Samsung Intros (Nearly) Wireless Plasma, Wired 70-Inch LCD

The print ads and commercials for sleek, flatscreen, wall-mounted HD monitors often leave out one of the ugly facts of life in the flatscreen age: cables and wires that, after all, have to lead somewhere. Technically speaking, one could "snake" all those wires through a mounting wall, but how often does that happen?

Samsung said its new SPD-50P7HDT, a 50-inch PDP monitor, is equipped with the industry's first wireless AV center to allow connection of necessary devices (DVD, VCR, STB, etc.) without all those wires running down the wall of a mounted monitor. The firm said in published reports the AV center transmits the input wirelessly using an IEEE 802.11a network. Voila, no more wires.

Well, almost none. As some product reviews have pointed out this week, one key wire still remains -- the wall-mounted unit's power cord.

This week, Samsung also will demo its 70-inch 1080p LCD set at a technical show in South Korea. It reportedly will not be shipped to retailers in Asia and elsewhere for several months.