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The future of TV on your iPhone is ATSC Mobile DTV

If you're able to watch TV on your iPhone or iPod touch right now, you're probably having something streamed to your handheld device. That may change -- your phone may soon be equipped with a digital TV tuner to pick up the signals sent out by your local stations.

The Advanced Television Standards Committee (ATSC) announced on Friday that they've agreed on a standard that will let local TV stations broadcast directly to mobile devices on their existing frequencies. The devices that can be equipped to pick up the ATSC Mobile DTV signals include mobile phones, laptops, handheld TVs, and even in-vehicle digital TVs.

ATSC Mobile DTV will be completely different from the existing services provided by AT&T and Verizon, which are pay-for-view services streaming national content. With ATSC Mobile DTV, you'd be able to watch local newscasts as well as network TV that is broadcast in your area.

The signal is carried alongside regular digital TV broadcasts using Vestigial Sideband modulation and the IP transport system. ATSC Mobile DTV can send H.264 video and High Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding Version 2 (HE AAC v2) audio and support interactive and subscription-based TV.

I want my Mobile DTV! Here's hoping that the next generation of iPhones, iPod touches, and future iTablets can receive ATSC Mobile DTV.

[via Macworld]

If you're able to watch TV on your iPhone or iPod touch right now, you're probably having something streamed to your handheld device. That...
 

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Term papers

Hi, thanks for the info, That is a great help to me....Thanks for sharing . . . . .

Term papers

November 17 2009 at 12:06 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
libero1214

@oakie

Typical.

October 23 2009 at 3:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David Frantz

Why go this route when you can buy one chip that can recieve all digital TV standards? Instead of recieving "special" transmissions for mobile devices just recieve the standard Digital TV broadcasts. With location aware devices the reciever could be set up automatically for the devices location.

Now complete TV reception hardware might be hard to squeeze into a iPhone but tablets are no problem at all. There is also a good possiblility of splitting reception into partial processing on the main CPU to lower chip count.

In a nut shell I see this as waste of time. If you can't squeeze standard digital into a phone today you will be able to soon. It is just the March of transistor density moving forward.


Dave

October 19 2009 at 4:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
AA

Reported the spam comment by huangzhixian114.

Can't see Apple including this-as it'd be limited to the US-where ATSC is used.

I could see however, Apple adding mobile ATSC and some form of DVB-so it could used in Europe, Australia,etc.

October 17 2009 at 11:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Zentec


I can't see many reasons to include an ATSC tuner. For starters, the transmission power on the vertical polarization is a fraction of total power, simply not enough to provide reliable service. Second, ATSC has superior video lock times when tuning and better performance with impulse noise, but it's absolutely horrible when dealing with multipath.
I think mobile receivers might encounter a bit of multipath.

I'm betting all those stations that opted for VHF channel assignments are coming to realize that they should have gone UHF. Do you think an antenna in an iPhone or iPod is going to perform very well on 174 MHz? No way.

Of course, then there's local TV programming. Who really wants to watch Rachael Ray on their iPhone?

October 17 2009 at 7:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jason

My guess is that it will indeed happen on the iPhone, but not anytime soon. Apple doesn't typically jump on the latest technology right away. They'll wait until they're sure they can do it just right.

October 17 2009 at 12:09 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Jason's comment
Ian

Or they wait 5 years and then preach said feature like its the second coming of christ and they invented it.

See:

SD card slot in MacBooks
MMS on iPhone
Recoding video on iPhone
Voice Dialing on iPhone

October 17 2009 at 1:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
oliver hart

Typically they jump on the technology years after everyone else has, thus fooling people into believing that they invented, reinvented, or revolutionized it. Don't get me wrong I love my iPhone, iPod, MacBook. I even love my old G4 DA. Apple is late to the party on multiple fronts, and when they do show up people act like there was no party before they arrived. Or people think the beer they're drinking was invented by Apple. Whichever sounds right. Maybe change beer to kool-aide idk.

October 17 2009 at 2:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Scott

It would be great, but do you really think Apple will allow their iTunes sales to be compromised?

October 17 2009 at 10:48 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to Scott's comment
Robert

@Will: it requires more than one antenna?

Anyways, I would love to have this on my iPhone. Think of the possibilities: The Price is Right, The Simpsons, Major Leage Baseball games that happen to be on an over-the-air TV channel. The possibilities are endless!

October 17 2009 at 10:27 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Will

Good luck trying to get any reception. Digital is crap in the UK and requires a antennae on the roof. Good luck trying to pick anything up on the go.

October 17 2009 at 10:20 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
4 replies to Will's comment
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