Will we ever again see a "wristwatch TV"?
 

The new mobile ATSC (DTV) standard would allow electronics makers to again try to popularize the vaunted wristwatch TV concept, which was tried and largely flopped a decade or two ago under the analog transmission era.

I think it's a great idea. Sure, nearly everybody carries a smartphone these days, and if cellphone makers wanted to, they easily could equip units with the ATSC m/h mobile chip. But they won't, because they want Americans to PAY for broadcast TV, and they've convinced a segment of the broadcast industry (which increasingly has become the wanna-be PAY TV industry), to go along with their plan to require that Americans SIGN UP to receive mobile TV signals, even those that simulcast existing TV stations.

If some enterprising company developed a "one-way" wristwatch TV that received mobile DTV stations for free, I'd snap one up. Anyone else?

Correction: the cell phone makers are eager to do this. But cellphones are marketed through cellphone service providers who subsidize the cost of the phones and determine what features go into the phones.

Anybody here had a chance to play with a ATSC M/H receiver yet... is it really much more robust for mobile applications?

jr

Yes and yes.

Care to mention a brand and model number? Other than USB tuners for computers, I am not finding anything like a portable TV that uses the ATSC M/H scheme. I should have 4 stations in my area... I wanna play! :)

jr

Sorry, don't know where you can buy one yet. There have been demos at CES and NAB conventions, and a long-term trial in DC.

RCA introduced a line of ATSC m/h hand-held sets a year ago -- and quietly discontinued the line late last year. Radio Shack was selling a non-mobile hand-held DTV by Auvio which worked well while stationary, but never even tried to market the mobile version. Why? IMO, there is a conspiracy to make mobile DTV a subscription medium with pay channel add-ons, but to get the "free" OTA channels, the industry wants a registration requirement. This is truly creepy and fascist, reeking of Big Brother. Broadcasters are now controlled by broadband interests, and FREE OTA TV is endangered. That is why I have posted this modest proposal for a wristwatch mobile DTV on the Facebook pages of Timex, Seiko, Armitron, Swatch, RCA, Sony and other companies. Take a look at the "everyone" posts at those Facebook pages today and you may see my proposal.

I would expect Samsung or Apple might do it. Probably on a cell network

...All this is just another reason to want to Terminate w/Extreme Prejudice the people who killed analog TV...

Considering that television as a stand-alone entity is coming to an end, I doubt anyone will make a TV watch. More likely, a bluetooth screen in a watch, which tethers to a smartphone might be next. I believe that in the next 10 years, there will be no TV sets, computers, phones, or even radios (except for special-purpose and 2-way), and in stead, there will be a server in your house, and to it, all your phones, video monitors, car navigation, and other forms of entertainment, as well as internet access, will be via high-speed broadband over cellphone networks.

Charles

I'm still waiting for my Jet Pack!

I never thought holding your wrist up to your face for 30 minutes at a time would be very comfortable.

Most cell phone providers aren't real thrilled about providing tv on smartphones because it eats up a lot of bandwidth space. Then there's the whole networks wanting a piece of the fees thing too.

My guess is broadcast tv will be totally different in 10 years. There will probably only be two primetime networks (CBS and Fox) and two morning and post-primetime networks (NBC and ABC). They will probably further move into niche marketing like the cable networks now do.

Funny thing is I subscribe to Netflix and Hulu and pay to watch old tv shows, that used to be free tv shows, because new free tv shows aren't worth watching.