Review: Using Youtube Mobile on the Nokia N95
I love Youtube. I also love my Nokia N95. So when I realized that there’s a Youtube mobile site ((http://m.youtube.com), I had to test it out on my N95 to see how the usage experience is. In the end, I think accessing the mobile site is better than going to the Video Centre application, but having a good experience also requires good broadband connection. Read the rest of my review.
To watch Youtube videos on your Nokia phone, you can either go to the Video Center application, or go to the Youtube mobile site on your browser. My review compares the two methods.

m.YouTube.com versus YouTube on Video Centre
Video Centre vs. m.Youtube.com
Content. Compared to Video Centre, the Youtube mobile site offers a lot more videos. Main menu lets you navigate to the same videos on the regular site that are featured, recently added, most viewed, top rated, or top favorites. other categories include People, Entertainment, and Grab Bag. I’m not sure how they determine what videos go in the last three categories. I think Grab Bag might stand for random videos, but don’t quote me on that.
Descriptions. What I like about the mobile site is that you can read the descriptions of the videos before you watch it. In Video Centre, you can only view the titles. Sometimes the titles are even too long, you have to wait for it to scroll left.

Video descriptions lets you know what you are going to watch.
Watching the Youtube Videos
To watch the videos, you can click on the video thumbnail in Video Centre or click “Watch Video” in the mobile site. Both results in the RealPlayer application to play the video. If you are connected through a fast connection such as Wi-Fi, video plays instantaneously. I don’t even want to try watching a video with my slow Edge connection on T-mobile. For those with AT&T US 3G, the Nokia N95 8GB will yield better results away from a WiFi connection.
Media Keys. With the Nokia N95, slide over the phone to reveal the dedicated media keys so you can fast forward or rewind the videos. Pretty cool!

Dedicated media keys lets you go forward or back with videos.
Complaints
My problem with the m.Youtube.com mobile site, is that not all videos in the Youtube catalog is available to the mobile site. For example, the Nokia blog YouTube videos are not accessible in the mobile site.
Another annoying problem is after closing the videos, I get a message asking me to save the videos. The point of YouTube is not having to save videos, but if you decide to save the video, it tells you that it is added to the Gallery. The videos I saved are nowhere to be found in the Gallery.
Conclusion
I think m.Youtube.com is a better way to watch YouTube videos on my Nokia N95 than using the Video Centre application, but it is still not perfect.
- Pros: More videos than Video Centre. Includes descriptions.
- Cons: Not all Youtube videos are available. Annoying “save me” question when closing videos.


Jari on 6 September 2007:
I heard Youtube videos work fine in 3G here in Finland. But I´m using a wi-fi connection and can´t get those videos working. When I click the video link (in m.youtube.com), Real Player starts, it shows that it’s loading and then there comes text: “Unable to connect. Server timeout.”
I think wi-fi preferences might cause that. Does anybody have a solution?
Mark Guim on 6 September 2007:
Open up Real Player and go to settings. Check your default access point in network settings.
Jari on 7 September 2007:
Thanks for answering, but that doesn’t work either. I tested also in 3G-network and it works there. Pretty strange that some people can use it in wi-fi and some not. Maybe I’ll have to continue browsing forums.
Tysiam on 10 September 2007:
Mmhhh… Haven’t tested youtube on my nokia n95 yet.. Have to try it. Supposingly it is working fine with the iphone. Which I haven’t seen here yet in europe.
