Hi guys. Im trying to buy an N800 but I was wondering about the quality of video playback. I know what you gonna say, that i must search the forums. Ive done that and everybody has a different opinion about this so I dont know what to think. So what I would really like is a video showing an N800 playing a movie or some kind video with perhaps different settings (better res but lower frame rate, etc). Ive seen something on youtube but the quality of the videos is poor so I cannot evaluate if the video is watchable or if it is pixelated or whatever. Could anybody make a highres video for me or give me a link where I can look for this (maybe this has been already done).

Thanks in advance

PS: if youre thinking why dont i go to a store and check the device myself its because I live in Argentina and the N800 doesnt exist here. I have to order it from the states.

Almost 100 views and no replays, come on guys a really need your help!!!

I don't have a video for you to view but I can give you my word (not that it matters to a complete stranger) that a dvd movie compressed with DVDShrink and recompressed again with N800 Video Converter has no loss or artifacts when viewing with the default media player. There are a lot of factors that you have to take into account if you want to view an N800 in action, your connection speed, the host's connection speed, your video processor, their hardware, etc... so to have the actual experience may vary on a lot of factors. You are in a bind here since there is no N800's around you...

There's no way the N800's very hi-res screen will show "pixelation" unless the bit rate is too high for all the motion. Seeing a sample video on a PC will not simulate the sharpness of the N800's screen (nor it's relatively slower processer and 16-bit color).

After pouring through the forums here (loads of valuable info for sure), my process for watching video is as follows (assuming a DVD source):

Use DVDShrink to rip the video from the disc. It's important to go into the dvdshrink preferences menu and clear the checkbox that says 'Split VOB files into 1Gb chunks' in the output tab.

Then using the Nokia Media Converter with the following:
Device - N800
Resolution - N800 High Quality (400x240)
Encoder - Xvid
Everything else I leave as default.

(I think that when running the media converter the first time, the 30 sec preview only box is checked. Might want to clear that out.)

Hour long tv shows are compressed from 3.5Gb~ down to 280Mb~. I'm getting 29~ fps, excellent sound, no visible color banding and no stuttering. In other words, excellent quality.
The data rate is approx 64kbs so I could step the resolution up quite a bit, but there's really no need.

Canola2 plays back the videos just fine with no dragging on the CPU at all.

I've been watching movies that are divx encoded on mplayer for about 3 months now. I showed someone my N800 while 'Juno' was running. They said to me "Is this a HD player?". That's how good it is.

Thank you guys for all the info. Now I cant wait to get my hands on the N800. Have anybody tried a little higher resolution for the videos like 500 x 300 (640 x 480 would be to much I think), maybe lowering the bitrate or frame rate. I read that some people have been able to play videos with this resolution but others say its unwatchable. What do you think?.

How are you guys getting the video smooth?

I have a 320x240 transcoded MP4 of PPOT playing at Breakpoint that I made for my TH55 - In both mplayer and MediaPlayer it jerks, drifts in and out of audio sync and stutters!

The ONLY time it plays okay is if I have just gone through the 1-and-a-bit minute bootup sequence; If I have used MicroB, played ScummVM or OpenTTD or have anything loaded like the File Manager, Notes etc. then the video playback becomes totally awful

It's really annoying given my TH55 can play back the video with no stuttering at all despite having 1/4 the CPU and RAM!

DVDShrink then N800 Video Converter

!thought i would try this as well. stargate episode downloaded from net. first try was crap on anything but mplayer and even that had audio delay, and mplayer won't let me change audio synch??? then tried video converter for n800, default settings,took 15 mins on a p4 3gig machineaon vista,now video plays fine on n800...on a side note, can not type worth!()(; on this touch screen!

update:canola still not as smooth as mplayer, canola is almost like vsynch is disabled. and media center is still horrible.

so use mplayer.