Hey, look at that -- it's Panasonic's super-hot one-inch thick Z1 wireless HDTV, just cold sitting out for sale in a San Jose Magnolia store. No official availability announcement yet, but we're guessing it's coming soon, right on time for the Z1's planned summer debut. Everyone got their $6,000 ready?

LG's LH-series wireless HDTVs just made their debut in South Korea last month, and it looks like they're on their way to a Stateside launch soon -- there's the 55LH85, sitting pretty in Uncle Sam's FCC workshop. Of course, the real noise with these sets is the ASW1000 Media Box, which has three HDMI jacks, a pair of component inputs, antenna in, and VGA, all of which it can wirelessly send to your set from 10 meters (32.8 feet) away at 60GHz. Sadly, you can't just tuck it away, since it needs line of sight or close to it to work -- it'll bounce the signal off walls, but placing it right next to the TV won't work so great, according to the manual. Still, it's definitely cool tech -- let's hope ol' Sammy gets through with it soon so we can try it ourselves.

With its 2009 LED-backlit LH90 LCDs already announced, LG has decided its LH80 line should be next up, its first of many -- following Panasonic's lead -- packing a Wireless HD media box to stream any HDMI, USB, or OTA content to the TV. Available in Korea is just this 55-inch model for about 5.1 million South Korean won ($4,008) but you can check out our CES '09 Wireless HD demo for a better look at the box and display while we wait for its LH85 branded U.S. cousin to make an appearance later on this year.

Yes folks, we're back to the drawing board. Again. With a litany of wireless technologies floundering about and struggling to find real traction in the market, a cadre of market powerhouses have joined up to take wireless streaming to the next level -- or so they say, anyway. The newly formed WiGig Alliance aims to use unlicensed 60GHz waves in order to stream just about anything you can think of: HD video, images, phone contacts, instant messages, audio, etc. This "unified" approach differs from most other alternatives, which generally pick one niche (1080p video, for instance) and stick to it. If the more than 15 technology firms have their collective druthers, the WiGig specification will find its way into everything from set-top-boxes to telephones to home stereos, ready and willing to stream to other WiGig-enabled devices at a moment's notice.

The group consists of household names such as Microsoft, LG, Dell, Samsung, Marvell, Nokia, NEC, Intel and Broadcom (just to name a few), and when we spoke to executives about the announcement, they told us that plans were to have the specification available to member organizations in Q4 of this year. The sad part is that this likely means we won't see shipping products with the WiGig logo for another year after that -- if we're lucky. We can't argue that some stability would be nice in this volatile sector; after all, we've been waiting for promising products like Belkin's FlyWire to ship for well over a year. The execs we spoke with couldn't speak on behalf of the partner firms in terms of what WiGig products were looming on the horizon, but as we alluded to earlier, the playing field is wide open. Honestly, we'd love for this to take off and finally give high-bandwidth wireless applications the support it needs to flourish, but as we've seen over the past few years, the road ahead ain't an easy one to walk. The full release is after the break.

AMIMON, the company behind the wireless HD technology (WHDI) in Belkin's FlyWire (among other devices), has just introduced its second-generation chipset. The device, which utilizes video modem technology operating in the 5GHz unlicensed band, consists of the new AMN 2120 transmitter and AMN 2220 receiver, both of which are angling to slip into set-top-boxes, HDTVs and all sorts of other HDMI-enabled devices in short order. AMIMON asserts that this chipset is the first capable of "delivering full uncompressed 1080p/60Hz HD content throughout the entire home," with a range of beyond 100 feet through walls, under one millisecond of latency and support for HDCP 2.0. Best of all, the new kit is available now for manufacturers to snap up, so for the legions of consumers waiting for someone to get wireless HD right, let us say this: "get to snapping." The full release is after the break.

And you wonder why people refuse to take wireless HD / HDMI seriously. A full 15 months after Belkin's FlyWire was introduced at CES 2008, the world is still waiting for it to ship. When launched, it promised the consumer world a device that would take multiple HDMI devices and stream them (one at a time, obviously) to your HDTV sans wires. The box itself relies on AMIMON's WHDI technology, and while we've seen with our own eyes just how marvelous it works, Earthlings won't be able to purchase one until -- drumroll, please -- August 2009. According to a Belkin PR manager that we spoke with on the matter, the January 2009 ship date has now slipped to late summer for the US market, though the altogether painful $1,499 price tag remains firmly in tact. So, what's the over / under on Belkin actually keeping its word this go 'round?

Update: Contrary to some reports, the delay is absolutely not related to WHDI. Belkin's own PR team has confirmed that the hold-up is in no way related to WHDI, but that it is "paying very close attention to the user experience." In other words, it's delaying things to get things totally right, and for $1,500, we'd expect nothing less than perfection.

You know what's most annoying about wireless HD solutions? Two things, really. First off, 95 percent of 'em only come out to play at trade shows. Secondly, the other 5 percent require you to refinance your now-worthless home to even procure 'em. Sewell, a company known for delivering unexpected treasures when it comes to adapters, has just pumped out its very own wireless HDMI media extender. The good news is that it's shipping right now and it relies on 802.11a/n technology rather than WHDI, UWB or any other less ubiquitous option. The bad news is that 15 to 30 feet of cord-free AV goodness will set you back $1,199.95. You can weigh the pros and cons yourself, but we'll be begrudgingly sticking with coat hangers cheap-o interconnects 'til it becomes just a touch more of a bargain.

