KFA2 - Galaxy Stream HD (WHDI) review

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Final words and verdict

 

Final words and verdict

You know what, this very likely is the future of display connectors. Try to imagine TV's and monitors with built in receivers and videocards with built in transmitters, the technology as it is today (WHDI) it fairly good. I'm not saying perfect, but but the initial generations of this technology simply are extremely promising.

Now we must state that though the image quality is good, it's not wonderful. There is at this stage a tiny hint of image quality degradation, how much you'd be bothered by it would depends on functionality really, but the larger the screen is, the more you'll notice it. We feel that for watching movies and HTPC functionality that this is not at all an issue. If you work with Photoshop and graphics perfection all day, obviously this might not be suited for you.

On the television end you place the Stream HD - Receiver. You hook it up to the power adapter, you connect the HDMI cable towards your telly or HDMI AV receiver and power it on. After 15 seconds a secured AES handshake is made and the two LEDs emit a green light, the handshake was successfully made. On a laptop you now switch to HDMI, on a PC if the only "screen" connected it the HDMI dongle, you will get output on the television. From there off you select your 1080P resolution (if needed) and pretty much you are good to go. It's simplicity in a box really. Much better then Intels WHDI solutions which require driver installations.

A true fact remains that you really need some sort of functionality in your home to justify the setup. Say you have a HTPC at one side of the room and hate long cables, well that's where this solution kicks in really well. Business people, hooking up your laptop to a projector or telly is easy as 1-2-3, no cables, no configuration.

Gaming wise I'm not sure what to make of it just yet the product is advertised with a less then 1ms latency. And while movies and audio are perfectly in sync I did notice a little mouse lag, I can't imagine anyone liking that. Then again, it might be something that gets fixed with a new firmware update as obviously the device should in theory not be bothered by mouse-lag at all.

So first and foremost I feel that the Stream HD solution is suited perfectly for HTPC users or for people who's neckhair grows back inwards if they see cables. Overall the quality is really nice, not perfect. The functionality great and what I likes the most was the ease of use. You connect the devices, power it up and with seconds you have display output on your desired HDTV or monitor nicely done in 1920x1080.

Much like the GTX 460 WHDI review I like to conclude like this, HD Stream is a great innovation and perhaps a sign of what's to come in the future, it is not yet perfect in terms of output quality but I was sincerely impressed by the overall quality on the HDTV. Range wise we walked through my house with the laptop, and even from the kitchen in the next room going through steel enforced concrete wall the 1080P signal remained perfectly in tune. guru3d-recommended_150px.jpg

As such the KFA2/Galaxy Stream HD solution is a really good first release in wireless HDMI monitor transmission, if you have been on the lookout for something unique like this, then we can certainly recommend it. The pricetag will be roughly 150 EUR.

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