CES: HTC Upgrades VIVE PRO And Unveils Wireless VIVE Adaptor

Today in Las Vegas, HTC VIVE announced new hardware upgrades with the introduction of Vive Pro and Vive Wireless Adaptor.

In addition, the company debuted new improvements in how VR users discover and acquire VR content through a redesign of Viveport VR and Vive Video.

Vive Pro is a new HMD upgrade from Vive, built for VR enthusiasts and enterprise users. The headset includes dual-OLED displays for a picture resolution of 2880 x 1600 combined, a 78% increase in resolution over the current Vive HMD.

Vive Pro also features integrated, high-performance headphones with a built-in amplifier to offer a heightened sense of presence and an overall richer sound. Vive Pro's new headstrap was built with ergonomics and comfort, including a sizing dial for a more balanced headset that decreases weight on the front of the headset. Additional improvements include dual microphones with active noise cancellation and dual front-facing cameras.

HTC did not provide availability and price details for the Vive Pro.

Also unveiled today, the Vive Wireless Adaptor will be the first to market with a truly wireless VR headset integration for both Vive and Vive Pro.

The Vive Wireless Adaptor features Intel's WiGig technology and offers a VR wireless experience that operates in the interference-free 60Ghz band, which means lower latency and better performance. The Vive Wireless Adaptor will ship in Q3.

Viveport has also been redesigned. Instead of a traditional 2D catalog, Viveport VR content is delivered in interactive previews. Viveport is embracing a VR first approach by including VR enabled "VR Previews," which are interactive glimpses of content that give a room-scale preview of an experience and the opportunity to interact with content before purchasing or subscribing.

Earlier this year, Viveport launched the first VR subscription service.

Today HTC Creative Labs also rolled out an upgrade to its native VR video player, Vive Video. Vive Video solves the discovery and acquisition problem for VR video content by delivering a large catalog of high quality streaming video directly to VR headsets. In addition to new features and UI upgrades, Vive Video has integrated content from Vimeo, the popular ad-free open video platform.

In the new Vive Video, a curated selection of Vimeo content will be made available to browse and view within Vive Video-compatible headsets.

Vive Video is available today for both Vive and Google Daydream platforms, and will arrive on Vive Wave in the near future.