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Motorola offers sneak peek at DH01 mobile TV

By Tim Conneally, BetaNews

January 3, 2008, 1:35 PM

Motorola announced today that it will be showing off a new mobile media player at CES 2008 in Las Vegas next week that also acts as a mobile DVR.

The 4.3 inch screened DH01 will show live television, on demand video clips and DVR programming at 25 frames per second. According to Motorola, the device has a 5-minute memory buffer that allows for pause and replay functions on live television broadcasts.

In order to receive content, the DH01 supports DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld), a new TV standard that is designed specifically to work on battery-powered, handheld receivers. Similar to the MediaFLO standard upon which Verizon bases its VCast TV service, DVB-H is supported mostly by European companies, while Asian companies have shown greater support for competing standard T-DMB.

Conveniently, one of the only three cities in the US that have a trial DVB-H infrastructure is Las Vegas.

The Netherlands is expected to have nationwide coverage before the end of Q1 2008, while Austria, France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland are expected later in the year. For a list of areas with trial and full service launches, visit dvb-h.org.

Motorola's DH01 is reported to have 4 hours of playback time with its rechargeable battery. Recorded programs can be stored on SD memory cards. BetaNews will provide more details of the device during CES next week.

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By amitabh

posted Jan 8, 2008 - 6:51 AM

LG Unveils Mobile Pedestrian Handheld (MPH™) technology at CES 2008, Las Vegas

LG has unveiled the MPH technology for delivery of TV for handhelds in the United States and other countries using the ATSC standard. This could be one of the most important developments in the field of Mobile TV for North America, which does not have the advantage of DVB-H technology being able to ride on the DVB-T networks being installed currently in many regions of the world including Europe and Asia.

This time, the advantage, however appears to be with the MPH technology as it does not need any additional spectrum. The MPH can enable any device for mobile TV by the use of miniature cards or USB attachments.

This implies that within a year, all mobile devices, such as personal media players, gaming devices or cell phones could be enabled for mobile television programming reception. The reception is possible upto 90 Kilometers per hour, which is a reasonable speed in city conditions.

MPH is based on highly efficient MPEG4 encoding coupled with VSB transmission of mobile TV content. The key advantage of the technology appears to be the use of the existing frequency spectrum used for standard definition or high definition digital television transmissions as well as the existing transmitter infrastructure, with only an additional exciter.

This can turn out to be a major differentiator, as spectrum costs can be very high. Many countries ( such as India, for example) are set upon auctioning the mobile TV licenses based on the fact that it needs to use additional spectrum. The license pricing is essentially the price of the additional 8 MHz spectrum.

The new technology, once in place will create a totally new universe of receiving devices with personal media players (PMPs), gaming devices, Standalone TV mobile receivers coming into vogue.

visit http://ww.mobiletvhome.com/

Score: 0

By tonywin

edited Jan 4, 2008 - 8:08 AM

The continued use of statements such as "T-DMB is an Asian Technology and is the system of preferance in Asia" or that "Europe will adopt DVB-H" for Mobile television are becoming increasingly "annoying"!!

T-DMB was a technology developed in Germany on the back of the European Eureka 147 protocol (DAB). It is in Pilot / trial or commercial use across the region - and much further beyond - with systems proposed for Africa, the Middle East, and South America.

There are nearly 200 models of receiver on the Market for consumers to use - and available and licenced spectrum forthe transmissions.

On the the other hand - there are a relativley small number of receivers for DVB-H, a restricted number of Infrastructure manufacturers - and limited or no spectrum for it to operate on!

DAB based technology is real, exists and is rapidly expanding!

Score: 0

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