North American Pre-Orders Opened for TPCast’s Wi-fi Adapter for HTC Vive

TPCast has lastly begun to take North American pre-orders for its wi-fi headset adapter for the HTC Vive. Already launched in China, the unit presents untethered operation of the HTC Vive for five hours along with minimal latencies. The related charge for this wi-fi motion is $299.99, and the company plans to start out shipments of the gadget later this month.

TPCast’s wi-fi adapter for Vive makes use of 60 GHz and totally different radios to connect the VR headset to the PC and thus take away cables, one in every of many important drawbacks of proper now’s high-end VR gear, and permits a greater freedom of actions for avid avid gamers. Widespread sense for a lot of prospects put wi-fi connections as having the subsequent enter lag that wired interconnections which might affect shopper experience, although TPCast claims to have solved this. It claims that the wi-fi adapter has an enter latency of two ms, which is lower than “HTC’s wi-fi accent for Vive created with Intel.

The comparatively low latency of TPCast’s wi-fi adapter for Vive is enabled by Lattices’ MOD6320-T/MOD6321-R WirelessHD modules that are used to transmit VR present content material materials from PC to the headset. Speaking of Lattice, the gadget moreover makes use of Lattice’s SiI9396 600 MHz HDMI bridge ICs and LatticeECP3 SERDES-based FPGA, so the company is a key developer of chips for the adapter. Neither TPCast nor Lattice disclose exact transmission value that is used for the wi-fi adapter for Vive, nevertheless everyone knows that the WirelessHD is speced for 10 – 28 Gbps, correctly in additional of the 8.2Gbps required for the Vive’s {{hardware}} HDMI 1.4 connection..

The TPCast Wi-fi Adapter for Vive package deal consists of numerous objects: the transmitter module that plugs to the Vive Linkbox (which is linked to the PC), the receiver that connects to the Vive headset, and an Anker PowerCore 20100 mAh (100.5 Wh) accumulator that provides as a lot as 5 hours of battery life to the highest mounted present. (fascinating aside: at that functionality, it may well’t be taken on-board airplane.) The unit moreover comes with a charger, a router and a bunch of cables to make setup easier. It is noteworthy that TPCast requires prospects to utilize its private router because of it transmits knowledge once more from the HMD to the PC.

The TPCAST Wi-fi Adapter for Vive is now obtainable for pre-order, at a price of $299.99, by means of Amazon, Newegg, and the company’s private website. TPCast plans to start shipments of the gadget on November 24 (for some motive, Newegg mentions November 20 because the discharge date), so rely on retail availability of the unit after this date.