We were recently speaking with a media friend of ours about the struggles that gaming consoles are facing. He brought up a valid point, suggesting that “it seems to me that if a tablet like iPad could just build a wireless HDMI transceiver inside, and if all televisions had this feature built in, it would be a game changer — just tapping a button to turn your mobile device into a TV gaming console without extra messy hardware or expense (or latency)” and we completely agree.
Considering we all have smart phones and they are now a source for receiving content, it’s important to have the same latency and quality as a TV or PC would have. Intel has recently made the push to enhance their Wi-Fi Display technology, but it still has too much latency (300ms initially) which brings up quality issues because of the compression, making it impossible to play games.
WHDI is a much better solution in terms of latency (less than 3ms) and quality (same as an HDMI cable plugged in) and we have proof to back that statement up. We teamed up with Lenovo to show several WHDI-embedded demonstration tablets at CES 2012, and the reviews were positive across the board. We showed no latency game play and movies at 1080p. Although the initial focus has been on building a “smart” TV (which is essentially Wi-Fi connectivity plus some ability to run a closed silo of apps), this has been met with limited success, as it forces users to work through the TV interface, rather than use the interface, controller, or whatever platform of choice (which is what a truly “smart” TV would allow). It’s evident that TV manufacturers are starting to differentiate a bit more by enabling connectivity, but still have quite a ways to go in order to achieve that. For example, Wii U is a gaming console that will be available this year. It will include an HDMI cord and a new controller that is touch screen which will essentially allow a player to continue playing games by displaying the game even when the television is off.
We’re getting there and right now WHDI offers the best quality for wireless video and with the almost no latency, it is the only option for gaming.
