LAS VEGAS: LG Electronics is demonstrating handsets with mobile broadcast TV reception at the CTIA Wireless conference this week. The vendor said it demoed three prototype cell phones with mobile DTV reception.
“In addition to these cell phones running on both the CDMA and GSM networks, we’re also demonstrating how easy it is to receive mobile DTV on a netbook with a plug-in accessory receiver,” said Ehtisham Rabbani, vice president, marketing and innovation for LG Mobile Phones.
The LG handsets with mobile DTV include a CDMA phone with twin LCD screens; a CDMA model with a 2.8-inch LCD screen and up to four hours of DTV-viewing battery life, according to LG; and a GSM phone with a three-inch LCD screen also with up to four hours of DTV time, the company said.
LG was integral in the development of the mobile DTV transmission standard and has created single-chip reception technology. LG’s tuner/decoder chip is 7 mm square, especially designed for integration into cell phones. This LG2161R receiver chip is in pilot production and will move to mass production this summer. The LG2161R includes both the radio frequency tuner and the mobile DTV demodulator for reception and display of the mobile DTV signals now being broadcast by 40-some stations
The LG2161R is said to have “improved channel changing speed from earlier chipsets,” and “features enhanced reception performance.”
LG described its LG X300 netbook USB dongle receiver as weighing less than 990 grams, and featuring integrated WiFi and a 64 GB hard drive.
“Among the first products to reach consumers will be a variety of USB receivers for mobile DTV, most of which are built around LG chips for reception,” said Dr. Jong Kim, president of LG’s U.S. R&D lab, Zenith. “These low-cost receivers can instantaneously transform a netbook, or laptop computer into a mobile digital TV receiver with the addition of software that will come with the USB device. LG is working with more than a dozen companies to introduce mobile DTV products in the U.S. market.”
In a separate item, Grass Valley said this week that it has installed a new mobile DTV transmission platform for PBS member station WGBH-TV in Boston. TV Technology has coverage. The publication’s Web site also has an article by transmission expert Doug Lung discussing the mobile DTV standard tables.
“One thing I learned while putting together the MDTV demo at CES in January is that MDTV, using IP transport, is quite different from A/53 "regular" ATSC DTV using PIDs,” Lung writes in, “What to Look for in A153 Mobile DTV Tables.”
-- Deborah D. McAdams
CATEGORIES
