Windows Mobile Devices Get HAVA Support

During today's WinHEC conference in Los Angeles, video technology developer Monsoon Multimedia announced that its HAVA line of wireless, video-streaming devices will now come with Windows Mobile support, allowing customers to watch home videos and television directly on their mobile devices.

In the past, HAVA devices have let customers stream video content in both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 formats from any source to multiple PCs in a given home. Today's announcement expands that functionality to include Windows Mobile phones and other "handheld computers," the Silicon Valley-based company said.

As with its previous iterations, customers can use HAVA to stream video from sources such as live television, DVD players, and TiVo, to any other broadband connected, Ethernet- or Wi-Fi-enabled PC, notebook, or (now) Windows Mobile-based device.

Monsoon says that HAVA for Windows Mobile will also allow for remote access to any HAVA device, effectively letting customers use their Window Mobile phones as a full on remote control for any cable, satellite, DVD, or TiVo TV source.

Additionally, HAVA will support Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC, Pocket PC Phone Edition, and Smartphone, and will stream MPEG-4 video to Windows Mobile-based devices with screen resolutions of 640 by 480, 320 by 240 and 240 by 240 pixels in landscape or portrait modes, Monsoon said.

The device will also support connections such as Wi-Fi, EVDO, UMTS (3G), USB Tethering, and Bluetooth.

HAVA technology uses what company describes as "unique mirroring and multicasting capabilities" that will allow multiple people to view video content both remotely and locally at the same time, whether they're on a PC or using a Windows Mobile-based device.

What's more, PC users running Windows XP Media Center Edition or Windows Vista can utilize the HAVA Wireless HD as a TV tuner to add full multimedia capabilities to their PCs.

Monsoon says it is currently licensing HAVA's reference designs and software to large OEMs, though the company would not give names. The HAVA product line is now available directly through Monsoon's e-tailing division at http://www.snappym … ltimedia.com , with HAVA Wireless HD, which comes with the wireless tuner, retailing for $250.

The HAVA Pro HD (which is the wired version of the device) and the HAVA Gold HD (the tunerless version) are priced at $200 and $130, respectively.

Copyright 2007 by Ziff Davis Media, Distributed by United Press International