Free mobile TV is real, it’s on the floor at CES, and … it works like TV. At LG’s booth at this year’s CES, the company was showing off several devices with the new Mobile DTV standard. Two of them looked a lot like the existing LG Vu and LG Voyager phones; two were netbooks with LG TV dongles plugged into USB ports; and the last was a portable DVD player with a built in TV receiver.
The good news: Mobile DTV works like TV. You change channels using the now-familiar digital channel numbers, just like at home. You can pop up a program guide, or information about the program you’re watching. Switching channels takes just a second or so. And reception, well, it’s as good as your TV reception is wherever you are.
My one quibble: the video resolution looked low on the test devices I saw, so all the pictures were just a little fuzzy or distorted. That’s an early-device problem, an LG person told me. Considering that we still have a year to go before free mobile TV hits the masses, this was a pretty solid demo.
I have a story explaining all about mobile DTV on PCMag.com.
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