DTV possible on the next 'books?

frank777

As many will know by the end of the decade all of North America will be switching over to Digital Television.



Major markets in the US already have DTV signals being broadcast, but very few can receive them (since you'll need a brand new TV or a converter)



Since an PowerBook consists of a high quality LCD and has an antenna in the lid for Airport reception, it dawned on me that Apple has the perfect means to push DTV adoption.



There are a few questions though:



Can DTV tuners be minuturized to fit in a Powerbook? Can the antennas be made to receive BOTH Airport and DTV? Would people pay, say $200.00 more for watching Digital TV on their laptop?



Anybody care to chime in?

hegor

Hmmmmmmmmm,



There are other things I would want before I would want DTV in either an iBook or PBook. So I would vote no.

alexander

Quote:

Originally posted by Frank777

[B]=Can the antennas be made to receive BOTH Airport and DTV?=/B]

Er, no.



VHF and UHF signals are mostly line-of-site. Which is why people put TV antennas on their roof unless they live very close to the transmitter. 8VSB-encoded signals are also a lot pickier than analog; unless you would get a very clear picture on the frequency in question, you'll get nothing if it's digital.

kormac77

I will post post relate to this in here.



http://forums.appleinsider.com/showt...threadid=22213



check this out.

matt ft

Quote:

Originally posted by Alexander

Er, no.



VHF and UHF signals are mostly line-of-site. Which is why people put TV antennas on their roof unless they live very close to the transmitter. 8VSB-encoded signals are also a lot pickier than analog; unless you would get a very clear picture on the frequency in question, you'll get nothing if it's digital.

Yeh, your spot on. Different frequency bands would mean different antennas. Over here in the UK there is a big push to digital terrestrial TV. You can buy a box which you plug in between your ariel and your TV. The actual hardware required is not complicated and could be miniturised into a powerbook. The problem is the strength of the signal. Even here in a major city (Edinburgh) the digital signal is not very strong. This means that the amp. in the box needs to work hard = lots of power = no battery life + lots of heat.



Nice idea, but not practical in a 'book. Could work in a desktop though...



Matt



Stop The War

vinney57

Yeah, I'll second that. These boxes are cheap to buy and are even cheaper inside. The electronics must cost 10 dollars max. But man are they flakey! I'm on my third Grundig box...every now and then it wants to download a software update and if I don't catch it in time, buffff... box is dead in the water. You could easily get them into a PC card or something but you would have to connect it to a bloody great ariel to get it to work.

guartho

Quote:

Originally posted by vinney57

would have to connect it to a bloody great ariel to get it to work.

And connecting the delicate innards of my Mac to something that is also a lightning rod is not first on my list of fun things to do today...







edited for typos

mac_man

Quote:

Originally posted by Guartho

And connecting the delicate innards of my Mac to something that is also a lightning rod is not first on my list of fun things to do today...

LOL so true...

ed m.

I'm sure you could broadcast via through 802.11g. 54Mb/s is PLENTY for HDTV broadcasts. I think that I even mentioned this on these boards before.



I'm betting that you could do it with a link to the base station. With Rendezvous it can travel through all other wireless/Rendezvous-enabled devices (TiVo?)



There is enough bandwidth for HDTV through 802.11g enabled Macs -- portable or otherwise. All that's required is someone (Apple?) willing to produce the software. This could provide a TON of interesting possibilities and I think it's something that Apple *is* working on.



Again, key technologies already in place... 802.11g, Rendezvous, HiRes screens, large hard disks. Talk about pulling the rug out from under the competition ... The "MediaCenter" PCs that the competition peddle.



Imagine for a moment a simple icon on the desktop or dock that that when *clickled* opens up a scalable window with a TV broadcast and remote so you can change channels etc.. Oh, and a "record" button so you could record an event that you wanted to view later. Or pick up a broadcast on your laptop while on the sofa in the livingroom and tell the iMac in the den to start recording instead or the TiVo...Or..... That's just the tip of the iceberg. I'm hoping Apple offers us something like this.



--

Ed M.

frank777

So, in other words Ed, the Airport Extreme Hub would contain the actual HDTV decoder box and simply broadcast it through to the laptop?



It's feasible I suppose, though it won't let me watch TV in the park on a summer day!