Live TV from the mall....

Our Northwoods Mall has the most cellular companies in one building here.
Lots of carriers and many resellers with kiosks are almost on top of each
other vying for the limited customers, so they must be more friendly to
everyone.

I carried my Alltel Axcess TV-enabled E815 into the core of the mall and
Axcess TV worked great all through the mall walking around in the sparce
crowd this afternoon, a couple of days before the welfare checks come
out.

I was stunned to find out Verizon, the only EVDO broadband carrier, here,
has no TV offering. One reseller showed me some Verizon sales sheets
showing their proposed lineup of just a few channels for $25:
CBS Mobile, Comedy, ESPN Mobile, Fox Mobile, MTV, NBC2GO, NBC News2GO and
Nickelodeon....8 channels for $25/mo. No cable news like Fox News or
CNN. No Weather Channel which is important when you're "out".

I stopped by the biggest Cingular booth and found a sales girl who had
MobiTV on her Cingular phone. I asked her if I could compare the signals
with my Alltel. It's a really slow day in the mall so no problem. Both
tuned to Fox News, Cingular's MobiTV consisted of a series of still
frames, maybe a frame every 2 seconds, with no video motion showing in
the 5 minutes we let it run. It was also about 90 seconds behind the 1X-
delivered Alltel Axcess TV version of MobiTV. The audio was stable but
there was no "video" at all. Sitting side by side, the Alltel in the
mall was delivering around 20 fps on 1X video. Cingular's channel lineup
is good, but different than Alltels:
http://www.mobitv.com/channels/channelstv.php?i=alltel
http://www.mobitv.com/channels/chann...php?i=cingular
I'd much rather have MSNBC than Alltel's Bloomberg droning on into the
night. Before and after the market closes, MSNBC has programming. IMUS
in the Morning would be nice at the diner. Cingular also has Discovery
Channel to go with its Discovery Mobile.
But, if it doesn't work, it's useless......

Sprint's lineup from MobiTV is similar to Alltel's with a couple of
additions and some deletions. It's also priced around $20/mo, but I'm
confused by all the various pay-per-channel stuff on their website. The
Sprint dealers in the mall I talked to were clueless and none of them had
a Sprint phone running MobiTV, including Radio Shack. So, I cannot tell
how it compares to Axcess TV from Alltel.

I've found a workaround to Alltel's 10 minute dumpings on Axcess TV.
Press any button before it dumps you and it seems to reset the dump timer
as it sees you're still interested, already. Not a single Alltel rep, so
far, told me this works to prevent the dump-reboot-reconnect-rebuffer
nonsense it goes through. I'm using the 5 button to reset the timer, but
any key seems to work while TV is still playing....(c; Maybe I'll keep
it. It sure is nice to watch during diner breakfast...instead of the
Wailing Channel music-of-misery coming out of the diner's ceiling tiles.

Larry
--

---

› See More: Live TV from the mall....

