Dubbed as a digital terrrestial TV, the Win-TV-Aero-m allows you to watch the new ATSC M/H mobile broadcasts in the U.S. on any USB-equipped and Windows-based notebook or netbook. So whether you are inside your car, at a restaurant, at the beachfront, or practically anywhere, anytime, you can tune in to live local news, weather, sporting events, traffic news, and entertainment programs. No need to stress yourself just to get home in time to watch your favorite local news.

Simply plug this device into your netbook’s USB port and start scanning for the available ATSC M/H broadcasts in your area. Also, do you want to watch free HD TV on your PC or notebook at home or when you are on the go? The WinTV-Aero-m also allows you to do just that, with its built-in high definition TV receiver for live ATSC HD broadcasts.

Very convenient, right? Small as it may seem, but the WinTV-Aero-m just makes the perfect partner for those who want to enjoy live broadcast TV anytime, anwhere.

Original Article: http://www.geekiegadgets.com/tag/mobile-digital-tv/

We briefly chatted with LG’s John Taylor, US VP of marketing, to better understand when LG might bring its auto-stereoscopic 3D mobile TV to market. The US market, to be precise, since this portable TV is built around the ATSC-M/H standard for mobile TV. The television on hand here in Vegas was a prototype using a 7-inch 800×480 pixel parallax barrier panel developed by LG Display and destined for other LG products including a 3D picture frame still under development. The 3D effect was on par with the capabilities we’ve seen from other parallax barrier displays of similar size. LG’s testing the waters right now with plans to launch in 2012 for less than $200 — just as soon as broadcasters embrace the fledgling technology in sufficient numbers. Full press release, including an image of a prototype CMDA touchscreen phone built around the Mobile DTV circuitry.

By George Winslow — Broadcasting & Cable, 12/5/2010 12:55:00 PM

Even though most broadcasters won’t be launching mobile digital TV services until the fall of 2011, the Advanced Television Services Committee is already at work on enhancements to the ATSC M/H (A/153) standard that was formally approved in October of 2009.

Some of these enhancements will provide better measurement of mobile DTV viewing and will allow broadcasters to potentially create new revenue streams from on demand content, better targeted advertising and widgets.

One important potential development is the ATSC’s work on the Non-Real Time Content Services (NRT) standard, which would enable a new class of widgets that would make it possible to delivery on demand news, weather and other content while creating a variety of new advertising supported services.

The first round of NRT enhancements, which would enable the broadcast of non-real time content, is expected to be published as a candidate standard in the first quarter of 2011 and then formally approved later in the year. A second round of enhancements to NRT, which will enable more interactivity, will probably appear in 2012.

The development of NRT is important because the first launches of mobile DTV services have simply been simulcasts of linear TV broadcasts, with the same ads spliced into both the TV and mobile feeds. This is helpful as a defensive strategy: It preserves a stations existing audience as viewers spend more time with mobile video but it does not produce any new revenues to cover mobile DTV investments or strengthen the bottom line of stations struggling with a poor ad climate.

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/460602-Next_Generation_Standards_for_MDTV.php

Broadcast spectrum to be utilized for the new mobile service will come from the three owned-and-operated station groups — Fox, NBC & Telemundo, and ION — and the nine local broadcast groups, which are Belo, Cox, E.W. Scripps, Gannett, Hearst, Media General, Meredith, Post Newsweek and Raycom. Separately, these nine local broadcast companies formed Pearl Mobile DTV Company LLC as a vehicle for their involvement in the venture.

By aggregating existing broadcast spectrum from its launch partners, the new venture will have the capacity to offer a breadth of mobile video and print content to nearly 150 million U.S. residents. In addition to broadcast spectrum, the partners will commit content, marketing resources and capital to the new venture. The service will employ ATSC-M/H, an open broadcast transmission system developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) specifically for mobile devices.

