Windows Phone 7 Video Apps
Windows Phone 7: Multimedia Player
Windows Phone 7 features a wealth of multimedia options, centering around the Music & Video hub in the home screen. Accessing this will take you to the Zune player option, where you can listen to music and watch videos.
Certain Windows Phones are particularly suitable for watching video – the HTC HD7, for instance, has a kick stand to prop the phone in landscape mode – but all are able to display video acquired from various sources, either online or via synchronization with your PC.
Let’s begin by taking a look at the various apps that are available via the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace for watching video.
Windows Phone 7 Movie Apps
Sorting out a trip to the pictures can be a chore, especially if you’re leaving it to the last minute. Why not use the Flixster app on Windows Phone 7 to decide which movie you’re going to see?
You can get reviews and buy tickets with this app, as well as watch high quality trailers from over 15,000 titles. Flixster displays a synopsis of a chosen film and local theaters where it is playing, with information collected via your phone’s GPS. Trailers can be downloaded and viewed as videos.
This is a great way to streamline the whole process of finding and booking a trip to the theater - well done Flixster!
CineTrailer meanwhile is a popular Windows Phone 7 app that will display updates and high quality video trailers of movies currently playing in cinemas and available on DVD. It features a search function and the familiar Windows Phone 7 user interface, as well as movie synopses and cast details. You can download CineTrailer free from the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace.
Windows Phone 7 Video Apps
As a final option, you might choose YouTube as a video streaming source on your Windows Phone 7 device. The app has an excellent player, although search is restricted to a poorly rendered mobile web page which seems to need a bit of work (you might try the YouTube by Lazyworm app as an alternative to get Metro user interface integration). Otherwise this is a great app, and any content you view via this will be listed in your Windows Phone 7 video history.
However, for streaming video content on Windows Phone 7, new to the Marketplace is a Ustream.com viewer, which enables anyone to browse and view all currently available content on the popular video network.
Windows Phone 7 Video Sync
Meanwhile you can put your own video clips on your Windows Phone 7 using the desktop Zune sync.
All you need to do for this is to connect your Windows Phone 7 handset via the USB connector to your PC and with the phone registered as connected in Zune, browse through the desktop player for the video you want and then simply drag it to your mobile phone’s icon in the lower left corner of the user interface.
Over the next few minutes, this clip will be sent to your phone via USB and you will be able to watch it on your Windows Phone 7 handset via Music & Videos > Videos. While playing, videos can be paused and you can also skip forward or rewind them. Videos can also be purchased via the Zune Marketplace for playback on your Windows Phone.
