May 12th, 2005
Gadget Freak: Four Ways to Go Wireless
by PC World Contributing Editor Dan Tynan
It started when my wife brought home a cabinet for our home
entertainment gear and a desk for the kids' PC. New furniture meant
moving all of our old stuff, so I immediately embarked upon the Great
Rewiring Project.
I spent 3 hours tangled in cables--attaching the satellite box
(component), TiVo (coaxial), DVD player (S-Video), VCR (composite),
and A/V receiver (RCA) to my 3M digital projector. I also plugged and
unplugged the Wi-Fi router, cable modem, mouse, keyboard, monitor,
printer, scanner, speakers, subwoofer, and about 3279 power cords.
When I finished, I had wires all over the place and a migraine the
size of Montana. I thought, "Surely there's a better way." So I looked
and I looked, but I couldn't find a totally wireless solution. I did,
however, locate some products that let me reduce the wires tangling up
my life.
Almost Wireless
Connect the wireless transceiver of the Sharp Aquos LC-15L1U-S to your
cable box and DVD player, and you can haul this battery-powered,
15-inch LCD TV around your house and watch live TV or movies almost
anywhere. It's a neat idea; unfortunately, positioning the set more
than about 20 feet from the transmitter caused the picture to freeze
up or drop frames. (Sharp says that the maximum range is 50 feet; your
mileage may vary.) I also noticed a time lag when changing channels.
The Aquos lists for $1399, but I found it for less than $1000 at press
time:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/457868/15377830/971519/0/
With the Pioneer XW HT-1 wireless speaker ($250), you can easily turn
your living room into a surround-sound theater without snaking cable
across your carpet. Connect the transmitter to the red-and-white RCA
jacks of a TV, DVD player, or A/V receiver; then plug the dual
rear-speaker unit into the wall. The XW HT-1 sounds great, but the
6-foot power cord limits where you can put the dang thing. For more
info, go to Pioneer's site:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/457868/15377830/971520/0/
Even better, Xitel's Soundaround ($100) employs complex algorithms to
deliver an amazingly rich sonic experience for existing two-speaker
systems. The box is the size of a paperback novel and takes 10 seconds
to set up: Just plug your DVD player or game console into the
Soundaround and then connect it to your receiver. If you were thinking
of investing in a five-speaker home system, Soundaround can help you
save cash and avoid the hassle of running more wires. Go to Xitel's
Web site for more info:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/457868/15377830/971521/0/
The Sonos Digital Music System ($1499 for Bundle II with two pairs of
speakers) is a cool way to move music around your house. Connect
Sonos's ZonePlayer to an ethernet port on your Wi-Fi router, and you
can stream MP3 files from your computer's hard disk to Sonos's wired
stand-alone speakers. You can put a ZonePlayer in each room in your
house (you get two ZonePlayers to start) and beam different songs to
each at the same time. Or you can plug a stereo receiver into a
ZonePlayer's RCA jacks and wirelessly pipe that music (or sound) to a
ZonePlayer located in another room. The speakers sound great, and
setup is easy as pie (though $1500 is a lot to spend to avoid a rat's
nest). I found Sonos' Introductory Bundle at our Product Finder for
about $1200:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/457868/15377830/971522/0/
It's Getting Better
More help is on the way. Next year we'll start to see devices using
UltraWideBand (UWB) technology--which offers far more bandwidth than
Bluetooth or RF--to replace cables for printers and other PC
peripherals, says Kurt Scherf, vice president of Dallas research firm
Parks Associates. For more on this technology, read "Bluetooth Meets
Ultra Wideband":
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/457868/15377830/971523/0/
We may also see devices using the emerging 802.11n wireless standard
to replace cables for streaming high-definition video signals. For
info on so-called Pre-N Wi-Fi extender products, see the April "News
and Trends" article "Stretching Wi-Fi":
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/457868/15377830/971524/0/
As for that quagmire of power cords? The only wireless technology in
sight is "God and lightning bolts," jokes Scherf. Let us pray.
Read Dan Tynan's regularly published "Gadget Freak" columns:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/457868/15377830/364470/0/
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"Until last October, Christ had a very limited involvement in my life. I believed in God; I just never had to prove I believed. Belief is an absence of proof."
-- Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling
