Philips intros wireless HDMI

HAVING A BIG LCD or a plasma TV is very nice and all that, but can you imagine shelling out a couple of hundred dollars on cables because you don't want to have a not-so-cool-looking computer under it?

Philips came up with the answer, it claims, and that is Wireless HDMI. For a promised price of $300, Philips will sell you a set of wireless cables. Hmm. Now, this really, really does not sound right. Wireless cables? Anyway, the final name hasn't been decided yet, but the availability should come later this year.

For those with tech in heart, technical aspects of the Wireless HDMI are relatively simple: uncompressed 720p/1080i/1080p signal get sent using the UWB (Ultra-Wideband) standard to the receiving device in the six to eight metre range.

But the range is a probbo. UWB with around 10 meters range with full bandwidth for 1080p, with DRM going back and forth included? Last demo I saw was cracking up at three metres and was limited to optical visibility and that was fairly recent.

Anyway, if you own a big flat panel with HDMI and want to scream your HDTV signal via ADSL2+ or fiber-optics, keep your fingers crossed. µ