SPB TV 2.0 review – Turn your Windows Phone into a TV

SPB Software, a leading developer for Windows Phone and probably best known for SPB Mobile Shell 3.x, has released a major upgrade for one of their great multimedia applications. Say hello to SPB TV 2.0 , that I will thoroughly discuss in the following article.  

  

SPB TV 2.0 – A step-by-step application overview

When you open SPB TV 2.0 for the first time from the start menu of your Windows Phone, you will be asked to provide your e-mail-address, birthday and gender as part of the authentication process.  

In the right screenshot above you can see this authentication screen, with special attention for the disclaimer that this information isn’t shared with third parties.  

  

SPB TV will automatically download a list of channels and programs, as soon as you have completed the authentication process (which is only the one screen mentioned above).  

The main screen of SPB TV has a simple and intutive graphical user interface (GUI), with: (1) preview “window” in the upper part of the screen, (2) channel information in the middle part of the screen, and (3) the channel navigation/selection bar in the bottom part of the screen.  

In the right screenshot above you can see the NOS Journaal channel, which broadcasts the Dutch news to your Windows Phone. Simply by tapping on the preview window, will open the video-stream automatically in fullscreen mode on the HTC HD2.  

   

In the time that SPB TV 2.0 is buffering the stream, an advertisement of SPB applications is shown. In the screenshot above you can see the SPB Puzzle advertisement, and by tapping on the screen you can change the quality of the screen or cancel the opening. 

The buffering time isn’t very long and honestly I don’t mind the advertisments. In the case of SPB Wireless Monitor it is even a helpfull aplication to take control of your cellular data usage. 

  

  

When you click on the menu-labelled right softkey, a pop-up menu is opened with the following items:  (1) play, (2) tv guide, (3) options, (4) high quality, (5) authentication, and (6) about.  

I will discuss some of these menu items a little more in detail below, while for example “play” and “about” don’t need an explanation. The one-step authentication process is already described above, and the TV Guide and Options menu will be discussed in the upcoming sections.  

What remains is the meny item “High Quality”, that is unchecked in the screenshot above.  This menu setting allows you to easily switch between the quality of the streams or broadcasts, depending on your connection type or cellular coverage. Unchecked means low quality, checked results in a high quality stream.   

Integrated TV Guide and Reminders

In this paragraph I focus on the integrated TV Guide of SPB TV. To illustrate the examples I will make use of the research channel, which you can see in the left screenshot above.  

The second menu item from the pop-up menu (mapped to the right softkey) is called TV Guide, which obviously provides you with a TV guide for the specific channel. In the left screenshot above you can already see part of this TV Guide in the channel information part in the middle of the main screen.  

  

In the left screenshot above you can see the TV guide of SPB TV in its full glory. By default it shows you ofcourse the overview of todays programs/streams, however via the top navigationbar you can easily navigate to the next day or upcoming days. Remark also the days of the week that help you navigate the TV guide of SPB TV.  

For example I would like to see Center for Visualization on June 9th on 10:30 AM, and it would be a pitty if I missed this broadcast. You might have noticed in the screenshot that you can execute the reminder-command on the right softkey. Now a new appointment is easily created in the Pocket Outlook calendar of your Windows Phone, so you won’t forget an episode. In my opinion a really functional feature.  

SPB TV Options overview

Furthermore I would like to give you an overview of the configurable options in SPB TV 2.0, which can be accessed via the right-softkey-menu.  

The default tab in the options screen is the “orientation” tab, in which you can set the default full-screen orientation. In the screenshot below you can see that the default orientation is set to right-handed. Personally I think it is more convenient to switch it to the left-handed mode, however that is a matter of your own preferences.  

In addition you can see the option “stretch video to full screen width” checked. I think this is a brilliant move from SPB Software, which allows me to enjoy the full 4.3″ capacitive screen of the HTC HD2.  

  

In the second “channels” you can select the channels that you want to be shown in the navigation/selection bar from the SPB TV main screen. SPB TV 2.0 includes an extensive list of global channels, and -for example- I simply don’t need to have the Greek channels in the navigation/selection bar. This is the place to configure and manage your own shortlist of preferrend channels. 

  

On-Screen Control Panel & Indicators

Finally I would like to address the controls of SPB TV, when you are playing a video on demand or live stream in full screen mode. The solution that SPB Software has implemented is called the on-screen-control panel, which is nothing more than an overlay with buttons that help you with most common tasks. 

  

The picture above shows the on-screen control panel in action. You can easily return to the SPB TV main screen, change the volume of the currently playing stream or video, change the brightness of the current video, or simply stop- and exit the current video.

Furthermore the battery status, cellular coverage, and the usual information of the top toolbar in Windows Mobile is shown in an overlay as well, if you tap on the video or stream that is playing.

There is even the possibility to go through the different channels, with a video or stream playing in the background. This is called picture-in-picture mode, and you might want to check out the SPB TV product page for some additional screenshots.

 

       

Concluding thoughts and wrap-up

SPB TV is a streaming TV application with more than 150 subscription-free live and VoD channels from more than 20 countries. It optimises streaming for mobiles and mobile data transmission channels, delivering a convenient mobile TV interface for the user. It provides users with quick channel previews, an instantly accessible TV guide for all offered channels and fast channel switching.  

SPB Software has build a great application for mobile devices to stream video content on the go, with the familiar simple and intuitive user interface from SPB Software. Sometimes the GUI-work is underestimated and I would like to highlight it here and compliment SPB Software.

SPB TV 2.0 is very easy to use, and you really won’t need a user manual or help files to find your way through the application. The large number of channels in different languages provide content for a large audience. However much of the application’s success or -popularity will depend on the quality of the content and perhaps some geographical preferences.

I really like the “full screen width mode” so I can really enjoy the 4.3″ capacitive touchscreen of the HTC HD2 to the max.

      

Pricing and availability

You can read the following statement in the press release “SPB TV for Windows Mobile Smartphones Gets a Major Update“ 

SPB TV 2.0 for Windows Phones running Windows Mobile 5 and later Professional and Standard editions, qVGA, VGA, Square QVGA, HVGA, and WVGA screen resolutions are supported. The application can be downloaded for free from the SPB website, there is also no monthly fee for using it. The application is ad-supported: an advertisement is shown every time user switches the channel while the stream is buffering.  

I’m really happy that SPB Software still develops its applications for Windows Mobile Standard devices, like my HTC Snap! In both the screenshots above, you can see that the Windows Mobile Standard version provides a similar user experience and a similar graphical user interface. So again my compliments to SPB Software for doing such a great job on the GUI-parts of their applications. 

 

Overall I think SPB TV 2.0 is a great, easy to use application, and a strategic addition to the multimedia portfolio of applications like SPB Radio, and internet radio player for Windows Phone. The best of all is that SPB TV is freeware, and optionally available on other mobile platforms as well.