Electronics giants to create wireless HD standard

By PETER SVENSSON , AP Technology Writer, Technology / Telecom

(AP) -- Sony, Samsung and other consumer-electronics heavyweights are uniting to support a technology that could send high-definition video signals wirelessly from a single set-top box to screens around the home.

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Posted by SLam_to 07/23/08 10:13

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Seems to burry the fact that it is still re-compressing your HD signal. If you're taking out information in the signal, that's still compression. Also doesn't talk about what the transmission bit-rate is.

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Posted by DGBEACH 07/23/08 11:26

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Let me get this straight...we've striven for higher and higher picture definitions, but now we'll reduce it because of the limitations of existing RF technology...that has to be the most arsenine solution to in-house cabling I've ever heard!

If TV stations can transmit HD signals over-the-air, over frequencies which are significantly lower than than 60 or even 5 GHz, then why can't they? 'Sounds to me that we've lost some of the "art" of RF engineering in our existing engineering pool!

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Posted by Jo01 07/24/08 05:34

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This wireless technique is unneeded. The reason is that most content (if not all) is in a compressed format (mpeg2 or mpeg4) already. The internet will be the source of most HD content and TV stations and satellites already transmit HD via mpeg2.
So, the only wireless a TV needs is Wi-Fi.

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Posted by CWFlink 07/24/08 07:02

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I agree the "compression" issue is a red herring, all HD broadcasts and recordings already being compressed. BUT...

What is needed is standardization of the user interface and control protocols allowing all devices to communicate. I used Windows Vista Media Center (MC) to distribute media throughout my house to laptops throughout my house from the MC computer serving as my home server. This, however, only serves up the media streams to other computers or X-box or MC "extenders" connected to older TVs. ...and all of this is using Microsoft controlled interfaces (e.g. the MC-compatible remote control, the MC-compatible extenders, the MC-compatible laptops, the etc.)

What we WANT, and I hope this consortium will give us, is a standard for building into the various media appliances (HDTVs, cable/sat boxes, cameras, recorders, music centers, etc.) a vendor independent network all the way up to the user level....

WE CANNOT ALLOW the confusing mess we have today with remote controls (for example) where each TV vendors has defined multiple proprietary standards and conflicting key layouts requiring a different remote (or several) for each room with entertainment devices, and each of these having a different layout of keys!!!

Note: Microsoft does allow me to use the same remote in multiple rooms and control a range of TVs and recording services from a small, clear set of menu pages.... unfortunately it means buying MC computers (or "extenders") and configuring them for the mix of devices I have.

It is no where near ideal since MC largely hides the incompatibilities under a veneer layered over the mess, and thus is still subject to the whims (and oversights) of the underlying product vendors.

A standard in THIS regard is badly needed... not just another, faster wireless data protocol.