Samsung to demo A-VSB mobile TV at CES
January 6th, 2007A-VSB, an emerging technology that uses broadcast spectrum to deliver digital television to cellular phones and in-car TVs, will get its next test at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas:
[T]he invite-only demonstrations will be the first to use battery-operated handheld TVs, which Samsung will demonstrate in moving vehicles on Las Vegas streets and highways, [Samsung’s John] Godfrey said. The portable TVs, all prototypes, might also be demonstrated inside the convention center, the company said at press time.
(Why not demo it inside, too, at Samsung’s $875,000, 25,000-square-foot exhibit space? They will have sufficient room, I would say.)
A-VSB technology may even offer a path to more reliable reception for some U.S. home viewers whose over-the-air digital TV signals are plagued by interference. (Certain kinds of reception problems can be traced to inherent features 8-VSB, the modulation scheme used by the ATSC digital TV standard.)
HDTV lovers, ever vigilant, worry that bandwidth consumed by A-VSB will shortchange their high-definition signals. That could happen, especially on stations that offer multicasts concurrent with HD programming. Free, over-the-air mobile TV signals may, after all, come at a cost.
• Link: TWICE