Mobile TV is being trialled in earnest at the World Cup with a variety of vendors trying out different solutions and technologies to see which works best in a live setting, and what needs to be done to improve the experience. According to Juno Yoshida of EETimes, though, an awful lot still needs to be done if Mobile TV is even to approach an entertaining experience.

Mobile TV problems

Yoshida was using a Pocket PC made by HTC, and a "Philips Semiconductors RF TV tuner/demodulator system-in-a-package housed in a SD card to enable DVB-H reception." Although not a dedicated mobile TV handset, the device uses the same technology as the new mobile TV phones that will be coming our way very soon.

Amongst the litany of problems Yoshida found with watching mobile TV at a World Cup match (apart from the fact he was trying to watch TV whilst being at the World Cup!) were the following:

• jerky pictures
• dropped frames
• frozen images
• tuner sensitivity (dopped signals = no TV picture)
• 10 seconds to change channels
• poor visibility in bright sunlight

It seems mobile TV, like 3G when it was first released, has some way to go before it becomes a usable, entertaining experience. Fortunately, the handset manufacturers and network operators know this and are working on solutions. In the meantime, it may be advisable to sit out the first generation of mobile TV phones and wait for the technology to catch up with the hype (now where have I heard that before in mobile phone-land?!)

[Source: EETimes]