I have rendered a 15sec (25fps) 800x480 video in som different codecs and bitrates just for testing purposes to see how well they play on any device. There is a timecode counting each frame so keep an eye on that to see if you get any slow downs or dropped frames.

Quicktime (h.264)
http://castus.dnsalias.com:8080/shar...4_1000kbps.mp4 <- 1000kbps
http://castus.dnsalias.com:8080/shar...4_2000kbps.mp4 <- 2000kbps
http://castus.dnsalias.com:8080/shar...4_3000kbps.mp4 <- 3000kbps

Xvid
http://castus.dnsalias.com:8080/shar...d_1000kbps.avi <- 1000kbps
http://castus.dnsalias.com:8080/shar...d_2000kbps.avi <- 2000kbps
http://castus.dnsalias.com:8080/shar...d_3000kbps.avi <- 3000kbps

Divx 6.8.5 Preset: "Home Theater"
http://castus.dnsalias.com:8080/shar...ter_preset.avi

Windows Media Video v9
http://castus.dnsalias.com:8080/shar...9_1000kbps.wmv <- 1000kbps
http://castus.dnsalias.com:8080/shar...9_2000kbps.wmv <- 2000kbps
http://castus.dnsalias.com:8080/shar...9_3000kbps.wmv <- 3000kbps

Adobe Flash 9 (h.264), 1.5Mbit VBR f4v
http://castus.dnsalias.com:8080/shar...4_1500kbps.f4v <- 1500kbps VBR

DVD PAL (720x576) mpeg2
http://castus.dnsalias.com:8080/shar...6pal_mpeg2.mpg <- 4000kbps

ZIP WITH ALL 36.5mb
http://castus.dnsalias.com:8080/shar...video_test.zip

I tested them all on my n810 with mplayer with this scientific result:

• Quicktime h.264 - very slow on all bitrates
• Xvid - good in 1000kps. I see slight slowdown in beginning
• Divx - good
• wmv - very slow and frame dropping (runs good when no motion)
• f4v h.264 flash - very very slow
• DVD - ok

Good isnt perfect at all here. Considering it is an old device I am really happy it actually played all files even though slow. My conclusion on this is that mplayer has very good arm code for Mpeg4-part2 (xvid and divx) but not so much for the newer mpeg4-part10 (h.264). Same goes to wmv.

Im looking forward in seeing n900 test results to see if it goes through them all flawless. Interesting to see if hardware accelertion kicks in on all of the h.264 ones. If it does I will make a 720p HD of this and let try that too.