Valups Tivit Soon Coming Out for iPhone, iPod touch, Android, BlackBerry, and PC

Earlier this year, at CES 2010, Valups announced they would release their much appraised Tivit gadget for iPhone, iPod touch, Android, BlackBerry, and PC sometime this summer. What exactly is the Tivit though, you ask?

Two Valups Tivits sending two MDTV broadcasts to two iPod touches (Credit: Engadget)

In a nutshell, The Valups Tivit is a gadget that receives the Mobile DTV, or MDTV, signals your local TV stations are (likely not yet) broadcasting and streams relatively good quality H.264 video of the channel you choose to a compatible phone or computer via a WiFi connection, no cables necessary. The reason I say “likely not yet broadcasting” is because most TV stations aren’t broadcasting these MDTV signals yet, but nearly all should be within the next year or so. Although your local stations are broadcasting the SDTV/HDTV signals, the Tivit is not capable of decoding them, which means that it will not work until MDTV is made available near you. Check out the following link to find out what channels around you, if any, are currently broadcasting in the MDTV format:

http://www.watchmdtv.com/current-list-of-mdtv-stations/

Since the device uses WiFi as its only way to send the signal, you must join its network in order to for it to work. This means that you’ll have to disconnect from any other wireless network you’re connected with just to watch TV. If you want to access the Internet again, assuming you’re not connected to 3G or Edge, you’ll have to disconnect from the Tivit and reconnect to the router. It can get annoying, but it’s not a major problem. Also, only one client can be connected to the Tivit’s network at any one time. No, you can’t watch “The Price Is Right” with your buddy on different devices, unless you each have your own Tivit of course.

The Tivit application is already available from the Valups website for PC and the iTunes App Store for iPhone and iPod touch. Granted, you can’t do anything with them yet, but they’re there if you just want to play with them. If you download one or the other, you’ll notice both lack somewhat in features. For example, there’s no ability to pause, rewind, or record live TV. The good news is that executives at Valups said more features will be added once the product nears release.

As for aesthetics, it’s not too much of an eye-sore. It will come in a variety of colors and be about the same size as an iPhone. Its also got an external antenna. Fully extended, the antenna is just under a foot long. That may not sound like much, but when the device is as small as an iPhone, it gets a little clunky. Plus, who wants to carry around anything with an external antenna anymore? That’s so 90′s. All in all, the Tivit is still pretty cool-looking.

Let’s wrap things up with one last factoid on the gadget. The time between channel changes is reportedly very long. When Engadget played with it at CES 2010, they said that it took around 20 seconds just to change channels! You needn’t worry too much though. The Valups guys told them that they’ll be able to get channel change times just under 8 seconds by the time it’s commercially available. That’s not too horrible. They also added that the only reason it took so long in the first place was because of a fault on Apple’s part. Interesting…

When the Tivit finally hits the shelfs, it’ll cost around $90-$120. If you have use for MDTV and would rather turn your existing mobile device into an MDTV receiver rather than buy a whole MDTV portable television set, the Valups Tivit may be for you!

(Source: Engadget)