HDMI is easily the standard when it comes to connecting your consoles, DVD players, and Blu-ray players to your TV or other screen. What do you do when you want to connect a laptop or other HDMI enabled device to your TV or larger screen temporarily? In the past – or currently – you’d usually drag out a long HDMI cable and string it across your living room floor and hook it up to your laptop. A number of companies have come out with wireless HD transmitter solutions and our Nyrius Aries Prime review takes a look at one such device.
Specs
The Nyrius Aries Prime features the following specifications:
- GigaXtreme Wireless Technology
- HDMI, micro-USB ports
- Operating temperature: -10° to 40° C
- Storage temperature: -20° to 80° C
- Relative humidity: 15 ~ 85% RH
- 5V / 1A (Transmitter) 5V / 2A (Receiver)
- Supported Video Formats (TV): 1080p, 1080i,720p, 576p, 480p
- Supported Video Formats (PC) PC : 1920×1080, 1280×1024, 1024×768, 800×600, 640×480
- Supported Audio Formats: PCM , DTS , Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound
- TV Compatibility: Any high-definition television including 3D TVs containing an HDMI port
- Wireless range: 30 feet open space (clear line of sight)
- Transmission frequency: 5.15 ~ 5.25 GHz 5.25 ~ 5.35 GHz 5.47 ~ 5.725 GHz 5.725 ~ 5.850 GHz
- Transmitter dimensions: Length: 3.24 inches (82.2 mm) Width: 1.18 inches (30 mm) Height: 0.69 inch (17.5 mm)
- Receiver dimensions: Length: 5.8 inches (146.8 mm) Width: 7.69inches (194.8 mm) Height: 1.22 inches (31 mm)
In the Box
The Aries Prime Wireless HD Transmitter includes:
- Digital Wireless HD Transmitter
- Digital Wireless HD Receiver
- 1x 100-240V Power Adapter
- 5′ HDMI Cable
- Right Angle HDMI Adapter
- USB Power Cable
- 2x Screws/Screw Anchors
- Quick Start Guide
- 1 year warranty
Design
Nyrius’ Aries Prime consists of two main components – the Wireless HD Transmitter and the Wireless HD Receiver. The transmitter is a small rectangular box with an HDMI connector on the end. On the other end is a button used for pairing to the receiver. On one side of the transmitter near the HDMI connection end is the mini-USB port to connect the USB power cable and an LED status indicator light sits on top of the device.
The HD receiver is a larger square box with four rubber feet and two slots for anchoring it to a wall if you wish. If you do want to wall mount it, you’ll have to remove the rubber feet which appear to be stuck on to the receiver fairly well. The front of the device contains the receiver port, while a power button, info button and LED status indicator light sit on top of the receiver. The HDMI and mini-USB ports for video connection and power are located on the back.
The design of both components is pretty non-descript and they should blend in nicely with most home theatre setups.
Installation
Installation of the Nyrius Aries Prime Wireless HD solution is extremely simple. First, connect the transmitter to your PC, cable box, or other HDMI device. Next, connect the mini-USB cable to the transmitter and then into an available USB slot. If your HDMI device doesn’t have a USB port, you’ll have to get a mini-USB to DC power adapter in order to power the transmitter.
After your transmitter is installed, the next step is to connect the HDMI cable to the HDMI Output of the receiver and to your HDTV television or HD projector. Once connected, connect the power adapter to the DC Input of the receiver and into a wall outlet. When the unit is successfully connected, the power LED indicator on the power button lights up in blue.
At this point, the transmitter and receiver should automatically pair to each other. If they don’t, simply hold the pairing button on the transmitter down until the two devices successfully pair up.
Unfortunately, the suggested installation doesn’t always bode well for ceiling mounted projectors. I’d rather have the HDMI transmitter connected to my projector and the HDMI receiver connected to my AV receiver. Because of the design and the way my projector is set up, there was no real place to hang the receiver box. Given my setup, the transmitter was also hidden behind my AV receiver and didn’t have anything resembling a clear line of sight and the setup quickly dashed my hopes of what I really wanted to test the device out for – eliminating the long cable from my receiver to my projector.
Performance
From my tests, the Aries Prime Wireless HD Transmitter/Receiver works great. I had no issues with streaming full HD content from my laptop to my LG HDTV, an ASUS HDMI monitor, and even my Epson projector through my AV receiver. There was no lag that I noticed while testing out gaming either – including streaming my Xbox One to my Windows 10 laptop and transmitting the signal through the Aries Prime to a TV. Nyrius also claims that the device includes 3D support and given my experiences with the game streaming I doubt that streaming 3D content through the HDMI transmitter and receiver will have any issues.
Price/Value
The Nyrius Aries Prime Wireless HD Transmitter will set you back $199USD. While this seems on the expensive side compared to a longer HDMI cable, it is a much tidier solution for those areas you don’t want, or can’t have, long cables lying across the floor or across the ceiling in the case of a projector, that is if it is set up in such a way that you can nicely set up the receiver and transmitter with your configuration.
Wrap-up
While a tad on the expensive side, the Nyrius Aries Prime Wireless HD Transmitter performs well and is an ideal replacement for a standard HDMI cable, especially if you have multiple devices that you like to hook up to your TV or projector on the fly.
[rwp-review id=”0″]*We were sent a demo unit of the Nyrius Aries Prime Wireless HD Transmitter for the purposes of this review.
Last Updated on January 12, 2019.
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