Guess I have to make a direct comparison when it finally arrives in Europe
bright on 12 September 2007:
brand new nokia n95 8gb is such an amazing phone , it comes with a great and wonderfull storage capacity of 8gb , what more is needed of a phone than this , the colour resolution of 240 by 320 pixels and battery Standby time is 280 hours and Talk time is 5 hours is another thing to look at if what really matters to you is a clear and vivid communication in business or privately the you need the nokia n95 gb
I have bought mine and also as a dealer of mobile phones i have them in stock too so if you are intrested in buying you can contact me as well
my email is
bj_01rr@yahoo.com
and will be pleased to educate you more answers your questions and give you more comments
Thanks
bright jack
pseudofinn on 12 September 2007:
Yeah- I have the same problem with my N95- can’t get youtube to stream via the mobile site or through the video center app with WiFi… and I’m in the states, so 3G isn’t an option for me- browsing youtube with EDGE is miserable at best. I’d love to hear of a solution for this!
liquidz on 22 September 2007:
have you tried the site tinytube.net? it reencodes de videos from youtube, google etc.. in a few minutes and is not limited as is m.youtube for the moment
ayhayh10 on 5 October 2007:
I´m using a wi-fi connection and can get videos from Youtube site. but i get “Unable to connect. Server timeout” when i use 3G-network. Does anybody have a solution?
pakmee on 14 November 2007:
am having the same problem. My e65 doesn’t open any streaming….I tried it on wifi and 3g … doesn’t work on both . I get the loading screen then it gets stuck and I get an unable to connect message , server time out.
Srinivas on 3 December 2007:
I am unable to view You tube on both the mobile site (m.youtube.com) or the Video Center on my N95 8GB (both the earlier Firmware and now the new one). I have tried using Wi-Fi and the AT&T network as well.
I get the “Disconnected. Do you want to connect again?” error. I have tried searching everywhere to find a solution without success. Can someone help?
lawand on 7 December 2007:
hi , i have a problem with my real player in NOKIA N95 8GAB when i try to download or listen real music files error come ? ( not supported ) ! Can someone help me or give me new real player to update it , even i cant open Radios on networks
Pavao on 8 December 2007:
Good to know, I have 7 days to try this nokia and if my one keeps having this problem of Time Out I’ll bring it back to O2. Too expensive for not to work….
relmz on 18 January 2008:
is the us nokia n95 8gb 3G out yet? im getting different answers fom dealers. ive been told it must be a us 3G version to work on at&t. i want this phone , im ready to buy it but i dont want to get the wrong one. its starting to make me want to just give up on it till they are everywhere. help please
luka3rd on 5 February 2008:
Hello!
I have N95 and also have problem with youtube.
I get the list, but when I click on video to play it - after 10 secs get the message: server timeout.
I see on this blog that I am not alone, so please, if anyone knows, help us!
Rohit on 4 March 2008:
There is a new phone going to arrive soon….it’s Nokia N96 and later Nokia N98!
Not sure what Nokia company is upto? and why they are releasing so agressively, without any knowledge of patience.
davidfkw on 2 April 2008:
hi all nokia buddy since 3210 and now aday n82 and i have try several way to access mobile or desktop youtube but after all still fail to connect using 3g internet mms stream wap server broad band service to access and result are server connection time out or web gate way not found but if you use wifi can be completey pass through and i cant figure out what else goes wrong on my 3g and at last i catch no ball
English Chappy on 16 April 2008:
Hey all, I had the same issue with youtube getting a server timeout on N95 8GB on O2. I found that you need to make sure the Real Player connection is different to the web connection. So on mine I’m on O2 WAP for real player and O2 Postpay WAP for my web browser. I presume that it means the phone can’t have two programs using the same connection but hey I’m no phone expert lol. Anyway it works for me, good luck to anyone who’s having trouble.
jax on 19 April 2008:
Im in Brazil and the same problem. I think its some related to settings _ streaming parameters
Roger on 21 April 2008:
solution to “unable to connect to server” and “server timeout”
i was very frustrated with this problem too until i found a post on another website that said to change the settings in real player. and here it is as follows:
realplayer>options>settings>streaming>proxy>use proxy>NO
i don’t understand why this works but it does enjoy. also check out m.youtube.com its just for mobile phone users or mobitubia
Bhadana on 1 May 2008:
Hi ROGER,
Its still not working,
Prompt comes>
“Unable to connect. Server timeout”
PLEASE HELP ME
write me @ jbhadana@gmail.com
earlier I used it frequently. but due to formatting, I lost settings.
