Wi di

Enabling WiDi on your TV.

This example will use a TV LG with WebOs, turning on this feature on other televisions (Samsung, Philips, Sony, Toshiba etc.), will follow the same pattern.

So, you have enabled the WiDi function on your TV.

What is it?

Intel WiDi is a technology that allows you to output an image from a compatible device to your TV through wireless data transfer. Supporting this capability makes it unnecessary to use an HDMI cable. Using Intel Wireless Display, the owner will forget about such a problem as insufficient cable length when displaying images on a computer, TV and other gadgets.

In the following video, you can see an overview of WiDi technology:

Features and Benefits

As noted above, to use the new technology, it is enough to buy either a compatible TV, or buy a special adapter installed in the HDMI port. The development is aimed at home use, but it has proved to be excellent in business. For example, to show an image on a large plasma screen, you do not need to connect a laptop to a long cable and sit in one place.

Since the signal is transmitted via an internal wireless Internet network, it is necessary to turn on Wi-Fi on the tablet/smartphone/notebook to create a connection. The maximum operating time is limited only by the battery capacity of the gadget from which the picture is broadcast.

Miracast or Intel WiDi technologies

These 2 technologies of the Wi-Fi Direct family are just right for us to broadcast the screen to the TV. They are usually supported both by the operating system and by modern TVs. If the DLNA technology (described below) allows only to transmit files to the network (it is probably relevant for you), with these you can do exactly what is written in the title of the article – to duplicate the screen.

• Intel WiDi (Wireless Display) – you have a 3rd generation Intel processor and above and an Intel integrated graphics card. This is usually enough.
• Miracast – any Wi-Fi adapter and an operating system at least Windows 10.

Televisions now usually support these technologies (I have an old one myself, but it all works). Although older models used to be offered to buy special Miracast adapters.

Using Miracast and Intel WiDi

1. Turn on Miracast – WiDi on your TV. Some models turn them on by default. On my LG it was turned off for some reason. On Samsung it's called differently – "Screen mirroring". But the main thing here is to go to the settings, try to find it and turn it on. If it is on or there is nothing there – no big deal, but checked.

1. For Miracast. Everything is in the box initially. Click on the notifications in the bottom right corner (Windows 10), select "Transmit to screen", then "Connect to wireless display". Choose our TV and connect. The TV may pop up asking for a connection.

Everything connects, the screen is duplicated, but delays… In general, for games is not good, but if you need to watch movies – there is DLNA technology.

How to connect?

Check out the video tutorial on how to connect your smartphone to your TV using Miracast:

Connecting a wireless display is easy. In your TV settings, go to the "Network" menu. Find the "Miracast/Intel's WiDi" item.

Next, connect the function on the TV using the "On/Off" button.

Intel WiDi, starting with version 3.5, is fully compatible with Miracast.

Connecting to a smartphone

Navigate to an Android smartphone or tablet. To set up your mobile device, go to the settings. Connect the Wi-Fi data connection. In the "Screen" tab of your mobile device, select "Wireless screen" from the list provided. After activating the "Enable" button, a list of possible connections pops up. From the list that appears, find our TV. Bravely press the "Connect" button. That's it – your TV acts as a wireless display. Everything you see on your Android tablet, Android smartphone is now displayed on your TV monitor.

If you want to disable this function, go to the screen settings on your smartphone. Next, click on the name of your TV and a window pops up asking if you really want to stop streaming. Clicking "OK" stops the images from being transmitted to the TV monitor.

Connecting to a computer

The following video explains how WiDi technology works:

Disadvantages of the technology

Despite the public's excitement, the system has a number of drawbacks. After testing and using the wireless monitor, users have noted such troubles:

If you want to play games or watch movies, it is better to do so using an HDMI cable. The wires provide a smooth data transfer, and the wireless monitor system has not yet been perfected, so there can be slowdowns in operation. Agree that watching a movie or playing your favorite game is not very pleasant if the video lags.

In some cases, users note the deterioration of image quality. A fuzzy picture is also not exciting, so if you have a problem, use wires.

A wireless monitor is a great way to view information from your tablet, smartphone, laptop on your TV monitor. This function is not always appropriate, but it can bring new impressions to your leisure and work.

Dear readers of our portal! Have you tried function of wireless monitor? What are your impressions? What problems have you faced? We will be glad if you share your personal experience!

