Happy tourists in the streets of Beijing, watching the city’s 2008 Olympics over portable devices is nothing short of a matter of national pride for the Chinese government. And Sharp wants to cash in.

Sharp’s new digital broadcast tuner module is only 1/100^th the size of its previous digital broadcast tuner module. The module is designed to receive Chinese terrestrial digital broadcast television.

The tiny package is only 10.7 x 10.7 X 1.4 mm which means it’s so small and energy efficient it can be used in mobile televisions. The diminutive component will begin shipping next January and will begin popping up in devices soon after. With a mobile unit packing Sharp’s ultra-portable tuner, you’ll be able to receive HD quality terrestrial television broadcasts from devices that are the size of a PDA.

Although it’s not quite ready for prime time, China’s digital broadcast standards were established in 2006. Limited testing has already begun and will gradually develop into a full-service national broadcast.

The Chinese want to see the system up and running by the 2008 Beijing Olympics as the event is seen as a social, cultural coming out for the country. Sharp is banking on a booming Chinese market for mobile digital equipment.

Tags: TLM

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 6th, 2007 at 4:09 pm and is filed under Culture, Portable, Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.