HD JuiceBox HDMI over Powerline kit

CES 2012 Week Hey, guess what? There’s another way of routing hi-def around your house, in addition to unfeasibly long HDMI cable runs, wireless transmitters and Cat 5. You can actually send it via the ring main, using the HDJuice Box from JustHDMI. HD Juice Box HDMI over Powerline kit The cable guys: JustHDMI's …

[David Hicks]

Four hundred quid?

Jaysus!

Get yourself some homeplug (or similar) kit and just network straight into your tv/blu-ray player/ps3, or grab a little media box as well, you'll still come out ahead.

[TonyJ]

Very expensive option

I like the idea, but compared to say Sky multiroom (and I never thought I'd be saying Sky are cheaper than something/someone) in the UK, it seems a very expensive option! Especially if I can't get my full fat BluRay, for example.

I do accept this kind of thing isn't globally available though, but even then - a second TV with a free to air receiver and a BR player would still be less expensive than this.

[Mage]

can’t get past a fuse box

Nonsense

There is nothing in ordinary fuse boxes to block this or Ethernet over mains. But "next door" on both sides are usually on the other two phases.

What about EMI/RFI from this?

What power levels and bands does it use?

In reality anything that goes beyond about 0.25Mbps on mains is probably really a transmitter and will very likely work between adjacent rooms that are not even on the same mains. The mains wiring just extends the range.

[Neil 44]

Could and RCD block it?

As there are current measuring sensors in RCDs (to detect inbalance in live and return), which have some of the characteristics of a choke, could they block the PLC signal?

If so it'll have problems in "modern" wired houses that have different sets of socket mains on different RCDs.

I don't know if this is what they mean by "can't get past a fuse box" but it could be....

If it isn't, you're likely to have interference from the people 3 doors down who are on the same mains phase - even if they've just got another PLC networking product....

[Ivan Headache]

It's not the fusebox

it's the power-factor correction stuff in the electricty meter that prevents ypour neighbours evesdropping (and vice-versa).

[Danny 14]

fusebox

I use homeplugs, one is on the downstairs ring, one is on the upstairs ring and one is on the extension ring. I did have another that went to the shed via another ring (with RCD at the other end) but that one DID drop out occasionally.

No issues on the other 3 - I dont "reboot" them either. They do get pretty warm though. XBMC has no issues streaming HD.

[Ian Watkinson]

You can buy another mede8er or similar and a hard drive for less than this. If it included ethernet and was about £150, it would be interesting, at £410, much less so.

[John Burton]

My reaction

Oh cool just what I need.

...

Oh, HOW MUCH??? Never mind then.

[Pascal Monett]

Cool, but I can't use it

Already tried Ethernet over power lines and it just doesn't work in my house.

My electrical panel has no less than eight separate circuits, four for the power outlets in the lower and upper areas, four for the lights in the same areas. The room used as office, for example, is not on the same circuit than the living room.

That is significant because the office is where Internet, phone and TV arrive, whereas the living room is, of course, where we watch said TV.

I tried Ethernet over power lines to avoid having to string a cable through the attic. Unfortunately, it never worked.

I doubt this version would work better in the same conditions.

[Anonymous Coward]

Crud Remote

They want to charge you £410 and then give you a cheap remote that looks like the one that came with my rubbish car mp3 player for £5 from china from ebay that never worked!

May I suggest that they divide their price by 10, then we are in roughly the right price area.

[Bah!]

Don't stream your bedroom activities over this.....You don't know who is watching.

How does a passive device on the end of a long wire stop the RF from leaking through the air? What stops me from eaves dropping the leaking RF? Firstly the Fusebox/meter doesn't stop the RF - the RF can be heard radiating in your neighbours house but one without much trouble, secondly I can eavesdrop the RF leaking over the air from your household wiring.

[admiraljkb]

@Bah!

The Powerline AV units have AES encryption if you enable it. That *should* keep the neighbors out unless they're really, really determined and intelligent/patient enough to crack encryption.

[admiraljkb]

How MUCH???

£410 for the the old 200Mbs Powerline adapters is no good, even if it does HDMI... The benchmarks bore that out as there was trouble getting to 1080i. They should have the current 500Mbs Powerline adapters for full HD.

Cool concept for having HDMI built in though. Shame to have done some really cool stuff, and then put a lower tier network adapter into it.

I had to bone up on the powerline stuff to help an inlaw out with his 85Mbs one that was a real bottleneck, and much slower than his 18Mbs internet connection (he was getting 7Mbs instead). Found that need to divide BW on powerline devices by 15 to have a margin or error, like for bad wiring and such. That ruled out the cheaper 200Mbs adapters as a replacement due to a lack of bandwith for internet and local net traffice once it goes any distance. Trying to get fast connections over the powerlines in the house is a haphazard affair at best. One thing I found out on one site that was doing benchmarks and interoperability testing, is best not to mix and match slower 200Mbs adapters and faster 500Mbs adapters. The 500Mbs Powerline adapters are typically much faster/reliable than wireless, but actually running some Cat5e or Cat6 cable for true Gigabit is faster still. *If* you can, run real network cable, it'll actually save some time/frustration and you'll be happier with it in the long run.

The article was indicating that SurgeSuppressors were a problem and they are, BUT there are SurgeSuppressors that are compatible with Powerline, you have to research to find them.

Advice - for anyone having a house built new (or a major remodeling job as well) - have 2-4 cable drops put in each room while the walls are open to escape the wireless/powerline problems... Powerline is great when there is NO alternative, but real network cabling is always best.

[Anonymous Coward]

1080i Unsupported format

You're probably hitting HDCP restrictions on the higher bandwidth streams. You'll have to stop obtaining videos through legal means.

[Nick Ryan]

£400 and still a crappy sub $1 remote

... for that budget they could at least have sourced decent remote controls, not the cheap'n'nasty standard part items that they found that just need overlays to customise them.

[JBR]

lossy

....mmmm right so I pay 00's for decent kit to play 1080p. It arrives in a lossy compression format, I decompress it then recompress it again in a lossy manner then decompress it again. No thanks

Much better to save source signal and then send it via [link of choice] to something capable of playing it