CES: Coming Soon to the Small Screen

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Just when you thought you figured your way out of the Blu-ray and HD DVD maze, another head scratcher pops up, complete with its own alphabet soup of acronyms. This time, it has to do with mobile digital television--the ability to tune in to, say, a live Lakers game from the car, cellphone or laptop. At CES this week, LG showed off a suite of gadgets that can receive digital TV signals, including two mobile phones, a four-inch portable display and a USB dongle that turns a laptop into a digital TV. LG calls these gizmos Mobile Pedestrian Handhelds, or MPHs.

This is interesting because traditional analog TV signals in the U.S. will stop broadcasting in February 2009. At that point, only digital TV signals will be transmitted. And that’s when these devices will kick off.

If you think you’ve seen this show before, you probably have. Samsung Electronics Co. in 2006 announced a similar initiative, called advanced vestigial sideband, or AVSB. MPH is a competing standard. Samsung and LG have both said they are prepared to launch products in 2009. My colleague Jon Healey offers his take on this here.

--Alex Pham