Watch TV on your PDA
Watching recorded TV shows with a mobile device (like a Treo 650) can be done easily and cheaply! The quality is good and better yet, each episode is free.
The method I’ve found to work required that one has Windows Media Center (on XP’s MC editions, Vista Home Premium, and Vista Ultimate). Next, install Makayama’s Mobile TV Center. This plug-in to Media Center takes any recorded show from MC’s PVR function and creates a mobile version which is automatically downloaded to flash memory once it is sensed. The plug-inhas a free trial and is $40 for a license.
Next, load the free TCPMP Core Video player on your device. For the Treo, it’s a simple matter of opening up the .ZIP file and putting tcpmp.prc as well as any necessary codecs in Palm’s Quick Install folder. Now, I cannot remember which codec did the trick. I believe I installed mpeg1, avc, and mpeg4 codecs, but I can’t remember.
So that’s just a couple of easy installations, really. I simply record shows/movies on Windows Media Center. At least a couple of minutes after recording is done, I’ll pop my 2GB SD card into my computer’s card reader, and the Mobile TV Center will offload all of the shows it can to the card. If I put the SD card back in the Treo, I’m back in business to watch the shows out and about.
My favorite thing to watch out and about is not from TV, though. I really like the series of shows at Revision3.com, especially Tekzilla and Diggnation. Fans of the old Screen Savers show on TechTV are sure to love the informative tech geek shows on Rev3. Now, I don’t mind waiting for people!
