We've known for some while that Celeno had a thing for high-def over WiFi, and that favoritism has never been more clear. Today, the outfit is announcing a partnership with Ralink that will hopefully lead to an array of WiFi home networking designs that are optimized for HD video distribution. The first solution will combine the CL1300 and CLR230 802.11n chipsets along with Ralink's RT2880 and RT2850 chips. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem as if Celeno is announcing any set-top-boxes to contain said solution just yet, but hopefully that's just a few months away. Hey, CEDIA ain't too far off, is it? Full release is after the break.

LG continues to up its game in the Blu-ray department, first shipping the planet's first Netflix-enabled BD deck and now shipping the planet's first DivX HD 1080p certified player. Yep, the BD390 -- which was originally unveiled back at CES this year -- is now making its way out to eager consumers, boasting an 802.11n WiFi module and support for DivX streaming from a DLNA server. The pain? $399.95, but at least that includes BD-Live support, 7.1-channel audio output, 1GB of inbuilt memory and a USB 2.0 socket.

True, Sanyo's LP-WXU700 is limited to a WXGA (1280 x 800) pixel image. But it's still the world's first to transmit that video over 802.11b/g/n (draft 2.0). Grabbing wireless video off your Vista PC is a snap thanks to the projector's Windows Embedded CE 6.0 software with Video Streaming Function that links back to Vista's Network Projector Function. Spec-wise we're looking at a 0.74-inch 3LCD panel capable of projecting a 100-inch image at a distance of 2.5 to 4-meters at 3,800 lumens with a 500:1 contrast ratio. Sanyo even tosses in a single HDMI jack in addition to the usual analog inputs. While, it's targeted at offices and schools, it wouldn't surprise us to see this ¥62,790 (about $642) projector show up in make-shift home theaters and gaming rooms when it launches in June.

Update: Oops, dropped a 0 from the price. It's actually ¥627,900 or about $6,445 according to the native English press release but even that doesn't sound right.

[Via Akihabara News]

Industry watchers In-Stat didn't mention which variant of WiFi based HD streaming it expects to win out, but just based on the install base 802.11n should be the leader. UWB? DOA. WHDI and WirelessHD? Too expensive, too power hungry, too new. WiFi isn't perfect however, requiring codec support on either end to work with HD video but that's not expected to hold back the 25 million TVs with wireless hardware In-Stat sees shipping by 2013, but for the rest of the details you'll need $3,495 for the research report or a time machine.

[Via TG Daily]

The verdict is already out on Netgear's EVA 9150 Digital Entertainer Elite, and now the ball's squarely in your court. The self-proclaimed "flexible digital media player" -- complete with its dual-band 802.11n WiFi, integrated 500GB hard drive and broad video codec support -- is now shipping worldwide. In case you've forgotten, this unit plays nice with Windows, Mac and Linux platforms and boasts a pair of USB ports for adding flash drives and additional storage. Worth $399? Answer with your wallet, bub.

It's a new year and NetBlender has a new change of gear, pairing with BluFocus to bring last year's BD Touch software -- and its BD-Live enabled Blu-ray player to iPhone / iPod Touch connections -- up to version 2.0, featuring crossplatform capability with other WiFi enabled handhelds like Blackberry, Android and Palm Pre. While going iPhone exclusive hasn't hurt some apps, hopefully we'll see wider adoption of the technology, which can enable things from making the phone a remote control to using it as a keyboard, downloading files from the disc or playing games, now that it supports more than one platform. More info should be available once it hits the floor at NAB 2009 later this week.

We didn't think much of Motorola's MCU3E (MCUBE) wireless transcoder when it was launched as a prototype late last year, but obviously Moto's got dreams of seeing this in homes around the world. Showcased at this year's Cable Show, the rechristened Media Mover is a USB-powered device that not only transcodes media on your DVR, but also broadcasts said media (transfer or streaming) locally or remotely via WiFi or Bluetooth. Dave Zatz reported that the quality was actually pretty stellar, and while the company wasn't exactly forthcoming when it came to hardware specifics and availability, we don't suspect it'll be too long before the company comes right out with those very details. Check the read link for a few more hands-on shots.

As the wireless HD world continues to turn, Celeno Communications is back with news that it's already field testing OptimizAIR WiFi based hardware. Promising 1080p video at distances of up to 120 feet through walls and floors to WiFi-capable devices, its MIMO technology is expected to see "massive deployment" by this summer, with IPTV customers likely to get the first shot. We're still concerned at a lack of vendors lining up behind it, though backwards compatibility certainly gives a leg up on Wireless HD, WHDI and the rest. Making a note in the calendar to check for possible product rollouts once the weather warms up seems like a reasonable next step.

[Via SmartBrief]

Hope you didn't just pull the trigger on a BDP-S350, 'cause we get the feeling Sony's two newest standalone BD decks are going to make you yearn for the next best thing. Here in Las Vegas, the company has just come clean with the Profile 2.0 BDP-S360 and BDP-S560, the latter of which includes integrated WiFi for tapping into BD-Live content and downloading future firmware updates sans an Ethernet cable. Also, the unit is fully DLNA-ready, handles DVD upscaling, bit-streams audio via HDMI, decodes Dolby TrueHD / DTS-HD Master Audio and plays nice with external media loaded up on a USB drive. As predicted, the lower-end BDP-S360 is essentially the same player sans WiFi.

