HP announced more then just laptops tonight, but this product is a bit of and odd man out. For whatever reason they’ve decided to come out with a wireless media streaming box. Makes sense, until you start reading up on exactly how it works. The video does stream at 1080p, so that’s cool; but after that, it just gets strange.
So for $199, you get a large black box that you plug your laptop into (via HDMI only, thank you DRM), that is then powered by the USB port. No external power supply, that makes sense. The box your laptop is plugged into then transmits whatever media you want to share with your home entertainment system. This means you can send video, audio, pictures, or even Blu-ray to your home TV without wires. Here’s the catch though: the HP Wireless TV connect cost $199.99, and will be available in October. A 10 foot HDMI cable on the other hand, will set you back $4.40. Plus shipping, of course. Sorry HP, it’s a cool idea, but no thank you.