Vimio – The Mobile TV App Your Carrier Doesn’t Want You to Know About

A recent episode of The Digital Production Buzz Podcast had the hosts positively gushing over US and A start-up MobiTV, who are offering wireless subscribers in the Americas live television on their mobiles through their carrier for a mere $9.95 USD/month.

The service isn’t yet available for me, but I can get Fido’s official 3G streaming video option for a slightly less reasonable $15/month — and only using one of their locked handsets, of course.

Or I can pay nothing and install Vimio, which is exactly what I did!

I first heard about Vimio from a fellow WordPress blogger. The company seems to be based in Ireland and possibly Sweden. Why is this important? Read on…

I think the CityTV they’re offering here is the one in Ireland — not my local station. Likewise, “Comedy” is neither Comedy Central or Canada’s copycat Comedy Network. Near as I can tell, it’s devoted exclusively to these cartoons.

There is no detailed information about available data streams, only a choice of these three “quality” settings.

Here’s what the Beeb looks like on “low” — not the greatest, but usable over an EDGE connection at least.

If you’re willing to endure a few more of these screens…

You’ll be rewarded with much better video on the high quality setting. Vimio has also built-in a thoughtful shortcut to toggle full-screen viewing on and off — all I have to do is press the centre D-pad on my E71.

With just a few more available channels Vimio’s Live TV player could well become a killer app for S60 mobiles, and even with their current selection it’s still a must-have. Just be sure you’ve got a generous data plan…