Moving on, we've got a new pair of 5.1-channel Blu-ray HTIB systems: the BDV-E300 and BDV-E500W. Both bundles include a BD-Live-capable (Profile 2.0) Blu-ray player, while the BDV-E500W sports integrated S-AIR wireless audio capabilities. In other words, your rear speakers will get their signal sans cabling, and those who opt for the BDV-E300 are getting a kit that's S-AIR-ready, meaning that you can add modules in the future to get the same wireless support. Both sets also include Sony's Digital Media Port for controlling peripherals like Apple's iPod and Sony's own Walkman line, and the BRAVIA Sync technology ensures that HDMI-CEC lovers are taken care of. The models also bring along the firm's Xross Media Bar (XMB) interface, a USB port for loading up media and an easy-to-follow setup DVD. As for pricing and availability, we've broken all that down below.

• BDP-S360 Blu-ray player: shipping this summer for around $300
• BDP-S560 Blu-ray player: shipping this summer for around $350
• HT-SS360 component home theater system : shipping in May for around $350
• BDV-E300 Blu-ray HTIB: shipping in June for around $600
• BDV-E500W Blu-ray HTIB: shipping in June for around $800
  

Catch the release in full just after the break.

Just how the Samsung OmniaHD's video could reach directly from phone to TV screen was a bit of a mystery until the Engadget Spanish crew spotted the WMG100. Don't already own one of Samsung's high end sets with WiFi and DLNA built in? This dongle bridges the gap with all the necessary tech built in, pushing a max 480p (whether HD streaming to other devices from the OmniaHD will work is unknown) from its mini HDMI or component outputs for around €160 ($200), and is already available in Korea with a European debut planned for this spring. The idea that we'd ever get tired of watching that sweet AMOLED display is a bit of a reach, but just in case check out the gallery for some hands on pics.

G2 Microsystems burst onto the scene at CES with its Intel My WiFi Personal Area Network demonstration, but evidently it had a little more going on than that. Engineering TV managed to catch up with the team and get a closer look at a prototype WiFi remote that could certainly prove useful in a home theater setup. Put simply, a WiFi module was embedded with a relatively standard Philips universal remote, and from there, users could snatch album art, tune into internet radio stations and tap into web-connected home servers in order to control home audio or pretty much anything else. There's no telling when G2 will land a serious partner willing to push out a WiFi-infused controller, but judging by the looks of things, we'd say it's just about ready for primetime.

A ProVision exec proclaimed last month that WiFi was the only suitable wireless HDTV medium, and it appears that bigwigs at Celeno and Cavium Networks emphatically agree. The two have joined up to debut a whole-home 1080p60 HDMI over WiFi solution here in the desert, with the gem of the show being the CL1300. Said microchip is designed to be integrated into essentially any device (a set-top-box, router, TV, toaster oven, etc.), enabling the host device to deliver H.264 compressed HD streams over long distances. In fact, it promises 802.11 beaming of up to four concurrent high-def streams. So, here's a perfectly good wireless HDMI option based on a standard that everyone and their grandmother has already adapted too -- too bad there's not a laundry list of companies already signed on to integrate it. Full release is after the break.

The wireless HD world is as mangled as ever, with a variety of formats vying for supremacy and the general populace turning a deaf ear to the whole concept (by and large, anyway). According to ProVision co-founder Andrew Nix, 802.11n is the "only standard capable of cost-effectively transmitting interactive wireless HD video across all rooms within a home." Oddly enough, his company will be supporting Pulse~LINK, SiBEAM and AMIMON, backing the HDMI, Wireless HD and WHDI standards respectively, so we're curious if it will be trying to push its WiFi-favoring ways onto these guys. Or, of course, it could bust out its own WiFi-based solution at CES while sticking tight to the others for mere business reasons. We'll agree that a one-format solution would likely aid adoption, but haven't we already seen that WiFi isn't exactly the most stable protocol to handle continuously streaming high-def material?

Generally speaking, it's tough to find someone who doesn't love their Popcorn Hour media streamer. Not to say everything's perfectly kosher, however, as the lack of internal WiFi is a niggle that many cord haters have found inexcusable. Curiously enough, we heard back in May that the outfit was preparing a new trio of streamers, and one of 'em was destined to have WiFi built-in; we're still waiting on that unit, but Popcorn Hour is more than happy to give the option of retrofitting. The WN-100 is a draft-N WiFi adapter that adopts MIMO technology, supports 64- / 128-bit WEP encryption (along with WPA / WPA2, etc.) and comes sporting with a $37 price tag. Or, you can snag the A-110 with WN-100 bundle and save a whopping two bucks from buying separately.

[Thanks, AFB]

There's no telling what kind of off-the-wall gear Samsung is apt to unleash at CES, and we'll be honest -- we're pretty jazzed about the possibilities. At a recent tech forum, Samsung confessed that it was working with both 60GHz wireless technology (read: WirelessHD) and "its own variant of WiFi" in relation to cord-free TVs. This news is particularly bad in two respects: first, it doesn't signal very much confidence in WirelessHD, and moreover, the last thing we need is yet another proprietary wireless HD / HDMI standard to slow down the already glacial pace at which it's being adopted in the industry. Moving on, we're also told that the outfit is "internally testing a stereoscopic 3D rendering chip for its TVs that could be released as early as the second half of 2009," which would "help translate 2D video to 3D and interpret 2D content with embedded depth information." Something tells us we best get used to wearing oddly tinted glasses.

[Image courtesy of MyDigitalLife]