Now that mobile phones are as powerful as ever, more and more people are starting to enjoy video programming on cell phones. It's not just about taking pictures with your camera phones or listening to music on an MP3 cell phone! We're watching more and more video content on the internet these days and the same is true with mobile phones. You can enjoy not just clips, but entire TV shows and full feature films, in addition to fun user-created content (YouTube has made everyone famous).
Want to know how you can get in on the action and enjoy video programming on cell phones? Keep reading to find out!
Three Ways To Get Video Programming on Cell Phones
At this time, there are three main methods to enjoy video programming on cell phones. Some of these cost money, whereas other ways may be absolutely free. You'll also have to bear in mind that your mobile phone must be capable of playing video in the first place. Not all phones have built-in video players, but there's a good chance that if your mobile phone has an integrated music player, then it'll have a video player. Certain types of video programming on cell phones require specialized hardware as well, so check with the manufacturer or your service provider for details.
Dedicated Mobile TV Services
While dedicated mobile TV hasn't really caught on in North America, it has become a way of life in countries like Japan and Korea. There, they have ready access to a variety of mobile television services, not only on their cell phones, but also on other wireless audio-video equipment like MP3 players, portable video players, and even satellite navigation devices in cars.
Some of the technology that is involved includes DMB, DVB, and MediaFLO. These are typically separate altogether from cell phone networks, latching onto different types of signals altogether, not unlike the satellite television you may be watching at home. For more information on these standards and how they work, check out our article on Mobile TV.
Video Programming on Cell Phone Connections
If you have a BlackBerry PDA phone, for example, you may have an opportunity to download video programming onto your cell phone through a high-speed 3G network. There are two ways that this may work for phones that are capable of this functionality. On the one hand, you may be able to enjoy full streaming video (like YouTube). On the other hand, you may need to completely download the video clip onto your mobile phone before watching it. Mobile operators like Telus Mobility and Verizon Wireless have mobile TV set up in this way.
Upload Video Content onto Your Cell Phone
Got a bevy of movies and clips on your computer and want to take them with you on the road? If your cell phone has a built-in video player and an adequate amount of storage -- perhaps through a microSD memory card slot -- then you can transfer that multimedia content and watch it on your phone.
Before you can do this, however, you'll likely need to convert your video (AVI, MPEG, MOV, etc.) into a format that your phone's player will recognize. In general, most video programming on cell phones must be either in 3GP or MP4 format, with the former being more widespread than the latter. Check your user manual for more information on how to upload and what types of files you can play.
