Let Mobile

Echoing what I have been saying recently about DVB-H vs DVB-T “Mobile” TV, Broadband TV News has a piece on exactly that. Essentially, devices that have a DVB-T tuner can take advantage of FTA terrestrial services, breaking any kind of value chain that could have existed if the device’s tuner were DVB-H.

The article does take in a new report from Juniper Research which is talking about the effect of these DVB-T handsets - however, instead of going over that, I’ll break the situation down for y’all very quickly myself….

DVB-H - made for mobile devices, very advanced error protection in broadcast, and clever use of time-slicing of signal that preserves battery life by switchin of receiver for up to 80% of the time. However, massive network rollout costs, and getting installer user base to buy new handsets are huge obstacles to mass adoption.
DVB-T - made of home-based receivers, such as TVs - as a standard, not great when applied to mobile devices as you usually need a large antenna (show me a mobile device that doesn’t have a big antenna….!). Also wears battery down on Mobile devices as receiver has to be on all the time. BUT, mobile devices with a DVB-T tuner can access free-to-air existing services, and no additional network investment needed. Operators make nothing from FTA services, so they are not behind adoption of DVB-T!

So that’s pretty much it - opposite ends of the spectrum, and there are devices in the market for each standard. Interestingly, the Mobile TV chips vendors are variously making I/C chips with all the Mobile TV standards - nothing like hedging your bets!