Asus adopts WHDI with Amimon chipset

From CNET News.com: The future in which you can display your laptop's content wirelessly on an HDTV is getting closer.

Amimon, a member of the WHDI consortium that makes Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI) chips for wireless HDTV connectivity solutions, announced Tuesday that it has been picked by Asus to power the upcoming WiCast EW2000 PC to TV connectivity kit. This means Asus' WiCast kit will use Amimon's WHDI technology to enables users to wirelessly connect their computers to their TVs. Asus also announced that it has joined the WHDI consortium.

WHDI is an emerging wireless technology that offers wireless alternatives to the current HDMI cables used in most home entertainment devices for displaying content on TV screen. WHDI is capable of carrying both sound and video signal wirelessly at the same quality as HDMI cables. Earlier this year, Amimon revealed that it had sold half a million WHDI chips to hardware makers, predicting a wide adoption of the technology.

According to Amimon, Asus' wireless PC-to-TV kit allows consumers to view the entire contents--including Internet video, movies, flash media, digital photos and PC games--of their desktop, notebook, or Netbook screen on their TV. The company claims that the technology has extremely low latency--less than one millisecond--and therefore would show no difference when compared with the traditional HDMI or VGA connection.

Apart from computers, the WiCast can also connect any source device with an HDMI port, such as set-top-boxes or gaming consoles, to an HDTV that supports HDMI. The kits includes one HD Video transmitter and a receiver. The former is to be connected to the HDMI port of a source device, such as a computer, and the latter is to be connected to a TV. WHDI kits like Asus' WiCast are necessary for existing HDMI-based devices. Future devices will have built-in WHDI capability, so that they can connect to one another other wirelessly out of the box.

The Asus WiCast kit will use Amimon's second-generation chipset, the AMN2120/2220, which works in the 5Ghz frequency band and offers high-definition quality up to 1080p at 60Hz. The kit will be available next month and is slated to cost around $200.

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