Short version:
1) Don't waste your time with the thing you found at £15. It's not what you want
2) Wireless HDMI kits cost £100-£250, but their operation depends a lot on the house they're going in, and they're limited to 1080p. Too flaky and too short term
3) You're planning on buying an expensive telly. Do the wiring job properly. Bury some mini trunking in wall. Add an extra power point to run the sound bar you'll probably have to install. Plan to run a HDMI for the recorder, a HDMI or Optical for the sound bar, when things change - which they will - the mini trunking will allow you to swap cables easily
Long version with explanations:
The thing you've found is for connecting a mobile phone or a tablet PC to a TV using a derivative of wireless technology called
mirroring. If you haven't heard of this before, it allows whatever is being viewed on the portable device to be seen on the TV. In short, the TV
mirrors what's seen on the smaller device.
The manufacturer's description is somewhat misleading. It talks about transmitter and receiver technology. Yes, there's a two-
mirrors way communication, but not in a way that's useful for connecting a Blu-ray recorder to a TV. To do that would require the transmitter to take a HD 1080p signal and then convert it to something that can be transmitted via a wireless connection. The processing power to do that doesn't yet come in little adapters costing under £15.
I think you were already on your way to the same conclusion.
The design of these little devices apes that of
Google Chromecast. That's deliberate. They're trying to ride of the coat tails of a successful product and hoping to steal some sales.
What you're looking for is the proper version of a wireless HDMI transmitter/receiver kit. There are dozens to choose from. Prices start from just over the £100 mark.
Here's an example. Typically you have two rather bulky boxes, sometimes with aerials sticking up too. Hiding the transmitter is probably achievable, but trying to conceal the receiver behind a TV will be more difficult. There are versions where the receiver part is a small dongle about the size of a pack of chewing gum.
Here's an example. This is easier to conceal and, since it takes its power from the HDMI socket, it's also a simpler to install. The catch is that the reception may not be as good as the larger devices with aerials.
As a general class of products, the results that folk get with these vary quite widely. Part of that is to do with the design/cost/quality of the item itself. The rest is to do with the room or house it is being used in. These things work on a part of the wireless spectrum that is very crowded and somewhat susceptible to interference. The upshot is that two buyers could run exactly the same product over a similar distance; one of them could get great results, but the other might experience connection issues and drop out that makes it a nightmare to use. The thing is, there's no predictability to this unless you have the gear to do a wireless survey, and even then, you've only got a general idea rather than a rock solid guarantee.
This is potentially a lot of hassle for what was intended to be a quick fix to get around doing the job properly with a wired connection.
What are the alternatives?...
It depends whether your cable is directly plastered in or loose. But before talking about in-wall cabling, we should take a few moments to consider where technology is going and how to plan around changes in the future.
Your new TV is a premium product. Although prices have fallen, OLED TVs are still at the upper end of the market, and so you're spending at least double of what the same sized LED TV would cost. Forgive me being direct, but you've either decided on a premium TV because you want the performance, or because you buy the best available. Whichever it is, money is not the critical factor; and in that situation are you really going to spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar?
Next, if SCART was your connection method of choice in the previous install, and given that we've had HD and HDMI around for over a decade, then I'd conclude you've either had the old TV a long time, or you got really bad advice at the time you had the original install done where someone said "Nah. mate. Don't bother with HDMI. SCART is all you need."
Do you want to repeat the same sort of mistake this time?
Going for a wireless HDMI kit is a sticking-plaster solution. It will cope with basic HD signals and stereo sound, but won't handle 4K UHD and the clever automation features that are now part of HDMI. For these reasons, and the fact that you're probably dealing with a relatively short distance, I would look at alternative solution that are neater; more reliable; better future-proofed and offer greater support for useful features. This brings us back to doing something with the cabling in the wall.
Something else to factor in is the changes in TV technology since you last bought for this site. I'm thinking specifically about sound at this point.
CRT TV sets had lots of space for big speakers. A decent 32" widescreen set sounded pretty good. There was bass, and clarity and dynamics. The change to flat-screen TVs changed that. The sound from early generation Philips plasmas sets wasn't bad, and if you bought the column speakers for Pioneer screens they were okay too. But as the trend for ever thinner displays took hold then the space for speakers got smaller and smaller. This is something that technology couldn't (and still can't) overcome. It's basic physics. To make deep sound requires a diaphragm with either a large surface area or a big excursion. Both require space, but space is at a premium in thin tellies. For this reason, it's now a common thing to add a sound bar to any TV install.
Pulling all this together, your new telly will only show its best image with a 4K UHD HDR source. That means a subscription to premium Netflix or Amazon Prime or Sky Q box sets & films or hooking up a 4K UHD Blu-ray player. Netflix streaming will be built in. You might need something external to do Amazon Prime. You'll definitely need HDMI cables to do Sky or 4K UHD Blu-ray.
In addition, you'll want decent sound. That means adding a sound bar and provisioning for the cable (HDMI or Optical) and something for power to it.
Finally, no-one knows the future, except we know it'll be different at some point. So while we can't plan for stuff we don't know about or that doesn't yet exist, what we can do is plan for the day when that change comes and make things as easy for ourselves as possible. When it comes to cabling for TVs, that means being able to change cables easily. Mini-trunking buried in the wall will help to do that. Pull through the new leads while pulling out the old.
That's it.
If this and any other posts helped you, then pay the authors the compliment of hitting the thanks button. It shows your appreciation and marks the reply for those looking for answers in the future.
