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The Big Picture® "The Big Picture system lets you view and hear DVD or Video CD movies, Internet, or other PC content on any TV, anywhere in the home, with no cables or wires. It has high quality broadband FM modulation, and full bandwidth stereo. It includes an RF MouseREMOTE to control the PC, and displays any 640 x 480 resolution PC content on any TV – all for under $300!" |
Dave Rye is a leading authority on Home Automation. He has been actively involved in the business for over 20 years and has written many articles on the subject. X-10 (USA) Inc., |
Watch DVD or VCD movies from your PC in one room, on your big screen TV in another room – without running any wires!
The latest hot topic in consumer electronics is DVD. Stand-alone DVD players are already prevalent, and could eventually become as big a consumer electronics (CE) category as VCRs. More and more titles are becoming available every day, and some say the DVD will replace the VHS video cassette within 5 years. DVD is also toted as being the next "Killer App" for PCs. A handful of manufacturers including Creative Labs, Hi-Val, and Diamond Multimedia, are offering DVD ROM upgrade kits that you install in your existing PC. They give you DVD capability as well as functioning as a regular CD ROM player. And many manufacturers are now selling computers that come equipped with a DVD ROM player. However, there is an important ingredient missing before DVDs become widely adopted:
Most home users own a fairly
small monitor. While this might not be the case for corporate users who perhaps do desktop
publishing, it is certainly true for most home PC users. The cost of owning a large
computer monitor is too prohibitive for the average home user. A 21 inch monitor could set
you back a couple of thousand dollars, compared to a 21 inch TV for a few hundred.
Therefore, the home computer user (and the rest of the family) is faced with the prospect
of watching DVD movies while cramped around a small PC monitor - "it just ain't gonna
happen!"
Some DVD players now have a composite video output which you can connect to the video input on a high end TV. This however means that the PC and the TV need to be in the same room, and most likely within about 6 feet of each other. Distances greater than this would mean running unsightly wires and could cause picture degradation. What's needed is a way of seeing and hearing the PC content on ANY TV around the home, without having to run wires, and at a reasonable cost. The BIG Picture® Wireless Video Sender System from X-10 now lets you do just that.
The Big Picture system lets you view and hear DVD or Video CD movies, Internet, or other PC content on any TV, anywhere in the home, with no cables or wires. It has high quality broadband FM modulation, and full bandwidth stereo. It includes an RF MouseREMOTE to control the PC, and displays any 640 x 480 resolution PC content on any TV – all for under $300!
The system includes a VGA-to-composite video converter, a room-to-room wireless video sender and receiver, and a wireless RF MouseREMOTE control. The VGA-to-video converter takes the VGA output from your PC, passes it to your monitor and also converts it to composite video. This composite video output is then connected to the input of the Video Sender. The Video Sender sends 2.4 GHz RF signals to the video receiver (up to 100 feet away in another room). The receiver converts the signals back to their original format for connection to any TV. Commands from the RF MouseREMOTE are sent to the Video Sender via 310 MHz and passed to the mouse input on your PC, letting you control it remotely. This lets you play, stop, pause, skip tracks, etc. on the DVD disk you are playing from the comfort of your easy chair. You can similarly play audio CDs in your PC's CD ROM player.
The wireless MouseREMOTE also lets you remotely log-on to your Internet Service Provider (ISP), launch your WEB browser, retrieve your e-mail, and surf the NET – all from your easy chair while sitting in front of your TV, which doesn't even have to be in the same room as your PC. This gives you WEB-ON-TV® from your PC.
Superb picture and sound quality
There would be no point to all this if the system in any way degraded the excellent sound and picture quality obtained from DVD. The system uses the 2.4 GHz RF band which allows greater bandwidth and more channels than previous wireless video senders that used 900 MHz. 2.4 GHz also makes broadband FM modulation techniques possible which are required for video applications which typically require at least 5 MHz of bandwidth. Thus there is no loss in picture quality. Also, 900 MHz systems can offer (at best) 2 channels. With a neighbor to each side, interference is very likely to occur. At 2.4 GHz, 4 channels falls easily within the bandwidth allowed, allowing users to avoid interference in pretty much every situation. Greater effectiveness of antenna designs at 2.4 GHz also improves transmission range (up to 100 ft.).
The wireless MouseREMOTE (see the review in this issue) is also a universal remote so it controls your TV, VCR, cable box, DSS, etc. so you don't have to switch remotes to control the TV you're watching while controlling the content on your PC. And it also controls lights and appliances connected X-10 modules (sold separately) so you can dim the lights, close the blinds, and turn up the air conditioning for that Full Home Theater Experience From Your PC. SM
This unhappy guy has to watch DVD movies on his tiny PC monitor.
But
This happy family can watch the same DVD movies (played on their PC) on the big screen TV in their family room!
The wireless
MouseREMOTE lets you control your PC from your easy chair. Control your DVD player, launch
your WEB browser, surf the NET, check your e-mail, and more.
The wireless video sender takes the
picture and sound output from your PC via the VGA-to-video converter (included) and sends
it to the wireless video receiver connected to your TV (located in another room).
