Watching "Lost" on a portable video player might be fun, but Advance Auto Parts is betting you'll also want to do something useful with the gadgets -- namely, learn how to fix your car.

Jumping on the portable-video bandwagon, the nation's second largest auto-parts retailer is making almost two dozen how-to video shows available free online. Subjects range from "How to Save Gas" to "Suspension Upgrades."

The programs are available on Advance Auto's Web site in Windows Media Video format, where they can be downloaded and played by many portable video players. They're also available for free through Apple's iTunes for the video iPod and other players.

Either format can also be played on a computer, but that's not the point. The idea is that they'll be viewed while in the palms of customers' hands -- specifically, customers who aren't sure if they're ready to tackle a project and like the idea of having a "live" instruction book they can take with them.

"If you've ever done a car-care project that intimidated you a little bit, you can now take the video iPod out to the driveway," said Bryan Gregory, director of consumer education for Advance. "It's car-care know-how on demand at the point of repair."

But are Advance's customers likely to be sporting video players? Robert Spekman, a business professor at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, isn't sure. "Does the car mechanic image translate to high tech?" he asked.

Still, he liked the idea of using the iPod to help repair cars. "It's an enabler," he said. "[It's] 'I sell stuff that allows you to use your stuff better'."

Gregory agreed. "Think of it as one of the tools you take when you walk your tools out to the driveway," he said.

The videos available for download are the same ones the company has on its Web site for viewing with a PC; others are broadcast on AdvanceTV, the company's in-store network.

The most popular subject? How to save gas. ("Imagine that," said Gregory.) Tutorials on changing disc brake pads and replacing shocks and struts follow in the No. 2 and 3 spots. Gregory expects the same subjects to be of interest to the portable-video crowd.

While Apple's iPod is the best-known brand, dozens of companies make portable media players. But it was the introduction of the fifth-generation iPod in 2005 -- one that supported video playback -- that has largely driven the pocket video market.

Today, episodes of television shows such as "Desperate Housewives," "Lost," and "24" are available through Apple's iTunes, and thousands of other videos are available on Web sites such as YouTube and Google Video.

While not making a portable video player a must-have gadget (yet), all of this is creating a market for movies you can take with you. (Not surprisingly, pornography is the most popular download, but more family-oriented fare includes television shows, music videos, movie trailers and short "viral videos" exchanged over the Internet.)

How-to videos, from Advanced Auto's point of view, are a smart addition to that available content. The company is keeping its offerings small -- about four to seven minutes for most shows.

"A video iPod user is not going to sit and watch the thing for 10 minutes," Gregory admitted. But as a short tutorial for someone about to tackle a project, he thinks it's a good size.

"The goal of our know-how program is to give people the confidence and the know-how to say 'I can do this'," he said. "An oil change is still the same as it was in the 1950s."

The concept of the television, though, has changed.

Staff writer Jenny Kincaid Boone contributed to this report.