Let's discuss the possibility of wireless analogue AV

[kamiboy]

A rarely discussed nuisance that is a natural part of retro gaming is a mess of wires. You have power afapters, controllers and lastly AV cords.

I like to keep things tidy, and recetly I've started wishing I could get rid of some of the obnoxious wires from my setup.

Focusing on AV, the typical console needs to pass 6 separate AV signals to a display device of choice, R, G, B, Sync, L and R.

Back when 8/16/32 bit consoles came out the only viable wireless solution to transmit these would have been via RF over the air. Not a great solution for a videophile.

But what about now, in 2015?

Is it theoretically possible to transmit 6 analogue signal channels across short distances of a few meters with negligible loss of fidelity and little lag using current technology?

Imagine being able to mod a transmitter into your systems of choice, then having a single receiver plugged into your display. I know most people here are too obsessed with picture quality and lag to consider something like that, but I'd gladly make a tiny sacrifice to reduce clutter.

[Hoagtech]

A rarely discussed nuisance that is a natural part of retro gaming is a mess of wires. You have power afapters, controllers and lastly AV cords.

I like to keep things tidy, and recetly I've started wishing I could get rid of some of the obnoxious wires from my setup.

Focusing on AV, the typical console needs to pass 6 separate AV signals to a display device of choice, R, G, B, Sync, L and R.

Back when 8/16/32 bit consoles came out the only viable wireless solution to transmit these would have been via RF over the air. Not a great solution for a videophile.

But what about now, in 2015?

Is it theoretically possible to transmit 6 analogue signal channels across short distances of a few meters with negligible loss of fidelity and little lag using current technology?

Imagine being able to mod a transmitter into your systems of choice, then having a single receiver plugged into your display. I know most people here are too obsessed with picture quality and lag to consider something like that, but I'd gladly make a tiny sacrifice to reduce clutter.

Just get an hdmi transmitter from best buy. It goes 50' but I noticed lag. You have to get a component to hdmi adapter and preferably adapt Scart to component via csy 2100 or equivalent. I returned mine though even though the lag was tolerable because I already had an Lcd with terrible input lag to begin with.

[darcagn]

Just get an hdmi transmitter from best buy. It goes 50' but I noticed lag. You have to get a component to hdmi adapter and preferably adapt Scart to component via csy 2100 or equivalent. I returned mine though even though the lag was tolerable because I already had an Lcd with terrible input lag to begin with.

Back when I lived in a single-bedroom apartment I tried these out so that I could use one DVR for both my living room and my bedroom. First I tried one of those RF-based transmitters that only transmitted composite. It worked great and was near-lagless as far as I could tell (had both TVs turned on and they sounded in sync), but occasionally there would be some interference that would cause extremely loud noises from the receiving TV. After falling asleep with the TV on and being awakened by this a few times, I ditched it.

Then I tried the HDMI transmitters. Best Buy sells one by ActionTec and one by IOGear. The ActionTec one was the one I bought, and the lag was very high. With both TVs on I could hear the receiving TV being at least 2 seconds behind. It was slightly annoying when navigating the DVR menu, but it was good enough for TV watching which is what I needed it for. As for gaming, no way. I wouldn't even want to play a completely turn-based RPG type game with something like that.

Imagine being able to mod a transmitter into your systems of choice, then having a single receiver plugged into your display. I know most people here are too obsessed with picture quality and lag to consider something like that, but I'd gladly make a tiny sacrifice to reduce clutter.

This sounds like a great idea but if the technology ever gets there to near-laglessly transmit video it'll probably be an HDMI-based device, meaning you'd have to install an RGB/YPbPr -> HDMI encoder plus a transmitter into each console. That'll not only be expensive but there likely won't be near enough space in any of the console cases for something like that. Not to mention you'd have way too much power draw and would have to do some modding to each console's power supply to account for that.

[Guspaz]

There are lots of wireless digital video transmitters that will do effectively zero latency (they typically advertise 1ms). The problem is they're all professional gear meant for wireless cameras, and so you'll pay anywhere from the high hundreds to the low thousands of dollars. They're mostly HD-SDI, but there are some HDMI units.

B&H has some:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Wirel ... 3907816634

Ignore all the "live stream" ones, they're meant for streaming to the web. Also keep in mind that not all of them are sold as a transmitter/receiver pair, so buying just a transmitter alone won't do you any good. The cheapest one I see that's relatively low latency is a 17ms lag unit for $518, and the cheapest unit claiming 1ms of lag is $659.

[kamiboy]

Okay, let me be more specific. I am a CRT guy, so digital transmitters and HDMI are no good. Those would involve D/A conversion on both ends and I imagine an unacceptable level of lag, as well as bulk.

The best solution on the console transmitter side would be a small flat board that can be fit into modt consoles. It should ne able to run from 5V or 9V since that is what is available inside most systems.

D/A conversions should be avoided if possible. Digital video at least would be introduce needless complexity due to the nature of 240p signals from consoles.

the gaming community has a bunch of really talented people who make custom electronics for use with consoles, I wonder if any of them has any knowledge about wireless transmissions?

The best solution would have to be a custom job.

[Fudoh]

wireless analogue isn't an option. You would need modulation for that which would eventually result in transmitting RF signals. Bad idea these days. Modulation and demodulation kills your quality.

What you can do though is transmit any kind of signals through twisted pair ethernet cables. This is used for very long RGB runs already. There are VGA/RGBHV to cat.5 conversion conversion boxes available.

[kamiboy]

I want wireless to avoid cable clutter.

In regards to modulation, is it really necessary? Instead couldn't you transmit each signal on its own frequency and avoid having to mix them, then separate them?

[Fudoh]

the bandwidth required for analogue signals with your quality expectations is gigantic.

A/D and D/A conversion though is both pretty much lossless and lag free, but going digital for the transmission is really a requirement.

[kamiboy]

I see. But is there any off the shelf solution that can transmit so many channels of generic analogue signals over short distances via A/D conversions on both ends?

Something small enough that it can be fit into a console, and run off of the consoles internal power?

I'd be surprised if there already was such a chip. But maybe an electronic wizard could build such a thing using existing parts. I think there could be a market for it.

Especially since in addition to reducing clutter, you also avoid the need for a AV switching devices, such as SCART switches.