Home Page - Wireless Media Players

PC/Home Entertainment Integration through Wireless Media Players... and more!

Guide to Wireless Digital Home Entertainment Systems

Updated: 6^th April 2009

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 second room.

Rather, it encompasses access to all form of digital content present on your PC, or accessible online via a broadband 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 digital media in its full glory over a big screen HDTV and a proper surround sound system.

The good news is that wireless technology is no longer exclusive to users that are technically proficient.

Thanks to the use of wireless media players and the latest range of Wi-Fi enabled home theater systems, HDTVs and Netflix-friendly Blu-ray players, etc., it is fairly easy and relative inexpensive to expand your wireless network from simple home-office use, to a fully integrated home entertainment solution.

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

This 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 best in picture and sound.

You just need a decent computer, a broadband internet connection, and a wired or wireless home network. You also require a wired or wireless media player, or a Wi-Fi enabled home entertainment system.

Digital Media Players come with a remote control and an intuitive on-screen menu - accessible through your HDTV or home theater monitor - that lets you browse through audio and video media files on your network and online internet services. As explained in our wireless digital media players review guide, setting up a wireless digital media player is a simple straightforward process that would not take more than an hour or two.

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.

In addition, there is also a wide range of dedicated wireless media players - often referred to as wireless digital media boxes or instant media players that do take away the need to be tied to a PC. Digital players in this category include the Roku digital video player which let you stream video-on-demand content via the Web from Netflix and Amazon, the Apple TV which you can use to stream content from the iTunes Store direct to your HDTV, and the TiVo 652160 HD/658000HD XL DVRs, which in addition to recording your favorite TV shows from whatever TV source you have, can also stream digital media content direct from Netflix and Amazon video-on-demand.

These digital media players may represent a simple straightforward solution to cutting off that $100 a month Cable or Satellite TV subscription bill. Surely appealing at a time when the economy is passing through such bad times and everyone is looking for ways to cut costs.

Admittedly, when it comes to these digital media boxes, doing away with your TV subscription depends on the content you like to watch. In addition, there is no such wireless media player yet that offers everything one would dream of from top movies and TV shows to local and live TV programming. However, the market is still evolving and you can expect more and more of your favorite TV shows to become available online in the coming months.

Meanwhile, the idea of cutting off that TV subscription bill is already a reality!

Thanks to advancements in wireless technology, today's wireless media players, Media Center extenders, and 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 your internet broadband connection.

Digital 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:

Few Wireless Basics

Wireless Media Players and Wi-Fi enabled network devices, use either Bluetooth or Wi-Fi wireless technology to access digital content. Both technologies operate mostly in the 2.4GHz band though some Wi-Fi devices operate in the 5.8GHz band. We are also starting to see Wi-Fi 802.11n devices that support dual-band operation.

Yet there are major differences between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technologies both in terms of data throughput, and 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. Due to this limited data throughput supported by Bluetooth devices, you would not find this type of wireless interface on a wireless media player intended for streaming of real-time HD audio and video content.

Wireless Local Area Networks (LAN): Wi-Fi uses the IEEE 802.11 standard - with its 'a', 'b', 'g' and 'n' variants to provide wireless high speed access to the internet and other digital content over networked devices in a local area network.

The 802.11b has a maximum data transfer rate of 11Mbps; the 802.11a and 802.11g standards can support up to a maximum of 54Mbps transfer rates, while the latest emerging 802.11n standard supports up to around 300Mbps.

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

The data transfer rates referred to above represent the maximum speed at the physical layer. The maximum effective data throughput available for the end user at the application level is substantially less. Similarly, there is significant difference also between these standards in the supported wireless range, with the shortest range being that supported by devices in the 5.8GHz band.

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

HD Wireless Media Players and 802.11n - a great match!

802.11n is the fastest in the range of Wi-Fi standards; it is being extensively used on the latest wireless media players as it has enough bandwidth to stream HDTV content without choppy playback even in 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.

A word of caution here: Despite the large number of IEEE 802.11n devices on the market, the 802.11n standard has not yet been formally approved by IEEE-SA RevCom; this is expected to take place in January 2010. Meanwhile, we are at draft standard version 7 which was approved in November 2008. For this reason, 802.11n devices are referred to as 'pre-N' or 'draft-N' products.

Pre-N gear is no guarantee that it can be upgraded to meet the final 802.11n specs once this is rectified next year. However, as the 2010 timeline approaches, more pre-N gear manufacturers are warranting that their gear will be fully compatible with the finalized specs through simple firmware upgrades.

While the present IEEE 802.11n draft does not specify 2.4GHz or 5.8GHz band operation, yet most manufactures seem to have settled for the 2.4GHz band for all pre-N gear to maintain compatibility with the 'b' and 'g' standards at a reduced cost. Opting for the 5.8GHz band would imply the use of a second radio transmitter to cover compatibility with 2.4GHz wireless devices; this would result in some extra expense. It was only recently that we started to see dual-band pre-N wireless gear capable of simultaneously supporting operation in both the 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz bands.

