Audio Video News

If you were hoping that the digital TV switch would be a good reason to ditch your car, well, you're out of luck. Like some folks who sell the car because the ashtrays were full, others were probably getting ready to  turn in the keys because the analog TV in the back seat was about to become obsolete.  Get back in the minivan and get ready to upgrade.

Microtune has just introduced a tuner chip for cars that will work on digital signals - in fact, it supports analog and digital over-the-air standards including NTSC, ATSC, ATSC-M/H, PAL, SECAM, DVB-H, DVB-T, ISDB-T, and DTMB. It's tiny too - 7 x 7 millimeters, replacing the bulky analog tuners easily.

One of the hang-ups with a digital tuner is getting decent reception within a moving vehicle.  Guess how fast you can go with this new chip installed . . .

It's been tested and built to provide reception in cars traveling up to 125 miles per hour. Zoom-zoom.  —Leslie Shapiro

Market Watch

Photo by Ernesto R.