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Netgear PVT1000 Push2TV: Sends video from a PC to a TV wirelessly

We'd love to be able to send our computer desktops to a TV over Wi-Fi, but it's just not possible -- or that's what we thought until Netgear answered our AV dreams

Ian Morris
2 min read

At the 2010 Toshiba media event, we got to see a whole bunch of technologies that will eventually brighten up our lives. Some of them don't have much to do with Toshiba, but do make use of technology that Toshiba is implementing. One such device is the Netgear PTV1000 Push2TV, which receives video from your laptop, over Wi-Fi, and then displays it on a TV.

The PTV1000 uses several different technologies. Firstly you need a laptop, and in that laptop there needs to be a Core i3, i5 or i7 processor. This machine has to use Intel's MyWiFi system too, which allows a computer to share a wireless connection with other devices and, in this case, send video over an 802.11n Wi-Fi network. The Netgear hardware then takes that signal, fed from the Push2TV application installed on the computer, and displays it on a standard TV.

The upshot is that whatever you can see on your laptop screen can be wirelessly sent to your TV. The idea is impressive, and we think it's a neat idea for people who need to hold impromptu meetings while away from their office. You need to have the Netgear hardware connected to the TV in order to use the system, however, and, unless the venue you're in has a PTV1000, it's probably going to be simpler to run a cable or use a portable video projector.

We also had a quick look at the final image on the TV, and video didn't run at all well. It looked very jerky, and everything had little mosquito artefacts -- clearly a result of over-compression of the video to make it stream over Wi-Fi. We can't be too down on the results though, because this hardware is likely to be quite new. We look forward to seeing final production hardware sometime soon, so we can make a proper judgement.

Overall, we like the idea of being able to send your desktop via Wi-Fi to your TV. But, until every TV in the world has the receiving hardware built in, so they can pluck these signals out of the ether, we'll continue to stroke our sceptical cat, who remains, for the most part, sceptical.