D-Link touts telly as remote PC screen

Windows over the WLAN

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

Posted in Wireless, 21st April 2008 10:59 GMT

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Networking specialist D-Link today launched a gadget that lets you use your TV as your PC's display - remotely.

The PC-on-TV Media Player - aka the DPG-1200 - essentially grabs your computer's display output, pulls it over a wireless network and shows it on your telly. The box comes with a trackball-equipped remote control so you can navigate around Windows, and software to run on your PC to link its video card to the DPG-1200.

D-Link's DPG-1200 PC-on-TV: not DirectX-friendly

There are a couple of gotchas. First, the box connects using an 802.11g wireless link or 10/100Mb/s Ethernet, so it can only cope with PC displays of up to 1280 x 720 for photos and 720 x 576 for video content, according to D-Link.

Secondly, it's not compatible with DirectX, the manufacturer confessed in its small print, so any game or media app that uses the Microsoft multimedia API won't work.

S-Link said the product isn't recommended for CRT TVs, though the DPG-1200 does have VGA and composite-video output ports as well as component-video connectors.

The DPG-1200 is available in the US now for around $240 (£120/€152). There's no word yet from D-Link on UK availability and pricing.

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