14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier today Sony announced that it has begun selling the world’s first demodulator LSI conforming to the DVB-C2 TV broadcast standard, which is the next-generation standard improved from the current DVB-C adopted throughout Europe and other countries around the world.
Sony is actually making two demodulator chips available, both of these featuring similar specs, but the more advanced option also includes DVB-T/T2 support.
Compared to the first revision of the DVB-C broadcast standard, the second iteration of this technology brings a series of improvements, such as a significantly increased data transmission capacity.
At the same time, DVB-C2 also optimizes the use of the transmission channel to enable multichannel and high-quality HD broadcasting.
Furthermore, the reflections and interference tolerance of the cable network was also improved by the introduction of multi-level modulation, which is 16 times as dense as the modulation method utilized for DVB-C.
Apart from the new features brought by the move to the new standard, Sony has also added a series of proprietary technologies to its DVB-C2 chips.
One of the most important, is the introduction of a series of reception and error correction algorithms that are used to achieve stable and highly sensitive reception, while also reducing power consumption and realizing package miniaturization by reducing the number of pins.
Sony states that these chips only require 360mW in order to work, but the press release fails to mention how that value was measured.
Both LSI demodulator chips use the same package and pin assignment and can be installed inside TVs, set-top boxes as well as other devices that require such functionality.
According to Sony, the DVB-C2 only version of the demodulator will start shipping in November of this year for 5,000 Yen (roughly $65 US), while the DVB-T/T2 chip will start shipping in December and carries a price tag of 7,500 yen (about $98 US).