Mobile Video

Interesting item from mocoNews.net...

Updated: AT&T Drops Price Of FLO TV; Doesn't Add Three New Channels

I interviewed FloTV's Head of Programming, Jonathan Barzilay, back in August of this year. I wanted to speak with someone from FloTV because I had never seen anyone actually watching this kind of subscription TV programming on a mobile phone. My guess is that the main reason for this is that FloTV capable phones require special hardware and that these special hardware is only on a few feature phones. So, it looks like the fee drop from $15 per month to $10 ($9.99) per month is an effort to attract new customers and retain old ones.

You can listen to the discussion I had with Jonathan Barzilay by using the embedded podcast player below.

I remember being happily shocked the first time I tried a Flip Ultra and took a look at what I considered to be a decent quality VGA resolution (640x480) video from an inexpensive and simple to use video camera. I have not bought any of the newer Flip HD (High Definition) products that followed. But, I have seen sample videos and have been very impressed by those samples. Pure Digital Technologies (owned by Cisco) announced a 2nd generation Flip MinoHD video camera this week...

Flip Video Products Page

Here's how it differs from the 1st generation model:

- Memory increased from 4GB to 8GB
- Video recording time increased from 60 minutes to 120 minutes
- LCD screen is 2 inches diagonal vs 1.5
- LCD resolution is 960x240 vs 528x132

The MiniHD 2nd generation video camera is priced at $299.99.

Via Gizmodo: Next-Generation Flip MinoHD: Sleeker Design, Double the Memory

Image courtesy of Amazon.com

I'd don't understand the marketing logic behind this product release at all...

FLO TV Unveils its New One-of-a-Kind Digital Handheld Television

Amazon.com lists its price at $249.99 and does not have an availability date. The PTV 350 has a 3.5-inch QVGA touchscreen. It requires a Flo TV subscription to watch programs. Subscription prices range from $14.99 per month (monthly payments) to the equivalent of $8.99 per month with an introductory 3-year $299 plan. Its only function is to display Flo TV's considerable commercial video programming which includes channels such as CNBC, Comedy Central, MSNBC, and Nickelodeon.

At this point I don't understand the attraction of buying a relatively expensive device (at $249.99 it costs more than a 16GB iPhone 3GS) with a required monthly fee (I'm guessing most people will opt for the introductory one-year $119 plan that works out to about $10/month). Wouldn't most people opt for an iPhone or some other smartphone that can deliver video (though not necessarily name channels like Flo TV) and tons of other useful functions (like making voice calls or browsing the web)?

Who's the target customer for this thing?

From TechCrunch...

mSpot Launches Web-Based Mobile Movie Streaming Service

Hmm. Let's see: Watch movies on a mobile phone (iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, and others) delivered from a web page for $4.99 each or $9.99 per month to watch four movies a month ($12.95/month for 6 movies and $15.99/month for 8 movies).

mspot Mobile Movies

And, according to mspot's FAQ only iPhone users can watch movies streamed over WiFi. Users on other platforms can only watch over 3G. There are only 300 movies to select from right now and studios may remove movies from the selection list from time to time. And, since you can't watch a movie without cell company data coverage, movie watching locations can be limited (not in flight for example).

Is this a service you find intersting? Hmm.

Flo TV provides streaming TV service to phones. Unfortunately, it requires a custom Qualcomm chipset that is only found in certain feature phones. So, it is unlikely that a smartphone fan like myself will try it (FloTV) anytime soon. However, after discussing the topic in a podcast...

Podcast 33: FloTV Streaming TV Programs-Jonathan Barzilay, Head of Programming

...I have maintained an interest in the topic. And, CrunchGear reports that they have...

Qualcomm FLO TV user interface images leak into our inbox

It shows Flo TV with a touch screen interface. And, if the images are to scale, the screen may be quite a bit larger than, say, the iPhone's.

Wouldn't it be funny if Apple announces a tablet form factor with the Flo TV Qualcomm chip in it? I don't expect that to happen later this morning. But, if it does. You heard it here first! :-)

I spoke with FloTV's head of programming, Jonathan Barzilay (Podcast 33 embedded above), about their claim of a mobile prime time of 1 to 2pm emerging in the U.S. The BBC News reports, however, that...

