Today we set my Nokia N96 down on its porno kickstand and marvel at the video options for that huge 2.8-inch screen.

First up, the groundbreaking DVB-H live television tuner…

Oh, right… Just like Japan’s 1seg and South Korea’s DMB, Digital Video Broadcast isn’t available in Canada or the US and A. It has already launched in some Asian and European markets, though — hopefully when DVB finally makes its way here the carriers will see the value in keeping it a free service.

Yeah, probably not. 🙄

Next is a mobile version of BBC’s iPlayer…

Oops, almost forgot that the old media old guard thinks it can divide up the internet into different markets as has been done in the past. We have the same problem here, but that doesn’t make it any less infuriating…

Finally, something I can watch! The YouTube feed does a passable job of filling in for the sorely-missed emTube. You can’t save videos, though, only stream them.

And (big surprise) you can’t save those 20th Century Fox film trailers to your handset, either. But to give you an idea of the quality of these things you can check out this video of my first-ever S60 handset, courtesy of the directory’s official Nokia feed. Oh, and take note of the filetype and size while you’re at it, as the N96 will only play MPEG-4 video at 320 x 240 pixels.