The venture is designed to complement the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) National Broadband Initiative by giving consumers mobile access to video content while reducing congestion of the nation’s wireless broadband infrastructure. In addition, the service’s mobile content network will have the capacity to deliver local and national time-sensitive emergency information to citizens across the U.S.

Regarding the announcement, Jack Abernethy, Chief Executive Officer of Fox Television Stations, stated: “We are excited about building a platform that makes mobile television universally available and economically viable. This venture is the first step in forging cross-industry and company partnerships to deliver content to consumers.”

“This initiative offers a path for the next generation of video consumption, and will help the FCC in its goal of ensuring efficient and reliable broadband service for US consumers,” said John Wallace, President, NBC Local Media.

“Local broadcasters are the backbone of the U.S. media industry,” said David J. Barrett, President and CEO of Hearst Television Inc. “This sharing of content, broadcast spectrum, marketing resources and capital is unprecedented, and underscores U.S. broadcasters’ commitment to bringing vital local news, weather, and emergency information to increasingly mobile U.S. consumers. This is a critically important initiative that holds great promise for our audiences and the television industry. This is truly the next generation of local television service.”

“This venture takes to the next level the work we embarked upon three years ago with the development of Mobile DTV technology, in anticipation of digital TV capabilities and consumer mobile demand,” said Brandon Burgess, CEO of ION Television.

“Mobile digital television places each of our companies at the center of a consumer transformation, putting us on cell phones, netbooks, DVD players and even in-vehicle entertainment systems,” said David Lougee, President, Gannett Broadcasting, Gannett Co. Inc. “And it’s the consumers who are the big winners. From news and entertainment to emergency information, virtually all U.S. consumers will soon be able to bring their most valuable content with them wherever they go.”

Information regarding a dedicated management team that will focus on securing additional content, spectrum and distribution partnerships for the venture will be made available at a later date.

- Programmable Circuits Based on DiBcom’s Octopus Platform Provide the Solution, Especially in the USA, Where a New Standard is Introduced.

    - NAB Show 2010
    - Las Vegas, 12-15 April 2010
    - TeamCast Stand SU6023

DiBcom, the market leader in dedicated components for mobile TV reception, will be demonstrating its Octopus programmable platform at the NAB Show, which runs from 12 to 15 April in Las Vegas.

As the United States launches into a new mobile television venture with the ATSC M/H standard, a “mobile” derivative of the DTT standard currently used in North America (ATSC), operators face the question of the business model, just as they have with DVB-H in Europe. DiBcom has used its experience to develop a flexible platform, called Octopus, which enables manufacturers to enter the field at reduced risk.

The main problem encountered by mobile television around the world is the requirement to invest in a network specifically for mobile transmission. In the United States, the broadcasters think the investment is worthwhile, as they just agreed to add supplementary transmission equipment to the network, enabling their channels to be broadcast free to mobiles. The ATSC-M/H standard makes it possible to upgrade traditional DTT transmitters for “hybrid” fixed/mobile transmission.

The various standards around the world make the task of developing terminals very complicated for manufacturers, as current solutions require a different terminal to be developed for each standard. Leading terminals such as the very latest “state-of-the-art” smartphones rarely have an integrated TV tuner because of the fragmentation of standards across the World.

The revolutionary Octopus circuit offers manufacturers a flexible solution enabling them develop a single hardware design to meet the challenge of the proliferation of fixed and mobile TV standards. “Octopus” is a versatile solution based on a programmable architecture targeting current and emerging mobile TV standards, at the best price-performance ratio.

“By adding new standards to our Octopus platform, we can offer our customers the prospect of reaching ever broader markets, meeting their growth and globalisation needs,” comments Yannick Levy, CEO of DiBcom.

At this year’s NAB Show in Las Vegas, DiBcom will be presenting the Octopus programmable platform on the TeamCast stand (SU6023).

