Adding WiFi Capabilities to a Blu-ray Player

[Scouser Tommy]

Chris
I am looking to buy the following Panasonic product which offer the VIERACAST feature. The products will be sited in my Living Room 70 feet away from my Internet Connection which is via a Motorola modem through Comcast service located in another room.
TH-50PZ850U-HDTV
SC-BT200-HTIB [replaces the SC-BT100] or
DMP-BD60-Blu-ray.

I have been led to believe the TH-50PZ850U HDTV does not have Wireless Connectivity and I am not sure about the HTIB or Blu-ray. I really wanted to avoid trailing cable 70 feet between 2 rooms.


Is a single Router capable of providing both Wired and Wireless Connectivity?

Can you recommend particular Router manufacturers and their SKU's which will resolve my problems?

Regards

[MrBoylan]

Chris
I am looking to buy the following Panasonic product which offer the VIERACAST feature. The products will be sited in my Living Room 70 feet away from my Internet Connection which is via a Motorola modem through Comcast service located in another room.
TH-50PZ850U-HDTV
SC-BT200-HTIB [replaces the SC-BT100] or
DMP-BD60-Blu-ray.

I have been led to believe the TH-50PZ850U HDTV does not have Wireless Connectivity and I am not sure about the HTIB or Blu-ray. I really wanted to avoid trailing cable 70 feet between 2 rooms.

Is a single Router capable of providing both Wired and Wireless Connectivity?

Can you recommend particular Router manufacturers and their SKU's which will resolve my problems?

Regards

None of the current Panasonic products (Blu-ray, HTiB or HDTV) offers a WiFi (wireless network) option, but this is par for the course in CE products. The only Blu-ray player makers I know of (other than Sony with the PS3) that offer WiFi are Samsung - they have a wireless USB dongle that is optional for the BD-P1600 and the Blu-ray HTiB products and comes in the box with the BD-P3600 and BD-P4600 players - and LG who include WiFi capability in the BD390. For everything else you need to bring a wire to the box, or use a wireless bridge.

I'm not sure if you have any router at all right now or if you only have one PC plugged directly into your broadband modem. The first thing you'll need is a router and yes you can get a single router that does wireless and wired routing - most routers work this way. At this point, you should probably get a "wireless n" router (802.11n), instead of wireless G (802.11g) because wireless n offers higher bandwidth and the price difference between G and N isn't that significant any more.

The best way to then connect a few network devices in your home theater system back to the router in the other room would be to get a simple (inexpensive) wired network switch (this allows you to connect multiple devices to a single input on your router), and run one long network cable back to the router. If you want to avoid that long cable, then you will need a wireless bridge or a wireless "gaming adapter." These are basically a wireless replacement for a network cable. Some include a built-in network switch so they can accomodate multiple devices.

The other option is to use a powerline networking solution which may give you better bandwidth than WiFi, using your home's existing power lines for networking. But these are not particularly cheap.

Here are a few devices I would recommend for this:

Wireless N Routers:

• Amazon.com: Linksys WRT160N Ultra RangePlus Wireless-N Broadband Router: Electronics
• Amazon.com: D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N Wireless Router: Electronics
• Amazon.com: D-Link DIR-625 RangeBooster Wireless Draft 802.11n N Router with 2 Antennas: Electronics

Wireless Bridge/Gaming Adapters (802.11n):

1. Amazon.com: D-Link DAP1522 Xtreme 4-Port GigaBit Selectable Dual Band Draft 802.11n N Duo Wireless Bridge/Access Point: Electronics
2. Amazon.com: Linksys Dual-Band Wireless-N Gaming Adapter: Electronics

Network switches (if you decide to go wired instead)

1. Amazon.com: Linksys EZXS55W EtherFast 10/100 5-Port Workgroup Switch: Electronics
2. Amazon.com: D-Link DES-1105 5-Port 10/100 Desktop Switch: Electronics

Also, don't miss Daylight Don's post describing his experience going Wi-Fi with his Hi-Fi.

Keep in mind that Blu-ray players without integrated WiFi may not have a way of entering a WEP key, so you'll need to make sure your wireless bridge or gaming adapter includes that capability if you want to connect to a WEP-secured network.

Hope that helps.

-CB