N8, iPhone 4 and 720p

Hello all,

Time does fly!, it's been quite a while since I've posted anything to the blog.

Still there are quite a few visitors so it's all good!. Really, it's nice to see that a lot of people have found something useful in my posts. Cheers!

Today I want to write about something that has been on my mind since TV-out became a feature in the N95. Can/will a phone replace some of the video equipment at home?

With the N92 this became even more of a question as the N92 has DBV-h and TV-out. Once I was in Finland using the N92 and watching TV on an N92 connected to a TV monitor. The experience wasn't "great", but it showed the potential (the images were QVGA at 15 fps). 

When the N96 came out, I re-did the N92 experiment, using a TV an N96 and watching DVB-h at 25 fps. On a  26" screen this wasn't bad at all. When using VGA videos at 29.97 fps with the TV out it started to get really close to watching a DVD*

I also tried several ways of using uPNP with the Playstation 3 or a PC and the N96. It worked Ok for pictures and music but was really poor for  videos.  At the end what I settled in doing is using the USB cable and hooking up the N96 (now N97) to the PS3 and then use the PS3 to playback the videos/music/pictures stored in my phone.


All other Nokia products haven't improved on this since the N96. And there aren't any newer DVB-h products that I've tested.


But now the new jump in video features is at hand.
Enter the N8 and the iPhone 4.

Why do I say there's a big jump?, well because both of these phones will allow you to both take and reproduce 720p video. The N8 will even allow you to hook up using HDMI so that you can enjoy the 720p videos on your tv, AND most crucially, supports AC3 (dolby 5.1 for you).


Now either of these phones could, in theory, start replacing some of my video gear without having to give up on video quality! YEAH!

PVR (or TiVO if you live on the other side of the pond)
SLINGBOX
DVD player (for sure)
Bluray (ok, maybe not yet but it's close enough quality)


The N8 is also rumored (or is it fact already) to support 801 /N speed for WiFi which would enable it to stream at least 480p video with little buffering.


The iPhone may get some TV out or HDMI out using the iPod port.


So what do you think?, will the phone start replacing your other video sources?, has it replaced then already?, or am I really not getting it?
 


* Using Composite video and not upscaling the DVD