Samsung Electronics on Wednesday unveiled a multiband mobile TV chipset for use in cellular phones in Europe, Asia, and the United States.
The chipset, built with a 65-nanometer manufacturing process, includes a multistandard channel decoder and a multiband radio frequency tuner. The hardware supports multiple digital standards, including DVB-H/T, DAB-IP, ISDB-T, and terrestrial DMB.
Multistandard support means handset users will be able to choose which broadcasting services they want to use without changing their mobile application. "Although a new market, we see high growth potential in mobile TV applications," Yiwan Wong, a VP in Samsung's semiconductor business, said in a statement. Samsung is releasing the new chipset in Europe and Asia first.
The chipset's channel decoder transforms the analog signal into a digital signal for image and audio playback. The tuner, which receives the analog broadcast signal, is a general-purpose device that supports UHF, VHF, and L-band commonly used in Europe and the United States.
The chipset is offered either as two standalone integrated circuits or as a system-in-chip package, which includes the tuner and decoder on a single module. Samsung's support to handset makers includes software, reference platforms, test solutions, and extended component lineup such as the application processor.
Consumer acceptance of video on a mobile phone is bigger than first predicted by many experts. Between 60% and 85% of people who experienced video on a handset enjoyed it, according to Research and Markets. The biggest reason is boredom.
In 80% of the trials surveyed by the research firm in Finland, England, France, Italy, Korea, and Japan, boredom ranked as the biggest driver for watching chunks of video throughout the day.
