IOGEAR Delivers WHDI Wireless HDMI

Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI) is a wireless HDMI technology. Amimon developed the chips and technology behind WHDI and was a founding member of the WHDI Special Interest Group that handles WHDI. I had a chance to try out IOGEAR's WHDI offering, the Wireless HD 3D Digital Kit (Fig. 1). In a nutshell. It works great.

Figure 1. IOGEAR's Wireless HD 3D Digital Kit uses Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI) to deliver HDMI over the air.

The Wireless 3D Media Kit supports full HD 1080P including 3D content and 5.1 channel audio at distances up to 100 feet. Of course, the remote device needs to support 3D and 5.1 channel audio if that is used.

The system consists of a transmitter and a receiver with the remote control handling the multiple input selection at the trasmitter end. Operation also depends upon whether the transmitter is connected to a device and whether it is turned on when the receiver is in use. In particular, if both ends are attached to an HDMI display then the resulting signals provided to both must be the same. This means the least common denominator wins. I have a 67-in Samsung DLP that runs 1080p and a smaller off-brand LCD HDTV that runs 720p. In this case, the Samsung displays 720p content.

I tried a mix of configurations including remote 3D support although my set up was not as taxing as some keeping to about 30 feet. I utilized another 1080p device to make sure the system worked at the max and did not notice any difference in quality.

You can use the infrared remote to change the inputs on the transmitter or use buttons on the transmitter or receiver. The receiver also forwards IR from its IR receiver to the transmitter. The transmitter comes with a cable with three IR transmitters space along its length. These have double sided tape on the back so they can be stuck next to the IR receivers on the multimedia devices like the host HDTV and the two input devices.

My input devices were a Motorola set top box and a PS3 that doubles as my Blu-ray player. The IR remote support is handy but you will need a second remote or move main one around. Of course, the challenge is handling the remote HDTV and the host HDTV from the same remote.

If they are different brands then a smart remote or multiple remotes are in the mix. If they are the same brands then you run the risk of having to play games with things like mute and volume control because these tend to be toggle commands. Also, the transmitter does not not have an IR receiver that forwards to the remote device so it is very easy to mute it but not the remote device. Then muting the remote device will unmute the main device.

Right now we have a little video interlude with more about the WHDI and the kit after the Engineering TV videos. The first video is from the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.