(Editor's Note: Mike Arden and I were on the same wavelength on this, posting on thesame topic within 10 minutes of each other (see his above). We both came to largely the same conclusion, but its worth a look at both of these to get our different angles on this news).

In the "it was inevitable department": Mobile PVR is on its way. TI and partners PacketVideo and S3 are demoing a mobile PVR at IBC this week. The device uses TI's DVB-H Hollwood chip and its OMAP processor which make up the core of its Mobile TV solution. The demo shows a phone that has the ability for picture in picture as well as support for two channels so that mobile user can record a show and watch another simultaneously.

The use of PVRs continues to grow and has now entered the mainstream. Is putting PVRs on the mobile TV platform, as nascent as it is, putting the cart before the horse? Maybe so, but I think there will be some takers, especially given that many users of the Slingbox and Orb Networks use these devices to view their content on a mobile device. I think the best solution is one that allows for consumers to have one central cache of stored video, be it on their home PVR or somewhere in the cloud, and they can watch it wherever they want. Maybe it's a media server of some sort, enabled through devices such as a Sling box, or maybe the set top embeds the capability itself.

The big thing is that consumers are going to eventually get tired of paying for the same content more than once. Those mobile operators that charge an arm and a leg for this service and keep their customer in a walled garden can probably expect it to remain a niche, but those that make it part of a larger video sharing framework, whether its a Sprint/Comcast type of partnership, will see greater uptake.