Netgear PTV3000-100NAS Push2TV

Netgear PTV3000-100NAS Push2TV
  • Wirelessly display content in up to 1080p HD video resolution.
  • Flexible power option by using the USB port on the TV.
  • Small size for easy placement and portability.

Background: I purchase this device in early November and have used it almost a month already. Setup is pretty straight forward in that you just plug the hdmi into the TV input and power connector thru an open usb port on the TV or wall plug using supplied adapter. This review is in regards to the WIDI function of the device. I do not have a Miracast smartphone so I can't test that part of the device's claim. My laptop is a Lenovo Ideapad Y580 that comes with a 3rd gen i7 intel processor and hd 4000 graphics built in. It also has a mobile Geforce 660m graphics card but WIDI is built to use intel graphics instead. Before using this device, I updated the intel widi software to the 3.5 version on my laptop. There is no firmware update for the netgear ptv3000.

Preformance: I have the PTV3000 plug into a usb port on my tv to power this device. The upside of this is that it powers on and off when the tv is on or off. The downside is that it takes time to boot so you would need to wait about a minute before it is ready. If it is plug in to the wall outlet, than it will always be on so no boot up necessary but it will be wasting electricity when not in use. When the device is ready, you start up intel WIDI software and it will or should detect the PTV3000. I then select the device and it will connect in about 10 to 20 second. The distance between the PTV3000 which is located behind the wall mounted TV is about 7 to 10 ft depending if i have the tv on the coffee table or the sofa arm rest. As far as the performance goes, there is a very short lag between the laptop vs. the tv screen. I would say less than a quarter of a second lag. I have a friend who has WIDI on an older laptop using a 2nd gen i5 with hd 3000 graphic and his lag is very bad. Intel has improved WIDI with version 3.5 down to 60 ms if using a 3rd gen. intel chip with hd 4000. My friends 2nd gen chip lag did improve with the 3.5 update and the lag from his laptop went from 1 sec difference to 3/4 second difference between tv and laptop. Intel have said that lag time is around 260 ms for 2nd gen chips. There are times when my connection for WIDI gets cut off and I would have to reconnect. This happens on average once every session. Once i reconnect again, usually I don't have any disconnect problems anymore afterwards and this is when I am watching a movie. Occasionally, artifacts will pop up and go just as quick. There are times when the picture freezes but don't disconnect and then "catches up" and work fine the rest of the time. It does get annoying when this happens and you do get the feeling that this is beta hardware where it doesn't work perfectly all the time when it should.

The current ideal setup for WIDI now is to use a 3rd Generation intel chip with HD 4000 Graphics. Intel has said that with WIDI 3.5 and intel HD 4000 graphics, you would get 60ms latency vs. 260ms for 2nd Gen intel hd 3000 graphics. It is a big difference. No you won't be able to enjoy fast games with widi but slow pace games like monopoly, chess, etc would be fine with widi. I watch movies with this setup and it works well most of the time. It seems to run better with windows 7 too. Windows 8 still has some issues for some people.

Buy Netgear PTV3000-100NAS Push2TV Now

Good news: It works flawlessly with Windows 8 and I will tell you how. It gets 5 stars for what is supposed to do (WiDi and Miracast).

Bad news: It doesn't work with Windows 8 out of the box and for that sole reason Netgear should face big financial penalty. It says no where on front of the box that it is not Windows 8 compatible (yet), nor it says when it is going to be. A lot of buyers would be fooled straight away and waste their money unless they know how to make it work.

OK here is the setup for WiDi on Windows 8. BTW it is strongly recommended to have 3rd gen Intel CPU (Ivy Bridge) due to WiDi 3.5 optimization. But even with that configuration there is a close to half a second lag, I think they claim it's 30mil but it feels more than that.