The 5GHz front ...but what are the pros & cons of 2.4GHz vs. 5.8GHz operation?

The 2.4GHz band is more congested - not just because of other Wi-Fi equipment in the home and neighboring wireless LANs, but also because of the many devices like cordless phones and microwave ovens. This renders the 2.4GHz band more prone to interference.

On the contrary, the 5.8GHz band is relatively under-utilized, meaning that the latest wireless standard could have very well avoided all the congestion in the 2.4 GHz band should it have mandated 5.8GHz operation. The issue is not just congestion but even more so - reduced effective data throughput since a congested wireless environment would not enable these high speed devices to operate full-time at their maximum sustained higher data rates. The result... consumers buying expensive 802.11n gear that would not deliver the higher speeds they were hoping for in real application.

Thankfully, manufacturers are starting to realize the benefits associated with 5.8GHz operation and are coming up with dual-band wireless equipment to enable users enjoy the maximum benefits of the new 802.11n standard.

There is only one drawback though: 5.8GHz devices support a slightly shorter range as transmission at these higher frequencies is more prone to signal attenuation due to walls, ceiling, furniture, etc.; this may lead to a drop in the effective data rate over the wireless link at the extreme ranges.

Wireless Bandwidth Management

Another issue worth planning for when investing in a wireless media player is 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 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 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 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 Wireless Security Basics article. It will 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

As indicated earlier on in this guide, wireless home entertainment integration is possible either through wireless-enabled home theater gear, or through wireless media players.

Wireless-Enabled Home Entertainment Systems

There are various products with some sort of integrated wireless support aimed at the home entertainment market. These include cable and satellite set-top boxes, wireless speaker systems, personal TV recorders and Blu-ray players, dedicated wireless media boxes, HDTV, etc.

And it seems that more are coming during 2009. Companies like Samsung and LG are offering Blu-ray players and home theater systems that can stream Netflix movies and Pandora free internet music service. Internet-enabled systems include the new Samsung BD-P2500/BD-P2550 Blu-ray players and HT-BD8200/HT-BD7200 home theater systems. These Samsung internet-enabled home entertainment systems are characterized by a minimalist design; in addition, the BD8200 and BD7200 home theater systems come with a front-only virtual surround sound (or speakerbar) with wireless subwoofer.

What's more, 2009 products are becoming available at a cheaper price tag than before despite a richer feature list. The new LG BD 370 Network Blu-ray Disc Player (to be released in May 2009) is available for pre-order at under $300 - cheaper than the original price of its predecessor, the LG BD300 Network Blu-ray Disc Player. And it does not only support Netflix streaming of videos and movies, but comes also with NetCast for YouTube & CinemaNow.

Similarly, Panasonic's VieraCast has been further enhanced this year to support the capability to view content from Amazon Video-on-Demand. VieraCast is Panasonic internet connectivity feature that lets you browse online content like YouTube videos, Picasa Web Albums, weather and stock information, etc, through a web interface build direct into the TV without the need for a PC.

Originally featured last year on Panasonic flagship series - the PZ850U which comprised of the largest plasma HDTVs within the Panasonic lineup, the 65-inch Panasonic TH-65PZ850U, has now been included on significantly more affordable 2009 HDTVs - including the recently released G10 series.

The Panasonic G10 range of HDTVs represents the least expensive of the two THX-certified Panasonic plasma HDTV series for this year and comes in four screen sizes - ranging from 42-inch to the new 54-inch screen size. Indications are that the G10 is going to prove very popular with HDTV buyers - with the top seller so far from within this series being the 42-inch Panasonic Viera TC-P42G10 42-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV. This is all thanks to an interesting feature set and a more affordable price than previous THX-certified displays.

Despite the increasing presence of wireless-enabled home entertainment systems, in most cases  these do not come with true built-in wireless media player functionality to stream digital media content direct from a home PC, or in that case, any Web content accessed over an internet broadband connection. If this is what you are after, then the stand-alone wireless media player solution is your best way forward.

Wireless Media Players

The classical stand-alone 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' other home entertainment gear (home-theater-in-a-box, AV receiver, HDTV, music center, etc.), while pulling content from anything that is on your home network.

The main advantage of stand-alone wireless media players is that these come with a far richer feature set in comparison to wireless-enabled home entertainment centers. Stand-alone 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.

One such great feature-rich product within this category is the new Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite (EAV9150); this is the latest within the range of Netgear wireless media player and comes with a few significant improvements over the extremely popular Netgear EAV8000. Top on the list of new features is a removable 500GB internal hard drive for extra local content storage and pre-N wireless connectivity, making this digital media player a true wireless HD media streamer. This is apart from the unique fact that the device supports simultaneous operation over both 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies with speeds of up to 300Mbps.

