a secondary room.

Rather, it encompasses access to all form of digital content present on your PC, or accessible online via an internet connection. The scope is to enjoy this same content on your home entertainment system. In other words, a wireless home entertainment setup gives you the possibility to enjoy your digital media in its full glory over a big screen and a proper surround sound system.

The good news is that wireless technology is no longer exclusive to technically proficient users. Rather, thanks to the use of wireless media players, Wi-Fi enabled music centers, etc., it has become fairly easy to expand wireless networking from a simple home-office, to a fully integrated home entertainment solution.

There are quite a number of relatively simple and inexpensive options that will help bring together your PC, internet connection and you home entertainment system.

This type of home entertainment integration gives you the possibility to enjoy the best of both worlds. The PC makes it easy to browse, download, and manage digital media, while your home entertainment system gives you the possibility to enjoy the very best in picture and sound.

You just need a decent computer, a broadband internet connection, and a wired or wireless home network. You would also require a wired or wireless media player, or a Wi-Fi enabled home entertainment system, plus a few hours of setup time.

Even if you have a computer with Windows XP Media Center, Vista Home Premium or Vista Ultimate edition, you can use your Xbox 360 or a Media Center Extender, to stream TV, digital audio and video, photos, and more.

Thanks to the advancement in wireless technology, today's wireless media players, Media Center extenders, and other Wi-Fi enabled home entertainment systems, make home entertainment integration simple reality. These devices give you full access - through a wireless link - to all your networked digital content, whether it's on a PC, or accessible via an online content provider through an internet broadband connection.

Digital Multi-Media Content at your Service:

How about taking advantage of this new world of wireless home entertainment?

There are two basic approaches one may adopt:

Wireless Media Players and other Wi-Fi enabled network devices, use either Bluetooth or Wi-Fi technology to access digital content. Although both technologies operate mostly in the 2.4GHz band, yet there are major differences between these technologies both in terms of data throughput, and also in the way they handle transmission and security issues.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth primary use is to replace cables between networked devices requiring a low to medium speed access connection. Bluetooth supports up to 732Kbps download bandwidth when used in half-duplex mode. You would not find this type of wireless interface on a wireless media player; the limited bandwidth renders Bluetooth unsuitable for real-time HD audio and video streaming applications.

Wireless LAN

Wi-Fi, based on the IEEE 802.11 standard - with its 'a', 'b', 'g' and 'n' variants - is used to provide wireless high speed access to the internet and other digital content over networked devices in a local area network (LAN). 

The 802.11b has a maximum data transfer rate of 11Mbps; the 802.11a and g standards can support up to a maximum of 54Mbps transfer rates, while the latest emerging 802.11n standard supports up to 248Mbps.

The higher data rates supported by the a, g, and n variants of the standard explains why wireless home entertainment systems and wireless media players designed for video streaming, normally utilize the 802.11a, 802.11g, or 802.11n standards.

Note that the data transfer rates referred to above, represent the maximum speed at the physical layer. However, the maximum effective data throughput available for the end user is substantially less. For example, while the maximum data rate for an 802.11a or 802.11g device is 54Mbps, yet maximum data throughput would typically fall to around 20Mbps.

The table below summarizes the main differences with respect to operating frequencies, data rates, and range, as applicable to these IEEE 802.11 variants.

802.11n: This is the fastest and latest in the range of Wi-Fi standards; it has enough bandwidth to stream HDTV content without choppy playback even in relatively high traffic Wi-Fi spaces.

The high throughput of the 802.11n standard is possible thanks to the use of Multiple-In-Multiple-Out (MIMO) wireless transmission technology.

Despite the large number of IEEE 802.11n devices on the market, the 802.11n standard has not yet been rectified. The present draft standard was arrived at in 2006 and a final rectification of the standard is not expected before late 2008. For this reason, most 802.11n devices are at times referred to as 'pre-N' products.

Pre-N gear is no guarantee that it can be upgraded to meet the final 802.11n specs once these are rectified next year. However, as the 2008 timeline approaches, more pre-N gear manufacturers are warranting that their gear will be fully compatible with the finalized 802.11n specs through simple firmware upgrades.

Interesting is the fact that the present IEEE 802.11n standard does not indicate whether this should operate in the 2.4GHz or 5GHz band. At the same time, it seems that manufactures have almost exclusively settled for the 2.4GHz band for all pre-N gear - possibly due to cost considerations.

2.4GHz or 5GHz?

There are pros and cons associated with the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz bands as used by the different 802.11 variants.

The 2.4GHz band is more congested - not just because of other Wi-Fi equipment, but also because of devices in the home like cordless phones and microwave ovens. This renders the 2.4GHz band more prone to interference. Furthermore, the arrival of pre-N gear in the 2.4GHz band has made this situation even worse.

On the other hand, the 5GHz band is relatively under-utilized. However, devices operating at these higher frequencies support a slightly shorter range as they are more prone to signal attenuation due to walls, ceiling, furniture, etc., between devices. This increased attenuation may also lead to a drop in the effective data rate over the wireless link.

