21 replies to this topic

[lawsonium]

Ok, this isn't as crazy as it might at first seem.

Do you all remember the SEGA Game Gear? Well cast your mind back to when this little baby was all over the shops, and Sega were at an early 90's peak. The Game Gear had a substantial array of attachments and additions from a humble magnifier lense to a TV tuner. The former being a divice to horrifically disfigure Sonic making it impossible to play and the later enabling your mobile games console to be used as a primative pocket TV.

Now I haven't really researched this so it could be an area already covered, if so I appologise and please point me in the direction of some literature, but would it be/is it possible to use either the data connector on any given smartphone or in my case the USB or SDIO slot on my MPx to attach a TV tuner?

Does this technology exist? I am sure that if it was possible more than 10 years ago on an 8-bit console with pathetic battery life it is acheivable now. I am sure that to get a good enough reception to be watchable on the size of screen we have on a smartphone the device wouldn't have to be much bigger than any other SDIO type attachement.

Any thoughts/ideas/information.

Sorry if this is something I have missed but everyone else is aware of  :wink:

Matt.

[lawsonium]

Anyone got anything to say?

Matt.

[Danger Mouse]

Sounds like a cool idea to me. I would be very interested in one. I can remember the TV add-on for the saga, but could never afford it.

[lawsonium]

That's the very one DangerMouse, the one your parents wouldn't buy you for Christmas

This thread is not doing very well... I thought it would raise a good deal more interest. Maybe it should be moved to another forum! (i.e. the MPx forum)

I would pay a handsome sum for this if it were to exist, imagine hooking it up to your in-car audio and mounting it on the dash :)

I really want to here more ideas/thoughts on this. C'mon people...

Matt

[Alex (nedge2k)]

Funnily enough i was thinking about this last night and did some searching around for one but it seems as though they dont exist :-( Would've been the perfect addition to my E200. Was also looking around for a Compact Flash to SD adaptor (for bigger, cheaper memory) but they only seem to exist the other way round (SD-CF). Annoying isnt it. Are device need more support.

[lawsonium]

Agreed, there seems to be a lack of willingness to develop some great products. Such adaptors would be very nifty, but I guess the manufacturers of SD/MMC equipment are in no hurry to shoot themselves in the foot by making an adaptor to render their product pointless. Though you would think some bright spark would give it a go.

As for my TV idea, I am still not happy that there no rumours or stories about a future appearance for this item. I like a good romour providing it has a hint of truth about it.

Keep your veiws coming please.

Matt.

[Alex (nedge2k)]

I did find an SDIO Radio thou. Pretty sure its jus using the slot for power and all the controls'll be on the unit. Still, cheaper than streming over GPRS.

[lawsonium]

Got my juices flowing now.

Any chance you can remember where this was?

Still the illusive TV tuner escapes me.

Matt.

[bigkahuna]

You can get this for the pocket pc...

http://www.eopstech.com/pro2.html

You could always ask nicely if they'd make one for the smartphone.

I'd sure have one.

[lawsonium]

Hmmmm..... Very Interesting, well found.

I will write to them and ask if it would work with smartphone!

The fact that nobody seems to know if the MPx200 has an SDIO slot or not would be a drawback. I guess it would be up to the manufacturer to find out.

I'll let you know what they say.

Matt

[ultimasnake]

i think it might just work on the e200 though it's windows mobile 2003 os is pretty the same to the pocket pc's verion but just a bit diffrent

[lawsonium]

I have used the site's on-line contact form but as yet have not even received an automated response.

I hate it when that happens, and there's no one monitoring the on-line queries.

I'll keep you posted.

Matt.

[awarner]

Quote

The fact that nobody seems to know if the MPx200 has an SDIO slot or not would be a drawback. I guess it would be up to the manufacturer to find out.

It does have an SDIO slot but not the drivers needed, you need 2003
to enable this
Here's hoping for an upgrade soon.

[lawsonium]

Let's hope.

It's so annoying that these gadgets do exist and we are prepared to buy most of them but we can't use them....

Anyway, everyone keep your fingers crossed.

Matt.

[lawsonium]

Hi, I finally got a response from eopstech:

Quote

The SDIO TV tuner for MS Pocket PC and Smartphone is on our roadmap and we
will announce it closer to completion of product development. The target
compatible platform is Pocket PC 2002, Windows Mobile 2003 and smartphone.
In the meantime, we cannot release anymore information.

So, this looks promising. They go on to say they will let me know of any developments, so I will post any further contact here.

Matt.

[Alex (nedge2k)]

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Trancemaster]

A TV tuner would be teh r0x0rz! I loved the one on my Game Gear.

[bigkahuna]

Matt

I also had a response back from these guys.

I wrote back alerting them to the fact that the SPV doesn't currently have drivers for SDIO (if I'm right in thinking that???)

I also pointed them in the direction of Modaco!!

Roll on this development!!!

[Perfectionist]

Has there been any further development on this ???

Personally, I believe its a conspiracy

They are holding back this feature deliberatly right now - to make sure we buy their new devices in the future which does have it !!

[xenophobe]

Just what everyone wants, a 4 foot/ 1 meter antenna connected to your cell phone.