But the reduction in quality isn't noticeable on that size of screen. Its like me watching a 8gb bluray rip on it, and a 2 gb reformatting done with the right settings. The human eye can not tell the difference on a screen so small. It just seems utterly pointless.

I wonder if it's possible to re-format to NTFS? That way Windows could still read it without having to install anything additional to a Windows computer.

Don't get me into that debate because its a no-win.

Basically, saying "you can't tell the difference" is like me saying "but EVERYONE should use an 8px font on their N900, they CAN read it".

Everyones eyesight is different so claiming "you can't tell the difference" is an oxy***** because I just might be able to. Plus that is before you consider the hassle of transcoding with odd sync issues and the time spent doing it. I know I NEVER watch movies on portable devices, simply because I would not know in advance which movie I might want to watch and so its not transcoded ready for me.

I think Nokia and Maemo team could think about this problem if they want develop N900 to become the best multimedia phone with huge capacity storage like this