Another TV Enters the Networked Zone

It's been a banner year for networked TV introductions, and we have another manufacturer on the board. Mitsubishi has announced a Living Fit TV line that uses the Amimon WDHI solution to wirelessly link an HDTV receiver to an LCD panel. This product will be available in the Japanese market. This TV win is apparently the second for the WHDI technology, which will also be used in the Sharp X Series televisions, also available to the Japanese market.

With the Mitsubishi introduction, I believe we now have seven known manufacturers with at least one wireless television either announced or currently available. Here's the rundown:

• HP MediaSmart TV (has integrated 802.11a/b/g/n) offers movies from CinemaNow and music from Live365
• Panasonic PZ850/VIERA Cast™ offers YouTube videos and access to Picasa, Google's photo sharing service
• Samsung's Series 6 and Series 7 LCD and plasma TVs offer the InfoLink™ RSS Service with customized news, weather, sports, and stock information
• Sharp's SE94U and D74U AQUOS HDTV series feature AQUOS Net, a widget service that provides Nasdaq stock quotes, local weather information, high-definition images, traffic information from Traffic.com, and cartoons
• Sony's BRAVIA® Internet Video Link is a small module that attaches to the back of a selection of the the company’s 2007 and 2008 BRAVIA LCD flat-panel television models and provides on-demand entertainment including movies, TV programs, YouTube videos, and a variety of other free content as well as news, weather and traffic informaiton via an existing Ethernet connection
• Westinghouse teamed with UWB technology provider Pulse~LINK to develop two Wireless HDMI TVs. These will be initially aimed at the B2B space for digital signage applications.