How to Watch TV onto your Windows Mobile phone

photo credit: dushaun

In early 2007, Verizon and some other cell phone carriers began offering Digital TV services as features on their latest and greatest phones, but prices for this service have been so lofty that many customers aren’t willing to pay. For those customers who are still interested in having digital TV on their cell phones, however, there are ways to access Digital TV other than through your carrier.

How to Watch TV onto your Windows Mobile phone

Sling Player Mobile

Almost any media you would like in the palm of your hands - thats what’s offered in the Pocket Live TV software from Sling Media, whose slogan is Watch Your TV From Anywhere. The new Sling Media mobile tool brings television straight to your phone, via a transmission box, the SlingBox. SlingPlayer Mobile can be used on any Windows Mobile phone to incorporate digital TV straight to the desktop of your phone. Sling Player and the Sling Box can be purchased from SlingMedia.com and other approved retailers.

1.   First off, you’ll need to purchase and setup a SlingBox, the device that stores your TV shows to then be transmitted to your phone. To purchase and receive  setup information of the Sling box itself, visit Slingbox.com. After the Slingbox is completely setup with your home computer, change your settings to allow “remote viewing.” Doing this will initialize the ability to watch on your cell phone.

2.   Install SlingBox Mobile on your smartphone or PalmPC. SlingMedia.com lists the recommended devices to use, and other devices that may not be mentioned can work also. The base requirement for installing SlingBox on your cell phone is that your device has Windows Mobile 5/6, a CPU of 144 MHz, audio speakers, adequate installation space(900KB), adequate memory(4MB), and a network speed over 120 Kbps. The steps for the device’s actual installation are simple:

1.   Connect the phone to your PC using your synchronization program, which should be ActiveSync.

2.   Then, download the SlingPlayer mobile software from SlingMedia.com. You can choose to either buy or begin a 30.day free trial.

3.   When the download completes, open up the .exe file for installation in ActiveSync.

3.   Upon completion of installation, you can go ahead and open SlingPlayer. Starting from your phone’s desktop, select Start to browse to the SlingPlayer Mobile software.

4.   Now you’ll need to add a Slingbox to your mobile. From your phone, select Menu, and then direct to the Slingbox Directory. Select the menu button from this screen to get to the Add New Slingbox window, and then identify the Slingbox by its name, IP Address/Port, and the password.

4.   After successfully adding your SlingBox, you can connect anytime to watch TV, as long as you’re on with 3G or WiFi. Open your SlingBox Directory and click Watch on the SlingBox of your choice. You can watch & navigate your TV, DVD Player, or other media connected to your SlingBox from here.

Mobile TV is at you fingertips, and almost at the click of a button. As long as you have Internet and the properly equipped phone, you can prepare to begin the mobile TV experience. So sit back, kick back, but don’t relax just yet - connect/synchronize your phone to the Internet, make the necessary installations, and then - get ready to relax with mobile TV.

For more information on installing, using, or navigating SlingBox and SlingPlayer Mobile, visit SlingMedia.com.

Do you know of any other methods to get free TV on your phones?