TPCast, the wireless streaming device that lets HTC Vive owners play VR games cable-free, is now available for pre-order in most of continental Europe starting at €349 (or the regional equivalent) and the United States at $299.

Update (11/08/17): A previous version of this article stated that TPCast would be available in September in the US, but the company has since reneged on those claims and withdrew all US pre-orders. The company has now officially relaunched pre-orders. You can find info for US and Canada here.

Original Article (9/01/17): TPCast pre-orders are available in the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and UK. Many distributors are quoting late October shipping dates.

Customers based in the US will still have to wait, as the company hasn’t said when US pre-orders will go live. The website however maintains that they’ll be shipping in the US “before Sep. 30th, 2017.”

TPCAST has already been available for pre-order via HTC’s Chinese Vive online store since November last year. Only a few short months later, HTC announced at CES earlier this year that the device would go on sale worldwide in Q2 2017 for $249. Now it’s apparent HTC isn’t handling regional distribution like they did in China though, as TPCast themselves have hand-picked a patchwork of online retailers.

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image courtesy TPCast
image courtesy TPCast
image courtesy TPCast
image courtesy TPCast

In contrast to the current European price, which converts to $415 USD, it’s uncertain if the wireless VR solution will maintain such a low price as previously stated. Despite the built-in ~23% value-added tax (VAT) found in most European countries, US pricing will likely see a similar raise in expected price.

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The company says their battery provides 5 hours of play time, and that the powerbank itself is swappable for extended operation. Our friends over at UploadVR got a hands-on, stating that visual fidelity of TPCast was “very high” and there was no noticeable latency when they tried it back in June.

European TPCAST Pre-order

What’s in the box

  • 1x PC Transmitter
  • 1x HMD Receiver
  • 1x Power Box (with a 20000mAh power bank)
  • 1x Router
  • 1x USB Connection Line
  • 1x HDMI Connection Line
  • 1x User guide

Check out the full video guide from the company below to see just what sort of setup the TPCast demands.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Jonathan

    Damn that is a complicated setup. Even have to add a new router to the network. Madness.

  • Get Schwifty!

    Curious to hear how these work out – if the give brain cancer or cause epilepsy LOL.

    Seriously, one will look even more ridiculous while doing VR with this added on, but who cares ;)

    • Tyler Soward

      jeez I hope it doesn’t give me brain cancer. I’ll let you know..

      • Tyler Soward

        either way, totally worth it

  • Walextheone

    A bit too pricey in my opinion. Almost the price of one of thoose microsoft headsets

    • RFC_VR

      What about Headphones? I always like to wear some decent Sennheiser studio headphones in VR, and this TP wireless from what i’ve read (and image shows) you cannot wear over headphones with band going over top of head?

      • Caven

        I have seen a hands on video that shows someone wearing normal headphones while using the TPCast. As you pointed out, having the band go over the head won’t work. But when Norman Chan from Tested tried out the TPCast, he wore headphones with the headband tilted 45 degrees forward. The headband crossed through the open space between the TPCast receiver and the actual HMD.

        Posting a link will probably prevent this post from showing, but if you go to YouTube and search for “Hands-On: TPCast Wireless VR for HTC Vive”, the first link should be the correct video. It’s posted by Tested, and the thumbnail show a Vive and TPCast mounted on a black mannequin head with the head pointed left. The thumbnail shows the Deluxe Audio Strap, but there is footage in the video showing a normal Vive with 3rd-party headphones being used with the TPCast.

        EDIT: Looks like linking the video worked, so it’s in the post above.

      • Caven

        https://youtu.be/Z-CWz8nAFgs?t=84

        Here’s a link to the video, queued to the point where they show the unit being used with headphones:

        • RFC_VR

          Thanks. Great to know as quality audio is so important for VR immersion.

          Can recall so many public VR demo ruined by background noise in the retail environment, with poor headphones not helping

    • evo_9

      If you are like me and didn’t already own a gaming rig, then you had to dropped over 2k to get into this party anyway. $300 to go wireless is not a big deal.

      Also after I per-ordred I noticed a ship date of September 25th on my receipt. I should have mine before the end of the month, oh yeah!

  • Miganarchine Migandi

    Complicated and a lot more to bother with, will just keep my vanilla Vive until next gen, cable has never been a problem, more the boundaries and walls have been the problem, I learnt to dance the Vive cable at launch and now I am pro. And the price is too much to boot, shame, wait for an all in one solution.

  • Ombra Alberto

    what? 350 euro!!!!!!

  • Firestorm185

    Definitely saving for this one, but at some point I’d love to see someone do something like this for Oculus, as it’s the only headset I brought with me to college. xD

  • Slaziar

    What is the purpose of the router?

