GrandTec Ultimate Wireless user reviews

3.5 stars

"Keep your expectations realistic" on January 12, 2007 by image66

Pros: Excellent for streaming video and games

Cons: Lack of detail and bad documentation

Summary: The GWB-4000 does not give the sharpness and detail of regular computer monitor. As the unit scales the PC's video image to 525 vertical lines, there will be a loss of resolution as the unit scales and performs some anti-aliasing.

It is excellent for playing Internet streaming video from your computer onto the TV, though. The resulting image quality is not unlike that of satellite TV. Audio quality through the radio link isn't as transparent as I like, but not horrible either.

One thing to take into account is that this works in the 2.4gHz ISM band which is also where the WiFi networks (802.11bg) operate. I did have to change to channel to 4, which completely wipes out WiFi channels 8-11. The other three channels interferred with the WiFi router too much to be functional. If you have a conflict either your WiFi network won't work or you'll get banding interference in the video image on the TV.

Ease of use would have been better if the channel select DIP switches weren't recessed so deeply and if the manual would have identified conflicting WiFi channels. The manual is so incomplete and lacking in technical details that most users will either need to contact customer support or will just give up and return the unit. I'd like to teach these people how to write a manual.

Performance is interesting. When the transmitter and receivers are located within a few feet of each other the video image has some noise issues, but when seperated by at least 20 feet things stabilized and performance from opposite ends of a long ranch style house proved to be stable and good.

The construction of the GWB-4000 is less than robust. I don't think it could be built any cheeper than it is. The plastic is thin, the antenna is not mounted with any semblence of strength and some of the connectors flex. I'll need to be careful with it.

One nice feature is the external battery holder which holds four AA batteries and can be used instead of the wall-wart power-supply. I got about an hour and a half of runtime on the transmitter off of a set of 1200mAh rechargeables.

Keep your expectations in check. At 1024x768 (probably the best setting) you can just barely read the text in a web-brouser. Sharp, it is not. When the transmitter is directly connected to the TV, sharpness does improve some. For streaming video and games, this is a decent product.