Sadly a better solution already exists: my 2012 Panasonic TV connects wirelessly to my network, and my laptop can stream videos to it without having to install anything , all via DLNA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Living_Network_Alliance Here's Panasonic's page outlining such features in their TVs: http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_GB/Products/VIERA+TV/VIER... It's a lovely idea for retrofitting to older TVs…
DLNA is emphatically not a better solution, or even equivalent. The spec defines only a limited number of file types that are allowed to function. Why on earth would I want to let multinational corporations decide which file types I want to use? For instance, MKV files, which would be in the top 2-3 file formats that most of us would want to use wireless streaming for in the first place, are not supported. All Apple…
I question how despised DLNA really is, as I believe you might be letting your personal prejudices get in the way.
Non-techies (and plenty of techies, including myself) just don't care as long as a given solution works, and the DLNA solution is pretty hard to beat:
Plug in your TV, connect it to the network, and click on a video on your laptop to watch.
Out of interest, what kind of open source solution do you envisage when you say that "DLNA will die an instant and painful death the moment a truly open solution is adopted"?
Would it involve hardware, or something installed on the TV, or something else entirely?
All Apple products are, similarly, not supported.
FYI, my iPhone and iPad work just fine with it.