Which smartphone to use with Beyond TV?

[osho_gg]

Hi,

I am planning to buy a smartphone (iPhone 3GS or similar) in the near future. One of the key usage would be to synch some of the recorded shows with Beyond TV. I know BeyondTV 4.9 supports iPhone synchronization but does it also support synchronization with other smartphones?

If you have been using iPhone or other smartphone to watch TV shows on your smartphone, please share your experience. Key points I am looking for feedback about are:

• Which phone are you using?
• How easy/hard was it to set it up with Beyond TV recordings?
• How do you like the phone's screen for watching videos?

I would like to avoid getting iPhone if at all possible (to avoid data plan costs - which I don't plan to use). So, any other alternative recommendations would be very useful.

Thanks,
Osho

[mayhem70]

I've been doing it a long time sans iPhone. I started off with a couple of WinMo phones. Since TMPCP can play divx movies, I just made sure that the stuff I wanted synced to my phone in the morning used a showsqueeze profile that matched the playback specs of the phone. Nothing that noticeable when you are looking at a 3.5 in display. Since then I got a G1. Divx support...none. However, h.264 is fine as long as I made sure that it meant the display resolution of the G1 and the bitrate. In my case, I prefer to do a folder sync because I didn't want to transfer that over data plans.

* Which phone are you using?

Started on a ETEN Glofiish X500+ using Win 6.1
Now on a rooted G1 with Donut

* How easy/hard was it to set it up with Beyond TV recordings?
The biggest thing was finding out what video profiles it supported. Then a matter on using the folder sync options that comes with WinMo or the same with Googles phone.


* How do you like the phone's screen for watching videos?

Make no doubt about it, I got the X500 because of the screen. Unfortunately Acer bought out ETEN...and that and I accidently crushed it. Most of the WinMo phones at the time were skimpy on the resolution. Since then, HTC has done an excellent job in getting most of its phones with decent displays. The G1 isn't eye-popping, but at SD resolutions...it's still pretty good.

Bluetooth and battery, that will be the other questions you might have. I had to get a much bigger battery to account for the video time. Multitasking even with phone applications is still going to be a bit sluggish on a WinMo phone, like when I get a SMS notification while the movie played...there was a pinch of lag. The G1 has been pretty crisp (note I'm running Cyanogen rom so I have amped it up a bit).

[osho_gg]

Thanks mayhem for the detailed response. It is really helpful.

Thanks,
Osho