I'm pretty convinced that Texas Instruments DSP Decoders have problems with B-frames. Without B-frames 854x480 plays back fine with otherwise Main profile settings (cabac being the most demanding). With B-frames there's small stuttering/dropping of frames.
720p seems to play back smoothly on baseline profile, but there's corruption on some frames.
Main profile is simply too heavy on 720p, if you are lucky, you get 1fps.

Yeah. I have to do a lot more testing also as it seems it can play some 450p main profile H264 while it can't some others with same profile. (It may have something to do with bframes as you mention but not sure right now. Haven't really compared the media info fully)

btw, I am now able to play the same 720p H264 base profile video on my N900 after the recent hack. Very impressed as it plays it perfectly smooth. (even without overclocking the DSP) But yeah, it doesn't look as nice as watching it on the bigger and better N9 AMOLED. =P

Anyways, for those who want universal video playback of everything you find on the internet, N9 is not the phone you want. It's the SGS2 as it's the only phone that can play everything you can throw at. (well, even the SGS1 or the old Galaxy Tab 7" also) Samsung sure knows how to make video watchers happy on their mobile phones. (even their default player has built-in brightness control, child-lock function etc etc) Nokia doesn't seem to really care on the other hand and just makes a bog standard video player.

Yeah, you pretty much need to transcode most h.264 videos for N9. Xvid/Mpeg4 should play back fine at least to 720p. I guess I should test if 1080p xvid works... (although why would anyone want hd resolution video in xvid is beyond me )

Oh, if they just would have used an OMAP4 in N9...

I may be misunderstanding this, thanks to a clouded head, induced by no sleep.
But it seems that this user's having success with 720p playback? (w/some artifacts)
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...80#post1110680

god damn you... that post alone is making me reconsider my purchase... But the SGS2 is getting old IMO... I think by the time SGS3 comes out, I'm finally gonna bite for Android... But hopefully, we can figure out (or patch updates) to help N9 play smoother HD video

Ok, I'm confused. I've seen this topic come up again and again, and I can never quite figure out what people are trying to do here. As I understand it, the N9 has a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels. Therefore, any video encoded at a resolution higher than 854x480:

a) Takes up more space
b) Requires more CPU power
c) Gets down-scaled to fit the 854x480 screen anyway

In other words, trying to use high-def video on the N9 (or, for that matter, any other smartphone) is literally counterproductive. Why do it?

For my N900, I always convert video to 800x480 (via Handbrake) before loading it onto my phone. Saves space, saves time, and improves video quality!

I believe they're referring to re-scaled 720p, not true 720p.

This is also my dilema and it is very frustrating.

At the moment I'm thinking N9 Vs Samsung Note Vs Nexus Prime Vs new RAZR

I guess when it comes to video playback the N9 is the weakest.

Can anyone confirm this?
It's not excatly the answer I want to hear but I suppose I should get used to it and accept it.

If you're asking if the N9 can play a 720p video without it being converted beforehand, then I believe erendorn had the answer earlier in this thread:

"N9 currently supports H.264 Baseline profile. It doesn't support Main and High profile yet (and maybe never). I don't know if it supports other codecs (or will)."

So as long as your video (720p) is using the H.264 baseline profile then yes it should play ok. I say "should" as I don't have mine to test it myself yet!

Thanks for the reply, if I am being honeest with myself I'm more concerned by the analgoue composite SD video out / lack of HDMI - I haven't even got to the point of wondering what flavour the source might be (btw I am TV editor by trade so I have more than a passing interest in this subject).

Thanks again.