The wireless adapter for the Vive VR headset that HTC announced at CES will be available in September priced at $300 in the US and €345 in Europe – more if you own Vive Pro.
Wireless adapter for HTC Vive
HTC is trying to address two of the major pain points with VR headsets. The recently-launch Vive Pro increases resolution to a less blurry 2880x1600 pixels, whereas a new wireless adapter will untether users from the PC.
HTC’s Vive Wireless Adapter connects wirelessly to the PC and is compatible with Vive and Vive Pro. It was first unveiled at CES 2018 in January and HTC has now announced pricing and launch details.
The adapter must be connected on top of the HTC Vive headset. If you own the Vive Pro you will need to shell out an addition $60 dollars, or €75, and be prepared to carry a small companion processor somewhere on your body (see picture).
- "Since the launch of Vive, we have been figuring out how to bring a wireless experience to premium VR and it has also been a request from our consumers and enterprise customers," said Paul Brown, GM Vive Europe. "We've listened to this feedback and are proud to collaborate with our talented partners, Intel and DisplayLink to deliver the Vive Wireless Adapter. Combining high quality, low latency and ease of use, the adapter delivers on our promise of premium wireless VR."
The package includes a PCI e-card that must be installed in your PC. It transmits the video signal to the adapter and Vive headset. By using a combination of Intel’s WiGig protocol and DisplayLink’s XR codec, it has a range of approximately 6 meters over the 60GHz band. This will ensure “low latency and high performance with hours of battery life”, the company claims.
HTC Vive competes head-to-head with Facebook’s Oculus VR. Both must be connected to a PC. Sony is offering the PlayStation VR headset that must be connected to a PlayStation 4. Last week, Sony announced that a total of 3 million PlayStation VR units have been sold to date. It is estimated that both HTC and Oculus have sold significantly fewer headsets.
HTC Vive Wireless Adapter will launch on September 24, with pre-orders starting September 5. It will be priced at $300 / €345 Euro but owners of Vive Pro will need to invest an additional $60 / €75 in the “compatibility pack”.
