IOGEAR Wireless 3D Digital Kit with Full HD 1080P and 5.1 Channel Digital Audio, GW3DHDKIT

I bought this device because I wanted to be able to broadcast my cable channels, video games, and Apple TV to a TV in another room. This way I could play video games on one TV while my wife watched cable TV in the kitchen. All this, while avoiding paying Comcast for an additional set-top cable box. The options I considered were:- Run HDMI wires through the walls to the other TV: On the plus side, there is no risk in the quality of the video signal. On the negative side, during installation the wires can break. Also, wire installation is expensive, time consuming, and messy, Even worse, HDMI technology specs change over time, so if you install HDMI version 1.3 today, and tomorrow you need HDMI v1.4 or higher to support 3D and 4K resolution, you will have to re-run cables.- Run HDMI over existing coaxial cables to the other TVs: Coaxial cables or RG6 are the cables that connect to TVs and show cable channels . Cables 2 Go (C2G) makes such a device. It provides a range of signal close to 300 feet, and can support multiple TVs. So if you want to buy one Apple TV and take advantage of it in any room you can buy additional receivers for each TV. The cost was about the same as IOGear, and since it is not a wireless solution, it has a higher likelihood of working reliably. Also, if HDMI specs change on you, the coaxial cables should be future proof. You just have to wait for C2G to come out with devices that support the higher HDMI version. On the negative side, you have to make sure you have coaxial cables running to each room. Also, since my coaxial cables will be used for cable TV, I wasn't sure if the C2G solution would prevent my cable TV from working on the same lines.- Use another wireless over HDMI solution like Peerless and Nyrius: Peerless is more expensive than IOGear, and I haven’t tried it. Nyrius has a lag time: the audio and video take time to reach the other TV. This is undesirable if playing video games, or if the two TVs can be heard at the same time resulting in an annoying echo sound.Now getting to the actual review of this product! I’ll review the setup & use, audio/video quality, wireless range, and compatibility with devices.SETUP & USEThe box comes with a transmitter, receiver, IR blaster, and remote control. Installation is easier than setting up a wireless internet. I plugged in the transmitter HDMI output into the main TV, and my devices into the HDMI input slots. This model supports a maximum of two HDMI devices. I pointed the IR blaster to my cable box (make sure it points to the front of the cable box). I then plugged in the HDMI receiver to the TV in the kitchen. The kitchen TV is at a distance of 45 feet with two walls in the way. I also have a wireless internet running in the rooms. Hopefully the wireless internet and walls do not mess up the device signal!AUDIO/VIDEO QUALITYI powered on the devices, walked to the kitchen, and selected the video input for cable TV. I played Justin Timberlake’s video Mirrors. The audio reception was crisp and clear, and the video to my surprise was sharp and flawless! There were no artifacts, or any other issues pointed out by other reviewers. There was no discernable lag in signal at this range.As much as Justin is a talented singer, I am no boy-band fan. Still in the kitchen, with the cable box in the other room, I sprang for the remote control and decided to change the channel. The IR blaster came to the rescue, seamlessly letting me view the channel guide, and change the channels. Still not satisfied with the channel lineup, I decided to switch sources to the Apple TV. You can change the device by using IOGear’s provided remote control or clicking the source selector on the receiver. Apple TV worked, and in no time I was listening to my music. Finally, an easy to use tech gadget that guests, and my wife will be able to use with little to no training.WIRELESS RANGEIOGear advertises a distance of 100 feet. I have no doubt that it can achieve this distance, although I wonder if additional walls and additional wireless signals in the house would reduce this range. As I had mentioned, I ran my setup at a range of 45 feet. I also tried a range of 12 feet to see if there would be difference in quality. I noted no difference in quality.COMPATIBILITY WITH DEVICESI was happy to note that the device transmits Apple TV, cable signals, and computer output with no problem. Having said that, the transmitter and receiver only support HDMI, so if you have another type of connection like composite video found on Nintendo Wii, then you are out of luck (you have to buy additional electronics to make it work). Also, this model only supports 2 HDMI inputs. You can get around this very easily. A little trick that I tried was plugging in 5 HDMI devices and my Nintendo Wii into an Audio/Video receiver (e.g. Denon AVR-2311CI), and then sent the output of this receiver to the IOGear transmitter. The Audio/Video receiver can upconvert a non-HDMI signal to HDMI. Again, the devices worked, and I no longer had to change the source using IOGear’s provided remote control.I did notice one issue, I have an old computer monitor with a VGA port this device has an HDMI to VGA adapter on it. I was not able to send video using this IOGear device. In the end, So, I can't blame IOGear for this. I would recommend giving this product a try.Completely happy with my IOGear purchase, I now wondered about upgrading this setup in the future. Specifically, what would happen if I wanted now to run the HDMI signals to a third room? It turns out IOGear does not sell multiple receivers for this model. A call to IOGear’s technical support was helpful in alleviating these concerns. IOGear has a discontinued model which is much more expensive than this model which allows purchasing of additional receivers. Alternatively, you can buy an additional transmitter and receiver, and just make sure the two transmitters are at least 6 feet apart from each other.