Interesting to note that in view 802.11a devices operate in the 5GHz band, these are at times referred to as Wi-Fi5.

Wireless Bandwidth Management

There is a limit to how much data you can move across a network. This is independent of the wireless media player or any other wireless device you are using.

Bandwidth requirements by the different applications running over a network, will have to share from the same overall bandwidth available for use by the different applications at any one particular time.

Furthermore, if your data needs to make a double hop - because both your source (e.g. PC), and receiver (e.g. wireless media player), are connected to your network via a wireless setup, then this will double your bandwidth requirements.

Thus, when streaming bandwidth-demanding content, such as high definition video and audio, there is a higher likelihood of suffering from choppy playback when streaming over a crowded wireless environment.

To help in these circumstances, some wireless routers/switches include quality of service (QoS) support. This feature allows you to prioritize certain traffic to minimize contention related problems in a crowded air-space when handling real-time applications such as VOIP and multi-media content.

Security Issues in Wireless Home Entertainment:

Security is becoming more critical in wireless networking as the use of wireless technology is increasing in popularity. The latter is partly due to the ease of use of modern wireless technology, as well as the added convenience associated with not having to install any connecting cables.

Unfortunately, many would simply skip over this issue of wireless security especially when implementing a wireless home entertainment system. It is as if there are no network security risks when installing wireless media players and Wi-Fi enabled entertainment solutions!

The reality is that a poorly protected Wi-Fi network is literally an open invitation for hackers to access your wired system, or in that case, anything else accessible via that wireless link.

For a detailed informative guide on wireless security in home entertainment, please check our guide to Wireless Security Basics. It should help you better understand the differences between WEP, WPA, and WPA2 encryption protocols. We also highlight a few simple - yet basic - steps you should take to help improve the security of your wireless networking activity.

Wireless Home Entertainment Solutions

Wireless Enabled Home Entertainment Systems

There are a number of products with wireless support aimed at the home entertainment market. These include cable and satellite set-top boxes, wireless speaker systems, personal TV recorders, wireless media players, etc.

At the same time, one cannot but remark that options are still very much limited - especially if what you are after is an HTiB solution with an integrated wireless media player, to stream audio and video digital content from a home PC or internet broadband connection.

Rather, it seems that the present trend among major manufactures is to move away from the complete Wi-Fi enabled home theater systems with integrated wireless media players we saw around 2004/2005. Instead, available wireless-enabled home entertainment options today cater mainly for music listening; these relate to wireless music centers - often referred to as wireless music stations.

A case in point is the Philips Streamium MX6000i, which appears at around 2005. Besides the usual HTIB features, the MX6000i was also capable of streaming both audio and video content over an 802.11g wireless link. It was sort of a hybrid HTiB with an integrated wireless media player.

Philips did not continue to follow up on this type of HTIB approach with built-in wireless media player functionality capable of both audio and video streaming. Instead, the closest you can find today within the line-up of Philips home entertainment solutions is the Philips Streamium WACS7000 wireless music center. This product can stream audio content available online through any networked device - via a wireless 802.11G link - but video streaming is not supported.

Wireless Media Players

A wireless media player is a wireless adapter specifically designed for multi-media use. Wireless media players let you pull digital content over an 802.11G or 802.11N wireless link, and interfaces with your home entertainment system via the usual audio and video interconnects.

Relatively inexpensive, wireless media players provide for ease of integration of audio and video content from say a PC, the internet, or any other device accessible through your home network, and your home entertainment system.

Unlike Wi-Fi enabled music centers and wireless home entertainment systems, which come with their own amplifiers, speakers, etc., wireless media players have to sit 'atop' your other home entertainment gear (home-theater-in-a-box, AV receiver, TV, music center, etc.), while pulling content from anything that is on your home network.

However, stand-alone wireless media players do come with a far richer feature set in comparison to wireless enabled home entertainment centers. In contrast, the latter would often support only basic audio and possibly, limited photo shows and video streaming.

Wireless media players would normally support a far wider and complete range of audio and video file formats, and come with an easy-to-navigate intuitive on-screen menu which you can display on your existing TV. Through this on-screen menu, you can choose the digital content to pull from any computer on the home network, or internet connection.

To learn more about available wireless media players suitable for both audio and video streaming in home entertainment applications, please check our Wireless Media Players review page.

Additional Related Articles under the
Wireless Speakers Systems and Wireless Home Entertainment Sections:

Wireless Home Theater Guides:

• Wireless Security Basics in Home Entertainment

• Introductory Guide to Wireless Speakers Systems

Reviews:

• Rocketfish RF-WHTIB Wireless Rear speaker Kit

• Add-on wireless speaker modules for Surround and Multi-Room Audio

• Wireless Home Theater in-a-box Solutions

• Wireless Digital Media Players

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