ATSC 3.0 next gen over-the-air TV was announced for 40 markets by the end of 2020. Sinclair says they will have this new next gen TV in 20 markets by the end of 2019. The new standard promises to bring 4K pictures, better sound, new features, and better reception to your antenna. The downside is we had yet to see any physical consumer tuners. Now that is changing thanks to AirwazTV.
At the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show this week, AirwazTV demoed an ATSC 3.0 tuner that fits into a tiny USB stick no bigger than a standard USB flash stick for storing documents. This tuner is close to what a consumer would use, but right now it’s being sold as a test kit for developers to create applications and devices using the new ATSC 3.0 standard.
On the NAB show floor, AirwazTV had several demos of the tuner in action. There was an Nvidia Shield running showing a live ATSC 3.0 broadcast using the tuner and even a TiVo DVR recording ATSC 3.0 broadcasts.
You can take a look at this tuner in today’s daily YouTube update:
Right now, the cost is over $800 for the full developer kit, but a retail version will reportedly be a lot less expensive. Sinclair has promised that they will seed the markets they launch ATSC 3.0 in this year with a “cheap” ATSC 3.0 tuner. Some sources have said they expect the tuners to get down to below $50, but for now, mass production on a consumer tuner has not started.
The good news is we do have a real physical ATSC 3.0 tuner in action at NAB that will be able to play ATSC 3.0 TV on a wide range of devices.
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