PVR for your cellphone
There are several companies working on the technology to enable folks to watch TV on their cellphone, but the Pyramid recorder looks like a simple, new approach. You hook the device to your TV, record up to two hours of video onto a 128Mb SD card, then pop the card out and plug it into your high tech phone.
If this device is easy to use, I could see it being the perfect thing for a subway commute. I'd grab my favorite news or comedy show from the night before, have it automatically dumped to this card each morning, then watch that on the way into work.
There's no mention of security or DRM, but it would seem that shows on cards could possibly be stored on PCs and likely traded. I wonder if a device like this could create a massive community of folks sharing tiny stamp-sized videos of shows.
Hmmmm... as if loud cell-phone users aren't annoying enough, now we have to put up with a whole sitcom on a subway? This could seriously suck
Posted by: Michelle | May 03, 2004 at 12:18 AM
Michelle, I believe headphones would be key here. This is basically turning your cellphone into a video ipod.
Posted by: Matt Haughey | May 03, 2004 at 07:40 AM
Watching TV on your cell phone? Not to sound like a snob here, but this can't be a good thing for society. When I'm traveling it gives me the rare opportunity to read or just relax without being distracted. I have a hard enough time controlling my TV addiction at home.
Just my two cents.
Posted by: Cheapbastard | May 03, 2004 at 08:22 AM
A friend and I were just discussing such gadgets yesterday. Due to unusually good traffic we showed up for our movie a little more than half an hour early. We started off wondering why wouldn't theatre show sitcoms before the movie (with commercials) instead of the monotonous slide shows. At which point, we went to personal dvd players then on to tv for the phone. I am glad to know that we weren't the first to think of it.
Posted by: David | May 03, 2004 at 09:17 AM
Different but quasi-related article Soap on the cellphone as TV goes tiny
I wonder who will be the first to hack the pyramid phone to use say a mini-ipod type hard disk (or some other larger memory storage unit (but phsyically small of course!))
E.
Posted by: rampy | May 03, 2004 at 11:15 AM
You can do this with some of the Symbian cell phones.
I have a Nokia 3650 and can watch MPEG4 via their Real player.
I pull video off my Tivo, use TyStudio to convert it MPEG, then use Packet Video ( http://www.packetvideo.com/shop/recorderdownload.asp ) to convert is to a phone-compatible format.
Then drag the file onto the MMC card that goes into the phone. The Real player can find it and play it easily.
Roughly a 1/2 hour show takes up 20 MB. I have a 256 MB card in my phone, so I can literally store several movies worth of media.
Posted by: Michael | May 04, 2004 at 09:59 AM
The pyramid phone used a seperate bell box which it either sat on or more commonly was mounted on the wall.
Posted by: Santana | July 07, 2004 at 12:35 PM
hi send me pictures of new cellphones
Posted by: angel | January 28, 2005 at 10:08 AM
hey yo this is a good thingy you know hehe it will be so much fun to have a tv tuner on your cellphone specially on traffic hours i like the idea of implementing it right away NOKIA 6800 & 6630 ROCKS!!!! >>>>JOHN<<<<
Posted by: THE WANDERER | March 09, 2005 at 01:49 AM
Hey does anyone know if this is the only technology available as far as Cellular PVR's go?
Posted by: Isabelle | May 31, 2005 at 07:12 PM