The broadcast digital transition today reminded me of all the old “portable” TV sets that were once the height of cool tech, and are now headed to the junk yard. (Don’t throw them away, find out where to recycle at Earth911.com.) I had a couple versions of these old mobile TVs. One was portable in the sense that you could move the six-inch-by-12-inch block from outlet to outlet or regularly feed it six C batteries. The other was small enough to hang around my neck and took some smaller form of battery. Neither got reception worth a damn.
In contrast, today’s mobile TV is both watchable and more convenient. But interestingly it’s not what I pictured a few short years ago. It’s not broadcast signals on my cell phone. Back in January I had the phenomenal experience of getting to watch the presidential inauguration live in HD on my netbook while on kid patrol at a local moonbounce warehouse. It felt like magic. Last weekend I had an equally magical mobile TV moment at, of all places, Disney’s Magic Kingdom. Despite following excellent instructions on how to negotiate around long waits at the park, there were still a few long-ish lines that couldn’t be avoided. Enter the iPod. Not even our iPod Touch, mind you, just the regular iPod with video. My three-year-old daughter patiently waited her turn to see the Disney princesses with stored up TV and movies at hand – in her hand, actually. Obviously nothing was live, but it was still mobile TV to her, and far more entertaining than the snowy pictures of my old portable sets. We’ve truly entered the era of mobile TV, whether it’s as we envisioned or not.
I have one of those old handheld Casio TV’s with a 1 1/2″ LCD screen. It had a green or red line that scrolled across the screen that aligned with numbers below the screen.
I might take it apart to see what it looks like inside. Maybe I can get something out of the screen.
“Maybe I can get something out of the screen.”
Mercury. ;)
I have a handheld Casio TV too, but since it has an A/V input jack for a composite video source, it’s not completely useless. I can connect it to things for quick monitoring without having to turn on the entire TV.
I noticed recently that Verizon seems to be scaling back it’s MediaFlo options and is currently only selling 2 phones that support it. Obviously OTA cellular tv hasn’t yet reached the critical mass in the US like in Asia but I can’t help but think that it isn’t going to ever get the chance because nobody is demanding these features from makers. It doesn’t help that the carriers charge way to much and cripple innovative alternatives like slingplayer either…
R.I.P analog TV 1940 – 2009
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3110/3204832135_b05fcc8082_o.jpg
John- According to Gartner analysts a couple years back, live OTA mobile TV wasn’t/isn’t likely to be cost-effective. And given how much we can get over the Internet now (use of Sling included), I don’t know that there will ever be much demand
P.S. MediaFLO service went nationwide this weekend, but you have to pay $15 a month, and not very many phones support it.
Wonder what ‘nationwide’ really means for FLO. Also, AT&T’s car TV service went official/live in the last week or so. (I talked to them about it at CES, along with one or two other similar services.) Doubt there will be much demand. Speaking of curiosities, MobiTV has what appears to be awfully inflated stats – wonder if those ‘subscribers’ are current or all time, including trials.
still won’t bring yourself to watch that small screen, Dave? ;)
I do agree though that cellular OTA is kind of dead to me as well since I have to pay for it and then I can only watch what is on at the time. I did the Mobi trial and liked it but the content and having to watch only what was presented at that moment was not worth the money to me. I can see someone just peripherally interested in signing up cause it is easy to do- but then the monthly bill would likely turn off that type of person as well.
What I want are phones that can get better data rates so I can watch Hulu and other things like abc.com via skyfire browser. That way I do not plan ahead or have to watch whatever dreck is on at the moment but actually choose some media when I find myself waiting somewhere and that portable media fills the time nicely.
Oh, I enjoy mobile, small-screen viewing when a larger device isn’t practical or available. But I do believe it’s a niche market when content providers and their agents essentially double bill you for video you’ve already paid for. Something with a built-in tuner using existing frequencies (instead of simulcasting like FLO) would probably do quite well.