06
Dec
2006
AV zombie: In Korea, Samsung has introduced a portable LCD TV with a 10-inch widescreen TV, able to receive the country’s terrestrial digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) service. The LMD-10A51W (pictured below), which is intended for kitchens and bedrooms, sells for 390,000 won (about 320 euro), is just 4cm deep and has a battery life of two hours. The unit will also play MP3 music files and display digital images.
16
Nov
2006
Popgadget: LG has created a mobile phone that can receive DMB (digital multimedia broadcasting) — a digital television signal first introduced in South Korea. It’s one of many products coming out of South Korea that are using this technology. The LG-KB1800 mobile phone has a specifically designed screen for watching television, which can be viewed both indoors and outdoors and has higher video quality than typical mobile phones. It also has USB out, so you can turn your computer into a television.
For now, this phone will only work in South Korea and they haven’t announced any pricing information yet.
09
Nov
2006
EETimes: Vimicro Corp intends to develop a demodulator for mobile TV, furthering its push into multimedia chips for mobile phones.The Beijing-based company did not offer details or a timeline. “For mobile TV, the critical area is the demodulation chip. It would be nice to have the demodulation chip support multiple standards, either DVB-H, T-DMB and a Chinese format,” said Mike Yu, vice president of Vimicro.
He added that Vimicro would probably use a reconfigurable architecture to craft the chip. Many vendors have opted for a DSP-based approach, including Telegent Systems Inc., a recent entrant to the market with a Chinese design team. Its mobile TV architecture integrates RF, DSP demodulation and video post-processing.
07
Nov
2006
Reuters: The world’s top cellphone maker Nokia will start global sales of its new N92 model in Asia in coming weeks, breaking into the potentially lucrative market for phones which receive television broadcasts. (…)
Nokia aimed to start selling the phone in the summer of 2006, but it has been waiting for the first commercial launches of networks. The phone has been used in non-commercial trials.
Vietnam Multimedia Corporation said it will launch its commercial service using the DVB-H technology (digital video broadcast – handheld) on November 18 in four towns to users of the Nokia N92 model to be launched in Vietnam this month.
Nokia and many other European vendors favor a homegrown DVB-H for watching television broadcasts on cellphones globally, but there are also rival technologies like DMB and MediaFlo available. (…)
In Finland, Nokia’s home country, network operator Digita said it will start to offer services for Nokia’s N92 users on December 1, with the DVB-H network covering mainly the Helsinki region. (…)
27
Sep
2006
DigiTimes: The digital TV terrestrial broadcast standard currently includes three types – Europe’s DVB-T, America’s ATSC and Japan’s ISDB-T. Following Brazil’s adoption of the ISDB-T standard and news that China will be developing its own, signficant changes are foreseen in the global TV industry, according to research firm WitsView Technology. This is particularly relevant for manufacturers possibly seeking a standard platform for a multi-standard era.
The DVB-T format is currently adopted by Europe, along with Taiwan, India, Australia and South Africa. One of its characteristics lies in its mobile receiving abilities. The ATSC standard emphasizes the broadcast of high quality images, where South Korea, Canada, Mexico and the US follow this format.
Japan’s ISDB-T format integrates the mobile receiving capabilities and high definition (HD) broadcasts into one platform. In the past, Japan was unsuccessful in exporting its ISDB-T standard to other countries. This left its other two counterparts in carving up the remaining share of the pie.
Relevant TV makers were thus required to develop TVs that were ATSC or DVB-T compatible. However, in light of the recent actions by Brazil and China, the global terrestrial broadcasting DTV industry is now transitioning to a multi-standard era.
Brazil is the fifth most populous country in the world, where its annual TV demand amounts to ten million sets. Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay had already revealed they would follow in Brazil’s footsteps.
China made an official announcement at the end of August that it was very keen in forming its own system. With the 2008 Beijing Olympics fast approaching, a standard has to be finalised for the games to be successfully delivered in HDTV content. At the end of August, China finally approved standard number GB 20600-2006 –framing structure, channel coding and modulation for DTV terrestrial broadcasting system. It was actually an integration of both the DMB-T and ADTB-T standard. However, as news reports have revealed that the two systems are inherently different, more money will be needed in solving the technical hurdles.
The reason in why China strived to develop its own system can be delineated by two main factors. The first is to avoid the TV royalty payments while the second lies in improving its own TV industry’s competitiveness. China is now the world’s largest TV maker with over 80 million TVs produced a year. Its domestic market demand takes up roughly 40 million while the other half is exported to other countries. Currently, China has approximately 400 million operational TV sets. Assuming its analog TV broadcast is terminated in 2015, there is nearly an eight year time period, where about 500 million TV sets await to be upgraded into DTVs annually.
01
Sep
2006
Tech Digest: Daewoo announced at IFA (Berlin), that they will be releasing three new satellite navigation systems into Europe – seemingly targetted at walkers and cyclists.
The DPN-3500 has a 3.5-inch LCD display and the DPN-5600 has a 5.6-inch display, and both sound to be fairly standard portable sat-nav devices.
The third sat-nav device, the ANK-6160, also boasts a Digital Multimedia Broadcast (DMB) receiver which is supposed to allow you to receive audio and video data such as radio/TV programmes and service information.
As yet, no pricing information is available.