Everything About Wireless HDMI Complete Guide

HDMI ports are now popular and can be found in all the latest devices such as TV, laptops, and Projectors. Since Wireless HDMI has started gaining popularity nowadays. Let’s discuss what is wireless HDMI, how does it work and what features should you look into to buy a wireless HDMI.

What is Wireless HDMI? An Alternative to HDMI

Wireless HDMI is the wireless version of the wired HDMI. Since if you have bought new TV or projector recently you might have receiver the HDMI wire to connect the projector or TV to your PC.

HDMI is the standard medium that is used to transfer videos and audio in high definition for many years. Since using cables has always been a drawback and hassle.

As lots of wires in a room can look like a mess of wires and does not look like blending into the interior of your home or office.

Everything About Wireless HDMI Complete Guide

Hence a Wireless HDMI is a device that does not have any wires included and it resolves most of the problem so that you can still stream high-definition audio and videos to your TV or projectors. You can even mirror your phone to the wireless HDMI device.

Currently, you can find lots of wireless HDMI devices in the market at a lot of cheaper prices starting at as low as $100 on Amazon. These are pretty easy to set up and use.

All you need to do is just plug into the HDMI port of the video source such as gaming consoles, phones, laptops, or tablets, and a receiver into the HDMI port of a TV or projector.

To summarize Wireless HDMI is an alternative to wired HDMI with no wires and has all the features same as a wired HDMI cable.

Similar to Bluetooth

It is very much similar to Bluetooth technology. But it is not as slow as Bluetooth. Since you cannot stream videos on Bluetooth but streaming audio using a Bluetooth adapter is still widely used.

Similarly using Wireless HDMI you can easily stream videos and audio to the external receivers. Then you might also think of screen mirroring which works similarly. But screen mirroring apps requires you to connect to the same Wi-Fi networks whereas Wireless HDMI does not require that.

Few high-end Wireless HDMI products also come with Infrared support. This allows you to use your projector or TV remote from a far distance. And for most people, it can be an important feature to have. Since it can become difficult if you wanna change the channel from a different room.

Since most of the mobile phones and Wi-Fi used to work on the same frequency as Wireless HDMI of 5GHz. Wireless HDMI was used to get congestion in signal and there used to be signal drop or low-quality streaming.

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But thankfully latest Wireless HDMI device comes with a variable 5GHz frequency selection. This avoids Wi-Fi and other wireless 5GHz interference in areas where there is high wireless traffic. And these latest device lets you choose the wireless operating channel which works best for you.

Latency is another concern which you should look for. As it is with most wireless devices we use nowadays. Since video streaming wirelessly requires to be transmitted, encoded, decoded and then received by the receiver which can provide a lag in the video streaming.

Again most of the devices such as J-Tech Digital 1X2 Wireless HDMI, provide only 0.1-0.3 milliseconds lag which is very minimal and almost unnoticeable. But there are other cheaper wireless HDMI which have a higher latency lag of a few milliseconds.

So, when it comes to latency and lags it puts Gamers out of the picture. And to summarize they should not use it for PC or console gaming mostly or online Gaming. Latency lags in gaming are accepted for single-player games but it’s a huge drawback for online gamers.

Feature to Look in Wireless HDMI

If you are looking to buy a Wireless HDMI device for your TV or Streaming device then you should look for the below features in the device. As these are the must-have features.

  • High Range: High Range support for video streaming is a must feature to exists. And most of the latest device supports a range of up to 200ft. So, anything below this will be considered as going for a sub-par device.
  • Multiple Connection Type: Since Wireless HDMI works as Transmitter and receiver hence the device should support to works as both being only a receiver or transmitter or both at the same time. This lets you connect and share content like movies and security systems throughout the house or business.
  • Variable Frequency Selection for 5GHz: This is the other most important feature to look into the Wireless HDMI. Since nowadays everyone has a lot of wireless devices in their office or home such as Wi-Fi, Mobile devices, routers that operate at the same 5GHz. And this can cause wireless congestion and there can be signal issues or drop because of it. Hence having a variable frequency selection allows avoiding these issues.
  • Latency or Delay Time: Latency or Delay time is the amount of delay introduced when streaming videos through Wireless HDMI. Hence you should always look for a device that has the lowest latency mentioned. An ideal range should be less than 0.3 milliseconds.

Why Wireless HDMI is Still not Widely Used?

You might be thinking that if Wireless HDMI is so good and has too many features why not have it as a standard wireless port? Or Why isn’t it is widely used?

To answer it, since it is still in its early stage of development and there isn’t any standard being developed which should be followed by all the companies who are developing the Wireless HDMI.

To maintain a standard all the Wireless HDMI should be compatible with each other. But currently, none of the products in the market are compatible with each other. It is upon these manufacturers to come up with and make it standard so that they can be compatible.

For example, many manufacturers came up and made USB-C Type as a standard port for their devices. Currently, WHDI is the leading Wireless HDMI option. It operates at a 5GHz frequency range and only supports 1080p and 3D Videos.

But since the age of 8K streaming, Wireless HDMI is still far behind and supports only 1080p and not even 4k supports are there. There is some device that started to push 4k video stream but it is still at very little FPS and that video looks laggy.

Drawback

Wireless HDMI is still a very expensive product and still, most people will not be able to afford it. Since you can find HDMI cable in under a few dollars, finding good Wireless HDMI can take around a hundred or a couple of hundred dollars.

The lack of 4K support also makes it a little less interesting if you are into 4K streamings. Since in this age 4K is becoming extremely popular getting a device that still only supports 1080p is kind of going to old age.

But still, it is a great way you can clean your entertainment room or hall. Another problem is the latency in the latest devices. Since because of the latency these Wireless HDMIs cannot be used for gaming. And hence if you are someone who wants to clean up the gaming center then you may look for HDMI Switch.

Conclusion

Certainly, there is still a long way to go for Wireless HDMI to yet become highly popular. Though in near future it is most likely to find a place in most of the houses. And it would become cheaper in future and also can be considered as standard.

Since in today’s age everything is going Wireless, hence development in this segment is still pending and it can become a lot easier. Or they can come up with an alternative video streaming port such as Type-C USB.

Source: Tech Tesseract

Since Type-C USB has a very high data transfer speed and is developing every day. It is already available in all the devices and but still, it does not resolve the problem of going Wireless.

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