Zentek's 1seg Digital TV SDIO Card for Japan

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/30/zenteks-1seg-sdio-card/' target='_blank'>http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/30/...1seg-sdio-card/</a><br /><br /></div><i>If you're looking for a little TV-on-the-go action of slightly higher quality than plain-old analog broadcasts, and happen to live in Japan, then Zentek may have just the solution for ya. It's just announced what looks to be the first 1Seg (or One-Seg, if you prefer) TV tuner on an SDIO card, which'll let you pick up those sweet terrestrial digital broadcast signals on your SDIO-equipped handheld or cellphone."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20061022-zentechsdio1seg.jpg" /><br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1seg">1seg</a> is a Japanese digital audio/video/data broadcasting service in Japan, so this is useless for the rest of us; however, it's noteworthy to see one can fit these capabilities in something as small as an SDIO card. :)

[Menneisyys]

This is definitely great news - particularly if they do release a version compliant with American / European broadcasts.

My humble comments / other, alternate products (there are two; it's worth knowing about them because they're direct competitors):

News on Digital TV receiver SDIO cards

In the comment section of this blog post (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&amp;p=1191&amp;more=1&amp;c=1&amp;tb=1&amp;pb=1), I elaborated on the (then) available digital TV receiver cards compatible with Pocket PC’s (in addition to, of course, the analogue cards – check the link for a discussion of them). There, I’ve mentioned SDIO DMB TUNER (http://www.eopstech.com/eops/pro5.html) by EOps technology Limited, which adds considerable bulk to the PDA (it uses a separate unit, which also contains a battery and connects to the SDIO card through a cable):

http://www.winmobiletech.com/kuvat/SDIODMBTUNER.jpg

(direct Flash animation link (http://www.eopstech.com/eops/img/pro4_ani.swf))

I’ve also mentioned the Philips SDIO TV1000 / TV1100 card (http://www.slashphone.com/69/4499.html) (also see this (http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2006/06/philips_sdio_tv1000tv1100_dvbh_tuner_card.html)), which has already been demoed and is a much better, card-only solution (NO external units, nothing), but it’s still not available for purchase:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/kuvat/Philips-tv1100_2.jpg

Now, Japanese hardware manufacturer Zentech has also announced (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=419089) another non-bulky SDIO card that is also able to receive digital broadcasts. It’s only able to receive Japan-only 1seg broadcasts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1seg); however, hopefully, this will change in the future.

http://www.winmobiletech.com/kuvat/zentechsdio1seg.jpg

(Zentech-related news source: PPCT (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=419089)).