1) If your laptop came with WiDi installed, like new Sony VAIOs, here is what you need to do:

a) Grab new drivers/software from Intel's website for ProSet Wireless (you will see two, but pick bigger sized file), HD4000 Graphics and WiDi 3.5.4 or newer software (don't use OEM updating software like VAIO Care because it most likely doesn't have the recent versions rolled out yet).

b) Install them in any order you want. Restart after every installation.

c) Here is the catch: You laptop probably didn't come with WiDi widget installed so you would need to download it from Intel's website as well. On Intel's website it will say it's Windows 7 only but you need it to connect successfully via "add device" in control panel. Install the stupid widget and restart the computer.

d) EDIT: Official firmware 2.1.5 now available @ support.netgear.com/product/PTV3000 If you are still looking for beta firmware newest one is 2.2.6 (I am still using 2.2.4) You can google it it's quite easy, there is a productforum google group there with download links.

e) Hold side button on your PTV3000 for 7 seconds, it will restart and get into firmware update mode. Go to your laptop and in wireless networks find push2tv. Connect to it, fire up your internet browser, punch in 192.163.3.1 and you will get firmware update interface. Pretty self explanatory stuff. Once done PTV3000 will reset itself.

f) Go to your Control Panel > Devices and Printers > Add device. PTV3000 will show up as television set, click connect and you would be prompted to enter the code that shows up on your TV set.

g) G is for good to go :) Connect to your adapter via WiDi 3.5.4 software and that's it

h) Known issues with 2.2.4: If you do Display extension you will get strange noise lines, you can fix that by fiddling with resolution of second screen (your TV) change it from 1080p to 720p and back to 1080p and lines will be gone. My advice: Do not use your TV as screen extension, just duplicate the screen. Do not use WiDi widget to send applications to your TV cause this acts same as screen extension.

2)If you laptop didn't come with WiDi preinstalled (let's you did clean install):

a) Installation order of following is VERY IMPORTANT! So read carefully. Grab them all from Intel's website.

b) ProSet Wireless (you will see two, but pick bigger sized file)

c) HD4000 Graphics driver

d) WiDi 3.5.4

e) WiDi Widget

f) Install them in order above and reset after every completed installation.

g) Now refer to d) section on previous list and follow steps all the way through

3) Miracast

a) Miracast should work if you followed above procedures

b) After 2.2.4 firmware update there is no need to hold side button for 2 seconds to switch between WiDi mode to Miracast mode. It's all on the same screen now.

c) You Miracast performance and availability to connect will vary from phone to phone

d) You need Android 4.2 no matter what

e) If you can't connect maybe you want to switch back to beta firmwares like 2.2.2 or 2.1.5

4) Wait for official firmware update on Netgear (), it's coming soon

EDIT: NO NEED TO WAIT Official firmware 2.1.5 is available for download @ support.netgear.com/product/PTV3000

Enjoy

Read Best Reviews of Netgear PTV3000-100NAS Push2TV Here

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I was able to use Nexus 4 Miracast with this device using beta firmware 2.1.5.

It is not perfect but usable.

Want Netgear PTV3000-100NAS Push2TV Discount?

it should be criminal that a company is advertising an item as miracast compatible when there is no miracast support. a vague promise of a future firmware update is not sufficient to qualify as customer service.

customer support is non-existent.

don't waste your time.

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Just received ours in after finding out that my bosses tablet(Fujitsu Stylistic Q702) had WiDi in it. Once it got here we discovered we couldn't connect and I went hunting for why. The thing is tricky.

You -mustinstall the latest drivers from Intel's site in a particular order, if you go out of order or have just one wrong, you are toast.

1) Wireless driver(there are two downloads, you need the biggest of the two, if you get the smaller, things just won't work)

2) Display driver

3) Wireless display software

4) Widget

You should also change the settings to not display the pointer, no mater what, this slows everything down.

That will get you into being able to barely connect to the device if you use the button on the 3000 until the TV tells you to connect a wireless device, not a miracast one(miracast came up as default on ours). But its not very stable and its horribly pokey.

The -realtrick is hunting down the latest firmware for it. Netgear, for some insane reason, has not publicly released the absolutely critical updates to make this device even remotely usable. Go to look for the dropbox link, copy it into your address bar, then start moving the version numbers up until you get to the most recent one. The one I picked up this morning was 2.2.2. After updating to it, the device worked flawlessly. The range was amazing and the xbox video app played a few high def trailers with zero delay from what we saw on the tablet and what was up on the 47" screen.

Netgear, if you are reading this, friggin publish your damned firmware updates. You've effectively killed a product that's amazing by making it where only super techies are able to get the damned thing working.

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