Mobile Digital TV: Watching High-Definition TV Everywhere We Go Now a Reality

It's already driving some people insane thinking about passing by someone in a park who's watching a downloaded TV show (or maybe something resembling steamy) on their iPod. So far, I haven't seen anybody doing that--and I suspect a good chunk of the American people go to their local parks to deliberately get away from as much media as possible. Besides, straining to watch a show on a tiny iPod screen isn't the best of all worlds. How people would feel about watching a digital TV broadcast on a relatively small (letterboxed) screen, though, would be an interesting test. If only we had a chance to test out an American reaction to such a device. Well, we already do have something close in limited markets. But right now, a more sophisticated version is a hot product in Japan and pretty much mainstream there--despite a lot of technical kinks yet to be worked out.

American technology companies likely won't adopt the word "1-Seg"--considering it sounds too technical. In Japan, it seems to fit right in. Plus, it's a clever way to describe how mobile digital TV (or actually called Terrestrial Digital TV by others) works via the digital broadcast spectrum available in Japan. Their digital format is ISDB-T (somewhat different from ours as is our other video formats) and the word "segment" comes from how many segments there are in a given digital channel. The "1-Seg" comes from the technical explanation of 12 segments being devoted to full digital television--plus a 13th one used for strictly mobile receivers--hence the definition of one segment. And the rest of how these mobile HDTV's work comes in explaining the highly imperfect concept of terrestrial digital broadcasting.

A mobile digital TV in Japan--and displaying the advanced menus you can use to get more information on the show you're watching. Note the antenna that gives a slight throwback to those old analog portable TV's from yesteryear...

Credit: wikimedia.org

Copyright: wikimedia.org