About DiBcom

DiBcom is at the heart of Mobile TV. As a fabless semiconductor company that designs high-performance chipsets, DiBcom enables low-power mobile TV everywhere. The company’s solutions are used in automotive, PC/peripheral, Set Top Boxes, and mobile phones. Its chipsets are compliant with the current worldwide Digital Video Broadcast standards DVB-T, DVB-SH, CMMB, DAB, T-DMB and ISDB-T.

For more information, please visit: http://www.dibcom.com

“With more broadcasters adding mobile digital TV transmissions each month, we want to show the wireless industry exactly what’s involved in delivering over-the-air digital TV signals, familiar programs from your favorite TV stations, to mobile phone users. The devices we’re showing here work with the free over-the-air Mobile DTV signals from broadcasters, complementing video services by wireless carriers.  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, LG Mobile Phones.

Based on the mobile DTV standard co-developed by LG Electronics, the handsets equipped with mobile DTV include a CDMA phone with twin LCD screens (on the inside, and outside, of the clamshell handset); a CDMA model with a 2.8-inch LCD screen and up to four hours of DTV-viewing battery life, and a GSM phone with a 3-inch LCD screen also with up to four hours of DTV time.

Wireless industry veteran Anne Schelle, now executive director of the Open Mobile Video Coalition, representing more than 900 TV stations, applauded LG for its leadership in developing the new mobile DTV broadcast standard, chips and handsets, adding: “Mobile DTV represents a significant opportunity for wireless carriers to partner with broadcasters and take advantage of this robust point-to-multipoint video distribution system.  This will allow cellular operators to more efficiently use their own spectrum for value-added services, while tapping into a new revenue source by providing interactive services to consumers and audience measurement capabilities to TV stations.”

Seven Millimeters Square

The eye-catching demonstrations by LG are made possible by a new reception, tuning and decoding chip that measures only seven millimeters on each side, designed for easy integration into mobile phone handsets.  The LG2161R receiver chip is already in pilot production and will move to mass production this summer.  This latest-generation LG mobile DTV chip includes both the RF (radio frequency) tuner and the mobile DTV demodulator for reception and display of the robust new DTV signals that are now being transmitted by select local broadcast TV stations.

The new LG2161R is a system-on-chip architecture that fully supports the specification of the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) A/153 mobile DTV standard with the capability of receiving mobile TV broadcasts in both the UHF and VHF bands.  With improved channel changing speed from earlier chipsets, the LG2161R also features enhanced reception performance and like its predecessors is extraordinarily efficient – allowing a typical cell phone viewer to watch more than 3.5 hours of programming on a single battery charge.

Netbook and USB Receiver Combo

Also highlighted in the LG exhibit at CTIA Wireless 2010 is the powerful new LG X300 netbook connected to an external USB-port “dongle” receiver that can easily receive the same over-the-air mobile DTV signals viewed on the prototype cell phones.  Weighing in at fewer than 990g with smart built-in features such as Smart-On 2.0, built-in Wi-Fi and a 64GB hard drive, the X300 provides the ultimate on-the-go computing – and with the dongle receiver, broadcast television – experience.

“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 – all powered by LG chips.”

Mobile Digital TV:  LG’s Latest Innovation

The deployment of mobile DTV by local broadcasters and by device manufacturers is the next logical step for digital television.  LG took a leadership role at the beginning of the digital transition with HDTV projection TV sets, which have now evolved into svelte and stylish flat-screen LCD and Plasma models.  LG technology was built into millions of digital TV converter boxes that are bridging consumers who are extending the life of their analog screens, and now LG technology is paving the way for mobile digital TV with the introduction of new products from a variety of manufacturers that utilize the LG mobile DTV receiving/decoding chip inside.

Standardized by the ATSC and formally adopted as the Mobile DTV standard just five months ago, the new Mobile DTV standard allows broadcasters to use a portion of the existing 19.4 Megabit-per-second DTV channel capacity to transmit data with extremely robust characteristics suitable for mobile, pedestrian and handheld applications.  The Mobile DTV signal is also compatible with 8-VSB DTV, which was developed by Zenith, LG’s U.S. research and development lab.