I came across this article a while back, which features Niklas Savander, head of Nokia’s Internet Services unit, stating that mobile TV services aren’t picking up like Nokia (and others) had hoped they would. Issues that I can see include a small number of compatible handsets, as well as pricing and whatnot. However, Niklas also made another statement that kinda hit me in a ‘duh’ moment that I can only hope he saw, too, “We have seen that there are multiple segments who are not interested in the broadcasting, but rather in downloads.”
Brilliant. As the regular TV market (which I worked in for 2 years in Ad Sales) is figuring out what to do about the onslaught of consumers using DVR technology such as TiVo to time-shift their media and watch it on their own schedule, it seems silly that the mobile industry would think consumers would want live TV on their handsets. I’ve recently setup cable TV in my own home again, and did not even blink at the extra $9/mo for a DVR box. It’s a given that I would want to be able to watch the content on my own time.
The Nokia N96, which was announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year, features a DVB-H receiver, for live broadcast TV in Europe and other areas. It also rocks 16GB of internal storage, with a microSD card slot and the ability to record the live TV broadcasts that it receives. Brilliant, but it needs to go a step further. I also have a Slingbox, which I’m setting up this afternoon, and Slingbox Mobile on my N95-3. While yes, I could use this to watch live TV, I’m more interested in using it to, from my phone, anywhere, have access to my DVR, including content, but also being able to setup new recordings, if need be.
My reaction to Niklas’ statements are that mobile users could care less about mobile TV, honestly. We want mobile video, yes, but not live TV. What about you? Are you uses more like mine, or do you really want to watch live TV on your phone?
Yes I’d like to watch live tv on my phone, thats why i bought a slingbox.
You’re sitting on the train to or from work, you turn on to catch the news or you’re a show you want to catch a few minutes of before you get to work or home. You’re at a cafe, chilling with your latte and muffin, you didn’t spend the time last night converting your copy of Scarface to a mobile friendly format, but you know that Smallville is coming on now, so you watch it live on your phone right there. There are many more.
I look forward to it and i support it. People have portable tv and portable dvd players….they have the choice.
Nothing wrong having DVR, Live TV, and pre-recorded vids all in one. All you have to do is choose what you want to use. Better than disregarding and killing off one technology completely.
Its all natural evolution of technologies. The world in the palm of your hand.
Dude it would be awesome if you could use the coxant cables to set up the phone as a DVR. (dont think you actually implied that but one can hope) be loads more useful then having DVB-H (i dont even think we in the U.S.A have a network for such a thing) as it is now i have dvds that i’ve turning into playable formats for my n73 but it sometimes takes longer to code em then the actual movie is.
your right rickey. i would love to have dvr access on my phone instead of live tv. i wonder how possible this type of thing is. sling the tv show/sporting event to your computer, somehow save it, then watch it over orb on your phone? to me that would be a good way. but then the matter of converting it to the proper format comes into play right?
I hope Nokia will start adopting DVB-T soon. Then the mobile phone could receive various free-to-air stations and actually _be_ the DVR. DVRs and podcasting rock! You have to cherry-pick these days to get good content. And who needs a real DVR if you’ve got DVB-T and TV-Out on your handset ;).
I think DVB-H is useless and a bit miffed why nokia is supporting it, I’d rather see more resources being poured into IP multicasting.
of coruse.. not deluding myself into buying n96, n96 is indeed appealing..
anyway, back to the live tv issue.. it is great to have it, and hopefully it is receivable worldwide and most importantly low cost..
DVB-supports DVR functionality. I got DVB-T tuner on my iMac and use it as DVR. It’s my undertanding that DVB-H has same functionality. At least N92 comes with digital program guide and you can just choose programs to be recorded and watch them whenever you like.
DVR will never fully replace live-TV. Consider news programs for example. On-line news coverage is mostly just too shallow for proper news analysis, or tends to lag behind timewise compared to live-TV like print media
I’m actually thinking about getting a N96 mainly because of DVB-H. I live in Espoo, but work at the Helsinki intitute of biotechnology, and that means that it takes me about 40 minutes to go to work. I would love to catch morning news on my mobile. That would also allow me to sleep few minutes later. I think that mobile TV will actually become very popular in Europe and Asia, but propably not in America. Mainly because of differences in public transport use.
I would totally use an N95/N96/etc. as a DVR. Makes sense for my lifestyle (mobile, not married). For those who have families, this might be a bit much, though I would guess that that wireless protocol for controlling home multimedia devices (Unpp or something like that) would be able to step in and have the mobile essentially become a media center and media controller for multiple TVs in such a home.
Another obvious option is to “DVR the Internet”.
The cost (like many things Internet) is virtually zero if you have WiFi on your phone.
Checkout Interbine.com for example. They “push” Internet videos to your phone automatically via WiFi, cellular and even Bluetooth, based on your selection of channels. You don’t get mainstream TV on your phone this way, but you can subscribe to your favorite video RSS channel this way. It’s a bit like choosing your programming from a TV guide. Such services have some unique features, like browser buttons that let you put any video from sites like YouTube on your phone.
(full disclosure: I’m affiliated with interbine)
Ori – thanks for chiming in, and thanks for giving disclosure. I don’t mind plugs if they’re relevant and helpful, which yours seems to be. :) I’ll give interbine a look and see how I like it.