I am very skeptical about people watching video on mobile devices. So we’ve been trying watching films on a video iPod while on long enough flights to get a chance to actually watch. Fifty-minute hops from city to city don’t really afford you the time to do very much.

I’m pleasantly surprised at how acceptable the viewing experience is, although holding the device up to get the best angle becomes tiresome. However the same can be said for reading a book, which is clearly the alternative for when you are stuck on a long plane journey.

Ripping the video on the first place is slow and fraught with unexpected snags. One DVD would not grab beyond the first chapter. Another was successfully encoded, but turned out to have the French soundtrack for no apparent reason.

Mobile TV is streamed, of course, but that’s the only objection I see it answering. On the iPod the video quality is very good, and I’m watching films that I know and love, which makes it easier to follow. Mobile TV that I’ve seen has a tendency to go scrambled every now and then generally loosing the plot.

And of course you can’t use a phone on a plane, so it would  be restricted to trains and busses. Perhaps there’s scope for “commuter TV” that addresses just that market.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 17th, 2007 at 8:59 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.