The second terrestrial digital article for tonight. Sanyo has developed an experimental new phone which can not o­nly receive terrestrial digital broadcasts, but record them to SD as well.

Sanyo Electric Corporation announced o­n the 29th that they have developed an experimental cellular phone which supports terrestrial digital broadcast services aimed at mobile units. Furthermore, this unit will be o­n display at "CEATEC JAPAN 2004" to begin o­n October 5th, and it is planned to be demoed receiving an actual broadcast.

This is a cellular phone unit that supports the reception of single-segment terrestrial digital broadcasts. While Sanyo announced an experimental unit with the same concept back in August of 2003, this unit includes support for "H.264/MPEG-4 AVC" format playback. QVGA (320 x 240) video can be played at 15 frames per second.

This is a result of the video format intended for mobile broadcasts being decided o­n March 24th of this year. The experimental unit supports the playback of MPEG-4 Simple Profile.

Also, this unit newly supports data broadcasts. This means that services being broadcasted linked to the actual broadcast itself have been implemented.

It uses a new design, and has a "front style" with a slide-type display. It also includes the ability to switch between horizontal and vertical display o­n the screen with a single button. Full picture displays of 2.4 inches are supported when the phone is used horizontally.

A SD card slot has also been added to the phone. Broadcasts can be recorded to SD cards. Recording had been supported o­n the previous unit with its internal 128MB flash memory, but this addition will allow for a longer recording time. Regarding the copyright protection while recording, Sanyo has said they will support it as the standards are finalized.

The antenna continues using a diversity reception style. Another feature of the phone is that it contains a stamp-sized single segment reception module using a direct connection system.

The experimental unit's external dimensions are 50 x 28 x 102mm (W x D x H), and it has a weight of 150g. Using the internal lithium ion battery, the phone can receive TV signals for about 2 hours. The cellular system is CDMA2000 1X EV-DO. A 260,000 color TFT LCD is used as a 2.4" display. It also is equipped with a 2MP CCD camera.



Inspired by:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20040929/sanyo.htm

Press Release:
http://www.sanyo.co.jp/koho/hypertext4/0409news-j/0929-1.html