ATSC Mobile DTV Reciever You Can Buy Today!
Which Other Books are available on Mobile TV?
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ATSC Mobile DTV Receiver Devices Surge as more Stations go online with Transmissions
As per figures released by Open Mobile Video Coalition ( OMVC) in Aug 2011, Ninty six stations were already on line with ATSC Mobile DTV transmissions. This is expected to increase to 126 stations and cover 48 markets by end of 2011.
Earlier, in June 2011, OMVC had announced the appointment of Neustar as the agency to manage a new Trust Authority for Mobile DTV( a Certification Authority) to facilitate introduction of conditional access. The Trust Authority is required to manage the data base of devices and Service providers and provide Keys & Certification Management for encrypted Mobile DTV Channel.
While the ATSC mobile DTV stations increase their coverage, there has been an increase in the number of receiver devices now available for reception on handheld devices as well as in cars. These can be as simple as a USB Tuner ( for example Hauppauge 1404 WinTV-Aero-M Mobile TV Tuner $51) to a standalone Antenna, Tuner and Remote control module (Boyo VT-MH Digital ATSC M/H Mobile Handheld TV Tuner $190). Car Receivers include Eonon V0009 Car Mobile US Digital TV Tuner Receiver ATSC ( $108) and others. The tuners can be used with LCD screens. Standalone LCDs with inbuilt ATSC M/H receivers are also available such as Tivax MiTVMobile7-b 7-Inch Mobile Digital TV which can receive both ATSC and ATSC M/H transmissions.
DVB-T2 to Replace DVB-H?
Sept 12,2011
Bells may be tolling for Terrestrial Mobile TV Services everywhere. But nowhere so loudly as the birthplace of DVB-H itself, Finland ! The Government of Finland has agreed to allow Digita oy, an operator for DVB-H to change its technology ( and licensing) to DVB-T2. The use of MPEG4 technology in terrestrial broadcasting coupled with higher order modulation is making it attractive for operators to provide multichannel services including those for mobile devices based on the same technology. This would make it possible to target a larger range of devices such as Laptops, X-Pads, and Tablets PCs of various types.
Larger screen resolutions of mobile devices as well as larger screen sizes now makes it possible to deliver the same content originally designed for larger screens to be delivered universally.
DNA had announced its DVB-H service in Oct 2009, less than two years earlier with Digita oy as the network operator.
DVB-H service requires compatible Tuners to be available in mobile phones. Except a few Nokia and Samsung devices, these tuners never really got popular.
Will this trend extend to other markets such as India which are on the verge of announcing terrestrial services?
Mobile TV Technology Transforms to Accommodate New Devices
( Watching TV on iPad 2)
July 2011
Time and tide wait for no one, nor does anyone for the love of technology alone. Well, iPad 2 is here and as expected does not include any technology to receive Mobile TV in the "traditional way" such as the ATSC broadcast. It is left to the good old WiFi to stream TV to the iPad 2.
Sure enough, there are applications which facilitate this - in the iTunes App Store itself.
Time Warner Cable has launched an Application, TWCable TV™ for iPad® ( which can be downloaded from iTunes App Store). This allows streaming of 32 Channels of TW Cable over the WiFi connetion.
You see can how this is done on the YouTube. You can also see it here. The Application also allows you to control your DVR.
Autostreoscopic Mobile DTV
Jan 13,2011
CES 2011 as anticipated featured many products built around 3D. However one than could have a great feature is one that combine two mainstream themes of iPads and 3D.
LG exhibited its 3D Mobile TV, which enables viewing 3D content without Glasses ( Engadget) built using the ATSC Mobile DTV technology. The transmissions were from Las Vegas( PBS-Channel 10) using Mobile 3D content. The content format used was side-by-side( L&R images). While such a format requires the use of Glasses, the Autostreoscopic screen used in the LG prototype made "Glassless" vision possible. The LG 3D Mobile device was self contained with an ATSC receiver antenna, the LG 2161 demodulator chip and the 3D image formatting circuitry.
While the transmissions demonstrated the flexibility of the ATSC mobile TV technology for inclusion of 3D transmissions, we believe that the demonstration has opened up possibilities much beyond the mobile DTV alone. With the current high powered growth in iPADs, outstripping demand for PCs and Notebooks, the induction of 3D in these devices is imminent within a year. This also makes it likely that many iPADs, in addition to Smartphones may find ATSC Tuner/ modulators as OEM built in products, spurring the growth in Mobile DTV.
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Smartphones and Mobile TV: What Will Change in 2011?
