Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/02/12/mwc_dvb_wifi_mobile_tv_kit_demod/
Mobile World Congress Digital video playback software specialist PacketVideo this week introduced a matchbox-sized gadget capable of picking up DVB-H digital TV broadcasts and streaming them to any Wi-Fi enabled player - including the iPod Touch and iPhone.
DVB-H is a version of the DVB-T digital broadcast standard re-engineered to make it easier for mobile devices to pick up and decode. It's not widely available - it isn't available at all in the UK, at least not commercially - but now it's become the European standard for straight-to-phone telly transmissions (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/30/eu_gives_dvb_h_thumbs_up/), we're likely to be watching more of it very soon.
Nokia's sufficiently confident in the technology and consumers' demand for it, that it's going to incorporate DVB-H playback in the upcoming successor to the N95, the N96 (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/02/11/mwc_nokia_unveils_n96/).
Back to PacketVideo, which used the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona to show off the unstylishly named PacketVideo Mobile Broadcast Receiver.
PacketVideo's Mobile Broadcast Receiver: TV from DVB to Wi-Fi
The MBR tunes into DVB-H transmissions, decodes them and sends the back out over Wi-Fi in a form mobile devices can pick up via their built-in web browsers.
PacketVideo was keeping mum about the finer points of the product, but it did say the MBR is powered by a USB-rechargeable lithium ion battery.
Alas, it's pitching the product not at punters but at mobiler carriers and other service providers, who it wants to rebadge the MBR - giving it a snappier name in the process, hopefully - and sell it or give it away with DVB-H subscription packages.
Mobile World Congress 2008 Complete Coverage here (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/02/11/complete_mwc_08/)
DVB-H is the official mobile-TV standard (18 March 2008)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/03/18/dvb_h_approved/
iPhone may sidestep rubbish caller ID suit (4 March 2008)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/03/04/iphone_caller_id_part_deux/
Apple optimistic it will sell 10 million iPhones by year's end (28 February 2008)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/02/28/apple_iphone_sdk_ireleand/
Apple posts iPhone 1.1.4 update (27 February 2008)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/02/27/iphone_114_upgrade_warning/
Apple doubles iPod Shuffle song space (19 February 2008)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/02/19/apple_2gb_ipod_shuffle/
Man takes old iPhone box, builds film camera (15 February 2008)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/02/15/iphone_ihole_camera/
Hands on with the blingest flagship phones (12 February 2008)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/02/12/mwc_phones_handson/
Nokia unveils the N96 and N78 (11 February 2008)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/02/11/mwc_nokia_unveils_n96/
EU tunes in to DVB-H (30 November 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/30/eu_gives_dvb_h_thumbs_up/
Mobile TV to reach 120 million users by 2012: report (20 September 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/20/mobile_tv_report/
Elgato TV-on-Mac box tunes into hardware encoding (17 August 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/08/17/elgato_launches_eyetv_250/