Conclusion

The technology turned out to be operable, and we would like to note that it can seriously facilitate the use of a home TV as a universal media center. The fact that it is easy to set up plays a part in this. Intel has worked hard to make Wireless Display a consumer-friendly technology. After the initial connection of the laptop to the TV, the software from Intel takes care of all subsequent interaction.

The main disadvantage can be considered the fact that to use WiDi there are strict requirements for hardware – and this hardware, unfortunately, is sometimes difficult to find. Notebook vendors rarely indicate the exact model of the Wi-Fi adapter, which is one of the critical factors for the use of Wireless Display. But this is a disadvantage only if you don't have a laptop with the necessary "hardware". And if you have a laptop, all you need to do is to buy an adapter and download the appropriate software from the Intel website. Of course, a regular HDMI cable is a little cheaper than a WiDi adapter – but, as they say, you have to pay for the convenience.

And finally – a demonstration video, which clearly shows the use of WiDi (in English, but even those who do not know the language can understand the essence):

Functionality Testing

After the short adventure with the configuration I started the actual testing. As media content was chosen several movies, both in HD and in lower resolution. The feeling of watching can be expressed as follows. Non-HD resolution video goes just fine, just a couple of times there were traces of some digital noise. When watching high definition video you can sometimes notice a slight jerking of the picture, most often when you rotate the camera smoothly. I've seen the same effect when the TV is connected to the DLNA server via Wi-Fi, but I prefer to use a wire myself, the old-fashioned way.

The TV requests a DLNA connection

Speaking of DLNA. Ultrabook software knows how to work in what I would call "WiDi without WiDi" mode, when the TV does not need WiDi attachment; it gets the picture from the ultrabook via DLNA. In the documentation the developers honestly warn that this mode does not work with all DLNA clients, but my Samsung 5300 TV connected without any problems. However, this "emulation" is not very useful: the quality of the picture is much worse, HD resolution is not supported and everything is rather slow. In addition, due to the DLNA habit to cache the content, the TV connected in this way can not be used as a monitor, because the mouse refuses to crawl in real time.

The connection with the set-top box is established. On the left is the WiDi widget.

The Wi-Di widget has two functions. First, it allows one click to connect Wireless Display, the connection to which has already been set up once and in the properties of which it is specified "connect automatically". Second, in the extended monitor mode, the widget allows you to switch the application from one monitor to another. The thing, in principle, is good, if it were not for the limitations of the functionality I do not understand. For example, some applications it is able to move between screens, and some are not; I could not establish what the principle of the choice is made. After suffering a little, I switched to the "manual control" of windows and quickly got used to it.
Intensive use of Wi-Fi while watching movies on the ultrabook quickly drains the battery: if in normal office mode it works 5-6 hours, here the charge is barely enough for a movie. This, of course, can hardly be called a disadvantage. In general, no real, conspicuous disadvantages of the technology were found. The connection (at a small distance, of course) was stable, and there were no software failures. In my opinion, WiDi is quite suitable as an alternative to DLNA, even having an advantage over the latter in the form of versatility: WiDi does not care what to deliver to the remote display, besides, there is no need for transcoding. There is every reason to believe that in the near future, Wi-Fi will be installed in all TV receivers without exception, not only in the top models, as it is now. Then the WiDi can open a second wind, especially if the family of devices that can transmit a picture to the Wireless Display is fundamentally expanded.

What is WiDi

Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) is a technology which allows an image to be transmitted to a monitor, laptop screen or television without an HDMI cable. Information displayed on a smartphone or desktop computer is automatically displayed on the TV screen. In addition to images, sound is transmitted using this technology.

WiDi works without cables. There is no need to physically connect the TV and computer on the same network. If there is significant radio interference, the connection may not work. In this case, you may need to change the Wi-Fi channel on the router or switch to a different frequency.

It is important to understand what Wi-Fi in TV is and how it differs from WiDi. The TV is connected to wireless networks through a built-in adapter. If there is an integrated module, the prefix "Smart" is added to the name of the device. Some manufacturers produce adapters separately. They are needed to extend the functionality of conventional TVs.

With Wi-Fi support, the TV can be controlled from a smartphone. To do this, the cell phone must support Direct Wi-Fi. You need to download special software, such as Smart TV Remote, onto your smartphone. The WiDi function of a wireless TV works without a direct connection to wireless networks. When configured, the TV will create a separate access point.

Currently, WiDi is no longer actively supported. In Windows 10 and other operating systems, Miracast technology is preferred. It allows you to create closed and secure wireless networks, transfer large amounts of data.