  • Luke

    I will never put a powerfull wireless object on my head, so I hope that with future versions of the HMDs will be always possible to choose the “wired option”. for me the cable is not a problem, but the wireless is. I need to play free from worries about my health.

    • Ian Shook

      What about your phone?

      • Luke

        I use it rarely for long calls. Furthermore the phones use a high bandwith boost only at the very start of the calling to hook the signal, then the bandwith is reduced during conversation. But playing in VR would be hours of wearing that powerful stuff sticked to my head. I hate the idea, truly invasive. Wired as option is good for both the schools of thought.

    • Caven

      You’ll want to sell your Rift then. Despite the wire, there’s a radio built right into the HMD. You’re exposing the front of your face to a constant 2.4GHz signal the entire time you’re using the thing, 2.4GHz is far better at penetrating human flesh than 60GHz ever will be. 60GHz can only penetrate about 0.5mm into the human body–not even enough to completely penetrate beyond skin. It’s also worth noting that the headset needs to RECEIVE the 60GHz signal–not transmit it. You would be mounting the transmitter on a wall or ceiling, not on your head. Now, the headset still needs to send positional data to the computer, so you still need to have a transmitter. But that can be done with a 2.4GHz signal, which you’re already exposing your face and hands to on a constant basis whenever you use the Rift. Switching to a Vive won’t help either, because it works pretty much the same way.

      As for there being a “powerful” transmitter, that’s absolutely false. Yes, there’s a transmitter, but it only needs to be powerful enough to fill a single room with a usable signal. No amount of power boost is going to give 60GHz the ability to penetrate obstacles, so making a powerful transmitter is an utter waste of power. What’s the point in making a transmitter that can send a usable signal 10km if a wall 2-5m away will utterly block the signal? Limiting power to just enough to adequately cover one room will save lots of battery power, with no practical downside.

      Your cellphone (even when running at reduced power during a phone call) still needs to be powerful enough to send a usable signal potentially several km. And when you’re not using the cellphone, you’re still getting continuously bombarded by the signal from cell towers, not to mention the many thousands of cellphones that may be in your vicinity, all broadcasting on similar frequencies. Then there are all those 2.4GHz wireless networks everywhere, basically doing the same thing. Sure, they’re all far away from your head, but that energy adds up, and it’s energy that can (and does) penetrate far enough to easily reach your brain.

      A weak 60GHz transmitter you’re not supposed to wear on your head is going to be a lot less of a concern than the much more powerful 2.4GHz transmitters you expose yourself to every day.

      • Luke

        thx for reply, I didn’t understand how Rift use radio, does it comunicate with the sensor?
        because I own a rift cv1 and my pc desktop does have no wifi or bluetooth inside, but my rift works good.
        you said that switching to a Vive wouldn’t help either because it’s the same situation, but if I switch to windows mixed reality will work? I could buy it if “radio free”.

        • Caven

          When using the Rift Touch controllers or Vive wands, they don’t communicate directly with the PC. Instead, they connect to the Rift or Vive headset respectively. And at least in the case of the Vive, that same radio also allows connecting a cellphone to the headset. I assume both manufacturers put the radios in their headset in part because they will always be close to the controllers during use.

          I’m not sure the Mixed Reality headsets will avoid the need for a radio, as they need to have the ability to communicate with controllers. The only options I can think of that let you avoid a radio are:

          1. Using the Razer OSVR HDK 2. Looking at a teardown, there’s no radio built-into the electronics. This means no native wireless controller support. Any wireless controllers would need to come with their own wireless adapter.

          2. Cellphone VR. Despite all the radios in a cellphone, airplane mode makes it easy to disable them. But this means you’re limited to whatever physical controls are embedded in the headset.

          3. Legacy VR. The Oculus Rift DK1 and DK2 had no wireless controller support. Of course, they also lack many of the benefits of current VR headsets. The DK1 in particular is lacking in VR comfort features like low-persistence displays and high refresh rate.

          As a general rule of thumb, if the manufacturer of a headset also sells wireless controllers that work with them, there’s going to be a radio built into the headset to accommodate the controllers.

          • RFC_VR

            Blue tooth chip in Vive HMD for connecting to smartphone and basestations. Also a Custom 2.4GHZ solution for controllers.

  • JesperL

    350 Euro is insane. 200-250 would be fair.

    • Master E

      Bet you in several months it’s drops to that… unfortunately, early adoption always seems to be for those with money to burn.

    • Ombra Alberto

      100-150 would be fair.

  • Tomas Sandven

    Kidding me? Sweden and Denmark gets to pre-order, but not Norway? ARGHH

    • Tomas Sandven

      3 months later, and it doesn’t seem like they’ve added a single country. Extremely disappointing :(

  • Smokey_the_Bear

    Like many others, I would love VR to become wireless, the cord is extremely immersion breaking. But I too, will be waiting for a wireless headset straight outta the box, not a clunky, expensive, add-on.

