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Samsung brings live TV to mobile phones

5 January 2007 2:08 by James "Dela" Delahunty

Electronics giant Samsung has revealed the development of a chipset that will allow mobile phones and other mobile devices like PDAs, pick up over-the-air digital transmissions. Samsung claims users would be able to switch between channels with good reception even while traveling at a high speed. The company is set to show off the technology at next week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

There are some issues that need to be worked out first for this technology to be usable. Firstly, broadcasters will have to broadcast a separate signal for mobile devices using the Samsung technology. This issue is reportedly being addressed already. This shouldn't be a problem as it opens the door for more ad revenue from the mobile audience.

The harder part will be convincing the cellular carriers to play along. Some carriers have already invested in their own video content services, like Verizon's V-Cast or MobiTV, so mobile phones being able to pick up over-the-air free transmissions probably doesn't sound very desirable even though there should be considerable consumer demand for it.

Samsung's technology does have one notable advantage for cellular networks, it does not use up any of the carrier's bandwidth. Take SlingMedia's SlingPlayer Mobile for example; it can stream video from SlingBox to a Windows Mobile handset, but carriers disapprove of its use and have threatened heavy users with higher prices.

Hopefully Samsung will have more interesting details on this at CES.

Source:
Ars Technica

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