Mobile TV

Recently, local Telecom giant Smart Communications showed off what will probably be the Philippines' first Mobile TV service. According to Smart, Pinoy phoners will soon be able to watch streaming television on their mobile phones through DVB-H, or Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld. DVB-H is a radio-like signal which works a bit like actual TV signals, and can be received by several handsets- such as the Nokia N92. Supposedly, this mobile TV has better video quality than analog and can be controlled by the user. The N92 even apparently allows you to record mobile TV to your SD card, which is pretty slick.

According to Smart, channels available will include Cable channels like CNN, BBC, Jack TV, CNBC, MTV, Fashion TV, Basketball TV and others. I dare say that this is pretty much a no-brainer; I mean, who would pay for the local crap that passes for free TV? Give me Discovery Channel,

Am I interested? To tell you the truth, I am intrigued. It would be pretty cool to just bring out your mobile and immediately watch Discovery Channel or Animax. Real-time media is different from stored media content you load onto your mobile yourself, but both have their perks. If the service was very affordable, had great reception. ease of use and has the channels I want, I'd get this. However, I would need a mobile that can still have the features I have today (MPEG/MP4 video, large memory storage) along with the mobile TV. And there's also the fact that I'm a Globe subscriber, and switching to Smart just for this isn't practical. I'll probably have to wait for Globe's equivalent service.

It's intriguing, but not world-changing... yet. For now, I'm happy with my stored anime, movies, videos and music. Mobile TV may seem to be a novelty at best right now, but darn... being able to just bust out your phone to watch the news, a movie or a show that's playing right now on real TV is pretty neat. We'll just have to wait and see how this progresses, I guess.