Our Look at First Mobile DTV Smartphone with Dyle TV Service

The service generally worked, though reception could be spotty indoors and on transit. It benefitted from NBC’s and Telemundo’s Olympic Games coverage, which provided a steady stream of fresh programming to tune into. Buying the phone at a MetroPCS store in San Francisco was a simple process. The saleswoman knew of the phone and a slight mispronunciation of its name, the Samsung Galaxy S Lightray, did not throw her off. The price for the phone was as advertised at $459, and it was on display near the cash register. The staff had clearly been trained on the phone’s features, and warned the reviewer that the Dyle TV programming options were limited.

Turning on the phone revealed the Dyle TV app already installed and on the home screen. The app takes about eight seconds to load, a process that includes a brief animation of the Dyle logo. Each time the app is launched, it asks the user to select which market they are in. Upon its first launch, users are asked to register with their year of birth, gender and email address. They are also asked which TV service they use at home: “Cable,” “Satellite,” “Telephone Company” or “None of the Above."

Once in the app, the screen is dominated by a blue and black color scheme. There’s a home screen, with buttons to “Start watching Dyle TV,” buttons for each of the five stations in the San Francisco-Oakland market that are participating in the service, a “Live TV” button, a search button and a help button. Clicking the Live TV button will bring up an on-screen program guide that lists channel, program and signals strength information. A green dot represents a quality signal, a gray dot the lack of a signal. Tapping an “i” button next to each program will call up additional program information and an option to “Watch Now.” From the guide screen, users can also press a button to rescan for more channels.

Tapping on a program listing will tune the receiver to that station. This process typically takes three to five seconds. A menu that’s similar to the app’s home screen will overlay the video programming until the user taps the screen again to make it disappear. Swiping the screen left or right, or up or down will change channels. From the guide screen, tapping a channel’s logo will bring up an extended guide for that station. By selecting a program in the future, users can schedule a reminder to tune in, which will come up as a push notification on the phone.

The picture quality of stations seemed to vary from station to station. In general, the images looked decent, but not crisp. Video streaming over a Wi-Fi network from a source such as Netflix looked far sharper, for instance. Two of the stations in the market, KTVU (Fox) Oakland and KICU-TV (independent) San Jose, both owned by Cox Enterprises, appeared to have some aspect-ratio problems, as did NBCUniversal’s KSTS (Telemundo) San Jose. The picture from each appeared stretched horizontally across the 4.3-inch postcard-oriented screen. The sound quality from all five stations available in the market was very good, when heard from the phone’s built-in speakers and through headphones. Other stations participating in the market are KNTV (NBC) San Jose and Ion Media’s KKPX-TV (qubo) San Jose. The Dyle mobile DTV service of 12 broadcasting companies is part of the Mobile Content Venture. MCV members are News Corp.’s Fox, Comcast’s NBC and Telemundo, Ion, and Pearl Mobile, comprised of Belo, Cox, E.W. Scripps, Gannett, Hearst Television, Media General, Meredith Corp., the Washington Post Co. and Raycom Media (http://xrl.us/bnjxk9).

Tuning mobile DTV signals requires extending the phone’s 6.5 inch telescoping antenna, which hides nicely behind the phone’s screen when not in use. The sight of an antenna on a smartphone is a bit of an anachronism and can be a bit jarring. “You have a goddamn antenna sticking out of your phone. I remember the ‘90s,” Richard, a bartender at Southern Pacific Brewing Co. in San Francisco, said after seeing the device.

Reception indoors can be spotty. In a San Francisco apartment in the south end of the city, all five signals came in clearly. In other locations in and around the city, reception was less reliable. On the region’s commuter rail line, which runs above ground through most of Oakland and the surrounding towns, the signal came in and out. In a city with lots of hills and valleys such as San Francisco, typical broadcast DTV reception can be challenging. That proved true for mobile DTV signals in certain outdoor locations as well, particularly in valleys.

The app is designed to ask for the user’s location and scans for available signals each time it launches, Erik Moreno and Salil Dalvi, MCV co-general managers, said in a joint e-mail. “The app needs to do the scan to make sure that a) it scans the frequencies in your market, and b) ensure that it highlights for the user the availability of any particular channel at that specific location.” Each station manages its own signal delivery process within the standard, and the MCV is working with stations as they get feedback to help them improve their transmissions, they said. In individual markets, broadcasters can differentiate themselves on picture quality to the extent that’s possible within the standard, they said.