Notices

I would really appreciate if someone made avaiable a program that will scan for video files that can't be played, put the findings in a list with checkboxes for each, and a big happy "GO" button that when clicked would convert all the marked videos, choosing the codec, compression, resolution etc values that are expected to least reduce the quality (without wasting bytes), and output converted videos that can be played on the N900.

(this all running on the N900 itself)

hmm.... Sound possible but I think it would take hours to convert 1 full movie. + memory and proc being eaten? Your device might give up and restart I think.

Converting is so much worse than playing? That i didn't expect....

Perhaps it could be somthing only recomended for leaving it doing while you sleep and it's plugged on the wall? Or even then it would crash due to memory issues?

Encoding is far more CPU intensive than decoding. As rough ballpark figure, it takes my desktop running at 1.8GHz about 8-10 hours to do a 2-pass transcode of a 640x480 divx into x264. I would imagine it would take a day or 3 on the N900.

I guess the only alternative then is wait for VLC player with GUI to come tot he N900 :/

(i mean, for not depending on a PC to manage to play otherwise unplayable videos on the N900)

Which mediaplayer are you using? Mplayer never fail me.

Basic version of what you want can be done even by sh script: ffmpeg is available in repositories.
And maybe Just brainstorming.

and with .ogv too?