The video iPod has sent shudders through the media business, because it offers a new way to watch TV, video and movies. You can download video onto the iPod and then watch it on your own clock as you travel. Plus, new cellular phones are adding the capability to watch video and TV as well. While techie types get excited about such gadgets, what about the general viewing public? Would you watch TV on a tiny device with a small screen? What types of video content would you watch on these? Would you pay for it? Bang the “Comments” button below, and tell us all what you think. Please include your name and location and a valid email address if you want to be quoted in the Your Take roundup post coming next week.
- 14 years ago
Mark Glaser
Categories: Media Usage
What kind of video would you watch on a small portable screen?
Tags: cellphonesipodvideo
- Related Post
- Experts Warn Against the Perils of ‘Tech Addiction’
The 2018 National Day of Unplugging is on March 9-10 from sundown to sundown. Back in 2009,…
- Special Series: Unplugging From Technology 2018
When was the last time you went 24 hours without checking your phone, computer or…
- Why Your Kids Need You To Unplug (At Least a Little Bit)
The 2018 National Day of Unplugging is on March 9-10 from sundown to sundown. Those little networked…
View Comments (14)
Right now, I watch anything and everything -- we are in the "novelty" stage after all. Besides, you have to love the irony of using today's most advanced technology to watch old Adam-12 episodes (please, dear IPod God, let there be Wally George reruns for $1.99).
Nevertheless, it won't last -- but it has nothing to do with screen size. It has everything to do with content and simplicity. Better and original content will attract more users (call it the "Sirius-Stern Effect"), and making the video easier to download will attract more people like me who still think Ajax is a "grease-cutting formula in a lemon fresh scent."
But until then, I'll watch SNL's "Lazy Sunday" for the 100th time, check out "Rocketboom" (Amanda Congdon is the bomb) and relive the joy of Reed and Malloy giving wayward Angelenos the right to remain silent. Too bad Leif Garrett didn't exercise that right in the two-part roller disco episode of CHiPs...
I enjoy watching small screen independent productions like The Post Show and Rocketboom.
My great hope for the world, though, is that technology will progress to the point that those small screen stars can be seen on regular-sized screens. I'm glad that RB has made a deal with TiVo, but I hope that the future is more open source. It would be nice if we videobloggers didn't have to worry so much about putting tiny compressed files on the internet... I would love to put out screen-sized HD digital film, but the world is not ready for it yet.
My ten-minute weekly videoblog weighs in at around 40MBs. So, until space and bandwidth become cheaper, I don't see high quality content coming out on the internet for a while. I truly hope that someday we will be able to download large uncompressed files directly to our computer-embedded walls for display on our Star Trekkian viewscreens.
I agree with Chris McDqueen. If video is available at the airport or while traveling on a bus, viewers would watch just about anything to keep them occupied. The whole issue is the delivery method. Microsofts Bill Gates introduced a special media table at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The media table could be made available at an airport or other public places. It increases the size of a typical PDA screen by recognizing the PDA and projecting an image of the screen onto a table.. It also projects a full size keyboard that uses technology to recognize key strokes. If this technology could be duplicated cheaply, we wont have to worry about the size of a video screen. Obviously there are some major issues here, like privacy, security and the like.
I would watch the news since its a talking head most of the time. At least it fills up most of the screen and it's mainly audio content anyway.
Anything short and fun. Anything episodic. I think that animated shorts and the modern-day eqivalent of 1940s adventure serials are great content for my ipod or phone. Channel Frederator is a good example.
CNN Headline News
FOX News
MSNBC News
SCI FI Network
ABC Sports
ESPN
ESPN 2
NASA TV
It would have to be a short one, something very informational. Forget advertising in the traditional sense.
I wd watch only ongoing news story likely to affect me or mine directly or major cliff-hanger story having immediate wide impact.
I would watch almost any TV show on the small screen. As for movies, they would have to be movies that do not rely on special effects or dramatic scenes that could get lost in a small screen.
I would like to have the ability to watch short newscasts from CNN, the BBC, or the CBC.
ok, let's get real. the biggest seller for video on an ipod is going to be porn. like everything else on the net, it will be driven initially by porn. not me though... ;)