Nov 2010
Quietly, a major change is underway which will determine the way in which mobile devices will be used in 2011 to view video content. This change, which is firmly rooted in the new but proven technology of OTT will affect not only the smartphones, but all mobile devices including iPADs and Tablets.
To put it simply, the year 2010 has seen a major move towards over the top (OTT) delivery of TV services. This is a step away from delivering TV over tightly controlled broadband networks in the form of IPTV. This change has been made possible by three technologies having been proven- the HLS from Apple, Silverlight from Microsoft and WebM from Google.
While the traditional IPTV technologies are based on the use of H.264 compression and MPEG2 transport stream delivered using UDP, the new technologies are based on HTTP to deliver content over unprotected internet.
This helps the users break away from the offerings in walled networks such as 3G-HSDPA( mobile ) or Fiber-DSL where operators tightly control the offerings. In short, the HTTP provides a model for disintermediation of established operator networks.
Such a major change would not have been possible, but for a dedicated move by industry majors, the speed of which has taken even seasoned observers by surprise. And all of it happened in 2010.
First, the HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) which is a technology introduced by Apple found its way in its operating systems in version iOS3. All Apple devices including iPhones and iPADs with iOS3 now provide native support to HLS. This technology works by allowing the receiving device to tailor the transmissions by the server by breaking H.264 encoded content into 10 second chunks. The receiving device, based on network speeds can determine the bit rates at which these segments should be transmitted.
The second technology, of Microsoft Silverlight is now integrated in all Microsoft Windows 7.0 mobile operating systems. It uses a variant of streaming called Smooth Streaming. Using standard H.264 and AAC codecs, Silverlight demonstrated transmission of HD video ( 720p) over unprotected internet, which has now set the tone for new players and mobile devices in 2011.
The third technology, was that from the Google stable, called the WebM announced in May 2010. WebM is based on the use of Matroska( .mkv) file format and Vorbis and VP8 codecs, which have been the hallmark of Google and its OS, Android. WebM content, which consists of multiplexed VP8 and Vorbis streams, is delivered using standard HTTP streaming.
The new Samrtphones, from the stables of Apple, Android and Windows 7 therefore now all support a technology, which has been so far on drawing boards. This new technology is that of the smartphones being able to receive content delivered over OTT and provide an experience which was not possible in the Smartphones even as late as in 2010.
In 2011, the new revolutionary technology of being able to deliver video is set to turn into a torrent as it is available in an ever increasing range of devices and mobile products.
The technology of OTT is of course not limited to mobile devices. OTT TV has been a driving force which has shaken up the traditional IPTV and broadband providers alike in 2010. STBs used to connect TV sets to the Internet and provide products such as Live Streaming of Sports or other events have come to support browsers and players for streaming video. Almost all the major sports events including NFL Network, NBA TV, NHL Network, MBL Network, ESPN 3.Com and others have been available as OTT streams for a while now. Even the established IPTV providers such as AT&T U-Verse and Verizon FiOS have embraced OTT TV in the form of U-Verse Online and Fancast Xfinity respectively. Moreover these products have been extended to mobile devices. It is a different matter however that the content providers ( e.g. Sports Leagues) can provide streaming from their own sites.
As we move into 2011, expect almost all release of mobile products to support browsers and players to support one of the three advanced streaming technologies. Just as the initial release of the iPhone led to a manifold rise in the use of the internet in 2009 and 2010, the exploding use of OTT video is set to hit the internet as 2011 advances. Are you prepared?
Smartphones and Mobile TV: What has changed in 2010?
The last two years have shown a sharp growth in the use of smartphones and it seems likely that a major change in user behaviour is underway. More than 500 million smartphones are in use toady with capabilities to access internet via 3G, WiFi or other networks. More and more users are using the handsets to search the internet (say by using google mobile, Bing , msn or yahoo), look for offers for travel, weather information, food outlets or use webmail .Most mail sites such as hotmail or live! have mobile versions now. Teens also use it extensively for social networking such as on sites like Facebook, Flickr! , LinkedIn, Twitter, itsmy.com etc. They also use it for sites relating to sex, stream videos and use MMS extensively. Smartphones are also being increasingly used for location based services such as using Mapquest, Google Maps, SirF Atlas and others. Browsing sites such as amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, taking part in online auctions, using chatrooms are also common applications. It is expected that over 1 billion smartphones will be in use by end of 2010, with a significant number being driven by markets in US, Europe, China and India.
