[Steve]

I wonder if the next generation of HR receivers can come with a built-in wireless receiver, similar to my Wii? Sure would make it easier to add HR's to a network inside a home that is not pre-wired.

E.g., I've got an HR20 in my kitchen mounted sideways and vertically, hidden behind the LCD panel it's connected to. There's no network port available and no room for an external wireless adapter, so built-in WiFi would offer an ideal network solution.

/steve

 

[turey22]

Probably to much to ask for or wish for...lol

 

[Stuart Sweet]

Probably too early to tell, but it isn't impossible as that sort of hardware gets cheaper and cheaper.

 

[Steve]

Probably too early to tell, but it isn't impossible as that sort of hardware gets cheaper and cheaper.

Agree. They're building WiFi into micro devices, like iPhones, Zunes and those $299 laptops, so why not an HR? /steve

 

[turey22]

your right, its cheaper now than what it used to be but i, personally, feel that directv wouldnt put wifi at this moment. maybe in the future but at this moment, no.

 

[turey22]

directv seems to be ore concerned in hd right now but maybe with the new directv with tivo box

 

[turey22]

but again i am not directv and you guys probably know better than me.

 

[Steve]

Bump for the left coasters. I'd love to put this on the Wish List, if folks agree it would be something they'd take advantage of. /steve

 

[Kansas Zephyr]

With the continuing evolution of WiFi, I'd rather be able to replace it with the latest standard, when available.

That may be a factor in it's exclusion from IRDs.

 

[Steve]

With the continuing evolution of WiFi, I'd rather be able to replace it with the latest standard, when available.

That may be a factor in it's exclusion from IRDs.

I think an N/G/B capable receiver would be more than adequate for the next few years. I could be wrong, but I believe a 10-11 mbps 802.11b connection would be more than adequate for MRV streaming inside the home. /steve

 

[BattleZone]

I could be wrong, but I believe a 10-11 mbps 802.11b connection would be more than adequate for MRV streaming inside the home. /steve

You would, in fact, be quite wrong. Most WiFi connections are ony able to achieve about half of their theoretical throughput when used in the real world, and if you are using more than one wireless device, you lower the throughput available to each one.

Plus, given 1080/24p downloads, you may have bitrates up to 15Mb/s or more. Do that with multple connections and you're overtaxing a "G" network, much less a "B". If "N" couldn't be added, there wouldn't be much point. But WiFi is unlikely to be integrated anyway.

 

[BudShark]

Considering DoD, MRV, No phone line dependence, and other items on the horizon (Widgets, etc) it seems VERY VERY logical and beneficial to me.

Stick a 802.11g radio in it and be done. If someone wants to go to N or hardwire it more power to them - but giving everyone base connectivity would be smart.

Chris

 

[BudShark]

You would, in fact, be quite wrong.

He would IN FACT be quite right. I can tell you for a fact that you can stream HD programs from an HR20 over 802.11g without significant issues. The bandwidth available on a 'g' radio is sufficient.

Chris

 

[evan_s]

Personally I think we'll see MoCA before we see built in wifi. DirecTV is member after all and it would allow MRV over the same cables used to provide the sat signal so no extra connections or setup and should be more reliable than wifi.

 

[Steve]

Plus, given 1080/24p downloads, you may have bitrates up to 15Mb/s or more. Do that with multple connections and you're overtaxing a "G" network, much less a "B". If "N" couldn't be added, there wouldn't be much point. But WiFi is unlikely to be integrated anyway.

At about 4-5 gigs of disk space per hour, according to my calculator, typical MPEG-4 would need to stream at about 10 mbps, so you're probably right that a "B" connection wouldn't cut it, but a "G" connection should be more than adequate, as Chris stated below. And if it supports "N", even better. /steve

He would IN FACT be quite right. I can tell you for a fact that you can stream HD programs from an HR20 over 802.11g without significant issues. The bandwidth available on a 'g' radio is sufficient.

 

[Steve]

Personally I think we'll see MoCA before we see built in wifi. DirecTV is member after all and it would allow MRV over the same cables used to provide the sat signal so no extra connections or setup and should be more reliable than wifi.

I agree that MoCa is the most reliable way to go, though if at least one MoCa-enabled box isn't somehow connected to the WAN, how would you get video on demand? I know that the FiosTV installs come with an Actiontec router with a built-in MoCa port, but that requires a hardwire connection, which may prove inconvenient for some. /steve

 

[NorfolkBruh]

For my 2 cents: I think If they do it (and they should) it needs to be "N" capable. Using an N network between three laptops and two desktops and using a significant amount of my available bandwidth... there is no WAY I would want to "slow" it down to the slowest device on my network.

On the other hand, if it cost much more then I'll do what I'm doing now with my slower network devices that are only "G" capable... powerline network them.

Norfolk

WHEN ARE THE NORFOLK HD LILS GOING LIVE GOSH DARN IT!​

 

[Doug Brott]

I wonder if the next generation of HR receivers can come with a built-in wireless receiver, similar to my Wii? Sure would make it easier to add HR's to a network inside a home that is not pre-wired.

E.g., I've got an HR20 in my kitchen mounted sideways and vertically, hidden behind the LCD panel it's connected to. There's no network port available and no room for an external wireless adapter, so built-in WiFi would offer an ideal network solution.

/steve

While that certainly may be possible, I suspect that a wireless adapter is going to be the solution in the near term. There is no port for it on the motherboard, but I do believe (if memory is serving me correctly) that there is one extra slot on the Ethernet controller chip. A best case scenario would be to have a supported wireless adapter built-in with a mechanism to connect to that internal Ethernet controller. But I've certainly not heard anything about one of these.

More likely would be adding something like this to a next-generation product since DIRECTV is starting to make use of the home network more and more.

 

[phat78boy]

I know the technically inclined of us would like to see builtin WiFi, but can you really blame them for leaving it out? The support for it would be crazy, not to mention the great majority of people would need to upgrade routers as most people still use Wireless B. I'm fairly certain HD via MRV would need Wireless N to get the desired results.

For now, I don't blame them on leaving it out. A wired ethernet connection is the easiest and most universal way of connecting devices at this time.

 

[harsh]

He would IN FACT be quite right. I can tell you for a fact that you can stream HD programs from an HR20 over 802.11g without significant issues. The bandwidth available on a 'g' radio is sufficient.

This makes many assumptions that aren't necessarily reasonable in all wireless networking scenarios. 802.11g on its best day is right at the lower limit of one HD transmission if there is no other wireless traffic.

The fact that speeds drop with distance and other atmospheric interference suggests that for long-term consistency, vanilla 802.11g is not up to the task.

Can you imagine requiring specific routers/WAPs and forcing users to configure for wireless QoS? Not gonna happen.