Merely weeks after a handful of TV broadcasters voiced their approval of the MPH mobile TV standard, the almighty ATSC has elevated its specification for Mobile Digital Television to Candidate Standard status. Or it will early next week, based on the futuristic December 1st date on the press release. Anywho, the thumbs-up brings the standard one huge step closer to actual implementation in the United States, though a final standard isn't apt to be agreed upon until late next year. Not that the delay is really a problem -- after all, a grand total of 19 people in this great nation even care about TV on the go, right?

[Via mocoNews]

Upon first glance, we almost flipped a lid at the mere mention of "high-definition mobile TV." Turns out, that's probably a misconstrued way of saying "high-resolution," or, "a higher quality than usual." At any rate, Orange is making the final touches on its mobile TV service, which will deliver 60 channels (20 with unlimited access) on the company's 3G+ UMA platform. Reportedly, the first handset to take advantage will be the LG Secret KF757, which will be the first mobile to boast the Orange TV Player -- an application that enables users to "flick from one channel to another and to consult a guide to programs showing on each channel." Sounds pretty sweet, but be sure and give us a call when you really have high-def content to share and a phone to take advantage.

[Image courtesy of DirectNews]

The world needed another mobile TV standard about like it needs another hole in the ozone layer, but regardless of that, we've still got broadcasters backing MPH. We originally heard that said protocol was being tested by Raleigh's WRAL back in July, and since then, a whopping 800 local stations (which make up the Open Mobile Video Coalition) have joined in to work out the kinks. Currently, the general consensus is one of satisfaction, with the group now hoping to "prove the viability of the proposed system before the ATSC." If all goes well, a candidate standard will be ready to present next month, which "would keep handset manufacturers on schedule to have commercial devices available by the holiday 2009 shopping season." OMVC is also planning a multi-station demo at CES in January, so you can bet we'll be there giving it a run for its cheddar.

[Via RCRWireless]

Seems like the picture's getting clearer by the minute for paid mobile TV content, and it's a pretty bleak picture indeed. Over in Germany, DVB-H subscriptions are dying a slow, painful death (despite a healthy push by the European Union) thanks to free DVB-T content and a lineup of compatible phones to match, and now, Toshiba is shuttering its four-year-old Moba Ho satellite-based service thanks to the overwhelming availability and popularity of one-seg tuners, which like DVB-T in Germany, offer programming at no charge. Technical advantages, and to a large degree, entertainment value both tend to get overlooked when you've got a free product competing against a paid product -- it's frequently a disruptive economic force that takes profit right out of the equation, and Toshiba's learning that lesson the hard way. Keep your chins up, though, guys; at least you lost this battle for an entirely different reason than you did HD DVD, right? Guess that's not helping much. Anyway, expect the service to vaporize by March of next year, with Toshiba planning to take a one-time hit of $232 million for the shutdown.

Although Raleigh, North Carolina is set to become one of the first DVB-SH test markets in America, WRAL is already testing out yet another standard. The station known nationwide for taking its local newscasts to the world of HD while everyone else sat and moped in their SD control rooms is currently teaming with CBC in order to test out the ATSC-compatible MPH mobile television transmission system. As we've seen before, the system enables "local broadcasters to deliver digital television to mobile devices including cellphones, laptops and personal media players," all while moving quickly in vehicles, hoverboards, rocket-powered scooters -- you name it. There's no word on what exactly will happen once the trials conclude, but we'll be keeping an ear to the ground just in case it's something big.

[Via BroadcastingCable]

It seems like just yesterday that Nokia's N800 and N810 internet tablets garnered HAVA support (not to mention those WinMo cellies), and lo and behold, Monsoon Multimedia is now announcing that S60-based handset owners will be able to enjoy the same luxuries. Hailed as a TV place-shifting, video-streaming solution for S60 3rd edition on Symbian OS, the HAVA Mobile Player gives HAVA adopters "the ability to watch and control all of their home television channels and services from anywhere in the world on a mobile device." Unfortunately, the free download (for HAVA owners) won't be available until Q3, but it's being shown off now at the S60 Summit 2008 and in the gallery below. Dig in, won't you?