sameer on 6 May 2008:
hi roger,
I tired your trick but still its not working plzz help me
it was workin earlier but dotn know y it stopped
my mail id is aryan99999@yahoo.com
regards
sameer
goncalo on 8 May 2008:
same problem here …
Helper on 10 May 2008:
Possible solution to “Unable to connect to server - time out” situation. Have N95 8gb UK with T-mobile and had problems connecting to Sky Sports. It turned out that my settings in Real Player had changed to my wireless network at home since I played around with the WLAN network, so I had accepted it to use the SKY wireless network at home as a default access point. Wrong decision from me I have now discovered.
Under settings I changed the access point to Web’n'walk and Sky mobile tv works very well !!
Anyways, I still have trouble using Windows Messenger and accessing my hotmail from the phone, so any help in that department would be greatly appreciated. I had three ‘Messenger’ icons in my application folder and I tried to delete them all but am only able to delete one of them. Two still there and I cannot remove them to try from the beginning.
Thanks guys.
tony brooks on 11 May 2008:
i have the problem with n95 and youtube, “Unable to connect to server - time out”. ive tried all help ,ethods on this page, o2 are unwilling to help (or it may just be the particular clowns i was speaking to) i think im gona go for the sony ericsson w960i and bin the n95. good fun to start off, with the applications scenario, but thats wore off now, i want a device that works to it potential.
sameer on 12 May 2008:
to play online streamin video on my e61 through gprs i have tried all the trick dialed all the helplines number but no body is able to answere any kind of rectification seems these ppl dont know themselves.they just wana sell things grab huge amounts thats it
david on 15 May 2008:
hi everybody, to solve the problem just get into menu, goto realplayer configuration and select your wifi or 3g conection name in the list shown in network menu configuration. Just do this and enjoy youtube. Yo can also select wifi connection as default and every time you get into application a prompt will appear requesting you to select the active connection.
tarek on 20 May 2008:
if you have the”disconnected re-connect again”.first you will be only able to watch you tube videos via wifi unless you have full internet accesss with your service provider.make sure you change the settings in realplayer(network settings, ———————————————————————————N95 FOR LIFE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH YEA IT HAS 8 GIG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
brooksey on 27 May 2008:
Thanks to English Chappy - it worked for me. I assume it doesn’t matter which connection is used for real player. I just hope o2 don’t charge me extra.
JuicyJones on 28 May 2008:
so far I have been only able to watch videos on surfthechannel.com it’s not youtube but at least you can see what streaming looks like on your n95 no matter what settings you use. I wonder also is there maybe another player application that can be used with the n95? maybe realplayer is the problem. I will see what I can find and report back later.
sameer on 29 May 2008:
solution finaaly!!!!!! its the operater mess if he dosent provide enough bandwith all ull see is “Unable to connect. Server timeout”. call the service provider n isist ur connection is slow i know they dont know anything but insist that ur gprs is workin slow very slow.
here one more trick to check ur bandwith turn on the internet radio if u c songs playin at 32 or 40 kpbs just assume that banwith is low
tc
JuicyJones on 29 May 2008:
If the above doesn’t work an easy solution is to download mobitubia from http://www.mobitubia.com
I tried it and all the youtube videos seem to work just fine with this application. also remember when you use the “search engine” in the program it will display 13 or 14 results. You can pull up more if you push the upper right navigation key on your phone. I found that out by accident. Have fun…oh and let me know if this works for you… jj
oli on 9 June 2008:
this phone is long to use, can get to watch any videos e.g youtube or even transferrin it from pc…i’m gettin fed up wid it, tried so many things
oli on 9 June 2008:
i can get you tube on my n95 8gb, but how can save the video on my phone. only options i see available is save links, please help.