    • J.C.

      That’s where I’m at as well. This, like the eye tracking addon, is a great proof of concept, but I’d rather just buy a headset with all that built in.

  • Does the TPCast work with the new Microsoft Mixed Reality headsets? The cords look like they would easily connect, and this might actually make me want to get one.

    • Jason Lovegren

      My thoughts exactly, maybe one day be able to play in my back yard.

  • Andres Velasco

    I see brain tumors when looking at the device

  • AndyP

    How much?!

  • JesperL

    Wtf.. US gets it faster than Eu, and for 299$. In EU we can get it for 349€..
    That is so fucked up

    • Sam Illingworth

      VAT.

      • JesperL

        You obviously didnt calculate this. Do you even know the difference between dollars and Euro?

        • Sam Illingworth

          Woah, calm down dude! Even if I’m wrong about it being VAT there’s no need for a snarky “Do you even know the difference between dollars and Euro?”!

          • JesperL

            Sry – just pissed over the prices :D

          • Sam Illingworth

            You and me both! No way I’m buying it at that price – ‘s a third again the cost of the set!

          • JesperL

            Was going to get the US version and have it brought over to EU, but now that preorder option is down =(

          • Sam Illingworth

            Even that’s way too high for me. I’d pay £100, not more.

  • Sam Illingworth

    £300+?!

    Jesus H ****. I’ll pass, I think.

  • VRcentre

    Hi guys, Stephen here at VR-Centre in London. We bought a pair of the TPcast wireless upgrades direct from China last month (£345 each via Ebay). We use them with the deluxe audio headstraps, so can’t comment on what they would be like with the older strap or over the head headphones etc. Used with the upgraded headstrap, the units fit on really well and the whole setup feels very finished and comfortable. In terms of whether they are a worthwhile upgrade for typical Vive users, all we can advise is that it depends on the games/applications you use. For high energy roomscale games like Raw Data, John Wick, Arizona Sunshine, Racket-NX or Front Defence, where you want to use the playspace as much as possible and make lots of turns etc, then you’ll quickly find the wireless upgrade works well and adds to your sense of immersion. If you’re playing seated games, obviously it’s not worth the investment (we don’t use them on our two VR racing rig setups for instance). If you’re a VR player that prefers games that don’t involved much movement, or little beyond one or two steps and a 180 degree arc of movement, then likewise the TPcast may not be your thing. A few words of warning for those aiming to purchase these though. The initial setup can be a real pain, specially with certain graphics driver combinations (our EVGA 1080’s really played up at first), but if you follow the setup instructions to the final letter (ours were in Chinese, so a little trickier) and look on the user forums, you will get there. Also, and this may not apply to those who are not involved with the VR events industry, but unteathered users means users who can seriously wonder far off away from the playspace. We use foam flooring and tensa security barriers at our events, but for home users, we expect a few may stray beyond their chaperone bounds and bump into some walls pretty soon after going wireless (we did in our testing – a good reason for not turning off or diminishing chaperone bounds when in wireless mode!). Please note that one downside of going wireless, is that the time to initiate the wireless system takes between 2-4 minutes each time you want to use it. The system uses one 5ghz router for the tracking data (please note, this router plugs directly into your LAN connection on the PC and then daisy-chains to your existing router) and one 60ghz transmitter for the hdmi image stream. There is an order of turning things on you have to follow, or the unit wont connect properly. If you are developing in Unity or Hammer as our inhouse devs do, you will find the wireless aspect a bit annoying, as you have have to continually stop or restart the wireless process each time you want to check out changes to projects, or keep the headset connected constantly and drain the batteries needlessly. Some sort of standby mode, where the unit can be picked up and used without restarting software and hardware link processes would be a nice update at some point. You should also note that the Vive HMD microphone will no longer work after the TPcast upgrade has been made. We have been using room based directional Rode mics linked directly into the PC for our needs, but it’s less than ideal. If you use your Vive a great deal for social VR or multiplayer gaming, you need to be aware of this. On the upside, we have compared wired versus wireless side by side on the same applications, and seriously latency is barely noticable, even with the more exacting eyes of our events engineers. Regarding battery life, we have purchased 3 Anker batteries per TPcast. These are only £28 each on Amazon and are exactly the same as the ones TPcast ship with the unit. In non stop use, we have found that the batteries can deliver 4.5 hours of use, more than enough for most personal gaming sessions (but not enough for the events industry, hence why we have enough to use, swap and recharge on a loop). Please note, for those who want to use this system that don’t have back pockets be prepared to wear a ‘bum-bag’ to take the battery unit in. This seems a daft statement, but running our events we’ve come across many people who aren’t in jeans or trousers (shock horror) and need something to take the battery. We noticed that the headstrap mounted battery arrangement first shown off in pre-production units has been avoided by TPcast on final production (presumably because the Anker battery varient they prefered for long play usage didn’t come in small sizes and they needed to create a single battery enclosure to use on all systems). The cable that comes off the headset to the battery is certainly long enough, almost too long, as we’ve noticed it does sometimes get snagged by peoples elbows in really frantic gaming moment. Finally, a note on using multiple TPcasts in the same open space…. essentially, you can’t, we just use them singularily at the moment. The TPcast transmitter and the 60ghz band it is on means that it can’t get through most walls or doors, so you can use them in two rooms side by side, but for VRcade owners (of which a few contact us to ask about suitability) it would mean fully enclosing your VR booths on all 4 sides in a wall material that will 100% block the 60ghz signal. That’s only the 60ghz side, we actually found that the 5ghz router for the tracking date can conflict with a second unit, however, there is a software switch to change channel on those, so in a multi-headset setup, you can avoid clashes. TPcast have announced that they have a business edition of the TPcast wireless setup available soon, that will allow for 4-6 users running wirelessly in the same space; no costs have been released yet though. VRcade owners might be best waiting for this system though, as it’s the only way to guarantee no 60ghz issues, although we expect a severe markup on cost. Anyway, please do feel free to contact us via Twitter, Insta or Facebook if you ever have any questions on this or other Vive VR setups. We have 6 Vive setups now, all running with 1080’s, plus two T500RS based VR racing rigs too, so we’re quite used to all the annoying issues that VR can throw at us. All in all though, we feel wireless VR is a big step that is worth taking if you can spare the £350 buy-in at this stage. Regards from all the team here, Stephen. VR-Centre, London

