Is Wireless HD worth it in an M17x?

Is it worth buying Wireless HD on the M17x R3? One of the dell chat reps gave me a long speech about how Wireless HD would make playing games better/faster/etc but I'm skeptical. I understand that it allows you to broadcast media to your TV (with the set box) but does it actually net any performance in terms of gaming, browsing or downloading?

Does anyone with Wireless HD have it, and what are your personal experiences/opinions?

 

Does your monitor or TV have WIHD? If not then you'll benefit 0 unless you buy a receiver. You performance gains would theorehtically only take place when you're using an external monitor or connecting to your TV. It's a dedicated card connected to a PCI so you could have some gains not having your CPU coding for the shot across your HDMI cable but how much this will increase your FPS is likely marginal. I couldn't find any documented testing, hopefully one of the other guys has done a test or knows of a specialty site that loves testing whether the marketing is a gain just large enough to keep the lawsuits away. I would be very skeptical and would price adding the tech as an upgrade later if you find yourself really wanting to stream all your media from your laptop. For $220(taxes) plus the receiver if it's not built into your monitor/TV you'd prolly benefit more from a NAS and offloading your storage and media entirely for the same cost oe just wait until you need it and buy the card for less and install it yourself. That's what I did. Synology and a QNAP FTW. I don't watch my movies from the laptop and don't store media on it. The drives are too small and I don't like being restricted by cables and 30 ft broadcast limits. In addition to just prefering more robust options for accessing my media and keeping it secure and backed up. But if you just wanna slam a blueray/dvd into your machine, throw your laptop on the coffee table, and watch your flick it could be perfect for you man. For now...

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Oh, looks like the Dell kit includes the receiver and is the same price as amazon an actually Less than tigerdirect. Maybe it's not such a bad deal if you'll be watching movies and hulu from the laptop a lot. Gaming performance increases I still think are unlikely.

Amazon.com: ZyXEL Aerobeam WHD6215 4-Port WiHD Home Theater Wireless HDMI Kit: Electronics

 

How does this compare to something like a Slingbox?

 

Sligbox is like an online DVR right? I can use my NAS as a server and record too and stream too. I can watch on my phone/ipad/computer from anywhere in the world if the connection is good enough. At home I use a WNDR3700 and broadcast in 5 for media and 2.4 for everything else. There are lots of ways to get video recorded and streamed without paying extra. A better way would be to use maybe a home server and run your cable through the computer like a giant TIVO or just use internet TV. Save yourself the $1200-2000 a year the cable company wants. Or don't watch TV and just HULU or netflicks or w/e. There's only a few good shows anyway.