REVIEW: Watching ‘Pirates’ on your cellphone? Neato

Editor’s Note: Welcome to Yay or Nay, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week we’ll review a new wireless application or service from the user’s point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works and what doesn’t in the mobile content industry. If you wish to submit your application or service for review, please contact us at rcrwebhelp@crain.com.
Application: Sprint Movies
Running on: LG Fusic from Sprint Nextel working over the carrier’s EV-DO network
Yay: Watch full-length, first-rate movies on your cellphone. Need we say more?
Nay: The screen in tiny. And since the movie is delivered over a cellular network, let’s just say it’s not movie-theater quality. Indeed, it’s like watching TV over a dial-up Internet connection. Finally, the prices are a bit steep, and the rental durations (some of just 24 hours) are daunting.
We say: Yes, yes, the screen is tiny and the image breaks up into a pixel nightmare every few minutes. But hey, there’s something to be said for watching “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” on your cellphone.
Review: Here at RCR Wireless News, there are few things that impress us. We’ve seen it all, from the amazing WiMAX streaming video-game demo to the fabulous pinpoint-your-exact-location GPS application. We’re hardened journalists, not soppy fanboys.
And yet, it’s still hard to believe that we can watch the full version of “Spider-Man 3” for $6 right on a cellphone. After all, it was just a few years ago that cellphones didn’t even have color screens, and now it’s possible to watch Spidey battle Venom in full color and motion. Amazing.
In fact, the most amazing thing is that Sprint Nextel introduced its Movies application more than a year and a half ago. It was impressive at the time, and remains so to this day.
Sprint Movies offers a variety of titles to choose from, from new video releases like Disney’s “Ratatouille” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” to lesser-known favorites like “Police Academy 3” and “Strange Brew.” New releases typically run around $6, while older movies cost around $3 to $4.
Users can purchase access to the movies for a limited time (for new releases, rental periods typically last only 24 hours, while older movies are available for up to seven days) and must watch the full movie within that time period.
This rental model presents some challenges, since most phone batteries can’t support a full three-hour movie. Further, watching three hour’s worth of movie on a tiny cellphone screen without a break would require copious amounts of Tylenol. Thus, longer rental periods are far more preferable.
Despite these difficulties, the Sprint Movies application itself has several nice features. We were able to skip around inside the movie using the same chapter breaks present on standard DVDs, and the service remembered where we stopped during our last movie-watching session, allowing us to pick right back up where we left off.
The image and sound quality of the movies was as expected: watchable, but by no means ideal. The image would break up occasionally, sometimes simply pausing and sometimes requiring several second’s worth of buffering. The audio was relatively clear, but certainly nothing to marvel at.
There are a number of serious drawbacks to Sprint Movies. First, the rental charges are in some cases excessive, and the rental periods for newer releases are simply unworkable. Further, the quality of the video and sound rely exclusively on the strength of the carrier’s signal, such that you would do well to say in one well-covered location.
That said, we were able to watch all of “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” on a cellphone. Neato.