Royal Philips Electronics, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, has launched a digital cable plug-n-play tuner. It enables digital TV manufacturers to easily meet the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) RF requirements of the plug-n-play agreement that was established between the CE and cable industries.

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The Philips plug-n-play tuner is an integrated, so-called 2-can product that offers a unique dual RF input, supporting NTSC, ATSC and QAM reception. It consists of the PA1232D and the TUV1236U modules. All RF tuning for analog, digital and out-of-band signaling is self-contained in these modules. The PA1232D is an “input module” that offers dual RF input with an electronic switch that meets stringent FCC requirements for isolation. One input is intended for off-air terrestrial reception and the other is intended for cable reception. This input module also includes the out-of-band tuning required for digital cable signaling. The output feeds the second module, the TUV1236U, which is a complete digital plus analog front-end or integrated tuner demodulator (ITD), also known as network interface module (NIM). This NIM includes a high-performance single conversion tuner with integrated NTSC and ATSC demodulator that provides analog CVBS and digital MPEG2 (serial and parallel) output. It also handles the QPSK demodulation of the digital cable out-of-band signal and interfaces directly to the point of deployment (POD) controller. All DTV manufacturers need to do to have a complete plug-n-play module is to add a back-end processor and POD module. In fact, Philips has been working with a number of reference design companies to develop such a device, some of which are in various stages of plug-n-play self-certification at CableLabs.

“By working with reference design companies who are making the complete plug-n-play module, including software, we are making it much easier for set-makers to introduce plug-n-play-compliant digital televisions. Our customers don't have to worry about RF/IF design issues and the challenge of seamlessly interfacing with digital demodulator chips,” says Mike Hervey, global sales manager for Philips RF Solutions. “Our solution is unique in that we support both analog and digital reception coming from off the air or over the cable, selectable by our integrated high-performance electronic switch.” Samples of the Philips plug-n-play tuner solution are now available. Mass production will start to ramp up in the first quarter of 2004. First plug-n-play digital TV sets with the Philips solution will be on the market by mid 2004.