First I want to say that I love my N8x0!!!
So here's how I watch my videos on it. I set up free streaming by using Orb.com. It is easy and free.
First I downloaded Orb software on my desktop PC(sorry nothing for MACs yet). Then when traveling in a Wifi area I can log in at mycast.orb.com and watch anything I want on my home Desktop. I don't need to convert and upload anything to my NIT. When you click on a file to play, Orb calculates the speed and quality of the connection and then streams it accordingly.

Whats even better , I bought Beyond TV from Snapstream and turned my Desktop into a DVR(like a Tivo box). Then I can stream any show I recorded or even watch live TV through Orb. It's awesome. I was traveling in Asia 4 months ago and I was sitting in a Starbucks watching my (USA)home areas news channel live. Sometimes I use it while not traveling...when I want to go into another room (from the wife) and watch something else (live football). The quality is that good from Orb.
There are other features on Orb that make it useful...you can transfer any files through it (even though I have 24 GBs -8 internal and 16 external- in my NIT already so It is not about space) but if there is a file I left behind that I need. Also you can veiw through Orb your Desktops webcam too. I set it to look at my fish tank while I'm traveling(make sure they are being fed). Orb.com works great, try it out for yourself...its free.

Do you want on demand, or playlist (ala shoutcast) style?

I use it on demand.

http://www.icecast.org/

Try IceCast then. It's on demand and open source.

Cool! I just tried and installed orb on my PC and now have streaming video and music to my N810. This is way cool.

Does this handle transcoding? I'd been monkeying around with various (lame) UPnP servers for home, and finally figured out just Apache will do the same thing (and not as sllllooooowwwwlllly). Simply having Apache allowing access to my "/media" directory seems to work pretty well.

I just gave it a whack with MPlayer and it .... sucked. The frame rate (for video, didn't try music) is a bit too much ... Will icecast do on the fly transcoding? Will Orb?

Orb does for sure. It will transcode based on the available bandwidth. It also lets you pick what it transcodes to while you're accessing it remotes. It will do, real, asx, 3gp, or flash. Real works best with the tablets, but for some reason not all files work right. Flash is most compatible with all files, but is jerky on the tablets.

Orb is actually quite impressive. I suggest you give it a try.

Thanks. I've been enjoying toying around with orb over the past 24 hours. I notice also that when orb is set up on the remote computer, my media is made available both through the file manager and directly through the media player. Should I assume that I can expect this to be the case only when the remote computer and my tablet are on the same local network? I mean, my remote media won't show up in file manager when I'm connecting to my home computer via orb on my tablet while at starbucks, right?

I've never had problems with any file types. It even trans codes my ISO files so I can watch my DVD backup files.

lm2:
what you are seeing in the media player is the UPNP server that orb runs, this will only be on your local network. And can be used for other things like the PS3 as well. I find the upnp works great in canola2 for audio.