I WANT MY M(obi)TV

What features does MobiTV tout? Let’s take a
look:

• 
  Channels you know from home like ABC News Now, CSPAN,
  and FOX Sports
• 
  High quality video
• 
  Graphical channel guide with programming information
• 
  Full screen viewing option
• 
  Touchscreen and 5-way navigation

HOOK IT UP

First thing is first. Like any Pocket PC application
a little setup is required. Fortunately, MobiTV’s
setup is pretty straightforward.

Figure
1: MobiTV can be installed to either main device memory or a storage
card.

For the purpose of this review, I installed it to
the main device memory where it requires 995KB of
storage memory.

Figure 2: I’m finding more and more programs that
require the user to click through an End-User License
Agreement (EULA) during installation on the handheld.

It
used to be that the EULA was on the desktop PC during
installation.

Figure 3:

In case you haven’t figured it out, streaming live TV
involves a lot of data.

The installation process warns
you to have an unlimited data plan from your
carrier.

Figure 4:

MobiTV is purchased as a subscription through Handango.

Once you purchase it online, you enter the information
on this screen and the program looks up your account.

Figure 5:

Finally, it is time to watch some TV!

WATCHING THE MOBILE TUBE

MobiTV is basically made up of 2 main screens: the
channel guide and TV viewing. Let’s take a look at each.

Figure 6: Here is the channel guide.

Although you
can only see 4 channels in this screenshot, there are
actually 23 channels of TV. You can also look to see
what is on later in the day by scrolling to the right.

What channels can you watch? Here is a complete list:

• 
  MSNBC
• 
  NBC Mobile
• 
  Discovery Channel
• 
  The Learning Channel (TLC)
• 
  ESPN 3G TV
• 
  ABC News Now
• 
  Fox Sports
• 
  CNBC
• 
  Chaos (a music video channel with a wide range from
  current artists)
• 
  Shift (music videos from rock and alternative up and
  comers)
• 
  The Mic (hip hop music videos)
• 
  V40 (music videos for lovers)
• 
  Comedy Time
• 
  Fashion TV
• 
  CNET.com
• 
  Discovery Kids
• 
  ToonWorld TV Classics
• 
  Discovery en Espanol
• 
  C-SPAN
• 
  C-SPAN2
• 
  The Weather Channel
• 
  Nano TV (short films)
• 
  MAXX Sports (extreme and violent sports)

A rather interesting line-up. Some of these I have heard
of, while others seem to be made for MobiTV. The other
interesting thing is that some of the channels are
reusing content from online sources such as CNET.com
which simply plays a stream of video reviews which are
normally on the CNET website. Unlike the website
however, you cannot choose which CNET video you want to watch
at any given time. That being said, I really like having
a wide selection of music videos and news available all
the time.

Figure 7: Once you select a channel, you get to wait
a bit while the video stream is buffered.

Buffering takes
anywhere from 10-30 seconds depending on the strength
and speed of your wireless signal.

Figure 8: Here it is in all of its’ glory… mobile
television!

Figure 9: The video quality is surprisingly good and looks fine on a
small mobile screen.

Figure 10: This TV program was being broadcast in
widescreen in comparison with Figures 8 and 9 which were
in the traditional aspect ratio.

MobiTV claims you can
watch full-screen video, which is not quite the case as
the taskbar and soft buttons stay on the screen.

Figure 11: Colors are good and the video moves along at
an acceptable speed.

I cannot tell exactly how many
frames per second the video is running at, but it is
definitely adequate for fluid video.

WE ARE CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

This is the first version of MobiTV for Windows Mobile.
It is obvious that there are some technical glitches to
work out in both the TV streaming and the application
itself.

Figure 12: This is the message you get when the
application cannot get a stream.

This does not happen
as often as I thought it would, but it does happen.

Figure 13: I received this error message while running
MobiTV several times on a freshly hard-reset device.
Strange.

Perhaps the most annoying "bug" involves sound. I
found that sometimes when you exit MobiTV, the sound
keeps playing. The only way to make it stop is to soft
reset the device or turn off the wireless connection.
The really odd thing is that the Windows Mobile running
programs list will not show MobiTV as running while this
is happening.

Update on compatibility: Thinking that this should work on any Windows Mobile device with a data connection, Brandon Miniman tried using this on his i-mate SP5m Smartphone, which was not listed as a compatible device. The program ran into registry errors and forced him to soft reset.

Then, Adam Z Lein tried using the program on his i-mate JAMin Pocket PC Phone, and it worked. Over EDGE, though, he commented that the video was a quite choppy, and often had to rebuffer for 5-20 seconds at a time. Over WiFi, the video looked good. Adam thought that Orb TV was a better video streaming solution over EDGE versus MobiTV.

As I mentioned, MobiTV is a subscription service. You
subscribe through

Handango at a cost of $9.95 per month. When you sign
up, you will be charged a pro-rated amount for the
current month AND a full month of service. The only
trial version that I was able to find is a special
version designed only for media and reviewers.

PROS

• 
  
  Easy to use
• 
  
  Good video quality over EV-DO
• 
  
  Includes some channels that are popular

CONS

• Version 1.0 bugs
• Limited compatiblity
• Slower connections mean more buffering
• 
  
  A bit pricey at $9.95 a month

OVERALL
IMPRESSION

Whether this application is useful to you or not
depends on the usage scenario. If you frequently
commute to work via public transportation I can see
it being entertaining. If you have children and they
get restless, MobiTV could be just what the doctor
ordered. If you are a news, music video or sports
junkie, this will keep you connected all the time. In a
nutshell, MobiTV does exactly what it sets out
to do… deliver mobile television. If you like the
channel selection, can swing the subscription fee
and have a use for mobile television, MobiTV delivers
the goods. Just remember to bring along a set of
headphones so as not to drive everyone around you
crazy. I give this program the following rating:

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