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Sony's Memory Stick TV Tuner at CeBit

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the hardware-to-lust-after dept.

ChowderGiggler writes "It seems like simply a picture, but there is a page at PocketPCMinds.com which shows a prototype Sony Memory Stick TV Tuner. This really has some cool applications especially if it gets ported to the Memory Stick Duo which is used in Smartphones like the Sony-Ericsson P800."

31 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. It is a Duo by Richardsonke1 · · Score: 4, Informative

    From the picture here it looks like it is a Duo. Not really sure what the difference is, though.

    --
    "Men lie."
    "Yeah, about sleeping with other women, but never about bioluminescent plankton."
    -Dan Brown
  2. Errmm... by Alan+Partridge · · Score: 3, Informative

    ..Mr Taco? Did you even look at the linked picture? It IS an MS Duo!

    --
    That was classic intercourse!
    1. Re:Errmm... by Alan+Partridge · · Score: 2, Funny

      Captain Enchilada shouldn't call himself an EDITOR then, should he? CODE JANITOR might be a better fit.

      --
      That was classic intercourse!
    2. Re:Errmm... by fobbman · · Score: 4, Funny

      He'll correct that in the subsequent repost.

  3. Great, just what I needed by amembrane · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How about getting some decent programs on TV before any more money is spent on the technology? Is there anything (besides maybe The Simpsons) on broadcast TV worth watching? Except for Adult Swim, and some of the channels like TLC, TechTV, Animal Planet, I can't find anything to hold my interest. Wireless web provides me much more entertainment.

    --
    They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
    1. Re:Great, just what I needed by Blaine+Hilton · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is what always makes me laugh when we get offers for TV service. We started with analog cable and we receive about 75 channels with basic service. Now they are offering digital cable and you have 300 some channels, and satellite companies keep calling and saying how they have 500+ channels. I know people with both digital and satellite, and they still can't find decent programming on.

    2. Re:Great, just what I needed by duckpoopy · · Score: 2, Informative

      Not what it sounds like, or what I hoped it would be. Rather than underwater porn, 'Adult Swim' is a Cartoon Network show.

      --
      word.
    3. Re:Great, just what I needed by malia8888 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I second this comment. Television programs would add very little to my cell phone "enjoyment". The biggest improvement a cell phone could have is reception. I am very tired of having to wear a tin foil hat in order to be heard.

      Further, IMHO we spend enough time watching and not enough time doing. A handheld device to enslave us for a few more minutes as spectators in life rather than participants is personally abhorrent.

      --
      Harpo Tunnel Syndrome--my wrist feels funny.
  4. Memory stick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    When will Mozilla be able to fit on a memory stick? Doing this would allow me to browse the web on my digital camera. (yes, if mozilla could fit on a memory stick, then with another 50kb so could Internet Explorer)

  5. Funny comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    at the bottom of the page warns everyone of the coming "Slashdot effect"!
    I can see the day when everyone fears for their servers' life when Slashdot comes near!

  6. Sorry to have to say it... by blueidoru · · Score: 5, Informative

    But: Bad news

  7. Memory stick interface by binaryDigit · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Hmm, it looks like Sony is slowly, very slowly, starting to release some of the toys that they promised when they first released the memory stick interface. IIRC they were touting the ability to add functionality like tuners and radios way back then. But we've only really seen memory. Also don't forget about the Clie's, this would be a really cool addition to them as well.

    Speaking of Clie, how about this, you add one of these tuners to the Clie and voila, you have a portable PVR. Of course you couldn't record too much, but if they increased the memory enough, you might be able to record that 30min show that you are missing because of that meeting or class or whatever.

  8. This was just a mock up prototype by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    This was just a mock up prototype shown at CeBit and not an actual working device. It is also shown in the MS Duo format, but sony has been showing off these kind of memory stick mock ups for years. While it was a non working model, sony has developed the chips in a size that would make this feasible, only problem is battery draw. There arw more specs on the device here.

  9. Just a picture, not a real article by ayeco · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Here is the "article", all the text on the linked pagee, it's just an image's description:

    Take a look at a this little fellow here :D

    They say that this would turn the Sony Ericsson P800 into a TV! I'd love to see that on my cell phone :D

    I got this picture from a friend with no further details... is there anyone that knows more???

    Doesn't look like any real info, let alone any factual evidence that this is more than just a concept.

  10. bah.... by m00by · · Score: 2, Interesting

    call me when the little bugger can do cable... broadcast tv...this would only be useful for the simpsons!!! =D or perhaps a base station that does CATV, and it could receive those signals on a low power unlicensed frequency....ah, the merging of tv and x10, at last, a match made in my the dark and twisted recesses of my mind.... bwah hah hah hah!!!! =D

  11. More to the point. by FreeLinux · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How about making a cell phone that works reliably MAKING PHONE CALLS before trying to get TV on a 1 inch screen? I just want to make a call dammit, I don't need games, pictures, PDA, voice recognition or TV. I just want to make a call.

    1. Re:More to the point. by brakk · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I agree completely. My new job gave me a phone (sanyo 4900) with every bell and whistle on it (internet, pics, sounds, voice recorder, voice recognition, calendar, games, no camera though) and all that was cool for about two weeks. Now all I use it for is making calls and it's shitty at that. Half the time when I try to make a call it just drops it with out giving any kind of error even when I have a full signal. And when I can make a call, I can barely understand what they say and they can barely understand me, and this is from the company that advertises "state-of-the-art network technologies, including the United States' first nationwide all-digital, fiber-optic network" and "perfect clarity". The only good thing about it is that the battery lasts about a week. My 5? year old nokia 6900 from voicestream (now t-mobil) didn't have all the extra "features" on it and the battery only lasted about a day, but it made damn good phone calls.

