Samsung to demo portable digital TV

Samsung said on Thursday it has developed a way to broadcast digital television signals to car screens and to devices such as DVD, game and music players, with an aim to creating a standard for portable digital television.

The South Korean company said it is not close to developing commercial products based on the technology, but plans to demonstrate it for the first time at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week using content from Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Samsung is hoping to attract interest from US broadcasters, who are expected to phase out older analogue television systems with digital television by the end of 2009. It could eventually sell the technology in other countries, Samsung spokesman John Godfrey said.

The development comes as the world's wireless companies, including Samsung's mobile handset division, sell more handsets that can play video.

Samsung said its portable TV technology, known as Advanced Vestigial Sideband, could potentially work on mobile phones, but it is focusing initially on car TVs and dedicated media players.

"We would like to expand the market by developing TVs that people could carry around with them," he said. "This is a different way to bring portable to the consumer but it's not about the cellphone."

Samsung hopes the technology will become a standard in the first half of 2007, according to Godfrey. It began its efforts to standardise the technology in December 2005 and has been working on the standard with the Advanced Television Systems Committee, which oversees standards for digital television in the US.

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