[sturgeon]

I was wondering if any of you guys could help out, as you are all quite technically minded.

I am writing a dissertation about media consumption on mobile phones, and how and if they will change our viewing experiences. So far, as expected, after interviewing children, teenagers and early twenty-somethings, pretty much all of them said they don't really watch TV or videos on their phone.

I am specifically wanting a focus group of 4-5 people who all consume media on your phones-as my results so far suggest people don't really do it and the reasons why etc, I want to talk to people who do it. I can do the focus group online on MSN something, hopefully with all of you at the same time, and it will take around 15 minutes of your time. Otherwise I can email you a list of questions to answer and email back to me?

So if you have a very up-to-date phone, perhaps watch streaming TV or downloaded/transferred videos on your phone, please let me know and help me out! I need to do it very soon and it will take very little time. All your quotes will be used for is part of my methodology section to compare and contrast to other people and theorists.

Any help will be greatly appreciated, as I know a lot of people out there use their phones in this way, but the small selection of interviewees so far don't have much to say! Please reply to this or PM me.

[Ben]

Hey sturgeon, welcome to Talk3G :)

I personally don't use Mobile TV at the moment, so probably wont be much use to you, but hopefully you'll find enough people who do to conduct your focus group.

Good luck!

[3g-g]

I've just delved back into Orange's TV offering for a month to see what it's like since the days of it's conception, PM me over the questions if you want and I'll try and help. I'll add I'm about to leave for Dublin for a drinking weekend, so, as long as you don't need answers immediately! :D

[Hands0n]

Hmmmm, I dont think that I qualify but do have some comment.

I have tried three different Mobile TV offerings and have abandoned each and every one of them as they simply do not appeal in the least, and in fact can give a very frustrating experience. I'll cover them in the order that I have experienced them.

1. 3 - MobiTV (Nokia 6680). A complete disaster. The reliability and quality of the service is lamentably poor. TV images stall, fragment and break up. Sometimes nothing at all is received and the channel has to be selected again. When the system works the image is very low quality, so much as to be unwatchable for more than a short while.

2. Vodafone Live! TV (Sony Ericsson W900i)
Excellent selection of channels. Selecting a channel and getting the streaming data is fast and efficient. Image quality is best I've experienced to date. Quite watchable, but again not for extended periods - the small screen is tiring to view for very long.

3. Virgin (Lobster phone)
Pretty much a waste of time. When you can get the TV signal the image quality is reasonable, pretty much on a par with Vodafone. But stability of the signal is very poor and soon lost. This method of TV broadcast is doomed to failure unless they can get the signal reliability vastly improved. The experience left me feeling that the technology is okay for digital radio but the compressed TV just cannot be reliably delivered to the handset when static - and not at all when mobile (the whole point surely).

So, in summary, severe problems with 3 and Virgin ruining the experience due to image quality and stability. In the case of Vodafone, a good signal, nice quality. But in all cases the size of the image on the mobile phone handset is a put-off. I'd rather wait till I got home and reviewed the programme on Sky+ or my terrestrial broadcast PVR.

TV on Mobile is a curiosity, I'm not convinced that it will meet the expectations of the mobile network operators.