Get a PocketPC type of phone from Verizon and a Slingbox at home. 30 FPS TV
no problem over EVDO
"Larry" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Our Northwoods Mall has the most cellular companies in one building here.
> Lots of carriers and many resellers with kiosks are almost on top of each
> other vying for the limited customers, so they must be more friendly to
> everyone.
>
> I carried my Alltel Axcess TV-enabled E815 into the core of the mall and
> Axcess TV worked great all through the mall walking around in the sparce
> crowd this afternoon, a couple of days before the welfare checks come
> out.
>
> I was stunned to find out Verizon, the only EVDO broadband carrier, here,
> has no TV offering. One reseller showed me some Verizon sales sheets
> showing their proposed lineup of just a few channels for $25:
> CBS Mobile, Comedy, ESPN Mobile, Fox Mobile, MTV, NBC2GO, NBC News2GO and
> Nickelodeon....8 channels for $25/mo. No cable news like Fox News or
> CNN. No Weather Channel which is important when you're "out".
>
> I stopped by the biggest Cingular booth and found a sales girl who had
> MobiTV on her Cingular phone. I asked her if I could compare the signals
> with my Alltel. It's a really slow day in the mall so no problem. Both
> tuned to Fox News, Cingular's MobiTV consisted of a series of still
> frames, maybe a frame every 2 seconds, with no video motion showing in
> the 5 minutes we let it run. It was also about 90 seconds behind the 1X-
> delivered Alltel Axcess TV version of MobiTV. The audio was stable but
> there was no "video" at all. Sitting side by side, the Alltel in the
> mall was delivering around 20 fps on 1X video. Cingular's channel lineup
> is good, but different than Alltels:
> http://www.mobitv.com/channels/channelstv.php?i=alltel
> http://www.mobitv.com/channels/chann...php?i=cingular
> I'd much rather have MSNBC than Alltel's Bloomberg droning on into the
> night. Before and after the market closes, MSNBC has programming. IMUS
> in the Morning would be nice at the diner. Cingular also has Discovery
> Channel to go with its Discovery Mobile.
> But, if it doesn't work, it's useless......
>
> Sprint's lineup from MobiTV is similar to Alltel's with a couple of
> additions and some deletions. It's also priced around $20/mo, but I'm
> confused by all the various pay-per-channel stuff on their website. The
> Sprint dealers in the mall I talked to were clueless and none of them had
> a Sprint phone running MobiTV, including Radio Shack. So, I cannot tell
> how it compares to Axcess TV from Alltel.
>
> I've found a workaround to Alltel's 10 minute dumpings on Axcess TV.
> Press any button before it dumps you and it seems to reset the dump timer
> as it sees you're still interested, already. Not a single Alltel rep, so
> far, told me this works to prevent the dump-reboot-reconnect-rebuffer
> nonsense it goes through. I'm using the 5 button to reset the timer, but
> any key seems to work while TV is still playing....(c; Maybe I'll keep
> it. It sure is nice to watch during diner breakfast...instead of the
> Wailing Channel music-of-misery coming out of the diner's ceiling tiles.
>
> Larry
> --

On Thu, 29 Mar 2007 01:03:39 +0000, Larry <[email protected]> wrote in
<[email protected]>:

>I stopped by the biggest Cingular booth and found a sales girl who had
>MobiTV on her Cingular phone. I asked her if I could compare the signals
>with my Alltel. It's a really slow day in the mall so no problem. Both
>tuned to Fox News, Cingular's MobiTV consisted of a series of still
>frames, maybe a frame every 2 seconds, with no video motion showing in
>the 5 minutes we let it run. ...

Bad phone and/or poor signal -- MobiTV is smooth on my Cingular-branded
Moto RAZR V3xx in most parts of the San Francisco Bay Area.

--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS AT
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>

John Navas <[email protected]> wrote in
news[email protected]:

> Bad phone and/or poor signal -- MobiTV is smooth on my Cingular-branded
> Moto RAZR V3xx in most parts of the San Francisco Bay Area.
>

Cingular has a poor signal AND no broadband in the mall. Just like Alltel,
so far, Cingular is dialup speed like Alltel in Charleston.

Larry
--

I had tons of trouble running MobiTV on a Treo under Verizon.
About 80% of the time it would not connect. Mobi customer service was no
help, and I dropped it. It was great at about $10/month...IF it worked



