PC-to-TV

Wireless PC-TV

Creative Labs also had a technology demonstration of a wireless PC to television kit. The technology allows you to control your PC with a wireless keyboard and use your television as the monitor. A transmitter/receiver base on the PC sends a converted analog VGA-to-NTSC signal to a receiver base on the television which displays the output. The PC's transmitter also sends the 4-channel sound data from the PC to the receiver on the TV.

PC transmitter/receiver & converter

In the demonstration, the PC was playing a DVD movie and sending all the information to a television set about eight feet away. There were a couple small obstacles between the two transmitter/receivers, which simulated a home living room environment. The picture quality was fairly good considering the wireless nature of the technology -close to VCR quality. I saw the same demonstration at Comdex, but they were using the Matrix as the demo DVD at the time, and you could clearly see that the quality wasn't nearly as good as normal DVD.

TV receiver

FPS? Maybe for amateurs...

The wireless keyboard has an analog pad instead of a mouse. Don't expect to do any serious First Person Shooter (FPS) gaming with this device. If the analog pad doesn't get you, the slight latency from the wireless connection between the keyboard and the PC will.

The Keyboard

Despite this drawback, the product would still be useful for most other activities such as e-mail, web browsing, and DVD viewing. I would like to see how it stacks up against a normal PC with a wireless keyboard and mouse and a video card that has a composite video-out. The advantage of the Creative product is the wireless technology, but at eight feet, you could easily have a wire instead. Fortunately, the wireless units should have a range close to one hundred feet, but walls and other obstacles will reduce the effective distance.

Currently, the product is still in prototype stage. It still doesn't have a name, and I was given a wide $200-$500 range when I asked for an estimated retail price.