Mitsubishi to make a wireless HDTV

Mitsubishi's foray into wireless HDTV.

(Credit: Amimon)

Mitsubishi will be joining the rarefied ranks (in TV anyway) of Sony and Samsung in offering wireless television.

Wireless chipmaker Amimon is set to announce Thursday that Mitsubishi will use its technology to send high-definition TV signals to its latest LCD TV without wires. It will come in 40-inch and 46-inch sizes. The 40-inch model will cost 300,000 yen (or $2,731), and the 46-inch model will sell for 400,000 yen ($3,642).

Mitsubishi's TV will have the chips embedded in the TV, and will come with a separate receiver unit that can send and receive uncompressed HD video signals up to 100 feet away. That means you can keep the receiver in a room downstairs or in a cabinet--no line of sight necessary.

Here's the catch--it's being released in Japan only this fall. However, it's likely Mitsubishi will broaden distribution of this TV. Wireless HD video is a category that Amimon--which heads a consortium of chipmakers and consumer electronics companies pushing for a whole-home wireless TV standard called Wireless HDI--and others have been talking up for a while.

But it's been a long time coming, and it will be even longer before this is a mainstream product category. Amimon said recently it sees that happening in three to five years.

[tech_junky48]

for that price, you could probably buy 100 feet of HDMI and have it installed in your walls by a handyman. seems a bit impractical.

[BenFlavoredCandy]

It may be expensive now, but it is a promising technology that will come down in price, as Amimon thinks. Three to five generations of TVs from now, I wouldn't be surprised if midrange models were wireless for (relatively) cheap.

[radrider82]

Meh...I'd rather buy myself a nice 120hz tv for that price...wireless is ok, but not a necessity for me.

[netsion]

What I'd go for is a wireless internet-capable flat panel TV, one in which the user could turn off the tuner and turn on the internet mode, with signal coming from a wireless router. Mouse would be in the remote.

[WWW_HDTVDreams_COM]

THIS TECHNOLOGY IS JUST A STEPPING STONE TO WHAT TELEVISION WILL BRING. WITHIN 10 YEARS ALL TVS WILL BE WIRELESS MORE OR LESS AND WE WILL ROLL THEM OUT LIKE A MAP OR HANG THEM UP WHEN WE WANT TO VIEW THEM. THERE ARE ALSO MANY LEAPS IN 3D TECHNOLOGY WHICH WILL BE THE NEXT STEP AFTER HIGH DEFINITION.