Video play back support.
 

Since the iPhone 3G S and the Nokia N900 use the same processor and video card, is it possible that the Cortex A8 is fast enough to play 1080p h.264?

There are videos or people playing these video sizes on their jailbroken iPhones and I'm really hoping that this would have the same performance.

Re: Video play back support.
 

As has been mentioned many times there is no real use of playing 1080p in such small displays. The good thing is that maemo 5 will play most formats without conversion.

Re: Video play back support.
 

The supported means of "coaxing" video out of it are: TV out (PAL/NTSC) with Nokia Video Connectivity Cable (CA-75U, included in box) or WLAN/UPnP.

I'd reckon that with the right kind of (micro-)USB display adapter one can get the video signal pretty much anywhere one wishes.

Therefore it may be a relevant question to ask what are the absolute (theoretical) limits of the video out.

Of course besides CPU/DSP power and bandwidth the optimization of relevant drivers, codecs and whatever hardware-based video smoothing tech may be present and functional will also have a bearing on the final result.

Re: Video play back support.
 

I think people want to do this so that they can just drag the same files from their PC onto the device without having to convert them.

Re: Video play back support.
 

With the proper software, it's roughly the same amount of effort.

Re: Video play back support.
 

If it has proper output (hdmi, dvi, vga, component), then it would be useful for external playback. (as has been mentioned in past threads as well).

Re: Video play back support.
 

Well yes, if you have access to the software. But if you're connecting to someone else's computer, or swapping files via SD card, or downloading them, you won't always have access to the conversion software but still want to view the file. Obviously the HD file would take up loads of space and the file would play better if it was optimised, but sometimes you just don't want the hassle.

Re: Video play back support.
 

Absolutely, not being able to do something is rarely an advantage :) Just saying it should not be a make or break thing. As for the playback, officially it's 720p for virtually all current platforms (yes, even the Zii and Tegra).

As discussed in another thread, however, you can cheat by downscaling content in the *decoder* phase thereby viewing even 1080p content in low-res - that's what the mentioned iPhone apps are doing.

Re: Video play back support.
 

That sounds like a useful feature, so hopefully we'll see something like it.

Re: Video play back support.
 

Any more information on playing back 1080P? Specially anyone managed to playback 1080P mkv's successfully?

Main reason I want 1080P is because of hassle of converting, that even if converting can actually recognize 1080P mkv and subtitles properly. Not mention it takes a while to convert 30 mins long 1080P files. Last time it took 20-30 minutes for conversion for N800 and then it still didn't play! N800 doesn't like high bitrate 800x480 video, hopefully N900 is better than this!