Mobile TV 'very slow' to take off

BTW, this BBC article quotes FloTV's Barzilay on a number of items including mobile TV watching duration time. After speaking with Barzilay myself last week and learning a lot more about mobile TV, I'm going to keep watching this developing space. But, as I said to him last week, I still haven't seen anyone watching TV on a phone (except for Slingbox, YouTube, and recorded media).

In Podcast 33 I spoke with FloTV's Head of Programming, Jonathan Barzilay, about what FloTV delivers (streaming commercial video), what it delivers it to (phones with special hardware to receive the programming), how it is delivered (the old/former UHF channel 55 spectrum), and the oddity (to me) of the new 1 to 2pm mobile TV viewing prime time.

This podcast is 17 minutes and 12 seconds long.

- You can listen to the podcast right now from your web browser by using the embedded player above.
- You can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or this RSS feed.
- You can also point your smartphone's browser at mobiletoday.podbean.com to listen to or download the MP3 file over the air to your phone.

iSight photo (2003) courtesy of MacDevCenter - LifeCam Cinema photo courtesy of Pocket-Lint.com

Two thoughts crossed my mind as I read this item in Pocket-lint.com...

Microsoft LifeCam Cinema goes 720p

1. Who has enough upstream bandwidth speed to transmit 720p HD video? Most people barely have enough downstream bandwidth to watch it in near-real-time. And, since most people have asymmetrical broadband bandwidth service (more downstream than upstream speed), well, you see the problem...

2. The LifeCam Cinema hardware design looks real familiar. Where have I seen somethng like that before? Oh yes, the old Apple iSight webcam from earlier in the decade!

Microsoft's LifeCam Cinema will be available next month for $79.99. I think a Flip Mino HD or UltraHD might cost more but make more sense.

Like the bazillion other mobile tech bloggers, I've gotten bunches of press releases from various mobile TV services over the past year. Quite honestly, I've been ignorning all of them because I write about what interests me personally and what I see. And, I have not seen a single person watching streaming TV programming with the exception of people using a Slingbox. So, who exactly is buying into these services? I'd ask someone in person except, as I said, I've never seen anyone watching streaming TV programs on their phone. Stored TV shows and Movies, yes. YouTube streaming video, yes. But, nothing from the firms whose PR people keep sending releases to me. So, I would have deleted the latest press release from the PR firm for...

Flo TV

...except for the fact that this PR person used a good email subject line: "It's official - Prime Time now starts at 1 p.m.".

Flo TV says they have data showing that "prime time" cell phone TV viewing in June was between 1pm and 2pm and that the average Flo TV subscriber watches over 30 minutes of TV on their cell phones throughout the day. Ok, so who are these people? Are they at work while watching 30 minutes of TV in the early afternoon? I'm starting to get curious enough about the demographics of people using this service that I may give Flo TV's PR person a call and ask to speak to someone there about their subsciber demographics.

I borrowed a friend's brand new HTC myTouch Pro (Android) and iPhone 3GS to conduct a small unscientific and purely subjective video recording comparison with a Flip Ultra (dedicated videocam) and Nokia N96 smartphone. All four brief videos were shot one after another in the space of a few minutes standing in the same spot outside (no windows) on the 6th floor of a building. I panned each camera in a similar path to get different distances and lighting conditions in a single video sweep. Each phone/camera was left with its default setting. The one exception is the Nokia N96. I forgot I had set it to stabilize video recordings. That is probably what caused the "rubbery" look in some frame sequences.

Flip Ultra, Nokia N96, iPhone 3GS, myTouch Pro

Quite frankly, the video recording quality of the iPhone 3GS, Flip Ultra and Nokia N96 are pretty close in my opinion. I should mention that the video looks much better when viewed without YouTube's additional compression. The myTouch Pro, on the other hand, produced video that can be best described as low-quality. It was the only device that produced a 3gp video file output. I had to translate it to MP4 before bringing it into iMovie to bring all the video segments together. But, believe me, this additional step did not degrade the myTouch Pro's video "quality".

If you listen to my running commentary, you'll probably agree that the myTouch Pro also produced the lowest audio recording quality of all four devices.

My subjective ranking of the four devices is:
1. Nokia N96
2. Flip Ultra
3. iPhone 3GS
4. myTouch Pro

I would be hard pressed to truly argue with anyone who re-arranges the top three rankings though.

I'm hoping to re-do this video comparison and add the HTC Touch Pro2 (Windows Mobile) to the mix and, ahem, remember to turn the iPhone 3GS to record in landscape orientation. Stay tuned.