CES 2011: Intel WiDi 2.0 Brings New Media Extenders
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 10, 2011 2:33 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Sandy Bridge
- CES 2011
- WiDi
- Trade Shows
One major feature of mobile Sandy Bridge is support for Intel WiDi 2.0. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, WiDi 2.0 uses SNB’s Quick Sync engine to encode, in real time, the frame buffer and send it over 802.11n to a compatible WiDi receiver attached to your TV. The WiDi receiver decodes the content and displays your mobile desktop on whatever TV you have attached to the WiDi receiver, wirelessly. All you need is a SNB laptop with an Intel WiFi controller. Unlike wireless HDMI, the cost is much lower since you’re relying on the host CPU to do the video encoding. All you have to pay for is the cost of the WiDi receiver.
With the original WiDi, Netgear was the only company that made a WiDi receiver. The receiver was fine but generally it’s nice to see more than one company offering a technology. This time around Intel plans to have many more partners with WiDi receivers. At CES last week Intel had a D-Link WiDi receiver hooked up to a SNB notebook:
Sandy Bridge WiDi also supports HDCP and 1080p, so you can now stream Blu-ray content from a SNB notebook to a TV connected via WiDi.
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Fallen Kell - Monday, January 10, 2011 - link
So with the current fail group of chipsets for Sandy Bridge CPU's, we can either have overclocking or Quick Sync. Looks like I won't be upgrading as soon as I thought I would. Glad I didn't pull the trigger on the CPU over the weekend with the deals that MicroCenter has been having. What was Intel thinking?Fallen Kell - Monday, January 10, 2011 - link
Also, by the time the Z series is out, I might as well wait for the next gen CPU's which have direct X11 and require yet another different socket, since it will only another 3-6 months.vol7ron - Monday, January 10, 2011 - link
Kind of in agreement. Plus, I've learned my lesson in buying a new mobo too early. Better to wait for improved batches of them too.mczak - Monday, January 10, 2011 - link
There are some hints though indicating Ivy Bridge could be socket compatible with Sandy Bridge - at least still seems to use same socket, if it will run with the "old" chipset and old boards I wouldn't want to bet money on it given intel's track record in that area but it might be possible...vol7ron - Monday, January 10, 2011 - link
You forgot to mention that the Core i5 makes more sense for an HTPC, but it still has the old on-die gpu. People that get the i7-2 will probably be using discrete graphics and have less of a need for the HD3000.QuickSync is the only exception, but I'm not sure HD3000 is required for that.
vol7ron - Monday, January 10, 2011 - link
I forgot to add: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4113/lucid-enables-q...P67 Quick Sync
micksh - Monday, January 10, 2011 - link
You added link to H67 Quick Sync, not P67vol7ron - Monday, January 10, 2011 - link
Well crapp. Z68 can you come a little sooner?Wiggy McShades - Tuesday, January 11, 2011 - link
this only works with certain intel wifi adapters that are made for notebooks only, so unless you can find a desktop board with a mini pci-e slot you'd be out of luck anyway. WiDi is a laptop feature, if you cant move your desktop why would you need a wireless connection between it and the pc?Wiggy McShades - Tuesday, January 11, 2011 - link
it and the TV*