  12. JUST A MOCK-UP by exhilaration · · Score: 5, Informative
    This was posted on Howard Forums (a mobile phone board) a few months back. See here.

    Sorry to disappoint.

  13. Hold on... which Sony is this from ? by bigmouth_strikes · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is this from the bad-and-ugly-drm-mpaa-riaa-member Sony that we all hate or is it from cool-and-high-tech-gadgets Sony ?

    I'm boycotting one of them while my home is filled with stuff from the other. It's a shame they have the same name and logo, it would be so much easier to distinguish them!

    --
    Oh, I can't help quoting you because everything that you said rings true
  14. slashdotted by AbdullahHaydar · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here's a copy of the picture, since the site is slashdotted

    --


    Suicide Booth: You are now dead! Thank you for using Stop and Drop, America's favorite since 2008.
  15. Wish sony would release it on SD or CF by WARM3CH · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Wish instead of investing so much time and money to promote MemoryStick, Sony would switch to something that is more widely used like CF or SD. I like Sony products and even have a sony digital camera (that uses MS as memory) but yet I think a broader standard like CF or SD is much better for the end user. I really don't see the point when Sony insists so much to promote it's own standard when in reality it is "just another" flash memory standard... That way me, who owns a PocketPC would also buy that TVtuner but now I guess it's market is limited to that of Sony mobile phones and Palm devices.

  16. Nice... For a falt without a TV Tuner by nordicfrost · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've been looking for a flat-screen (Plasma or other) TV without a tuner for one specific purpose. Here in Norway, we pay an annual fee to the state owned broadcasting system for the priviledge of owning a TV. While I'm not opposed to this, I find that the channels (Both commercial and state) have so much crap on the that I would like to own a tuner-less TV. If the memorystick Duo can give me a TV fix (Mostly BBC World) over the PDA, and not paying any fees, I'm happy.

    (Note: You have to pay the fee per TV-capable tuner, so this is just a way of cheating.)

  17. nice toy by John_Renne · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Of course I see the geekism of watching TV on a device this small and portable but I don't think the world is waiting for it. For years I've been very sceptical about video on small devices. Why do people keep on buying bigger and bigger TV's? They want to experience the movie. On a small device this is harder.

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    /(bb|[^b]{2})/
  18. Previously Denied by Dugsmyname · · Score: 2, Informative

    See This article from PDA Street from March... they denied it then... same exact picture it seems... I wonder how valid this article actually is.

  19. That's what we call... by tkrotchko · · Score: 4, Funny

    The "shock and awe" effect.

    I wouldn't be surprised to see the /. effect outlawed in the Geneva Convention.

    --
    You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
  20. Vaporware is not news. by gurps_npc · · Score: 2, Insightful
    This is vaporware. They have been talking about it for years, and doing nothing.

    If this was a pracitcal piece of tech, Handspring would have done it earlier - they were the first ones out with the enhancement slot for a commercial PDA and their slot is larger, so it would be easier to fit the tuner into the size available.

    --
    excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
  21. That's really great news! by jjn1056 · · Score: 4, Funny

    The world really needed another proprietary, patented, owned by one company 'standard'. I hope they integrate this into every TV in the future.

    --
    Peace, or Not?
  22. USB TV tuner by Musashi+Miyamoto · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What would be awesome is to have a USB TV tuner that I can plug into my TIVO!! One tuner is just not enough!

    I wish sony would just quit this business with the memory stick. Proprietary interfaces just stink. They are almost guaranteed to become obsolete in 5 years.

  23. Wowee wow wow by stratjakt · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sega Game Gear had a TV Tuner years ago, and so did the nomad.

    As did GameXPress (portable TG16).

    There's a tuner for the GBA, and one for GBC, IIRC.

    Why is it so difficult or fantastic to add one to a PDA?

    It hardly seems worth it to me, unless they can shrink down a DirecTV dish or it comes with a huge spool of coax cable. Free to air TV is slowly being driven out of existence.

    HDTV (digital signals) will put the final nail in it's coffin, when the slightly-fuzzy-but-watchable analog channel turns into a skipping jerky unwatchable slideshow. I think we all recognize the difference between a weak analog signal and a weak digital one.

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  24. It's a dream ! by denisbergeron · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you read the article and the comment to the end, you can see this link.
    http://www.pdastreet.com/articles/2003/3/20 03-3-19 -Memory-Stick-TV.html
    Where you can read this :
    "Memory Stick TV Tuner Still a Dream

    At CEBIT last week, Sony showed off what appeared to be a Memory Stick TV tuner for the CLIE

    It turns out that what appeared to be a TV Tuner was really a concept design and not a real Memory Stick Tuner. Sony has no immediate plans to create such as device. "

    Nice desing, with a little bit of plaster I can do a lot of thing !

    --
    Ceci n'est pas une Signature !
  25. 500 channels? by shibbydude · · Score: 3, Funny

    So does this mean my satelite phone would get tons of channels? "Ted, my phone doesn't work. Can you fix it? They're all speaking Japanese!"

    --
    We're only gonna die from our own arrogance, that's why we might as well take our time...