DiBcom, the leading provider of Mobile TV solutions, to announced two new products, the DIB9090 and DIB8090 which both support very low power mobile TV reception of DVB-T and ISDB-T 13SEG signals respectively. These chips also support the reception of DVB-H and ISDB-T 1SEG.
Historically, numerous countries have deployed DVB-T and ISDB-T Full-SEG for non mobile applications such as Home Digital TVs and Set Top Boxes/Digital Converters. Since June 2008, mobile phones using DiBcom chipsets have offered DVB-T reception in several European countries. In Japan, where 1SEG ISDB-T has been deployed on mobile phones, more than 30 Million units have already been sold and handset manufacturers are also starting to look at implementing reception of Full-SEG ISDB-T. This will enable them to offer high definition TV on large screen mobile phones.
However, DVB-T and Full-SEG ISDB-T currently use high level modulation schemes to transmit high bit-rate TV signals (Standard or High-Definition TV) making reception difficult in mobile conditions. The strong channel variations, the Doppler effect related to mobility and the adjacent channels are indeed much stronger when receiving high modulation signals compared to low bit-rate QVGA-size TV signals transmitted by DVB-H or ISDB-T 1SEG. DiBcom released the first Mobile TV DVB-T receivers for the automotive industry back in 2002. Yet it took another six years to reduce power consumption, size, and the number of discrete components to significantly low levels without compromising the high level performance that made DiBcom a leading Mobile TV reference.
The new generation of components like the DIB9090 and the DIB8090, has revolutionized the Mobile TV market by offering the highest performance at the lowest possible power consumption in all functional modes (for DVB-T and Full-SEG ISDB-T in particular). These new generation components draw on the successful features of their predecessors in addition to their small footprint. They therefore provide a very cost effective solution for DVB-T, DVB-H, Full-SEG and 1SEG ISDB-T Mobile TV reception on battery-powered devices. While others claim to provide low power solutions, their disappointing performance makes them unsuitable for DVB-T or Full-SEG ISDB-T reception. High linearity tuners as well as advanced signal processing algorithms implemented on smaller silicon geometries are vital for this performance vs. power trade-off.
“We are very pleased to see handsets implementing both DVB-T and DVB-H on the same platforms,” says Yannick Levy, CEO of DiBcom. “DVB-T based Free-To-Air TV signals are broadcast in many countries today, thus making it very attractive for consumers to try out TV reception on handhelds. Once users are hooked, they will demand more content and better coverage. In this way, they are more likely to subscribe to DVB-H services and watch more content on 3G. Handset manufacturers now see a real opportunity to create higher volumes compared to the levels that DVB-H only devices can achieve. This new feature is therefore a very attractive one to differentiate their products.”