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:

Basic Guide to Wireless Audio Systems

Wireless Security Basics in Home Entertainment

Guide to Wireless Home Theater Systems

Wireless Speakers Installation Tips

Product Reviews:

Rocketfish RF-WHTIB Wireless Rear speaker Kit

Add-on wireless speakers for Surround and Multiroom Audio

Wireless HTiB Reviews: Sony BRAVIA DAV-HDX576WF vs. Panasonic SC-PT960 Home Theater Wireless System

Wireless Digital Media Player Reviews

Wireless Speaker related articles appearing under this section 

Guides:

Basic Guide to Wireless Audio Systems

Installation Tips for Wireless add-on Speaker Systems

Home theater wireless systems: an HTiB or a component-based solution?

Wireless Security Basics in Home Entertainment

Reviews:

Rocketfish RF-WHTIB Wireless Rear speaker Kit

Add-on wireless speakers for Surround and Multiroom Audio

Wireless HTiB Reviews

Wireless Digital Media Players Review Roundup. Products covered include:

Apple TV

D-Link DSM-520

Roku Video Player

Netgear EVA8000

Netgear EVA9150. 

Related Technical Guides 

Guide to Wireless Headphones and Dolby Headphone technology
Ever told to turn it down? Combine a set of wireless headphones and Dolby Headphone technology for a great sound experience.

Surround Sound Formats
The never ending list of terms and brand names - Dolby, DTS, THX - associated with surround systems is starting to get a bit too complicated...

Speaker Placement in Multi-channel Audio
Correct home theater speaker placement plays a critical role towards achieving that seamless ‘enveloping’ sound so important in the overall home theater experience.

Time Delay Settings in Surround Systems
Directly related with your home theater speaker placement is a correctly set surround sound field in multi-channel audio playback systems.

Selecting and Installing Speaker Wire
A correct home theater wiring approach is important for your home theater sound. Poor workmanship and low quality speaker wire will surely impact...

Home Theater Design:
A series of articles covering all aspects of home theater - from design to implementation.

Set-up Discs and Video Calibration Solutions
Home theater setup DVDs and video calibration kits can help you squeeze a lot more out of your system.

Equipment Racks:
There is more to equipment racks than a storage space for your system components. More in this informative home theater guide. 

The HDMI Cable Guide
To many, HDMI is still an unfamiliar term. This easy-to follow home theater guide explains all you need to know about HDMI.

Quick Guide to DVI
DVI Cable Guide - explaining the different flavors of DVI interconnects.

TV Viewing Distance
Buying a big screen TV? Care should be taken as you may easily fall into the trap of buying a too large TV for your room.

...and wireless AV distribution in the home 

Wi-Fi Home Networking

Coverings everything from terminology to wireless security and required products. An extremely informative book that can help you set up and run your own WiFi network.

Home Networking Demystified

A step-by-step guide to designing your network, from component selection, wiring installation, Internet and PC network connectivity, wireless security measures, to troubleshooting.

Home Automation & Networking

A Complete Guide to Home Automation, Networking & Wireless Audio/Video distribution in the home.

by Duncan McClelland
More information HERE.

Featured digital media players, BD players & internet-enabled HDTVs

Apple TV with 160 Hard Drive

Apple TV lets you stream your multi-media content - movies, TV shows, music, photos - from iTunes, onto a big screen TV in the comfort of your living room.

Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite

A premium wireless media player that streams digital media directly from the Internet. Features an HDMI port, 1080p upconversion, Wireless-N, 2 x USB 2.0 ports, a wide range of supported media files, and a 500GB hard disk for extra storage of your media content.

D-Link MediaLounge DSM-520

The DSM-520 is not among the latest wireless digital media player but it is still a valid option at a cheaper price tag than the competition. It support HD up to 1080i in Windows Media Video 9 or MPEG-4 format, surround sound, support for DRM-protected WMA files purchased from Internet stores, Rhapsody streaming, and internet radio.

LG BD 370 Network Blu-ray Disc Player

The new LG BD player for 2009 comes at half the price of its previous model and feature enhanced online support to stream NetFlix videos and movies, NetCast for YouTube, and CinemaNow.

42-inch Panasonic Viera TC-P42G10 42-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

Panasonic most affordable 2009 THX-certified HDTV - featuring VieraCast internet connectivity to browse online content like YouTube videos, Amazon Video on demand, Picasa Web Albums, weather and stock information, etc, through a web interface build direct into the TV.

Featured wireless home theater in a box systems 

Sony BRAVIA Theater System (DAVHDX576WF) - Black

The 576WF features 1000W total power, 5 disc DVD/CD changer, 1080p upscaling capabilities, integrated universal iPod dock, and wireless surround using Sony's S-AIR technology. Includes also an S-AIR based receiver/speaker for easy multi-room audio listening.

Panasonic SC-PT960 Deluxe 5 DVD Home Theater System

A 1250W, six-speaker wireless HTiB complete with 5 DVD/CD changer, 1080p upscaling capabilities, built-in iPod docking station, and wireless rear speakers with multi-room audio support using Panasonic Viera link technology.

For the full range of wireless media players available at amazon, please

Click HERE

 About Me   |  Contact Form    |  Advertise on this Site   |  Site Search   |  Privacy Policy

 Copyright © - Practical-Home-Theater-Guide.com  All rights reserved.