Wireless HDMI: Everything You Need to Know Before Buying

If you have a projector, or you just want to subtly hide a game console or other video source, then wireless HDMI might be on your radar. It's not a terribly rare technology these days, but it's still not common enough that there are no industry leaders or best-practice guidelines. Many people don't even know it's an option.

Wireless HDMI allows you to stream audio and video from any HDMI output such as a game console, computer or set-top box. It allows you to remove unsightly HDMI cables from your setup and even frees up options such as storing video feeds in a completely separate room.

It's also a very easy-to-use technology, but there are a few things you should know before buying, as well as some caveats about functionality and wireless interference. Before jumping into any of them, though, it's good to understand how these settings work.

How does wireless HDMI work?Like much of today's technology, Wireless HDMI uses the power of invisible electromagnetic waves to do its magic: sending audio and video signals across a room, much like cell towers carry content to the smartphone in your pocket.

However, electromagnetic waves are not as sci-fi as they sound. Broken down to its most basic principles, electromagnetic waves are basically vibrations that travel through the air. There is one around the trumpet, and so is the light, and what makes them different is how fast or slow they oscillate. The speed of this oscillation is called frequency and is measured in Hz or "Hertz".

So when we say that cell phone signals, radio broadcasts, and even your home Wi-Fi are wireless networks that broadcast in "Hertz," now we have some kind of foundation on which to stand.

The difference between them is through different speeds -- different Hertz values -- which is why you might see your wi-fi router have a 2.4 GHz network and a 5.0 GHz network. ("Gigahertz.")

multiple screensAnother extreme case of wireless HDMI is when people want to project a single HDMI source to multiple screens.

Not many people want to play the same video on multiple screens at the same time, but for those who do, they can stream large games to their living room projector (our list of the 6 best projectors) and The porch TV is ready for work with the Wireless ACCSOON HDMI System .

Will it interfere with your Wi-Fi network?When explaining how wireless HDMI works, you probably realized that these things are building their own wireless network, just like your wireless internet. This is a valid understanding, and has implications for wireless setups, especially if you have everything in the same place.

This can cause issues with the signal, such as video and audio flickering occasionally, perhaps every few minutes for a few seconds, before the connection re-stabilizes.

Conclusion - what are your options?So, maybe after reading all that, you can make a decision. Wireless HDMI can be a good help with issues like irregular hardware placement and keeping things tidy, but using a streaming stick gives you some material comforts that you don't get with wireless HDMI.