Now that it's official and priced, Panasonic seems much happier to show off its wireless HD-sporting, ultra-thin Z1 series, and it's quite the sight to behold. The 54Z1 we got to look at was very strikingly clad in brushed metal gray -- compared to the regular black of most of Panasonic's TV lineup -- and of course incredibly thin. The wireless HD receiver box was across the room and working flawlessly, and it was nice to see that the included remote is an RF unit, capable of non-line-of-sight channel changing -- it's starting to feel like the 21st century around here! The plasma picture was of course very good, and we're really feeling those Viera Tools icons across the bottom. $6,000 though? That's your call.

ASUS news from CeBIT? Say it ain't so! Just hours after the company introduced two new "Green" LCDs, we stopped by to see what all the fuss was about. What we found were two rather vanilla looking LCDs (they're in the gallery below, we promise) sitting beside something entirely more interesting: a Wireless LCD prototype. An ASUS rep informed us that the model shown was utilizing the currently-in-limbo ultra-wideband (UWB) standard, and he affirmed that the monitor didn't have a model name nor an estimated ship date or price; it was simply on hand to prove that wireless LCDs were possible and that they're on the way. He noted that ASUS was looking into other wireless protocols -- namely wireless HD and WHDI -- and that it was "waiting things out" before making a final decision on what variation to use. Our take? We suspect it's both testing for best compatibility / range and waiting to see if UWB will remain viable in the coming months, which likely means no shipping product for quite some time. For what it's worth, the on-hand demo was stellar, with no visible lag, glitches or dropped frames to speak of.

Staccato Communications has been a big fan of this whole wireless USB thing for years now, and while it seems that most of the industry has presumed ultra-wideband as dead and gone, the aforesaid company is still firmly supportive. The company's CEO has issued an absurdly long letter in response to the death knell reports that flowed after UWB mainstay TZero decided to fold, and while we could go on and on about his deepest, darkest feelings on the matter, here's what really counts. The bigwig has suggested that UWB is still far from dead, and in fact, it's just now shaping up to grow. He promises that 2009 has big things in store for the format, and evidently, those "big things" will breath "new life" into the flagging protocol. We're still pretty skeptical that UWB will break out within the next 10 months or so, but we suppose we've seen crazier things come together.

[Via Slashdot]

It's been a slow, painful death, but it's about time to just pull the white sheet over ultra-wideband and let the wireless standard rest in peace. After Intel pulled its support for UWB and proponent WiQuest shut down late last year, all that the format really had left was TZero. After successfully surviving some legal issues, we thought the company was good to go in fighting a hopeless battle against wireless HD upstart AMIMON. Now, it seems that WHDI (that's AMIMON's magic) is free to take the market by storm, but only time will tell if wireless HD is even remotely close to mainstream. In one sense, we're sad to see competition die, but on the other hand, it's always good to see fruitless format wars fade away. Don't be too down on yourself, TZero -- it's not like anyone really had high expectations for you or anything.

Interested in obtaining Panasonic's 1-inch thick first-with-WirelessHD Z1 series 1080p plasma -- before this summer? Hope you've got a good connect in Japan, because this baby is touching down April 20, complete with YouTube and 2.4GHz remote. Thanks to the slim 40,000:1 contrast ratio NeoPDP panel and ability to work without the usual assortment of cables it was born for stylish wall mounting in your appropriately adorned apartment as pictured above. Throw in half the power consumption of last year's PZ800 model and you've got a very attractive package. Checking in with ¥700,000 (about $7,835) 54-inch, ¥600,000 (about $6,715) 50-inch, and ¥550,000 ( about $6,156) 46-inch models our jealousy extends far across the Pacific, but until these get a U.S. ship date and pricetag, your closest look lies within our CES gallery.


[Via AV Watch]

After some demo time with WirelessHD and Chairman / President John Marshall, it appears 2009 will finally be the year cable-free TV connections roll out in a big way. Expect products to launch towards the end of Q2, according to the Gefen rep on hand, their adapter will go into production towards the end of Q1 and hit shelves for about $700, while WirelessHD tech could add as much/little as 10% to the cost of a new TV like the demo units from LG and Panasonic. How well does it work for the money? Pretty well, with no untoward effects on the picture, and easily switching from source to source automatically. Walking between the display and source didn't cause a problem but even millisecond-switching 60Ghz hardware was no match for being picked up and fumbled around by a photo snapping Engadget editor. Check out pics featuring Gefen (fear not, the final models will have RS-232), LG & Panasonic prototypes plus OEM hardware we're likely to see soon in one form or another.

Finally ready to give up further details on its 24.8-mm thick LED backlit LH95 (apparently dubbed the LH9500 in the UK), revealing to Stuff.tv we can expect a 55-inch HDTV with wireless HD box included. DivX HD support on the panel itself (sorry, no word about any Netflix streaming abilities just yet) via USB or Bluetooth makes sure there will be plenty to watch on the 2,000,000:1 contrast screen with 240Hz technology. At least on paper, one of the slimmest, best looking LCDs we've heard about so far, we'll see if it impresses in person shortly.

You've got to be kidding us. No, seriously -- this has to be a joke. Just last month, we witnessed in person a FlyWire unit beaming a 1080p Blu-ray signal wirelessly to an HDTV, and the results were nothing short of astonishing. For whatever reason, the box -- which was officially unveiled back at CES 2008 -- won't even be ready for next year's Vegas extravaganza. While we were told at CEDIA that the unit would begin shipping out in October (like, right now), Melody Chalaban, a marketing executive and spokeswoman for Belkin has informed Electronic House that it "won't be able to make [its] anticipated deadline of the winter CES show." Unfortunately, she gave no indication of when it actually would ship, leaving us to wonder if the dawn of the wireless HD era is being pushed back altogether. Again.

Update: Melody herself contacted us to clarify a bit and provide some guidance for release. According to her, the FlyWire is being delayed due to "compliance issues, and it will be available late January 2009."