Over the summer I did a series of articles for All About Symbian that concentrated on the Nokia N95's TV Out feature, which lets you plug it into a TV and control all its functions from the big screen. I also connected a bluetooth keyboard so the N95 was essentially just working as a CPU, its screen and controls were unused.

If anyone's interested, the first part is here and there are links to the other parts at the top of the article:

http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/featu...eat_the_PC.php

To compress it all into one sentence: TV Out works surprisingly well, and in many cases I found it an adequate substitute for a desktop or laptop, but to be really useful it needs a higher resolution and a pointing device.

Nokia's internet tablets have a much higher resolution than the N95, in fact the resolution is fairly close to a standard definition widescreen TV, so it could possibly work really well through TV Out on a large number of sets.

In theory, the tablets also have a pointing device in the stylus, though using it could be awkward as you would have to keep looking down at the tablet to see where you were pointing (at least to begin with, perhaps later you would know where to touch instinctively).

One imaginative and neat solution to the pointer problem was suggested by a reader of the articles: use your cameraphone as a Bluetooth optical mouse. There's already an application for S60 phones which lets you do exactly this a Windows PC:

http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/softw...r_Series60.php

Perhaps something similar could be done with phones and tablets?

Just to give a flavour of the potential of TV Out for those who haven't used it before:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hWek4jmkYnQ

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bbU35ybA3Ow








I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I really really really want this on a tablet! :-)

If I could use my tablet on my TV, that would be a real threat to me even having a PC as I mostly use web-based applications.

I'm glad I'm not the only one wanting this feature in future tablets. A higher resolution output to the TV from an Internet Tablet would be very awesome. And I'm surprised there hasn't been much in the way of discussion about using bluetooth mice in S60 or the IT OS for that matter.

Hopefully, the next-gen Ngage roll out will spark interest in this area a lot more, and we might see some nifty accessories that addresses this issue. Even the IR sensor on the N95 seems to be underused in this area. A simple remote and software would sell like bottled water. Wake up Nokia, there's work to do here.

There's potential in this idea. (BTW: my first computer was an Atari 400 that was, of course, connected to our TV, so I'm used to TVs being computer monitors)

Probably, if you really want an mouse, a keyboard and a bigger screen, proper use of X-forwarding to a *real* monitor would be the better way to go (it's still an unsolved mystery how to do this).

But for certain use cases, the TV (a large TV) clearly wins. Also, the idea of using the camera phone as a mouse is great: After all, most of us do use their tablets together with a mobile phone anyway. Why not make extra use of it?

The only thing I don't feel comfortable with is that it would probably add to the size/weight of the device yet again. (Or wouldn't it? I'm not sure.) I want my tablets small, smaller, smallest, every millimeter counts.

After seeing what the N95 is capable of, I think it shouldn't be too hard to cram TV-out in the tablet. Using the camera phone as a mouse sounds cool too, and I hope other uses such as motion detection and force feedback become another part of the gaming aspect of these platforms.

These devices really make you feel like James Bond at times. No if only I can unlock and start my car with the N95 I'd be set.

So the tv out is used mainly for:

1. Game console replacement
2. Desktop replacement
3. To show\share media (audio, video and pictures and presentations)

I think #1 is more relevant for portable game consoles where the hardware and infrastructure are already in place in the first place (game developers, control system, etc).

For #2, yes I'm sure this is in our future where we all have a personal 'black box' that acts as our computer system and docks it to screens whenever we need one and it acts as a PDA\smartphone when on the move. I the feature to 'dock up to big screen' is best implemented as an external and optional dock\dongle so as not to increase the price\size\weight for a feature that we may not use every day... not to mention, the OS and Apps may not be ready yet to do the heavy lifting of desktop computing at the moment. I think UMPCs are way ahead on this front atm.

#3 is probably the one with the most interest and what the Internet Tablets are most prepared to do at the moment. But it's already a common feature among digital cameras, many of them comes with an AV-out cable that you can hook up to TV to show your medias on. It's also probably quite small to physically implement since it's quite common even on really small digicams.

I'm ok with getting an extra cable to do #3 with minimal increase in size\weight. #2 and #1 are not really in my radar though.

AFAIK, TV out can also be connected to many projectors. This would enable running presentations (and even some demos) from the tablet.

The combination of that and the upcoming midgard-on-maemo would enable me to leave the laptop away when going on most conference or meeting trips. Perfect with Google Presentations!

Shame there isn't a bugzilla for hardware feature requests

The OMAP already provides TV out, so it IS just a matter of revising the firmware to take advantage of it.

... although AFAIK there is no way to physically connect the cable

Yeah, this is the thing, if you have the tablet on the move you'd probably have a cameraphone too anyway to give you an internet connection.


I think you're overestimating how much this would add to the tablet's size or weight.

As far as I can tell, the extra size and weight from supporting TV Out would be absolutely minimal. The N95's 3D graphics acceleration chip is what also provides the TV out, and the TV out signal comes from the three-output 3.5mm jack.

The internet tablets already have a three-output 3.5mm jack for the headset, which I assume everyone wants to keep, so TV Out wouldn't require any new built-in connectors.

The N95 weighs 120g, compared to 206g for the N800, and as well as TV Out it also includes a Carl Zeiss 5mp camera, 30fps VGA camcorder, top-of-the-range 3.5G S60 smartphone, and GPS receiver. You're probably looking at just a few grams for the TV Out chip, and that same chip would also give the tablet 3D graphics acceleration too (if that chip can be used with the tablets, I'm not an electronics expert though).


Yes, the TV Out (at least on the N95) is a totally standard television signal, it will work with any SCART input (you do need a $10 SCART adapter though if the TV doesn't have composite inputs).

The photos in the article are from a modern TV, but I also used the N95 without any problems on an old CRT television from the 1990s (funnily enough a Nokia-brand one, from the days when they were a small consumer electronics company).

Using a projector would be a good business use, and it wouldn't matter about the pointer because the person doing the presentation would be looking at the tablet anyway, only the audience would need to see the projection.


Can't do that in Europe, there's an EU law against cars being remotely started, it's totally forbidden on public roads. Obscure but true... :-)

You mean we couldn't use the TV-out cable that comes with the N95 on the N800? If it's a firmware issue that's one thing, but if the hardware isn't wired for the job, it's another.