Hava Wireless HD
TV used to be so simple. You sat down on the couch, grabbed the remote control, and watched your favorite shows when they were on. Today it’s anything but simple. You have to make sense of HDTVs and LCDs and DVRs. As if all that weren’t enough, now you face a wave of “placeshifting” devices, too: gadgets that allow you to watch your TV even if you’re not in the same room or building as the set.
Hava Wireless HD offer some excellent features because of its easier setup and better video quality. Hava Wireless HD are similar to the Slingbox AV, a popular place-shifting device. Like the Slingbox, the Hava let you watch your TV from any Internet-connected computer, and even from certain portable devices. The devices work via a hardware component that you attach to your TV and video source and then connect to your home network, and include a software component that you install on your computer.
Much like the Slingbox AV, the Hava was a snap to install. About the size of a large textbook, the Hava is slightly bigger than the sleek Slingbox, but it feels less sturdy. What’s nice about both the Hava is that they possess built-in wireless capabilities.
The software (on CD) that accompanies the Hava is what permits you to watch the content of your TV set on your PC. Once the software is installed, you can connect to your Hava device, on your current network or over the Internet. On your network the software will find the device automatically; to connect via the Internet, you submit the name and password of the device.
The applications show a large video screen and a remote control for changing the channel and otherwise managing your TV remotely. One
major drawback, though: Unlike Slingbox’s SlingPlayer software, the Hava PC Player shows an exact replica of your TV’s remote control. SlingPlayer employs skins that allow you to see, for example, your TiVo remote on the screen. In this familiar interface, you can more easily do things like scroll through and play back your stored recordings and schedule your future recordings.
The Hava PC Player come with basic, industrial-looking remotes that provide most of the same functions, but not the familiarity, that the SlingPlayer remote does. Monsoon says that it will be adding skins in a future version of the Hava software.
The Hava software has certain features that both of the other applications lack, however. Within the app, you can record TV content directly to your PC’s hard drive; you can schedule recordings and play back previously recorded content from your hard drive, too. And Hava PC Player provides excellent video quality.
The Hava Wireless HD is easier to set up and produced consistently better video.
