MobiTV Now Officially Available on the Treo 650

So, I just subscribed and ponied up the $9.99. I followed the link and downloaded the installer, then opened it and gave it my credentials. I can see the MobiTV Promo channel, but none others. I've tried everything, but I can't get any of the other channels to work. I've just emailed their support group. :( Any thoughts? Anyone else seeing similar issues? Perhaps the setup with Handmark to activation with MobiTV isn't immediate???

I don't think it's a HandMark activation issue. I just did the same you did. As soon as Andrew's post showed up in my aggregator, I immediately ponied up the $$, downloaded and installed the MobiTV client and I instantly got two-and-a-half screens full of channels to choose from.

I'm on Sprint. What carrier are you using?

I too purchased MobiTV, and use Sprint. My problem is this - each time I begin the program, I get an installation screen, and a reminder screen to use unlimited data. Only then does it launch MobiTV. The whole process takes about a minute and a half.

Is there any way to get around those initial screens? Also, it defaults to to MSNBC - is there a way to set up another channel for default?

Thanks!
Larry Z.

Okay - I answered one of my own questions. I had installed it on my SD Card. When I deleted it and installed it into regular RAM, I was presented with two icons, a "MobiTV" icon, and a "MobiTV Installer" icon. This didn't happen on the SD card. So I select "MobiTV," and I'm good to go.

Still don't know how to set a default channel, however...

Cheers!
Larry Z.

after you fill in the login info shut down the MobiTV and restart it, then it will allow you to login to it's web site and it will load up all the chan's :) I have and it works fine for me ....I'm with sprint my self ;)

Andrew,

I can't find your email address anywhere. I'd love to get you on my show, the Wireless Walla. It's the #1 podcast pushed directly over the air into Treo devices.

Please shoot me an email if you are interested in chatting.

Christopher

Does anybody know when/if SprintTV will come to the Treo. I believe it uses the same technology, but it's suposedly somewhat better quality. Also, it has Fox News, which MobiTV doesn't have for Sprint.

Thanks
Steve

this thing needs a demo!

I installed the Sprint version and only see the preview channel. I actually have the Earthlink Treo650, but is a Sprint phone in all but billing.

Doug W. - Same problem here. I emailed Handmark Friday and they replied to me today telling me to contact MobiTV.

Okay, I figured it out after calling MobiTV. I have a Treo650 that was provisioned through AT&T Business Wireless just after the Cingular/AT&T merger. Thus, even though my phone says I'm on Cingular's network, my SIM card is an AT&T one. According to MobiTV they are adding support into their system for AT&T Wireless SIMs and that it should be working sometime this week. The good news is that I don't have to re-download and install MobiTV. It'll just start working once MobiTV updates their network. The downside is I now have to contact Handmark and get credited back for the days I haven't been able to use the service. Oh well... at least a solution is emminent...

I just did the full download and installation solely on my Treo and the program is working absolutely seamlessly. Minimal data interruption and all channels function properly. Very happy with it and have called a few of my cronies to let them know. C'mon, NFL Network live all the time!!? Doesn't get much better than that.

My only problem, and this is something I experience randomly even before MobiTV, is that my Treo occasionally shuts down and resets itself. It has happened twice while viewing programming and I'm not sure what the conflict is that causes it. Like I said it's happened even before MobiTV.

BTW, I'm a Sprint customer and I haven't heard any SprintTV rumblings in regard to the Treo. As an FYI, the platform is usually last on the list for Sprint's newer multimedia data features. Usually goes Samsung, Sanyo, LG, and then everyone else... way after the adoption curve has passed.

Kamau - As for your occasional resets, I'd look at what you have running that uses data and see if they are perhaps conflicting. I know there's a note on the MobiTV page that says if you're running GoodLink, that you should put it into offline mode while running MobiTV. The same would see true for Chatter ro Snapper, and possibly VersaMail. Alternatively, take a look at an article I wrote sometime back about avoiding resets. Some of the info may help you.

http://mobileoptimized.com/AvoidingResets.html

Thanks Andrew. That's great info. I have Versamail and SprintPCS Business Connection both pushing messages to my device, so that's an easy fix.