"Larry" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Our Northwoods Mall has the most cellular companies in one building
> here.
> Lots of carriers and many resellers with kiosks are almost on top of
> each
> other vying for the limited customers, so they must be more friendly
> to
> everyone.
>
> I carried my Alltel Axcess TV-enabled E815 into the core of the mall
> and
> Axcess TV worked great all through the mall walking around in the
> sparce
> crowd this afternoon, a couple of days before the welfare checks come
> out.
>
> I was stunned to find out Verizon, the only EVDO broadband carrier,
> here,
> has no TV offering. One reseller showed me some Verizon sales sheets
> showing their proposed lineup of just a few channels for $25:
> CBS Mobile, Comedy, ESPN Mobile, Fox Mobile, MTV, NBC2GO, NBC News2GO
> and
> Nickelodeon....8 channels for $25/mo. No cable news like Fox News or
> CNN. No Weather Channel which is important when you're "out".
>
> I stopped by the biggest Cingular booth and found a sales girl who had
> MobiTV on her Cingular phone. I asked her if I could compare the
> signals
> with my Alltel. It's a really slow day in the mall so no problem.
> Both
> tuned to Fox News, Cingular's MobiTV consisted of a series of still
> frames, maybe a frame every 2 seconds, with no video motion showing in
> the 5 minutes we let it run. It was also about 90 seconds behind the
> 1X-
> delivered Alltel Axcess TV version of MobiTV. The audio was stable
> but
> there was no "video" at all. Sitting side by side, the Alltel in the
> mall was delivering around 20 fps on 1X video. Cingular's channel
> lineup
> is good, but different than Alltels:
> http://www.mobitv.com/channels/channelstv.php?i=alltel
> http://www.mobitv.com/channels/chann...php?i=cingular
> I'd much rather have MSNBC than Alltel's Bloomberg droning on into the
> night. Before and after the market closes, MSNBC has programming.
> IMUS
> in the Morning would be nice at the diner. Cingular also has
> Discovery
> Channel to go with its Discovery Mobile.
> But, if it doesn't work, it's useless......
>
> Sprint's lineup from MobiTV is similar to Alltel's with a couple of
> additions and some deletions. It's also priced around $20/mo, but I'm
> confused by all the various pay-per-channel stuff on their website.
> The
> Sprint dealers in the mall I talked to were clueless and none of them
> had
> a Sprint phone running MobiTV, including Radio Shack. So, I cannot
> tell
> how it compares to Axcess TV from Alltel.
>
> I've found a workaround to Alltel's 10 minute dumpings on Axcess TV.
> Press any button before it dumps you and it seems to reset the dump
> timer
> as it sees you're still interested, already. Not a single Alltel rep,
> so
> far, told me this works to prevent the dump-reboot-reconnect-rebuffer
> nonsense it goes through. I'm using the 5 button to reset the timer,
> but
> any key seems to work while TV is still playing....(c; Maybe I'll
> keep
> it. It sure is nice to watch during diner breakfast...instead of the
> Wailing Channel music-of-misery coming out of the diner's ceiling
> tiles.
>
> Larry
> --

"Paul G" <[email protected]> wrote in news:[email protected]:

> I had tons of trouble running MobiTV on a Treo under Verizon.
> About 80% of the time it would not connect. Mobi customer service was
no
> help, and I dropped it. It was great at about $10/month...IF it worked
>
>
>

When was this? Verizon has no TV, except in some test markets. Was this
a private subscription over Verizon's data network? That's specifically
forbidden by Verizon's AUP. No streaming of anything is allowed....only
email, webpage spams and private company intranets is permitted...up to
5GB/month, now. TV streaming uses lots more bandwidth than that...(c;

Even on our 1X on Alltel, the TV is about 15-20 fps with a little balking
but not unusable. MobiTV has sent a message or two about individual
channels being unavailable for a time that's not cell network related,
but it never refuses to connect and answer the call. Once in a great
while it rebuffers, but that has to be expected on such a low-bandwidth
connection as 1X. I'm amazed it plays at all!

This 10 minute nag screen was some bureaucrat at Alltel's idea to keep us
from USING bandwidth...same old cellular bull**** they all play. I
returned an email I got from Alltel tonight saying "we", the users, had
contacted the cable TV companies in Little Rock, Alltel's HQ, and had
them put a 10-minute timer on all company executives' TV service,
requiring them to reboot and relogon their cable boxes every 10 minutes
on all channels....you know....to give them the "feel" and "experience"
of watching Axcess TV on OUR phones.

I bet the Alltel CEO's Axcess TV doesn't stop every 10 minutes....(c;
"Just upload HIS firmware to MY phone and I'll be a happy camper."

Larry
--