Benefits of

• Built-in protection against unauthorized access to transmitted data.
• Control over connected participants.
• Multiple modes of operation: with support for displaying a screen to one or more users
• Supports 1080p video playback
• Fast video and audio transmission without stuttering and lags.

WiDi technology is widespread among entrepreneurs. It is used for presentations, video calls, demonstration of graphics. At home, vidiii is used to send the video signal from the online broadcasts running on the laptop or computer games on the TV.

Important point! WiDi does not allow the user connected to the broadcast to access the original data distribution point. Third-party users will not be able to change content settings.

WiDi is also used during lectures at schools and universities to connect students and lecture to a large audience. The technology can be used to organize outdoor cinemas.

Advantages and disadvantages of the technology

• no cables are used;
• Exchange of information takes place through a separate secure (WPA2 protocol) communication channel, so there is no interference when using home Wi-Fi network and Internet on the computer;
• High enough speed of video transmission, which is quite enough for computer games (practically there are no delays and no drop in FPS);
• supports 3D video transmission;
• the technology is easy to connect and use;
• Miracast supports a large number of devices.

The technology under consideration does not support video transmission in UltraHD quality. This is probably the only drawback.

Hardware requirements

Miracast technology is present by default on computers with Windows 8.1 and 10. If a 7 version of Windows is installed, you need to download and install this feature manually. If Windows 10 version older than 2004 is installed on the PC, you will also have to install Miracast manually. To install Miracast on a Windows 10 PC, you need to:

• Open the "Start" menu and go to the "Settings" submenu;
• Click on the "Applications" icon;
• Select "Applications and Features" in the left menu;
• Click the Additional Components link;
• Click on the "+ Add Component" icon;
• in the search line type "wireless display", mark the component of the same name and click on the "Install" button.

To make sure that your computer supports Miracast wireless technology, you need to:

• Press the Win and R keys simultaneously to bring up the Run window.
• Enter the command "dxdiag.exe" and click "OK".
• After the command finishes its work, the window "DirectX Diagnostic Tools" will appear. In it you need to click "Save all information" and set the file name and the place where it will be stored.
• Open the saved file and find the line with the word "Miracast" in it, if this technology is present, it should have the word Available, if not, then your Windows 10 device does not support the Miracast standard;

Enabling in Windows 10

Before you start working with Direct, you need to prepare your PC or laptop. In case you can not connect, you need to do some manipulations. The first thing you need to do – for a while disable antivirus, or configure it and the internal firewall so that they let all incoming and outgoing connections.

If there is a Bluetooth wireless transmitter or receiver from keyboards or mice working near the device, it is better to turn them off, or be prepared that they may interfere with the connection due to signal mixing.

It is not unreasonable to make sure that the wireless adapter or firmware has up-to-date drivers and that the Wi-Fi itself works in principle. Because if there are problems with the wireless connection in general, it may appear that it is the Direct protocol that is not working.

System Parameters

In order to run Wi-Fi Direct for Windows 10 system, a few preparatory steps will be required.

1. It is necessary to turn on the Wi-Fi module on the laptop and make sure that the device is not connected to any router.
2. Next, you will need to go to the system settings. The easiest way to do this is through the "Start" menu, "Settings" section, where the item "Devices" will be located.
3. In the window that opens, click on the icon to add devices. At this point, the proximity device search starts.
4. In the add device window, select "All other" or "Wireless display", depending on the device;
5. And if the second device is enabled and has Wi-Fi enabled, it will appear in the list and become available for selection.
6. Once the pairing is initialized on the second device, you need to confirm the connection. After that, you can use both file and media streaming.

Enabling in Windows 7

To configure Direct on the seventh need to use third-party software, as the system itself does not have the necessary software.

For example, if you want to remotely transfer an image from your PC to your TV or screen, you will need to install a special application called Intel Wireless Display".

After installing and starting it, the system automatically switches to search mode for surrounding devices and if they are found, their list will be displayed in the program window. With the "Connect" button.

After attempting to connect, you will need to enter the PIN code of the receiving device, and the pairing will be completed.

To transfer files via Wi-Fi Direct in Windows 7, you will also need to use third-party solutions. For example, you can organize access to files on your phone via FTP, or with ShareIt. It has a version for both PC and Android.

Important! Before you configure and run Wi Fi Direct on a Windows 7 laptop, make sure that the device runs on a Core i3, Core i5 or Core i7 generation processor, as well as a built-in network adapter from the manufacturer Broadcom or Intel.