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Electricpig: The phrase “portable television” might bring to mind the crappy, boxy 14-inch CRTs of yore, but Firebox is selling a proper portable telly – one that you can slip into your jacket pocket or manbag when not in use.

It comes with a 4.3-inch screen and built-in DVB-T tuner and antenna, meaning you can watch Freeview digital channels wherever you roam.

It can also handle MP3 and video clips via its SD card slot, and there’s an FM radio squeezed in for good measure.

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Stuff.tv: Mobile phones packing TV tuners are still rarer than hens’ teeth in the UK – we can think of the Nokia N96 and, er, that’s it – but LG has just unleashed a new model in Europe.

The KB770 sports a big 3in touchscreen and a DVB-T digital tuner for accessing live TV broadcasts.

Also on board are HSDPA for speedy downloads, a 3MP camera with auto focus, Bluetooth and a microSD slot. There’s no Wi-Fi or GPS.

The phone is only launching in Germany at the moment, priced at €449.

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Unwired View: You can now officially kiss commercial-driven mobile TV goodbye with the LG-HB620T mobile phone, the first in the world to offer DVB-T or Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial, the cost-free free cousin of Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H).

The LG-HB620T is set to be released first in Germany, and O2, T-Mobile, and Vodafone, will be among the first ones to get it. France, Greek, Czech and Austria are also possible targets for a consequent launch, where DVB-T is a commercialized service.

This handset, of course, is also more than just a ticket for free mobile TV. It’s also a high-speed mobile with HSDPA network support, and this is complemented full-blown Internet browsing on its 2-inch screen.

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PC World: South Korea’s Maxian will unveil a couple of new portable media players at the IFA consumer electronics in Berlin later this week.

The M1 player has a 3.5-inch widescreen display and can play music and video files, has an FM radio, personal information management software and built-in wireless LAN, said the company in a statement.

The player can also tune into terrestrial digital television using the DVB-T format that is gaining support in Europe.

It will be accompanied by the T2, details of which were not disclosed by Maxian.

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The Earth Times: Downloading videos from internet portals and perhaps watching a DVD occasionally – that’s the way most people use their computer monitors for multimedia content. But PCs and laptops can also receive TV signals, provided they are equipped with special expansion cards or USB sticks. One big bonus: The software included with the devices often allows the computer to work as a digital VCR. 

Internal cards equipped with either an analog cable tuner or digital antenna (DVB-T) can be found for 15 to 30 dollars. This is also the entry level price for the popular DVB-T USB sticks. These are particularly helpful for laptop owners who want to use their computers as a portable television. 

There are also DVB-T sticks with an analog cable tuner for stationary use while plugged in. These so-called hybrid sticks cost around 40 dollars. Hybrid PC expansion cards cost roughly the same. 

Expansion cards or boxes that can bring digital satellite TV (DVB- S) onto computer screens are priced at similar levels. A hybrid version with an analog cable tuner is also available. DVB-S in many cases represents the largest range of digital TV programming for some countries. 

The less common DVB-C cards, intended for digital cable television, cost at least 60 dollars. Adapters are also available for high-definition television. They cost at least 70 to 80 dollars, but may be a questionable investment since there are few HD broadcasts at present. 

The HD or HDTV suffix on product names usually signifies that the cards, sticks and boxes are compatible with high-definition TV signals. For satellite cards, buyers should look for the abbreviation DVB-S2. 

While the advanced version of the DVB-S standard isn’t strictly required for HDTV, it provides increased data rates, which helps things run more smoothly. While there is still no standard for DVB- C2, the revised version of DVB-T is waiting in the wings.

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Dialzero: Telecom Italia Mobile will soon be marketing a TV-capable cellphone manufactured by Chinese phone maker ZTE in partnership with Israeli chip maker Siano Mobile Silicon Ltd. The launch of the Brionvega N7100 is expected to make ZTE the first Chinese cellphone maker to distribute a mobile TV phone. The phone has a 240 by 320 pixel color screen, 2-megapixel camera and 3.6-Mbit/s HSDPA modem.

The chipset from Siano is a quad-band, multi-standard mobile TV receiver. A combination of RF tuner and demodulator, the SMS1000 supports DVB-H, DVB-T, DAB, DAB-IP and T-DMB mobile digital standards, allowing ZTE to reuse its mobile TV phone for other standards and markets.

“We are proud to introduce the most advanced 3G DVB-H phone in the European market,” said Li Ying Feng of ZTE.

(more…)

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ElectronicsWeekly: The UK’s four major broadcasters have called for HDTV to be run on the terrestrial TV ahead of the region’s analogue switch off in 2012.

Trials of HDTV on terrestrial by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five have just finished in London, and nearly all (86%) of trialists expected to see HD services within three years, well before analogue switch-off. Nine out of ten believed that the four broadcasters should be at the forefront of HD developments.

“It’s clear even from this small trial that audiences increasingly expect us and the other major broadcasters to offer high quality HD programming on Freeview in the future,” said Seetha Kumar, head of HDTV at the BBC.

The problem is that HDTV takes four to five times the bandwidth of existing standard definition digital TV. The BBC has demonstrated terrestrial HD at 10Mbit/s with MPEG4, and the trial used standard MPEG4 HDTV boxes from Humax and ADB with digital terrestrial TV (DTT) front ends.

The Digital TV Group (DTG) is investigating the use of a polarising approach that could be used to deliver HD services alongside existing broadcasts. This is one of the options or the second generation of the DTT specification by the international DVB standards group, but would require a new radio receiver chip. This is not likely until 2009 at the earliest.

“Technically, the trial has more than fulfilled our expectations. All major technical hurdles are behind us,” said Simon Fell, director of technology at ITV Consumer.

However, the likelihood of HD services before switch-off is low. “We have previously said that the spectrum allocation [after analogue switch-off] will be market led so if there is a demand for HD then that will be what it is used for,” said a Government spokeswoman.

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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.

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