WiDi wireless display: anyone using it with XPS 15?

I'd be interested in a receiver unit if I could connect its audio outputs to my home stereo, via RCA jacks. Anyone using one and know if this is possible?

Can you stream content to a TV or stereo while still doing other work on your laptop? IOW, does that only work with a defined set of applications, or will it work with any application - can you somehow set any application or window to be the one that sends its content to the TV?

I play music in iTunes on my laptop connected to my "old school" home stereo via a cable. I'd like to wirelessly stream that audio, from my WiDi laptop to a WiDi receiver unit connected to the home stereo via RCA jacks.

While iTunes plays, I'd like to be able to do my other work on my laptop. It's what I do now, only currently I have a cable connection and I'd prefer wireless.


Some WiDi receiver devices replicate whatever is on your screen, while others allow certain applications (like Media Player) to play on the TV while being in the background on the laptop thus allowing you to do other work or browsing on the laptop.

Some devices that allow one thing to play on the TV while freeing the laptop to do other work, can do that only with a finite list of approved applications that the manufacturer has coded for.

It's not clear from reviews whether any devices allow streaming of any application of my choosing, such as iTunes, while doing other work in the foreground on my laptop.

 

Disclaimer: I've never used the wireless display on the XPS, so I can't comment on how it works.

To answer part of your question, the netgear wireless display receiver PTV2000 does have composite audio, so you could hook it up to your receiver via RCA cables.

 

Also, judging from this video from CES, it looks like it mirrors your entire display:

Intel Wireless Display Demo - YouTube

 

I wonder if you could connect a bluetooth rca adapter to your receiver and choose to playback the laptop through that instead of internal speakers. That would be an option if it works.

B53 Brand New Belkin Bluetooth Wireless Music Receiver Adapter for iPhone & iPod | eBay

I know these work well

 

I think Bluetooth has a much smaller range (distance) than WiFi or WiDi. But, it might be possible in my living room. I'll take a look at that. Thanks!

I don't know how to make the laptop stream the audio through the Bluetooth transmitter, though.

 

I'm afraid the Belkin Bluetooth unit won't be a solution for me. I read some detailed product testing reviews, that found:
"high-bitrate audio in formats alternative to MP3 exhibits strange signal degradation, resulting in an almost tin can-like effect...
problem seems to be due to the limitations of the Bluetooth A2DP profile, which compresses high-end audio to fit within the Bluetooth bandwidth...
you may have a hard time retaining strong audio quality at a distance of over 10 feet. "

I play lossless audio files from my laptop (FLAC or Apple Lossless), so that sound compression effect wouldn't be good.

I think WiDi is the way to go, but I need to know if it will do what I want (as described in first post). I was sure hoping someone here might be using a WiDi receiver and could answer some real-world questions.

 

I am using widi with my dell l502x using the netgear ptv2000 hdmi connection. you can extend, duplicate the screen etc (it behaves just like a hdmi cable connection, not application specific). your audio is transferred to the tv too.

the lag is a little disappointing though. for light use the lag is small and tolerable. but with more intensive use like watching videos the lag between audio and picture gets worse when the gpu heats up (kicking in the noisy fan). i think having a better cpu or gpu would improve the lag issue in videos.

EDIT (21 mar 2012)
my above experiences were with the dell drivers for my 6230 wifi and integrated HD3000 (which were older than the current intel driver). I had to uninstall the dell drivers to install the latest intel drivers and the WIDI performance is so much better! reduced lag and can play bluray movies.

 

blingers: thanks for posting.

Can you choose any application to stream? Or, can you stream only pre-defined applications that the unit is set to work with?

I want to stream the audio from iTunes (using just the audio connectrs), but leave iTunes minimized (not visible) on my laptop so I would be doing other work.
Will that work with the Netgear?

 

yep. once the widi connection is made, all audio is played on the tv regardless of application.

 

Cool. And, does the Netgear have audio-out RCA jacks on the rear, for left and right channels?

Thanks.

 

thats correct

 

Thank you.

 

blingers, are there reasons why you chose the Netgear PTV2000
rather than the D-Link MainStage or Belkin Screencast?
I've been trying to compare them.

 

The netgear was the only one available. But I think the others are cheaper in price

 

I want to add to this thread that I when i started using WIDI i was using the dell drivers for the intel wifi and HD graphics. I have realised that these dell drivers are out of date and i could not watch bluray movies through WIDI.

So i installed the latest drivers from intel.com (i had to uninstall the dell drivers for the HD graphics first) and the WIDI performance is much better. less lag and i can play bluray movies.

basically, use the intel drivers instead of the dell ones.