Shane McGlaun09 June 2009, 2:30 PM
The ceaseless march of netbook advancement trundles on, with netbooks now sporting integrated digital TV tuners.
Chinese firms Telegent Systems and Topstar Digital Technologies have teamed up to offer a new netbook and a new all-in-one PC that both
feature hybrid TV tuners built-in. Telegent is a company that makes TV mobile and Topstar is a leading ODM supplier in china for notebooks.
The two companies have unveiled the netbook and all-in-one using a Telegent TLG2300 PC TV tuner. The tuner is a hybrid design that can pick up DVB-T over-the-air broadcasts and analog TV broadcasts. The tuner can also receive FM radio broadcasts. These are the first netbook and all-in-one machines to offer the hybrid digital and analog tuners inside.
The all-in-one PC features an 18-inch screen and while the specifications for it and the netbook are unknown, a safe guess would say an Atom CPU of some sort is inside. The machines are designed for use in overseas markets, which considering China is the home market for both companies, hopefully means Australia. The machines are expected to be in full production later this year.
Netbooks with integrated TV tuners are already coming onto the market though -- Dell's new
$749 Mini 10 includes an integrated digital TV tuner. We don't know what part Dell is using yet -- but the Telegent announcement suggests Dell won't have that feature exclusively for long.
Whether TV tuners will be a big selling point in netbooks remains to be seen. Since TV reception almost always needs an external antenna, and netbooks are largely used in 'out and about' situations, it may not be the most useful capability. On the other hand, if you're planning on using a netbook as a 'kitchen PC' and want to ALT+TAB between recipe websites and TV reception, it could well be a useful capability.
