Wi-Fi for home electronics

Manufacturers are adding Wi-Fi wireless connections to media adapters that let home electronics equipment play music or show photos stored on personal computers.

Media adapters make it easier for consumers to play digital content on something other than the personal computer the content is usually stored on. They try to capitalise on the popularity of digital content, such as the pictures taken by digital cameras in more than half of internet-connected households.

Cisco System's Wireless-B Media Adapter, introduced today, and Sony's RoomLink are $200 media adapters in US shops that in addition to cables can use a Wi-Fi access point to make connections between a PC and a stereo or a television.

Wi-Fi networks, already in millions of homes and offices, use the 802.11b standard to create 300-foot areas where files can be wirelessly downloaded at up to 2.4Mbps.

By acting like the Wi-Fi antennas embedded inside a growing number of laptops, the wireless media adapters are able to bring home electronics to the Wi-Fi party. With the adapter properly attached using cables, stereos and televisions can wirelessly link to a personal computer to download and play MP3 files or perform a slide show on a TV.

The wireless adapters are another sign of how Wi-Fi connectivity is beginning to expand its reach beyond laptops. Just two years ago, it was rare to find something other than a laptop on a Wi-Fi network. Along with home entertainment devices, tablet PCs, printers and handheld computers, stereos and televisions now employ Wi-Fi's 2.4Mbps file-shuttling prowess.

"The result is a new line of wireless home products that add-on to the home network to provide connectivity and access to other devices around the home," said Mike Wagner, director of marketing at Linksys.

The Linksys Wireless-B Media Adapter underwent development difficulties. Linksys promised the adapter by May, making it almost three months late to market. "We were shooting for May but to blow our customers away, we spent more time on it," said a representative for Cisco's Linksys division.

The devices, as with most early generations of equipment, have their drawbacks. Sony's device only works with other Sony devices and can only use wireless networks that are based on the relatively unpopular 802.11a standard. The Linksys adapter is only for PCs that run on the Windows XP operating system.

Also, the Linksys media adapter isn't capable of working with video, ruling it out as a wireless shuttle between cable TV modem and a TV.

Ben Charny writes for CNET News.com.