Sunday, January 6,2008 @ 5:45pm
Monsoon intros HAVA with wireless 1080i streams
Monsoon tonight stepped up competition in the TV media hub field with its simply-titled HAVA. This new version adds 802.11n Wi-Fi and is the very first to stream greater than 720p HD video wirelessly, according to its creator. Unlike the wired-only Slingbox PRO-HD, the HAVA box can pipe 1080i video from a TV or movie player source to multiple local systems within reach of an 802.11n network. This makes it an ideal fit for users hoping to watch TV on their notebook elsewhere in the house without sacrificing the quality of the outgoing image.
The new flagship HAVA doubles as a hybrid analog and digital DVR for computers courtesy of a built-in ATSC/NTSC tuner and will appear as a virtual TV tuner for any Windows XP or Vista PC using Microsoft's Media Center interface. Outside of the local network, the hub streams at a lower resolution in MPEG-4 to either PCs or Windows Mobile handhelds. Monsoon has not disclosed a price but plans to ship the HAVA in the spring.
