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TV On Cellphones Ever Closer

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the jon-stewart-to-the-front-please dept.

Yurian writes "Seems that the new breed of cell-phones are being readied to receive digital TV. The standard has been finalized and handsets are in test. The emergence of DVB-H explains a puzzling purchase made last year by Crown Castle of Houston, Texas. The company, which runs the BBC's transmitter network in the UK, paid $12 million for a 5-megahertz slice of coast-to-coast radio spectrum in the US. At the time no one knew why. But Crown Castle transmitters near Pittsburgh are already broadcasting DVB-H to prototype Nokia mobile TV phones. That purchase may turn out to be an amazing bargain, considering other operators paid billions for 3G licenses which were originally meant to deliver video services."

10 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. TV on phone? Bad idea by IO+ERROR · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Is anyone else imagining people watching Seinfeld reruns and the Simpsons during their evening commute home?...and not paying attention to driving?

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    1. Re:TV on phone? Bad idea by Skater · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No. People could be doing this now with in-dash video systems, portable DVD players, portable TVs, etc. But it's not happening, at least not in any quantity.

      --RJ

  2. Great by Odocoileus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think this is really good, now we never again need to encounter one of those akward moments wherein we must occupy time with our own thoughts.

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  3. cell-phone TV is bunk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Previous posts got it right: TV on phones is a stupid idea in the U.S., where so many people commute by car. They've got this in Japan already - not sure how uptake is going, but it makes a hell of a lot more sense if you're riding a train for two hours a day than if you drive to and from work.

    I guess that the market wouldn't be for whole TV shows, but for short clips like sports highlights and maybe music videos. Still, who needs it? We already have pocket-sized portable TVs, and how often do you see someone carrying one of those around?

    1. Re:cell-phone TV is bunk by ScrewMaster · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Let's not forget the obvious. If you want something to occupy your mind on a train ... read a book.

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      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  4. Who wants to watch TV on a postage stamp screen? by earthforce_1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And how do you watch the screen with the phone pressed to your ear?

    Some products were not made to be combined. A cell phone iPod combination makes sense, a cell phone TV doesn't. HDTV on your cellphone screen is even sillier. You want a screen at least 5cm square, 10cm for HD.

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  5. How difficult to become a content provider? by drewzhrodague · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I am actually psyched about TV on my Nokia. Unfortunately, how can I get my content distributed for cell phone use? Since I live in pittsburgh, I'll make the call tomorrow. Why don't we have video conferecing using our camera phones yet?

    Really, a reliable cell phone is key, but if manufacturers are going to include bells and whistles, it makes sense to engineer them properly -- Nokia's 3650 rotary-dial keypad is a really bad idea, but I'm stuck with it if I want bluetooth, IR, and MMC card slot.

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    Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
  6. I can repeat this if you want... by interiot · · Score: 2, Insightful
    You're talking about two different companies. The people who engineer and manufacture cell phones can only make a profit by decreasing cost or increasing features.

    The people who provide monthly cell service (the carriers) often make a profit by choosing low-bitrate codecs, as well as over-subscribing cell towers, and thus frequently dropping calls when a cell tower reaches its capacity. 95% cell tower utilization = more profit for the carrier. 95% cell tower utilization = crappy quality for the customer. Same story as cable modems.

  7. Why a new standard? by interiot · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Despite what a lot of people are saying, I think that TV-on-cellphones CAN be ocassionally useful. Cell phones and PDA's continue to merge, and 3G networks will provide the badnwidth the be able to stream video, and devices like the Motorola A1000 are the obvious result.

    An example of where TV-on-cellphones would be useful.... on September 11th, is there any doubt that if most people had TV-on-cellphones, that everyone not near a TV would have been glued to their cell phone, watching video clips?

    Anyway, my main question is... why come up with a new standard? It seems like most cell phones will support TCP/IP in the future.... why not simply use any/all of the existing streaming-video standards that are available? (eg. Windows Media, Real, MPEG... most of these already have embedded implementations).

  8. TV/movies on phone is going to be big by Raindeer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I've seen so many posts of people just not getting it. All seem to concur nobody wants tv on their phone. Well, tests in Korea have shown that it was the first application that overloaded that their 3g network. I think many of us are too big a geek to see through the eyes of a 13 to 30 year old woman with a small, dull job and ditto man. The soap watching type. This is also the type that buys stupid ringtones. Well, they are the ones where the real money comes from and they will buy in to this. I promiss you. Either this or 3G soap of the day on demand.

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