NEC designs DTV tuner into 3G cell phone

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

Every want to watch TV on your cell phone while waiting on the bus or subway?

NEC designs DTV tuner into 3G cell phone

TOKYO ? NEC Corp. has demonstrated a third-generation cell phone that it claims is the first to incorporate a digital-TV tuner.

?Though a practical TV broadcasting service is still several years ahead, we've shown that we can build cellular phones equipped with TV, and we want to stimulate the market that will emerge in the near future,? said Yoshiharu Tamura, general manager of NEC's Mobile Terminals Division.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Why haven't they made one for the laptop or something? I'm sure if they can fit it in a phone they can fit it in a laptop... doh!

Me thinks they are trying to pack too much into a cell phone...

 

[magomago]

What is 3g? Do we have 3g cellphones or what I just said an ignorant n00b question? Wouldn't haveing digital tv steam to the cellphone be a huge bandwith sucker? If cellphones are just like regular telephone lines than they can't pack a punch...or can they since its wireless or something?

As you see I don't have a cellphone so I really don't know much about them 😛

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

3G = Third generation.

The cell phone industry has gone through 3 major generational evolutions in the past decade or so. They are basically saying, "We've incorporated a DTV chip into a current third generation cell phone." It sucks too much power, so we may not see an actual product using this technology until the fourth generation.

At least, that's how I've always interpreted it.

Cell phones aren't hindered by traditional land line 56K restrictions, considering they don't even use land lines.

 

[Mark R]

3G properly called UMTS is a 3rd generation cell phone technology - to replace GSM, and TDMA/CDMA digital phones. The major difference is the bandwidth available (GSM offers up to 64 kbps, UMTS offers up to 2 Mbps - that's faster than most broadband). There is very limited 3G coverage in the US, but in parts of Europe it is an established technology.

The TV section is completely seperate - it just picks up the TV broadcast signal, using a seperate receiver circuit (and I would expect a different antenna). It doesn't use the telephone network to receive the stream.