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TV On Cellphones Ever Closer
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."
Near Pittsburgh? I live in Pittsburgh. Is there a way I could obtain a cell phone that could tap into the digital TV service?
-b0lt
got sig?
...battery life and practical viewable area on a phone.
And how about the "roamability" when you're in another country using other standards?
While it's good to have all-in-one gadgets, there are things that just can't be integrated. I think a make-up mirror is good on a phone so that you can talk while looking/grooming yourself, or maybe a ear-cleaner that cleans your ear while you're on the phone?
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
watching tv is far more better than playing that damn snake game over and over :-)
Is anyone else imagining people watching Seinfeld reruns and the Simpsons during their evening commute home?...and not paying attention to driving?
How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
This could be another great way to stream localised data to cellphones via low power transmitters.
For example, you could have a subway scheduals when your in the subway, movie trailers when your waiting in line at the theatre etc.
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.
...
So I watch the news on my phone, and the battery gets drained faster then me after 10 beers. Great going. For me phones need to do 2 things: 1. Being able to make a phone call 2. Being able to send a short message. THe rest is voodoo mumbo jumbo. Who concurs?
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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?
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.
My rights don't need management.
I've seen a prototype 3G phone playing a live TV stream. I agree with a lot of others - what's the point? I've heard that FOX is already developing short clips targeted at mobile phones. This sounds just like another annoying thing people will do with their phones in public places without using headphones.
Perhaps someday I'll understand why the mobile phone has become a target for all entertainment. I never thought ringtones could become a multi-billion dollar business, but it is. Maybe TV-on-mobile will become the same way. Or maybe it will lose its novelty quickly. Either way, the carriers stand to make cash from it.
When I see the fist wave of 6G phones that have a shaver and toothbrush attatchment - then i'll be impressed
- There's no place like 127.0.0.1
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.
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
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.
the cellular phones have been plenty of good enough as phones in every _properly_built_ network for around past 10 years.
bitch about the network or the chosen tech if it's crap where you are. the phone manufacturers can't do miracles and nor will the network manufacturers build the networks for free for cheapass operators if they don't want to cough of the dough(apparently stupid tie-in plans make better marketing than proper networks in some places).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
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).
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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And how do you watch the screen with the phone pressed to your ear?
I imagine that a combination of sidetalkin + small mirror would provide an adequate solution...
RTFA. It doesn't use cellular bandwidth.
From 2006, mobile phones will be offering crisp, clear TV pictures. But the pictures will not be coming over the cellphone network - they will be sent from transmitters already used for TV broadcasts. And this means a completely new breed of phones will be necessary to pick them up.
One man's Funny is another man's Offtopic.
This thing is going to be on the streets here in the US by early next year, just got released in Asia last week. The usage is geared more towards mobile TV then cellphone use. If there was more functionality as a phone, it might be appealing.
...and it should be known by now
Will UK users have to pay TV licensing fees for these TV phones?
Online backup with Mozy, sounds like Ozzie, but more!
This sounds dangerous. It's already illegal in many states to have a monitor showing "pre-recorded material" in a vehicle while it is in motion. (The pre-recoded clause allows the use of navigation systems.) As if people aren't already trying to do enough in their cars on the morning drive to work. We'll have the guy trying to shave, gulp down his coffee, catch the morning news on the brilliant 2" screen... and then the phone rings. Or what about the soccer mom driving the 3 ton SUV putting on her make up, eating breakfast, watching the news, and then the guy above calls her. I for one won't be purchasing this product until I can get pay-per-view on my mobile phone.
-- Avikar
Here in Australia, Optus Zoo have been streaming the ABC (that's the Australian Broadcasting Corporation) and CNN live for quite some time now. It's been available ever since I got my Nokia 6600 phone, and that was back in March or so.
:(
It's not exactly something I do a lot of, but it is cool to show people. The quality is roughly equivalent to RealMedia files circa 1997. Damn Optus and it's slow GPRS network