Mainstream, Wacky Appear on Mobile Video Services

Hello, it’s Jay Leno on the phone.

Also Jon Stewart, Sen. Barbara Boxer, Popeye the Sailor, Chris Matthews and an assortment of Las Vegas showgirl types reading sports scores.

Welcome to the improbable new medium of cellphone video, which got some buzz last week when NBC made clips of Leno’s “Tonight Show” monologues available on Sprint Nextel Corp.’s wireless service.

Already, there are three main providers of live and canned video content meant for viewing on the screens of so-called smart phones with access to the Internet. But there is no doubt that this remains a young medium, somewhat reminiscent of cable TV in its early days.

Content for cell video can range from the mainstream -- live feeds from MSNBC, C-SPAN and the Weather Channel are included on some of the services -- to the fringe. The MobiTV Inc. service, for instance, includes Fashion TV, a Paris-based channel with endless runway presentations set to disco music; ToonWorld TV Classics, which presents some great vintage cartoons but also reruns of best-forgotten series such as “Roger Ramjet”; and Vegas Sports, which features the “Sports Sirens” announcers probably not chosen for their sports knowledge.

The cell screens are hardly conducive to quality viewing, especially given that the vast majority of mobile video is delivered via streaming technology over the wireless networks. (By contrast, Apple Computer Inc.’s video iPod, which presents a startlingly good image, gets its content through downloads to a computer.)

But cellphone video is often surprisingly watchable, partly depending on just how badly you want to view it.

The first time I tried cellphone video happened to be on the night Hurricane Wilma was approaching south Florida, where much of my family lives. Believe me, I wasn’t quibbling about the somewhat pixilated image on the live feed of the Weather Channel I was getting on a phone. I was just glad -- and somewhat comforted -- to have the constantly updated information.

That live stream was particularly powerful because it was indeed live. Unfortunately, most of what you will get on cell video channels is previously recorded programming -- which makes this new medium more akin to video podcasting than real TV.

But there is a decent lineup of live programming, including -- depending on the service -- streams from ABC News, CNBC, CSTV (college sports), Discovery Channel, Discovery Espanol, Discovery Kids, Fox News Channel, MSNBC and TLC.

Cellphone video is available to most of the major mobile service providers, including Cingular Wireless, Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless.

Content offerings, fees and quality vary widely. And not all smart phone models will be able to access the video services. Check with your cellphone provider or the appropriate video service to see whether your particular model is compatible.

Cingular subscribers can use MobiTV (www.mobitv.com) for video. The service features nearly 50 channels, including the aforementioned mainstream and wacky offerings, plus Discovery Kids, Fox Sports, ESPN 3G and TLC.

One thing I particularly like about this lineup is that all of the channels are either live or seamlessly edited-together packages. You simply click a channel on the well laid-out interface and it plays.

The monthly charge is $9.95. But you’ll also need a data plan from Cingular, which you probably already have if you use your smart phone for e-mail or Web surfing. If you do need a plan, Cingular recommends you get one with unlimited minutes for TV watching, which costs about $20 a month.

Sprint has a service that is also MobiTV-derived, but it’s broken down into poorly organized segments.

Even the pricing is confusing: There are three video packages costing $15, $20 and $25 (including the data charges) per month, but Sprint’s online information does not give a full channel listing for each. Indeed, it’s even difficult to find Leno (his clips are included, in the $25 plan, inside the folder marked “entertainment”).

Verizon has its own video service, VCast (www.getvcast.com), which costs $15 a month, including data charges. And there is good and bad news about accessing VCast: It’s available only in areas where Verizon has installed its high-speed EV-DO cell network.

That’s good because the high-speed network gives VCast the best quality, in my view, of all the cell video outlets. And EV-DO is available in almost all of Los Angeles and Orange counties, plus nearly 60 other metropolitan centers.

But VCast will not work if you travel to a non-EV-DO area, such as Santa Barbara, for instance.

VCast uses prerecorded segments and has no live streams, but it does offer some content choices not available from MobiTV, including Comedy Central, “Sesame Street” and CNN.

Finally, there is a mobile video service, SmartVideo Technologies Inc., that can be used with any cell provider, providing you have the right phone -- see www.smartvideo.com for a list -- and a data plan. It provides 18 channels, with more scheduled to be added soon. One can hope that, as SmartVideo fleshes out its offerings, it also will clean up its interface.

Although SmartVideo makes no claims of being artsy (Vegas Sports is on the roster), the service does offer clips from iFilm, an Internet service that gives video makers the opportunity to show their creations.

The fee is about $16 for a single month or less with multi-month plans.

SmartVideo also offers premium channels and content, including the truly weird “Naked News,” featuring nude announcers (both men and women) reading world news reports.

Hello, it’s your mother. Shut that off.

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David Colker can be reached via e-mail at technopolis@latimes.com. Previous columns can be found at latimes.com/technopolis.