Any number of products now let you stream Internet video to a TV. But WiDi makes streaming any notebook content to your big screen exceptionally easy: You basically simply run Intel's software on the laptop. No additional wiring is required, and the technology is by all accounts extremely low latency, meaning that the lag between content appearing on the notebook screen and on the set is minimal.
The biggest drawback is that the technology is proprietary: If your notebook doesn't have a current Intel CPU, you're out of luck. The good news is that the Wi-Fi Alliance is working on a technology standard that will match WiDi's capabilities, and that the Alliance will be able to certify for interoperability between products from different vendors. But that's a couple of years off.
Netgear, meanwhile, announced a second generation Push2TV (the PTV2000) that supports the advanced features, including 1080p video; due later this month with a suggested retail price of $120, it will come with an HDMI cable but also supports composite video.
And D-Link announced its first product to support the technology, the upcoming MainStage adapter which will connect to TVs either via HDMI or component cables. D-Link says the MainStage will ship by midyear with pricing to be announced later.
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This story, "New WiDi Adapters Let Notebooks Wirelessly Stream 1080p, Blu-ray Content to HDTVs " was originally published by PCWorld.