It's a Wi. Di shootout! Actiontec's Screen. Beam Pro vs. Netgear's Push. TVIntel’s Wi. Di technology promises a lot: The third and fourth generations can wirelessly stream up to 1. Blu- ray movies, to a receiver embedded in an HDTV, a video projector, or some other display—or to a stand- alone receiver with an HDMI output that you plug into a display. Two fourth- gen adapters, Actiontec’s Screen.

Beam Pro and Netgear’s Push. TV, are each smaller than a deck of cards, with just a couple of ports. How hard could this be? Pretty hard, as it turns out: Both devices proved enormously complicated to set up. The Lenovo Think. Pad Helix Ultrabook that I used for testing required multiple reboots, driver updates, and reinstallations of Intel’s software. Unless you’re prepared for the possibility of arduous troubleshooting, I wouldn’t bother with either adapter.

Connectify Hotspot is licensed as Shareware for the Windows operating system / platform from wifi software and can be used as a free trial until the trial period ends. Free Download Intel Wireless Display Software 4.2.19.0 for Windows 7/Windows 8 (Other Drivers & Tools).

But if wireless streaming is something you must have, and if your laptop supports Wi. Di, you might consider Netgear’s product, which was the more reliable of the two—once I got it up and running. ROBERT CARDINNetgear's Push. TV offers the option of drawing power from your laptop's USB port. Netgear's Push. 2TV is the smaller of the two devices.

1. Intel embeds software technology into its WiFi chips, so you can display everything on your laptop to an HDTV, wirelessly.
2. MirrorGo Android Recorder Play Big. Enjoy your mobile games on your computer. Reply to the messages of social software and SMS quickly on PC.

Each one has a USB port and an HDMI output for connecting to your display. The Push. 2TV uses its USB port for its AC adapter, which means that you can power it from either your laptop or the provided AC adapter. The Actiontec Screen. Beam Pro has a full- size USB port, but it serves only to update the device’s firmware (you update the Push. TV’s firmware via a Wi- Fi connection). The Screen. Beam Pro relies on a separate connector for power and requires a AC adapter, which makes Netgear’s Push. TV the better travel companion.

Intel’s Wi. Di software does not support Macs, but it does support a specific list of WIndows 7 and 8 systems (see below for more details on compatibility). It automatically detects the Wi. Di adapter, sets up a peer- to- peer wireless connection, and initiates a pairing routine that’s similar to the process of pairing Bluetooth devices: The software prompts you to type in a numeric code that appears on the TV. Once you do, the software starts to stream the laptop’s video and audio to the TV. The pairing routine provides security for the connection, which is completely independent of your Wi- Fi network (apart from firmware updates for the Push. TV). You need to pair the laptop and receiver only once, and you can choose to have Wi. Di connect the two devices automatically when you launch the program.

Robert Cardin. Actiontec's Screen. Beam Pro didn't perform nearly as well as its competitor did.

Audio and video quality were pretty good with both devices, but in playing half a dozen You. Tube videos, I noticed that the Screen. Beam Pro was prone to minor artifacts. It also spontaneously disconnected a couple of times—a glitch I didn’t run into with the Push. TV. Actiontec suggested that the problem was interference from the many neighboring wireless networks in downtown San Francisco, where I ran my tests, but Netgear’s device exhibited neither the artifacts nor the connection problems. The second- screen experience. I also tried both adapters using Intel’s Wi.

Di widget, which lets you use the TV as a second screen so that you can watch, say, a movie on the TV while working in a spreadsheet on the laptop. The widget works, but figuring out how to put the content you want on the TV is difficult: I had to try several times to display the movie on the TV rather than on the desktop. You can also stream video from Apple and Android smartphones and tablets to a Wi. Di receiver. I was able to watch videos running on my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 on the TV by connecting to the Wi.

Di adapters using Samsung’s All. Share Cast app (for more details, read about Intel’s Android and i.

OS apps). Making the connection was easy as long as I wasn’t too far from the adapter. All. Share Cast detected the receiver, and once I authorized the connection (no numeric PIN required), the display on the Galaxy Note 2 appeared on my TV. Once again, however, I noticed performance issues with Actiontec’s product—a lot of freezes, and the occasional spontaneous disconnect—that I didn’t encounter with Netgear’s. Wi. Di hassle extends to system compatibility. The ability to put small- screen content on a big screen quickly, as these Wi. Di adapters promise to do, is something that both consumers and businesspeople would welcome.

Before investing in one of these adapters, however, make sure that your laptop supports Wi. Dvd To Hdtv Converter Keygen 2012. Di. Although Intel’s website offers lists of required notebook components (mainly Intel’s Wi- Fi and graphics chipsets), you shouldn’t expect the technology to work unless your system has been specifically certified for Wi. Di. I learned that lesson the hard way, when I tried downloading and running Wi. Di on another Lenovo notebook that had the listed chipsets but wasn’t certified for Wi.

Di. I was able to install the software, and it detected the receivers, but it never successfully connected to them. An Intel spokesperson directed me to forums where users in similar situations try to help one another, but Intel doesn’t provide support or guidance for do- it- yourself Wi. Di, even if you think you have the required hardware. What’s more even more annoying is that certified systems don’t necessarily ship with everything you’ll need to make Wi. Di work. The Lenovo Think. Pad Helix supports Wi. Di, but I still had to find and download the Intel software on my own.

Bottom line. Intel and its partners need to make Wi. Di deployments much easier.

There’s really no excuse for the fourth generation of any technology to be this difficult to set up. If you’re willing to muck about in system settings, and if you have the patience for reinstalls should things go wrong the first time, I’d say check out the Netgear Push. TV. But nontechies might want to wait until more of the setup kinks are worked out. To comment on this article and other PCWorld content, visit our Facebook page or our Twitter feed.