ATI Enters Mobile TV Market with a Complete DVB-H Solution

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://ir.ati.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=105421&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=811089' target='_blank'>http://ir.ati.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=1...ticle&ID=811089</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Leveraging its vast expertise in the DTV and handheld markets, ATI Technologies Inc. (TSX:ATY)(NASDAQ:ATYT) is introducing a single chip, DVB-H compliant, Mobile TV Receiver solution for mobile phones and other handheld devices. ATI's Imageon(R) TV solutions are designed to offer handset manufacturers with system-level flexibility, high integration, low power and optimal BOM cost. The WTV100-M is a single chip front-end that integrates a dual-band RF tuner (UHF for Europe and L-Band for US) with a highly integrated DVB-T/DVB-H OFDM demodulator and all necessary discretes in a SiP (System-in-Package). The WTV100-M component interfaces seamlessly to ATI's Imageon media processors, as the audio and video decoders, for a complete and state-of-the-art end-to-end DVB-H solution."</i><br /><br />ATI has just announced the WTV100-M mobile TV chip, which will be released to manufacturers in mid-2006. It would be nice having more TV-enabled mobile devices in the market, so let's hope that ATI's latest chip will get the ball rolling.

[alabij]

To be honest I don't get this TV chips. I mean with the rapid growth of 3G broadband networks. Most if not all TV can be streamed over a network. And if you have an unlimited data plan the only extra might be a subscription fee.

[Phoenix]

To be honest I don't get this TV chips. I mean with the rapid growth of 3G broadband networks. Most if not all TV can be streamed over a network. And if you have an unlimited data plan the only extra might be a subscription fee.

My understanding is that digital video requires an enormous amount of bandwidth to achieve 30fps, and although they could attempt to stream video data (in this case, TV) over 3G UMTS/HSDPA, once the service caught on, it would require more bandwidth than the networks would have available; it would clog things up and bring video to a crawl. Hence, the need for a separate network, and then, a separate chip.

[Phoenix]

In fact, here's a good article on the subject: Mobile TV. (http://news.cnet.co.uk/software/0,39029694,39192910,00.htm)