Netgear Push2TV HD

“Wirelessly display your laptop screen on your HDTV”, the box proclaims. That’s an accurate description: Netgear’s Push2TV HD lets you use any HDMI-capable television as an external display from your Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) equipped laptop.

The Push2TV itself is simple – a single HDMI output on the back, along with composite AV for older TVs. There’s also a power button and an input for the included power adapter. The unit is compact at 106 x 138 x 32 mm, and can be wall-mounted with a couple of screws. It’s just 180 grams, so you don’t even need to mount it on a stud.

Configuration is entirely via the Intel Wireless Display software on your WiDi equipped laptop. Not sure if your laptop has WiDi? Check intel.ly/S9MlPI for information. To use the Push2TV HD’s full 1080p resolution, you’ll need a second or third-generation Intel Core processor (Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge). Some first-generation Core processors did include WiDi, but support only 720p.

Once connected, a quick and painless affair, your TV appears exactly as any other connected display – you can set the resolution, orientation and so forth in Windows as normal. The display can only be run from your processor’s Intel HD Graphics engine – if you also have a dedicated GPU, its output cannot be sent over WiDi. If you have a switchable graphics setup, just make sure any applications you want to run on your WiDi display are using the low-power/integrated graphics option.

We found image quality to be excellent at 1080p (1920 x 1080) resolution, the same as directly connecting the laptop to the TV via HDMI. However, full-screen video playback stuttered. It was not entirely unwatchable, but you wouldn’t want to watch a movie or play a game like that. For web browsing, viewing photos and other less motion-intensive activities, it’s great.

Knocking down the resolution to 720p (1290 x 720), full-screen video was as smooth over WiDi as it was on the laptop itself. Given that this is still well above DVD-quality, I wouldn’t write off the Push2TV HD or WiDi for movie watching – you just have to settle for less than the full 1080p Blu-ray experience.
WiDi also carries audio, so you can use your TV’s speakers. If you have a good audio system hooked up to your TV, even better.

This is a simple, single-purpose device that serves that purpose well. If you don’t need the full 1080p resolution (i.e. if your TV doesn’t support it, or you primarily intend to stream video), consider the plain-old Netgear Push2TV (PTV1000). It’s essentially the same box, but limited to 720p.