Qualcomm's MediaFLO in action

We totally missed this at CTIA earlier this week, but Rafat over at MocoNews got to play with a prototype of a handset compatible with Qualcomm's new MediaFLO wireless media network. MediaFLO has sort of been on the DL since it was first announced late last year, but basically it's Qualcomm's response to DMB and DVB-H, both of which are used (mainly overseas) to wirelessly deliver audio and video to handheld devices (the idea being that standard 3G networks are too slow or overtaxed to deliver high-quality audio and video). Qualcomm plans to actually operate the network themselves — they're currently trying to sign up different TV networks and other content providers — but the tricky part is getting handset makers to incorporate the chipsets into their phones and wireless carriers to commit to offering the service to their subscribers. Oh, and then there's that whole tricky thing about whether many people here in the States even want to watch TV on their cellphone. Either way, Rafat says that the quality of the demo he saw was excellent.

[Kevin @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

It's going to be hard. America's cellphone market is drastically different from the markets in asia, it's doubtful video streaming will be popular anytime soon.

It's really the same dilemma as the iPod - do people really want to watch video on such a tiny screen?

[Luis @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

You guys do know that if you have a

-Spare Computer with capture card
-Motoroal MPX220 phone
-Cingular DATA plan

You can stream video from the computer (any channel) directly to the phone and view it live (well, with 30 second delay) on the phone with about 20FPS and radio quality sound..

**I have discovered this myself, and only used Cingular, so I am not sure if it will work on other providers as the speed factor may change.

Try it your self, I almost shit my pants when I was sucessfull and though of all the people dieying to have this service..

[Jacob Varghese @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

small screen phones - no, but I would want to watch it on the larger screen HTC pda-phones.

[James @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

Is it just me or does that phone look like a Nokia 3210 from about 5 years ago?

http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=3210&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

[Guy @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

Other than the shape of the head, it looks nothing like it.

[Wes Felter @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

Video on phones sounds sucky, but maybe if you combined MediaFLO with something like that Pace mobile PVR it would be more interesting.

[Cashmore @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

"Other than the shape of the head, it looks nothing like it."

No, I can't see the resemblance either.

[is @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

on the subject of people wanting to watch video on a small screen: i have been really enjoying my nintendo ds movie player on long train journeys recently. Yod be suprised how quickly 2 1/2 hours passes when youve got 4 episodes of seinfeld and some stand up to keep you happy (that and wario ware and about 20 nes games. And an e-book). Sure the quality is crappy, but im only using a 256 mb flash card and need the high compression. When I get the 4gb card ill be smiling. Plus ill soon have my n91 :grins:

The point is that small screen video has its time and place. Im sure a video ipod or tv phone would certainly have enough support to make it, perhaps even become mainstream as the music ipod now is. If PSP made getting video on there easier as well as offering a well implememnted (very cheap) on demand tv and film service....they'd really land on their feet.

[Marc @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

#2 -- What software do you use on the cellphone to watch the video?

[Ben @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

There's a better picture here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2005/09/29/BUGIOEVEDQ1.DTL&o=0

You can see how sharp that picture is, very clear. I got stuck watching Shrek 2 on it at the show and that convinced me it's going to be a hit. It just sucks you in like real TV can. Actually, it's not the small screen that's a bother but the sound. You need to really stick headphones in to listen otherwise there's either too much ambient sound or you're bothing other people. The sound was very good quality though - stereo.
I had a look at one other TV demo at the show on the Intel booth with an extremely grumpy looking guy from Crown Castle who let me play with a Samsung 730 (I think) that had a circuit board sticking out of it and a huge wonking antenna. Obviously a prototype and the user interface was very weak too. It worked fine but had much more the experience of streaming downloads like the VCAST service and took 10 seconds to change shows. The Qualcomm one on the other hand was so quick you almost didn't realize it had changed. Right now, my money would be on the less techie idiot-box version from Qualcomm than the PDA version for mass market acceptance.