Review Conditions
Spb TV v1.0 from Spb Softwarehouse was installed on a Nokia E71, an S60 3rd edition FP1 device.
Installation
Installation of the sis file is simple, using the Nokia application installer.
First View
I was very skeptical about watching TV on a mobile. There is a lot of hype about IPTV but it just did not take off. It required high amount of bandwidth and must be delivered with certain levels of Quality of Service (QoS) and reliability to become a viable alternative to cable television. Its typically the cellular operators who advertise and provide IPTV service to mobile subscribers. I was curious to find out what Spb TV had to offer.
Main Review
Spb TV has integrated live streaming feeds of various TV channels on the Internet, whether they are free or premium, to the mobile for a one-time cost of the application you have to purchase. So its subscription-free.
It is not really IPTV as defined by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU-T) but Spb TV have used their proprietary telecom network infrastructure (more below) to deliver video content at 300 Kbps and you get to watch real live TV on the mobile which is absolutely great. To their credit, Spb TV don’t call it IPTV but officially calls this a mobile TV application. Spb TV is best viewed over high-speed WiFi or HSDPA since its very data intensive. I used only WiFi for all my testing.
There are 105 channels from more than 17 countries being streamed live in several languages and there should be something for everyone.
The channel preview is well done, which changes the thumbnails used in the preview frequently from the latest streams available.
You can also preview other channels, while watching a particular channel. The preview appears in the Picture-in-picture mode.
A TV Guide is available for all the channels and you can set an alarm to view a particular channel on a certain date and time.
The volume can be controlled on screen or using the hardware buttons on my E71. For the onscreen control of volume, the D-Pad can be used. It took me a while to find the onscreen control for other features like brightness control, picture in picture, etc. I later found that pressing the “Enter” Key brought up the onscreen menu.
The mobile TV service from Spb TV is not just about having an application on the mobile pick up live videos from the Internet. The Spb TV solution requires a full blown network infrastructure that you can see below.
Videos from each channel is retrieved and hosted by Spb TV Transcoding Servers that feed the data to Spb TV Re-streaming Servers that stream data using the RTSP protocol at 300 Kbps per channel. An Spb Authorization Server is used for authenticating users. The Spb TV Thumbnail server caches latest frames of each channel viewed and displays that over the channel during Picture-in-Picture view or when you browse through the channels. There is a separate Spb TV Guide Server that is updated periodically with the latest TV information.
Handling
Channel browsing and Picture-in-Picture were great to use and gave an experience that’s close to that of watching real TV.
I could select only a subset of channels that I want to have in my main screen for browsing and the TV guide’s alarm functionality is a very nice feature.
Weaknesses
I could spot some audio lag, which results in loss of sync between the video and voice but its very minimal and you’ll get over it in a no time. There was never an issues with the quality of the picture. Typically live streaming video over the web has a lot of buffer delay but Spb TV’s own infrastructure has mitigated this to a considerable extent, thereby greatly improving the TV viewing experience.
Conclusion
I am very impressed with Spb TV. With a 30 day money back, no questions asked, no risk full price refund offer, its a no brainer to check out Spb TV on your Symbian mobile. It available for a trial or purchase for $14.95. Its very good stuff and I’ll give it a 4 of 5.
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
I like the application but still i need some entertainment channels that speaks english like sport channels, movie channels, etc.
e71 but no sound at all but channal is great collection … So what ican do for sound
I have sound and no picture the first time I try. After that… no sound, no picture on my Nokia E5-00. Help
If you haven’t sound, then install Spb TV v1.02.770 .
This version is have sound
Good tip, it really works on my E71.
Once again, NO SOUND ON NOKIA, this time its a 5800.
MANY people have picture but no sound, apparently using firmware v.3 will fix but I’ve not tested.
no sound pl help
Hi I would like to buy licence SPB TV & download to my nokia E72 but before that i would like to check is it able to support my mobile.
And i wish to have some India & Pakistan channel. Waiting for reply
Thanks
The idea and software are great. But who wants to watch Chick Comedy, C-Span and NASA? Now if they added things like: ESPN, Travel Channel, CNBC and History Channel (for example), they’d have me willing to not only use it but I’d gladly pay $50 for the one-time download.
I can’t hear a thing on my N95 even I maximun the volume………….
hi, did you solve your audio problem? I have the same
no conecting chanel,problems
Why threre is no sound on some channels ? I installed it on a Nokia 6710 Navigator.
Može jedan tv kanal iz Bosne i Hercegovine !
Hvala
hey its cool….!!! Thanks to all da guys who r working for tis applictn… Keep going for a new version…
This is the best software i have ever seen on mobile, if cnn and bbc English was added and channal up 3oo, it would have been wonderful. Though it is wonderful. I wish i could buy the software, i’m only cherishing the trial version wish would not satisfy your taste. The men behind it have done a great job i most commend them. I know in due time more channels will be added. Thank you, thank you, good well done.
guy my own spb no get audio am using e63 wat can i do?
i bought spb last month but i am not happy coz there is no even one single indian an pakistani chanells but ia hope i will get asian idia pakistani chanell as sn as
thanks
Actually I did see some Indian TV channels.
Thanks for this good review.
After reading your review I downloaded the application on my E71.
Infact I was looking for such application from long time..finally got it.
My initial experience with spb Tv is very good. I wont mind buying license if I can get couple of Indian channels.
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