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Ask Slashdot: Are There Any USB-C Wireless Video Solutions?
jez9999 writes: Sometimes it feels like we're on the cusp of a technology but not quite there yet, and that's the way it feels for me after searching around for USB-C wireless video solutions. There are several wireless video solutions that use HDMI on the receiver end, of course, but these aren't ideal because HDMI can't provide power. This means you need a separate receiver box and power cable going into the box, but cables are what you're trying to get away from with wireless video!
So the answer to this would seem to be USB-C. It supports HDMI video as well as power, so in theory you could create a receiver dongle that just plugged into a TV (or monitor with speakers) and required no external power cable. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find anything like this on the market.
There is Airtame, but that doesn't work with a 'dumb' TV -- it needs to plug in to a computer that you can install software on to stream the video. What I'd like is to be able to wall-mount a new TV and just plug in a wireless dongle to stream the video with no extra setup required on the receiver end.
Does anyone know of a solution like this that exists right now, or one that's being developed?
So the answer to this would seem to be USB-C. It supports HDMI video as well as power, so in theory you could create a receiver dongle that just plugged into a TV (or monitor with speakers) and required no external power cable. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find anything like this on the market.
There is Airtame, but that doesn't work with a 'dumb' TV -- it needs to plug in to a computer that you can install software on to stream the video. What I'd like is to be able to wall-mount a new TV and just plug in a wireless dongle to stream the video with no extra setup required on the receiver end.
Does anyone know of a solution like this that exists right now, or one that's being developed?
Wouldn't a chromecast do what you're looking for? Just plug your device into power and stream from wherever. You can plug the chromecast itself into a USB port on the TV for it's power if you need to.
-SaNo
I've been chasing various wired solutions for a decade, and they just aren't coming. The various copyright industries have been sitting on standards for a long time - they generally dislike anything that could give the remotest chance you could, say, jack a phone or a homemade DVR to a TV, or anything to a DVR without massive restrictions and monitoring. They like Chromecast, because Chromecast forces your activities to be logged by Google. WiFi Direct (Miracast) is almost dead, Slimport is dead.
It's possible there are professional solutions, expensive and bound to licenses and remote logging an monitoring, that can sing and dance they way we'd like. But as you note, no dumb TVs. Even dumb antennas are being phased out for encrypted antenna feeds that require internet based authentification to watch (next broadcast standard).
Yeah, he wanted wireless power via a wireless USB-C.
Miracast seems to be taking over this space. Almost everything has WiFi already, and old stuff that doesn't is old. Companies would rather you buy new stuff, so making something for older systems isn't worth it and sort of a niche market, so very small market with low returns. For anything else you can easily by a dongle like the MS display adapter and convert the receiving device.
jez9999, first of all do you know of a TV that has a USB-C port on it? I haven't seen any of those beasts yet, but it will happen someday.
Second, not all USB-C ports are the same. Some USB-C ports only support USB protocols, while others can support Thunderbolt and/or video. So you'd need video support on both sides of the connection; the computer side is likely to be common either as raw video or a USB video device, but again it's about finding the TV with the support for video over USB-C...
HDMI can't supply power, but MHL can. Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) can (but is not required to) provide power back to the video source from the TV, and a lot of TVs already support MHL. MHL can use either a USB Micro B connector or an HDMI connector, so maybe you should be looking for a solution with an MHL-enabled TV adapter?
MiraCast
WiDi
Wireless Display solutions exist already for a while now
next thing you know people will want compressionless wireless video, no lag between input and output. no restrictions on life, morality, and no responsability.
I for one, hail our matrix incarcerating monsters of our own creation.
Hallowed are the Ori !
Wouldn't this run afoul of the recording industry mafia?
My understanding was that the lightning-fast adoption of HDMI had everything to do with the ability to use it to hardware-validate copyprotection from device to device.
Does (or could) USB-C have the same capability? If not, I can't see any mainstream hardware mfg adopting it for their products.
-Styopa
but cables are what you're trying to get away from with wireless video
The reason Chromecast and Firestick use wireless is because people generally don't have ethernet outlets adjacent to their TV. But everyone in the world has a power outlet adjacent to their TV, so few people have objections to using that.
If I understand right, your objection is that although you'll tolerate seeing the power cable go from our outlet to your TV set, you're reluctant to see a second wall-wart and cable alongside it. Your proposal (power over USB-C) is one solution to the problem, but there are several other more straightforward solutions...
1. Replace an outlet with one that has a USB socket and a power socket e.g. https://www.amazon.com/Leviton... to eliminate the wall-wart. Or you could go for a recessed outlet to hide it further e.g. https://www.amazon.com/PowerBr...
2. Use a "cable tidy wrap" e.g. https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-... so the two cables look visually like a single cable.
3. Use a "wall-mounted cable concealer" e.g. https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod... so you don't even see the cables at all; you just see the thing on the wall. (Note: when I moved house and took down the cable concealers, they were so firmly attached that they took some paint with them, and I had to re-spackle and paint).
I'm not aware of any TVs that have a USB-C input, so the whole premise is flawed from the start. HDMI can optionally provide power, just not a lot of it (50 mA) Many TVs have USB ports for one reason or another, so there's 500 mA or more. The biggest issue here is that it seems like this guy wants to send raw HD video streams wirelessly. There's a difference between streaming 20 mbps compressed video à la Netflix vs raw 1080P video at 4.46 gbps. Buy a Chromecast...
If you take the phone away during adult tv time, then adult tv time is over.