With the 2008 Olympic Games right around the corner, Intel is tag-teaming it with Legend Silicon in order to promote HDTV viewing on portable devices -- laptops, most notably. The pair has seemingly convinced Lenovo, HP, ASUS, Sony, Samsung and Toshiba (among others) to offer up their machines with a DTTB USB dongle in the coming days, enabling Chinese citizens to watch HD on-the-go right out of the box. If you couldn't surmise, DTTB is yet another Chinese broadcast standard, and while we wouldn't bet the farm on it, the nation's government is hoping to offer up multiple high-def programs via DTTB by 2010. Who would've guessed -- the Olympics catapulting HD programming in China?

Ah ha! So this is what DISH Network was planning on doing with its recently-purchased swath of spectrum. Just under two months after analysts pondered what the firm was thinking throwing out bids for a smidgen of bandwidth -- and not even a fortnight after the ICO G1 successfully launched in order to bring DVB-SH to America -- out comes the whole truth. The satcaster is teaming up with Alcatel-Lucent to test the Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite services to Handhelds technology right here in the US, with A-L providing the equipment, test tools and training. The evaluation will be taking place at a DISH facility in Atlanta from May until August, with the ultimate goal to "validate the performance and cost-efficiency of the DVB-SH standard." As expected, we're only given crumbs of information as to where this partnership may lead, but we should be much more clear on everything by the time the summer concludes.

Just months after Alcatel Lucent and SFR hosted DVB-SH trials across the pond comes word that the mobile TV technology is headed Stateside. ICO Global Communications is donning the party hats and going through buckets upon buckets of ice cream in celebration of a successful satellite launch that will eventually bring those yearned-after mobile television goods to the US, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. The ICO G1 was placed into its initial geosynchronous transfer orbit yesterday afternoon, and now the company is eagerly awaiting certification that the bird is fully operational (and can pass the final FCC milestone) by May 15th. If all goes to plan, Las Vegas, Nevada and Raleigh / Durham, North Carolina will be gifted with ICO mim (mobile interactive media) service trials "later this summer," though a commercial launch isn't slated to occur until "later in 2009."

[Via phonemag], image courtesy of WESH]

In the wake of LG's press conference today we're still a little skeptical that the world needs yet another standard for mobile TV, but for what it's worth, the company appears to have signed up a variety of partners in an effort to push it -- and they certainly brought enough eye candy hardware with prototype MPH hardware already integrated. In the mix was a modified VX9400, an LG laptop, a portable media player, and a USB dongle, and with the first commercial rollouts expected as soon as February of next year, we figure it's a good thing they have so much actual product to show. We're a little miffed at the idea that the standard is robbing sweet, sweet bandwidth from the traditional ATSC signal (as opposed to, say, DVB-H and MediaFLO, which rock their own frequencies), but we can also appreciate why this might speed mobile TV rollouts due to a significantly reduced dedicated infrastructure footprint. And besides, who isn't excited about the prospect of watching the boob tube at 140 miles per hour?

As the news continues to flow from Intel's Developer Forum, we're now hearing that the chip maker could make "surprise moves into consumer electronics chips." More specifically, it seems that the outfit is looking to "roll out a system-on-a-chip code-named Canmore aimed at HDTVs and other products," as well as Silverthorne, which would apparently be reserved for handheld devices. 'Course, Intel has dabbled in these areas without notable success in the past, but analysts are suggesting that gaining traction this time around "could be big" for the firm. Ah Intel, why the tease?

Hot on the heels of two other placeshifting technologies comes ACOGITO's Roaming Machine, which reportedly does quite a bit more than similar alternatives that port your television shows to wherever you may roam. In addition to being a self-proclaimed "HD set-top-box" that pulls double duty as a DVR, this dashing thin device can channel your programs to your laptop or mobile through MPEG4 / H.264 encoding, and relies on the firm's "patented Remote Control eXtensible Mark-up Language (RCXML) technology for a set of command protocols for remote viewing." Additionally, you'll find a trio of units to handle ATSC / NTSC, DVB-S / DVB-T / PAL, and of course, an IP rendition for the unbiased set. Notably, the company also brags about its LCD HDTV (affectionately dubbed the RoamingTV) which touts a built-in placeshifter, and while pricing and availability deets aren't available for either, you can purportedly catch both of these technologies at this year's NAB event.

[Via MobileMag]