Chilly forecast for wireless HD video

Samsung, Philips, and Sanyo were among those announcing wireless high-definition video products at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. But of the three major manufacturers, only Samsung has released one to market--its 50- and 58-inch wireless plasma television started selling in the US just two weeks ago.

The Philips Wireless HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) kit, a replacement for running high-definition to a TV without cables originally announced for mid-year, is delayed until next year, and Sanyo's wireless projector is now on track for the first quarter of 2008.

Philips declined to be specific about the reason for the postponement, and Sanyo could not be reached for comment on when the projector will be available.

So why the holdup? It can be tricky to send high-def video wirelessly at resolutions of 720p and 1080p at fast speeds and not lose the crispness or color quality. And there's always a learning curve involved when bringing a new technology to market. Both the Philips and Sanyo products are making use of different, unused portions of the radio spectrum, neither of which can be considered tried-and-true technologies in the consumer space. Samsung's TV, on the other hand, uses an accepted standard--802.11n Wi-Fi.

Though Samsung has at least been able to release its wireless video product using Wi-Fi, it's still unclear what the dominant wireless video delivery method will be. Right now, there's not a single industry-recognized standard for how to feed high-definition video between devices around the home. Not yet, anyway.

To be fair, it's not like this industry isn't known for getting a bit ahead of itself. But the lack of an agreed-upon standard is the same roadblock that bedevils most every major new content delivery method in the CE marketplace today. This creates uncertainty for other companies that hope to build wireless video products. Without a settled standard, manufacturers could be wary of picking the wrong one, which could mean they don't build a product at all, or severely delay the product's release.