TV on Phones - Coming Soon?

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,117754,tk,dn091304X,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,117754,tk,dn091304X,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Imagine turning on your mobile phone to watch breaking news or an entertainment program. The idea could soon become reality following an announcement last week that five of the world's largest mobile phone makers are collaborating on specifications to deliver broadcast services to wireless handsets. Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Siemens, and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications have launched the Mobile Broadcast Services initiative. The initiative is organized under the umbrella of the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), a group of nearly 200 companies that are establishing mobile service specifications to ensure interoperability of services across countries, operators, and mobile terminals.""</i><br /><br />Sounds like an interesting concept, but I can't see this being delivered over GPRS - which means EDGE or another network protocol with sufficient speed for decent quality video.

[coffeeFreak]

I've seen TV on Phone done before, not with the new spec, and not in US either. It was done over GPRS, in Asia. It works, the quality isn't great, but it didn't matter because the major bottleneck is the phone's screen size anyway. Anyway, that was a specific application that only a carrier has, and you have to the phone that their software supports (they'll load the program for you at their shop) It's nice to see the big guys get together and do something though.

[arnose]

I have seen TV on Phone in Japan. But it is analog TV. :)

[TANKERx]

As if it's not enough that we have rubbiosh pumped into our homes via that one-eyed-monster, we're going to get it on our phones as well?

Since movies have been playable on Smartphones for a few years now, this seems to be a sideways step, or maybe diagonal.

[coffeeFreak]

Since movies have been playable on Smartphones for a few years now, this seems to be a sideways step, or maybe diagonal.

I believe the point here is that this TV on phone spec is streaming live TV show onto TV. Channel and programming probably varies from carrier to carrier, but the challenge is about squeezing compatibility across phone's manufacturer as well as network speed bottleneck. Another thing is roaming. If I'm in a train, watching a show on my phone, and my location move to a different area, requiring service from different cell-tower, I hope that my phone's TV streaming won't need to re-connect and rebuffer! On a train or car, it's likely I'll be crossing cell-tower area a lot.

[ricksfiona]

Vivid Entertainment, an adult entertainment company, stated that one of their goals is to deliver porn video via cell phones. We all know that the porn industry is always on the cutting edge of technology. It will happen and soon whether you like it or not.

[spinedoc]

I'm scratching my head here... Streaming live TV to a pocket PC is already here, and should be here for smartphones but for lack of compatibility with smartphones IE. You can even change channels on the fly.

It is a little $50 program called Beyond TV, it works phenomenal on the Pocket PC, but I cant get it to work on my i600. I can actually stream content recorded to my hard drive at home over my cell phone connection right to my i600, it looks great and sounds great, but its still not live TV.

So many people talk about live TV on their phones, and monthly charges and standards and such, but it is so much simpler than that.