DVB-H, dead in the water already?

Steve Litchfield proposed a question on Friday: which method of consuming video content do you see taking off in the future? DVB-H aka the same broadcast system principle our parents and their parents grew up with or on demand content a la YouTube? In less time than it takes for blood to move from one chamber of my heart to the other I’m going to have to say forget about DVB-H and make a loud plea to operators to upgrade their networks to support more bandwidth versus backing a technology that will provide little value to end users.

Rich media is obviously where the internet is now and we are only going to get more of it in the future. Location based services are just starting to become a reality, wouldn’t it make sense to combine rich content with location? I should be able to walk into a Banana Republic and take out my phone where it will ask my permission to play a clip of the male models portraying the Winter 2008 collection. DVB-H on the other hand will allow me to watch the same handful of channels that are already available at home, but now in my pocket.

DVB-H is too little too late. Forget about it and tell your operator to invest that money into 4G networks or 3.9G LTE.

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

Jani Helle

Let’s just forget DVB-H and use some format which is already around right now. 3.5G is pretty capable as a form of transmitting video, so how’s about using streaming video at a high quality? Just make it pay-per-view or a monthly fee model. Have an application on cell phones with which you can subscribe to different channels and pay directly to the company in question. DVB-H is dying because no one wants to buy a phone just to watch TV on it…
Roland Tanglao

amen, one way broadcast on tiny mobile screens is not that interesting !
xyzzy

Guys – think scale, really big scale.
Have You ever tried to count how fat would the pipe be to stream tens or hundreds of thousands simultaneous VoD streams over 3.5G
Consider whole CDN system that You’d have to place to bear the load, and then think about the radio.

IMHO additional radio can help a lot…
Viipottaja

Xyzzy, exactly. And Jani, they would not be buying the phone _just_ to watch TV, but ALSO to watch TV. And TV can be on demand as well. The future will most likely be a combo of “real TV” and video on the web.
PlayerKill

No offense, do you like men, Stefan? (male models??)

I don’t agree here. Although things like Youtube are definitely a good approach, I don’t see TV’s dying any time soon, just like radios. As much as I like being able to choose, sometimes I just want someone to choose for me what to watch when I have nothing to do. Same thing…

Still though, I have not seen any influence of the N92 and N77 at all! Other than official announcements, prototype reviews, and MI3, I havn’t seen a single person posted about using it or seeing someone using it myself.
Chris P

DVB-H Simply doesnt have the available bandwidth and certainly in the UK wont have the available bandwidth for a good few years so talk of it is pretty ridiculous at this point. Yes DVB-H is great technology and is a great delivery method for mobile TV but as things are it just isnt going to fly. I believe Nokia backed the wrong bunny at least if mobile companies went with DMB ((a competing technology to DVB-H) video bandwidth is available because of the way it works) we would have mobile TV even in 2008. Nokia is backing DVB-H and Samsung DMB.
Chris P

@ Jani Helle “DVB-H is dying because no one wants to buy a phone just to watch TV on it” lol! Ill just add DVB-H and DMB services arent available in the UK and the vast majority of Europe yet so I dont know what you are talking about! Also TV over IP (ie 3.5G) for the mass market, simply cant cope with the demand.

DMB is basically the technology as DAB radio (digital radio), all that is required is the existing network to be upgraded, and you will have nationwide or even EUwide DMB TV. DVB-H requires a whole new network and avilable bandwidth.
Anthony

I way forward is a mix of technologies. I believe they’ll always be a case for broadcast. You only need to look at cable, satellite and digital TV around the world to see that despite hundreds of channels the majority of people still turn to the “main” ones (analogue/over-the-air/”the networks”)

PVR features (and large onboard memory) could make DVB-H handsets more viable in future