There are some excellent reviews for wirelessly connecting a HDTV in a separate room to watch cable/satellite or bluerays using IOGEAR Wireless 3D Digital Kit. Instead of repeating aspects of them I will focus on my primary reason for purchasing this device, PC gaming within the living room using a wireless Xbox 360 controller. Steam (a gaming and software distribution system) has recently come out with a beta version of their platform that includes "big picture" mode, which is essentially a controller friendly media center experience for playing and purchasing games. People familiar with Steam might of heard rumors that they were toying with the idea of coming out with a hardware box that would compete with Microsoft or Sony, and I assume with Apple at some point in the future. After playing with this device I can say with absolute certainty that Steam will never do this. This hardware makes playing the ever increasing library of controller friendly PC games within the living room EASY. Benefits include not needing to worry about PC fan noise or distracting LEDs while watching a movie, playing a game, or streaming content to your HDTV.In my case I am transmitting my HDMI signal through a normal (read no stone or fireplace) house wall and the subsequent distance is about 20' to a 50" HDTV. Some of the competing products have an ability to transmit 30' and this distance, while within my range, concerned me since I needed to go through a wall. I am eager to try two going through walls for the bedroom TV. IOGEAR claims 100' max distance and while I haven't tested out further than 25' the time to connect and connection stability has been exceptional so far. Picture quality within games has been great as well. I really can't tell a difference in quality, if there is one. IOGEAR claim no compression, as do some other companies, but I noticed some products utilized standard wifi frequency that could go 100' but used image compression, which I did not want. The audio syncing just works without any fuss. However, right now I can either have my desktop's sound come out of 5.1 speaker setup in the living room or through my stereo monitors within the study, not both. Setting the default audio device to either use the HDMI on the IOGEAR or using the soundcard isn't bad, per se. I just couldn't find a way to have both on at the same time. I am not even sure I would want to do that, but I just noticed that I couldn't with minimum amount of effort that I put into it. One of the biggest issues for me was concern of how bad the latency could be. IOGEAR advertise <1 ms but I was a bit skeptical whether that would hold up for casual and internet gameplay. I am by no means super competitive when it comes to first person shooters (FPS) and such, but I wanted games such as Borderlands 2, Dark Souls, Skyrim, HAWX2, and Street Fighter to have an immediate response to controller input. Games, unlike movies are going to be sensitive to timing and I can say that the latency, which I haven't measured, isn't perceptible at all in my situation. Now, if I were a super competitive online gamer and had to have everything wired then this device and ones like it probably aren't for you, but then neither is using a controller when a mouse and keyboard is nearby so I'd wager those people won't be satisfied until they can plug their cerebral cortex into their PC using USB. Regardless, I would assuredly recommend this for gamers and anyone looking to keep their PC at their desk while beaming whatever HDMI signal into the living room. I think the coming popularity of device like this coupled with Steam-like content distribution will make the ubiquity of PCs much more attractive for gaming in the near future if the egregious DRM mindset (of which Steam is not) is buried if favor of cheaper, higher volume sales.Of note, I have three wireless RF receivers (Xbox controller, gyration remote, and wireless keyboard), a wireless router about 10' away, and wireless rear surround sound speakers in the living room and everything functions as it should. No interference with the HDMI picture. Fortunately, my desktop computer in the study isn't far from the living room so these RF devices work too. If I had more distance to traverse with the transmitter and receiver I would have probably purchased extension USB cables for the RF receivers, but fortunately that wasn't an issue. Additionally, I have the IOGEAR setup to use my HDTV as an extended monitor and use the Big Picture settings within Steam to specify the HDTV. If you have the same resolution monitor and HDTV then using mirroring might be an option, but I haven't tried it since my HDTV and monitor have different resolutions.