Much appreciated. I'm new to the Treonauts site and this has been a great day in Treo ownership thanks to you guys.

Kamua - well welcome to the Treo lover's world. Not to toot my own horn anymore than I already do, but you might want to check out http://mobileoptimized.com/ which is my site for other mobile optimized sites. Many businesses and people are using at their Blazer start page. You might also want to read over here

http://mobileoptimized.com/Reviews.html

Its a collection of reviews, notes, how-to's, and articles about the Treo.

Enough self-edification for now... :)

MobileTV high frame rate experience?

It's not that I don't love MobiTV the way it is for the Treo, but I was looking at the MobiTV website, and it seems that there a couple phones for sprint which offer the "high frame rate experience" which (from their demo) looks almost as good as regular television.

I would have assumed you would need a higher bandwidth network in order to get the high framerate, but it looks like these phones are already out now for the current sprint network. Maybe they use better compression? or perhaps they open multiple channels for downloading the video?

If it's an issue of processor capability to run decompress and render the high frame rate video, then the Treo's processor should be more than adiquate compaired to most other wireless phones.

Does anyone know if it's possible/feasable to get higher quality or a higher framerate on the Treo using the current network without EVDO support?

Thanks
Steve

Ok so I live in LA and we had a MAJOR power outage today. Watch the news, I'm sure you will see about it.

In the darkness, not knowing what was up - I grabbed my TREO 650 (verizon) and started up MobiTV. Within moments, I had everyone in the office watching, listening and hearing about the blackouts.

Good stuff.

Karl
www.justsayok.net

I'm sure a quick check of the IP address used to post that last comment will show that I was impersonated. :) Sad that some people resort to such childness...
[Andrew - if you clean up that previous post, please feel free to also remove my comments from here and up]

For the "high frame rate experience" post... if you have a certain phone (from Sprint I assume) and have access to their EVDO areas, you can use the higher frame rate access, and yes... it looks like regular TV. On standard 1xRTT or standard GPRS, you don't get as much bandwidth and therefore less clarity.

Sprint has (almost) no EVDO service. The *just* started activating it. Their EVDO service is limited to a few tiny city areas. Verizion has decent EVDO coverage, but most of their network is not EVDO. Cingular has no EVDO coverage what so ever, though they have a slower "high-speed" option in a few very limited areas. For the most part, cngular is EDGE, which, while better than GPRS, is often not much faster than an analog modem.

And yet...cingular and sprint (as well as other international companies) have the "High Frame Rate Experience" on some of their phones. Since their high speed coverage is so new and still virtually non-existant, I can only assume that these phones are able to function on their current 1xRTTnetwork.

I'm not sure how though.

-Steve

Karl - your story is absolutely priceless!

Cheers, A.

Got this up and running on Verizon Treo 650. Looks great and is the high framerate experience that is shown on the mobitv site. The stadard experience on some vanilla flip phones looks horrible. So essentially you do not need evdo for the high quality experience. ie: the Moto v710 on Verizon also has the high quality experience and its also not an EVDO phone.

Can't imagine how good it would look if it did use evdo though....

How can I use this against the $10/mo Sprint credit?

I contacted MobiTV and asked them about the quality of the video on the Treo. They told me what I expected to hear: Some phones get higher frame rates than the Treo, but that's becasue they have smaller, lower resolution screens. The Treo has 4 times the screen of any of their other phones. So the fact that the picture is as good as it is is really quite amazing.

To get true high-frame rate and high quality simply requires more bandwidth than is avaliable. This will change when we have an EVDO treo.

I can't wait!

-Steve

Does mobitv (on verizon wireless) make you sign a contract? I'd love to try it just for a month, without any commitment.

Looks really cool!
-Tom

I don't think there is any kind of contract. At least there isn't for Sprint and I believe they are the same for all carriers.

-Steve