    • RFC_VR

      great information you have shared – top class!

    • Ryan DeLuca

      Best single paragraph of wireless VR information ever! Haha. Super helpful.

    • Andre Monserrat

      I’m concerned about how the router will work in my current setup. My computer is in one room and my home router is in a media closet next to the computer, connected via ethernet through the wall. My Vive setup is in a totally different room connected via cables running through the attic and back to my computer. Where will I need to position the TPCast router? Does it absolutely have to be in the same room as the Vive? Does it absolutely need to be connected via ethernet between my computer and my home router? The official TPCast setup video says something about letting the router connect wirelessly after the initial setup.

    • Andre Monserrat

      Also, can you please tell me the specific model of the Anker battery you are using?

  • Pablo C

    How heavy is this? Neck soreing would break the immersion just a bit less than the cables.

    • chicanoterp06

      the receiver is sitting directly on top of your head while the battery is at your waist so you shouldn’t feel it

  • chicanoterp06

    hmm, I wonder if this item will see a discount by the time fallout 4 comes out (black Friday). I still have my $100 gift card in my account from when I bought my vive through Microsoft last black friday

  • JesperL

    Funny thing is that in TPCast own markting/PR material, has the price set to 249$
    Down in this article from their site:
    https://www.tpcastvr.com/single-post/2017/02/27/HTC-Vive-Tracker-Deluxe-Audio-Strap-pricing-and-availability-confirmed

  • JesperL

    Anyone seen and tested this? – seem like the same kind of product, but much cheaper.

    At first glance it dont look like its for Vive – but in the text says:
    [Application]
    W2H wireless transmitter and receiver is inevitable choice for office environment and wireless transmission system of home audio &video.
    Get rid of your HTC VIVE line, an excellent immersive feeling will amaze you that you can put the RX in your pocket with wireless 1080P 60GHZ transmission.

    https://www.cafago.com/en/p-v2745us.html?currency=DKK&Warehouse=CN&aid=capladk&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIgIrY3squ1gIVzoKyCh3elQg3EAQYASABEgJhL_D_BwE#reviewsDetail

  • Garrett Fuselier

    Anyone that pre-ordered one actually get it? Was supposed to ship today, but I can’t even get to the product link anymore and my order still says “processing.”

    • Caven

      Nope, I’m in the same boat as you.

    • Michael Neblett

      Nope! Just got this from MS:

      Thank you for your recent pre-order of the TPCAST Wireless Adapter for HTC VIVE from Microsoft Store. Unfortunately, this product was not available September 25th as we initially indicated. We anticipate that it will not be available until later this year. As a result, we will have to cancel your pre-order for now. Please check back at microsoftstore.com for updates on availability.

  • mellott124

    If you’re still stuck in “Preprocessing” on the Microsoft store you may want to call. I was told they don’t have enough stock for preorders. I preordered on day 1 in the morning. Microsoft Store tends to leave you in limbo if there’s an order issue. Happened twice now.

  • Mark Watson

    Dont bother ordering from microsoft. I preordered and they still ran out and didnt even bother to tell me. I didnt get it. Fuck Microsoft :/