Cell phone with a TV yet? anybody?

I still have an old phone. It has a color screen and you can text people and call with it. It doesn't have a camera, nor can I receive pictures. No internet and no music or video. Many people ask me why I don't get a new phone. Well, I figure if I'm going to spend a couple hundred dollars on a phone, I might as well wait until they come out with television on it (not just movies).

My question is, does anybody know of a cell phone, or company that makes a phone that does this? I'd like to watch local channels as well as cable channels, and I don't want a fuzzy/pixilated screen either.

If nobody makes them, does anybody know of a company that is working on it or that has prototypes? Somebody was telling me about something called "slingbox" that I hook up to my TV for $500 and then I can watch television on my cell phone for a monthly subscription. Has anybody heard of this either? Does anybody on cpf own/use one? If so, how is the picutre quality and ease of use? How reliable is it and what is the range you can move from your TV? Can any phone be used with this, even my old "crap" phone? I usually like my toys, but I just never got into the whole cell phone thing.

It is cool that the internet is on phones now, especially with the 3G networks, but I'm still going to wait for the television option. Maybe i'm just nuts.

The only place I have ever see these types of phones is over at Deal Extreme. From looking at the specs the phones are only able to receive PAL or NTSC signals. But since the switchover to digital here in the USA those phones will be rather worthless now for watching TV.

I bought an i clone
made in china $200
actually had more features than the i phone
and it had a decent TV
pull out the aerial and tune our 5 local channels
perfect when you're waiting or stuck in a queue

reliability was fine until the touchscreen started to get confused when sending text msgs..all else was perfect

I found it on ebay (search for cell phone digital tv)
there are now similar ones with proper digital tv tuners for perfect vision
they also come with tons of other add ons aswell

I would recommend them if you are willing to play the quality control lottery
although my phone supplier did offer capital city repair/warranty servicing

all in all it was worth the $ and the novelty factor
I eventually traded it for a less complicated much smaller and lighter phone (nokia 6260 slide)

This year at the Consumer Electronics Show one of the items being shown is a mobile version of the ATSC broadcast standard. Broadcasters can modify their modulation profile slightly to accomodate an additional lower-bandwidth tier specifically aimed at mobile phones that have the new chipset in them. Samsung and LG are among the participating manufacturers, so I expect to see Samsung phones with the new Mobile ATSC chipset soon.

Watching TV on a phone is an excellent way to drain the battery.

LukeA said:

Watching TV on a phone is an excellent way to drain the battery.

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That's an excellent point and one that manufacturers are struggling with. Long talktimes and extended viewing times are mutually exclusive.

LukeA said:

Watching TV on a phone is an excellent way to drain the battery.

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I was just going to say that unless you've got an AC or DC adapter handy, it doesn't seem like it would run for very long. These days a 900mah phone battery is considered standard, although maybe the ones in the iphone are slightly larger.

I see an interesting possibility for integration, though, that would save battery life under some circumstances. The ATSC standard has some available data overhead for signaling purposes. Let's say that you're a news junkie and you only want to see certain types of stories, ie breaking news about natural disasters. It would be possible for broadcast news organizations to tag stories with metadata, such that your phone-tv would automatically turn on if a particular type of story showed up. It would be like the EAS-Alert radios, only for television.

I live in Europe and I don´t know so much about the US but most countries here does not have analog TV anymore. Everything is digital and in Sweden we got iPhone and Android apps for a few channels and more to come.
A TV receiver is IMO not the way to go. Look for a nice, large screen phone like the new Android phones or the iPhone.

I have an LG VU. Has TV capabilities. It runs off the Flo tv network, like 15 bucks a month, unfortunately service it is not available in Northern Michigan where I live. It came out in like 2007.

Dez said:

I live in Europe and I don´t know so much about the US but most countries here does not have analog TV anymore. Everything is digital and in Sweden we got iPhone and Android apps for a few channels and more to come.
A TV receiver is IMO not the way to go. Look for a nice, large screen phone like the new Android phones or the iPhone.

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The U.S. switched from analog to digital last year. I would be willing to buy an extra battery to watch an entire football game, and there is even a plug in device that gives your cell phone some extra juice, though what its called escapes me right now. I'm sure as cell phones progress, the types of batteries they use will also. How quickly and how effectively this happens remains to be seen.

wingnut86 said:

I have an LG VU. Has TV capabilities. It runs off the Flo tv network, like 15 bucks a month, unfortunately service it is not available in Northern Michigan where I live. It came out in like 2007.

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This sounds like a good option, and hopefully the flo network will expand as long as demand does, and become available in more areas. I'll look into that phone and the flo network a little more, what kind of picture does it get? Does it work if your stationary and/or moving? Anybody use the flo network? How much is that?

You can watch your own home television service using any device with internet access with Slingbox: http://www.slingbox.com/go/slingbox

JeffInChi said:

The U.S. switched from analog to digital last year. I would be willing to buy an extra battery to watch an entire football game, and there is even a plug in device that gives your cell phone some extra juice, though what its called escapes me right now. I'm sure as cell phones progress, the types of batteries they use will also. How quickly and how effectively this happens remains to be seen.



This sounds like a good option, and hopefully the flo network will expand as long as demand does, and become available in more areas. I'll look into that phone and the flo network a little more, what kind of picture does it get? Does it work if your stationary and/or moving? Anybody use the flo network? How much is that?

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I believe there are other phones that do it as well...I don't know what the picture is like though, since I cant get their service. A quick Youtube search for " LG VU TV" or something like that should give you an idea what the picture is like. I think there is a limited list of stations such as ESPN Nick, NBC and the like. AT&T offers it...There is a little slide out anttenea specifically for the TV function.

The iPhone can stream TV through a slingbox, it'll get whatever channels your TV set does. Basically, you tie your slingbox to your TV and internet connection, then have it stream TV to whatever device you want (computer, iphone etc. etc.) over the internet. The faster the internet, the better your quality - it pretty much requires 3g service for a mobile network, but you can use WiFi if there are places in your area that have it (Like Panara Bread) if you don't have 3g.

I never could understand the slingbox invention. So, cable company pipes everything, including TV and internet to your home. Then slingbox takes it and throws it back at you on the internet! Why don't you take bitstream straight from the internet rather than making it go first to your house? All it needs is original source to multicast the current TV program. Isn't that called Live Streaming???

- Vikas

Vikas Sontakke said:

Why don't you take bitstream straight from the internet rather than making it go first to your house?
- Vikas

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Exclusivity agreements, content contracts, etc.

On iphone in the UK you can stream live tv via a 3G network from

iphone.tvcatchup.com

This will give you all the free to air channels in the UK, all you have to do is register.

Hope this helps!

It was alluded to earlier, but here you go...

Flo TV

Do you want AT&T or Verizon...?!?!

Plus, Chicago is covered like a glove.

The Droid phones will soon have flash. Adobe lists as Q1, 2010. When that arrives in the next 30-60 days, I'll be able to watch a bunch of sports, thru ESPN360, etc. they'll be lots more available, but the only way I'd watch tv, is if I was in my car, parked, with the recharger handy, to watch football.