Mobile TV whether delivered as streaming video or via a terrestrial media therefore does not always imply buying an expansive phone. Most 3G phones support streaming video and as terrestrial networks become popular, more and more smartphones come with terrestrial tuners built in. In Korea and Japan, a majority of handsets now have a tuner for T-DMB or ISDB-T built in, both of which are free TV services for mobiles. In China, where the number of cities from where mobile TV based on CMMB is offered have jumped to 190 within a year of commercial drive and every new 3G handset to receive government approval must have a CMMB tuner. These three countries today have more mobile TV users than any other country owing to this simple reason. Mobile advertising, so far small is also expected to pick up as the smartphones go beyond a critical mass of 1 billion.
It is imminent that with falling prices of devices like multimedia processors, the smartphones will tend to largely replace the use of the desktops as the medium for access to information, social networking as well as doing daily tasks such as checking mail, making reservations and secure banking transactions because these devices have better embedded security cores and malware is more difficult to propagate owing to the limited resource set and processing capabilities of these devices.
To the industry, the realization that the mobile devices should be considered as THE primary media rather than an extension of desktop experience came rather late. The initial mobile devices had browsers which could view regular websites ( even via multiple screens) while development of websites specifically for mobile devices was rather slow. This accounts for relatively few websites designed for mobiles even as most biggies such as google, gmail , amazon , YouTube or e-bay have now dedicated sites for mobiles.
The launch of Twitter where the maximum size of the message is only 140 characters and where you can even shorten the website references you give in this short message is an indicator of how applications will completely transform to serve the mobile smartphone world. Twitter, for example can potentially reach all the handsets ( smartphones or not) with a potential reach of over 5 billion users. Sites such as itsmy.com are other examples which are designed for mobiles and desktops are an extension rather than being the other way around.
There is now a scramble in the industry to enable virtually all websites, whether these are for auctions, news, travel, weather, streaming videos( e.g. DivX mobile or Flash Lite),providing game downloads, music stores, internet radios, freeware and downloads specially for mobiles. Application shops for mobiles, which rarely sold a few thousand applications now sells millions ow downloads. For example, the iPhone application shop ( iTunes ) has over 100,000 applications developed by over 125,000 developers, and had seen millions of downloads since its launch in Feb 2009. And this is only one of the application stores. There are over a hundred others including application stores from Nokia, Orange, Sony-Ericsson, RIM( Blackberry) and others.
Guess which TV players had one of the largest downloads? It was the TVUplayer for iPhones and iPods. These trends have set a scramble for mobile players and even Microsoft has announced Silverlight for Mobiles. Guess where the action is for development of gaming? It is for mobile games including multiplayer mobile games. Websites are coming up with free stuff for mobiles including wallpapers, screen savers, ringtones and free mobile websites for individuals or companies. Employment websites such as monster.com, Mp3 download websites and popular search engines are now targeting the use by mobile devices.
Mobile TV is one of the applications which now exists on the smartphones together with a host of others which enable navigation, multimedia, and secure shopping. It is no longer an isolated application requiring a separate handsets which users would rather ignore. As services based on terrestrial broadcasting such as MediaFLO ( AT&T and Verizon) and ATSC M/H roll out, multi-standard tuners are likely to become popular in most phones.
The mobile operators initially tried to provide locked phones, secured application downloads and firewalled websites but the launch of newer and newer devices with open systems such as Android has finally put the fear of God and they have decided to go with the FLO. Vonage, for example, became available for mobiles using Wi-Fi, bypassing the cellular networks. In CTIA wireless, AT&T announced opening up its mobile network for applications such as VoIP ( Skype, Vonage,Gtalk etc.). Even the iPhone application store has now an application for Vonage mobile.
A new frontier is now being launched as Comcast and Time Warner start broadband operations using WiMAX. This will provide an alternative to Wi-Fi with high sustained data rates which can support video.
Mobile Video is now riding on a massive wave, which is transforming the way the net is accessed and media is delivered. Almost all popular channels already have their mobile versions such NBC mobile or ESPN mobile and are available via 3G as well as terrestrial broadcast networks. It is now amongst a community of over 500 million devices which can be potentially addressed. Technologies such as FLO TV are set to reach over 200 million users by end of 2009.
The new medium is now already on a path to becoming universal, even though some of the users may start seeing more of it by end of 2009 or early 2010 when more stations with ATSC and FLO go on air and as HSPA networks from major carriers roll out with greater speeds. It will be imperative for all businesses big or small to target the new world through mobiles as they started doing through internet a while back. A lot of content and applications are right now being repurposed. But one thing is certain – the future growth of mobile TV and video is set to surprise most people.