Samsung is latest company to add Skype support to its HDTVs

Helping to usher in a potential future where we can finally video chat via our television, Samsung has become the latest company to partner with Skype to allow Internet-based calling on its HDTVs. The electronics company will have Skype as a standard feature for its new 7000 and 8000 LED sets, which started selling in South Korea today but will hit the rest of the world by the middle of the year.

Samsung joins LG and Panasonic as TV partners for Skype, which is trying to get its service onto as many platforms as possible. Skype says you'll be able to access functionality through the sets' remote, and that video chats will be free (as, of course, are Skype-to-Skype calls). Needless to say, you'll need your TV to be connected to the Internet for any of this to work. One other thing you'll need is a Webcam with a microphone, since HDTV makers haven't started building them into their sets. If the Skype-on-TV experiment is a success, however, you may start seeing them on future models.