Watching TV on the DS

jerinjapan · 07-04-2006, 01:12 AM

I made this post in a thread about high-end graphics in the pipeline for the Wii, as MRMARIO had commented about the fact that is possible to watch TV on the DS in Japan. I then realized that the post would have been more appropriate here, so here goes...

I hope nobody has covered this already, but if they have, please don't flame me...I did actually bother to search through the thread names but didn't see anything about this, but didn't bother to look through each one.

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Quote:

hd tv is more or less just a television signal in another format. and eventually, every tv will recieve it in this format. just like japana has. In japan, you can actually watch television on your ds, because of the format of it over there, sadly, we cant do that just yet.

DRMARIO, I didn't even realize that this was possible and I am living in Japan. I was going to ask you for a source, but then I googled it and found out some more info. Thanks for the tip.

In case anybody else hadn't heard of this, here are some links for your info:

Wikipedia article on 1seg
2006 Spring DS Conference

If you scroll to near the bottom of the second link above, the caption below accompanies the second-to-last picture:

Quote:

いよいよこの４月から、地上波デジタルのワンセグ放送が始まり、対応する携帯電話機のワンセグ受信対応モデルが登場しつつありますが、このカードは、ＤＳでワンセグ放送を受信可能にして、ＤＳを携帯TVに変身させます。

Translated into English (my translation):

Quote:

At last, 1seg terrestrial digital broadcasting will begin, and while cellular phone models with compatible receivers are being introduced, this card will make it possible to receive 1seg broadcasts on the DS, transforming the DS into a portable TV.

This "news" is from February 15, 2006, so maybe many of you have heard about it before, but thought I would post just to make it clear.

Arcadium · 07-04-2006, 01:29 AM

But do u think it will be possible only in japan or in others countries too?

jerinjapan · 07-04-2006, 02:03 AM

AFAIK, this card I mentioned will probably go on sale in Japan this fall, so it is not currently possible to watch TV on the DS, even in Japan. From what I can gather, this card will only work in Japan, due to the different nature of digital TV broadcasts across the world.

I'm not an expert in this, but it seems that the various countries use the following standards:

Code:

*---------------------------------------------------------*
|             USA                 EUROPE  JAPAN   KOREA   |
|---------------------------------------------------------|
| Television  ATSC 	          DVB     ISDB    ATSC    |
| Radio       HD Radio/XM/Sirius  DAB     ISDB    DBM     |
*---------------------------------------------------------*

The 1seg receiver card to be sold for the DS in Japan works on the ISDB-T standard, and as you can see from the chart above, there are no plans to introduce this broadcast format anywhere else but Japan. Furthermore, ATSC (the digital TV broadcast format for the US) doesn't even support wireless broadcasting. The good news is that another format, DVB-H, is currently undergoing testing in the US, Europe, and parts of Asia, and service is expected to start sometime in 2006-07, according to Texas Instruments, who is making some of the chips for the mobile handsets.

So it is a question of when mobile TV comes to the US, not if. However, whether Nintendo or their licensed hardware developers choose to make a DVB-H compatible receiver cartridge for the DS or not is another question altogether, and I am not in a position to make any predictions about the odds of that.

Hope I was able to answer your question.

Arcadium · 07-04-2006, 02:20 AM

Yeah man u were able

and a very good informative I hope u continue posting like this in the future

Darkprinny · 07-04-2006, 07:16 AM

theres a tv tuner out for the gba
but dont see it round mutch

DRMARIO · 07-11-2006, 05:05 PM

AHEM! *its DRMARIO* ..sorry, i had to point that out

dwaltin · 07-19-2006, 03:32 AM

Dang i wish we could do that in the US