RF Report has been following the introduction of portable receivers for DTV. One popular product at CES was a portable DVD player with a built-in DTV tuner. (RF Report previously noted that manufacturers were working on DVD players with ATSC tuners.) Recently, announcements have been made about Mustek and Panasonic players with tuners. These may provide some insight on the devices for the ATSC format.
The Web site www.pocket-lint.co.uk reported Mustek launched two handheld DTV and portable DVD players. The article indicated that the players supported playback of DVB-T, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 material and could store "up to 1000 programme channels with nine channels for instant preview." They can playback DVD, DVD+/-R/RW, CD, CD-R/RW, VCD, SVCD, MP3, Kodak Picture CD and JPEG formats. The Mustek DTV-407 has a 7-inch active matrix 16:9 LCD screen and comes with a rechargeable battery pack, power adapter and antenna. The DTV-408 Pro has similar features and an 8.4-inch screen.
The Web site us.gizmodo.com said the Panasonic DVD-LX97, a DVD player with an SD memory card slot and a built in DVB-T tuner would be available in March in Japan, but did not mention a U.S. release. There was an interesting comment posted on the article Panasonic Portable DVD-LX97 with TV Tuner; "Finally a Portable DVD Player w/a TV Tuner! Hopefully (if it makes to the USA) it will have a HD Tuner otherwise it almost seems like a waste of money since the changeover to HD-OTA broadcasting is coming faster and faster for USAers. Why are TVs being made and sold w/analog tuners and not HD tuners? They are evil... very evil..."
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