Mobile manoeuvre

INBOX: As mobile phones become more powerful, our expectation of them are changing.

In the next 18 months, a range of mobiles will come on to the market with wide-screen touch- enabled interfaces from the likes of Samsung and Nokia.

It's no coincidence they will try to compete with the hype surrounding the iPhone and its amazing screen, which unfortunately has yet to launch here. But what if you want to watch video on your mobile right now?

Many mobile phones are already capable of getting video from the mobile networks and watching it "stream" in, mainly on 3G. This has become particularly popular among young people who expect to be able to download a music video, not just the music. But the costs can be prohibitive.

Another way is to do what is known as "side-loading", which is basically putting some video on to a memory card, then playing it back on the phone. This is fine, but you need to make sure the handset is capable of playing the particular format of video.

So for instance, most phones can play a video file ending in .3gp. This is a format which was specially designed for mobile phones. It's basically a simpler version of the MPEG-4 format where files end in .mp4 or the older .mpg format. What's the upshot? Your phone may not play these formats unless it has the right software.

So what's to be done? Owners of mobiles powered by Windows Mobile or Palm tend to have more options as they can make use of the TCPMP player, which plays a wide variety of video formats and of course, Windows mobiles play Windows Media Player files. Some mobiles, like Nokia's, come with the RealPlayer software installed, which can also play video.

But you'll often need some extra software like the free MediaCoder for Windows software which converts just about any video format into what's required for mobile. It's a fiddly business!

Perhaps a simpler solution is to watch YouTube videos on your mobile. YouTube actually has its own mobile version of the site designed for use on mobile devices which supports RTSP streaming. To see if your phone will work, point its web browser at www.m.youtube.com.

You can also download a simple plug-in (Tinyurl.com/ 2zzcfy). This understands YouTube's native Flash Video, or FLV file format and allows you to download the videos and watch them at your leisure.

The mobile site doesn't offer all of YouTube's collection but by getting the Vtap software (vtap.com) you can access even more.

However, always remember that streaming videos to your mobile can use up a lot of data, so if you are not on an unlimited tariff or don't have WiFi on your mobile, you may be stung with a big bill at the end of the month.