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Over the Air TV and Movie Downloads via iPhone?

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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A blog entry claims that Apple is planning to start offering over the air downloads of Movies and TV shows via the iPhone. The source behind the rumor seems rather sketchy as the claim is that Apple accidentally started advertising this functionality via mobile banners.

A few screenshots, however, are included as evidence:


054206-tv_1_and_2_w_nav_bar1243011676.jpg.jpeg





Article Link: Over the Air TV and Movie Downloads via iPhone?
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2009/05/25/over-the-air-tv-and-movie-downloads-via-iphone/
I don't know if I could see this work.

People usually watch TV at home, and there is really only Wi-Fi at home (I know there isn't, but people don't go into a Starbucks and start watching TV on a mobile phone while drinking coffee)

If it was over 3G, I would say that the connection quality would be really bad.
MO.
 
t0mat0 said:
Would mean iPhone usres in downtime away from computers, but with a wifi signal (or strong 3G?) could get some entertainment, and throw some $ Apple's way.
Click to expand...

Even on 3G, things would take ages to download. If these were specially coded at iPhone resolution in h.264, a movie would be ~ 150MB.
 
Saladinos said:
Even on 3G, things would take ages to download. If these were specially coded at iPhone resolution in h.264, a movie would be ~ 150MB.
Click to expand...

Which would take probably less than than starting up the download over wifi, and making a getting a cup of tea, wouldn't it?
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)

It would be nice if you were in a hotel with wifi and had the TV hook up for the iPhone. It would be TV on demand where you pay Apple instead of the hotel. I'm fine with this sort of competition especially since some hotels have started to disable external inputs to their TVs.
 
/* BEGIN RANT */

Yeah, and while they're at it... how about the ability to stream video from my AppleTV or my desktop to my iPhone?

Ok, i can do the desktop webserver trick and stream files via mobile safari, but this is a really ugly fudge...

Surely a nice app that shows me my iTunes content and lets me stream it to my iPhone isn't a lot to ask for is it? It certainly would appear so.... The Apple Remote app interface but with streaming, that's all i ask.... :(

I will only forgive them if they're holding out until they release an iTunes media server later this year... ;)

/* END OF RANT */
 
would make more sense if the rumors about 7.2mbps and 802.11n are true. Could be a nightmare with current speeds though.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)

My brain hurts when trying to watch a movie or tv show that is longer than 15 minutes on my iPhone... But wait, that new rumered Apple net pad thingy would be perfect!
 
Bevz said:
/* BEGIN RANT */

Yeah, and while they're at it... how about the ability to stream video from my AppleTV or my desktop to my iPhone?

Ok, i can do the desktop webserver trick and stream files via mobile safari, but this is a really ugly fudge...

Surely a nice app that shows me my iTunes content and lets me stream it to my iPhone isn't a lot to ask for is it? It certainly would appear so.... The Apple Remote app interface but with streaming, that's all i ask.... :(

I will only forgive them if they're holding out until they release an iTunes media server later this year... ;)

/* END OF RANT */
Click to expand...

This.
 
JDee said:
I don't know if I could see this work.

People usually watch TV at home, and there is really only Wi-Fi at home (I know there isn't, but people don't go into a Starbucks and start watching TV on a mobile phone while drinking coffee)

If it was over 3G, I would say that the connection quality would be really bad.
MO.
Click to expand...

Ever been at an airport and bored out of your mind?
There are also the cases where people don't subscribe to TV service or care for OTA. I've been without TV service for a year and a half now (my own decision).
Everything I watch is either DVD, or either Hulu's or Youtube's movies & TV shows.
It's been over a year and I haven't had to pay for a lineup that included Lifetime, crazy church channels or Oxygen!
THAT in itself makes it TOTALLY worth it in my mind! :)
 
That's a picture of an iPod touch and it's on wifi. Now I could believe they might do this on wifi, but the article states iPhone and over the air as in 3g. The picture shows nothing to support that.
 
If they won't allow slingplayer over 3G, then I doubt that full length movies and/or TV shows will be over the network.

Maybe wifi though?
 
Mobi has been around for a long time but for some reason they won't port their app to the iPhone.

Quality wasn't great but it even worked over the Edge network.
 
This would be really awesome...

If there was ANYTHING on TV worth watching.
At this time, watching grass grow is more entertaining that almost everything offered on broadcast TV.
 
Totally realilistic and possible. Hopefully similar thing happened with tv and movie production and distribution companies that happened with the music industry. Also may be one of at&ts consessions to maintain iPhone exclusivity. Only time will tell. Personally I'd like the ability to start a download and it be ready at lunchtime. It won't be blazing fast, by it also wont take more than an hour or 2. Also, what about AT&Ts "cap" on their unlimited data plan. That may be going away. Hey, it's the convenience of it that makes me salivate.
 
Better have a juice pack

Y'know.. just in case you were not able to kill the battery already.
 
It would hog up WAYYYYY TOO MUCH BANDWIDTH. AT&T would never allow full movie and tv show downloads. Now, if this was a misunderstanding, and this feature is for WIFI, then I can certainly see this as a possibility. :)
 
iphones4evry1 said:
It would hog up WAYYYYY TOO MUCH BANDWIDTH. AT&T would never allow full movie and tv show downloads. Now, if this was a misunderstanding, and this feature is for WIFI, then I can certainly see this as a possibility. :)
Click to expand...

Why do you say that? They already have prorgams like MobiTv on phones that are on AT&T's network.
 
iphones4evry1 said:
It would hog up WAYYYYY TOO MUCH BANDWIDTH. AT&T would never allow full movie and tv show downloads. Now, if this was a misunderstanding, and this feature is for WIFI, then I can certainly see this as a possibility. :)
Click to expand...

Welcome to the 21st century. Wireless everything is where it's at. They already have mobile tv on AT&T. In order to stay competitive, as people complain of higher prices, they need to be innovative and relavant. This will happen.
 
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