I have never had one of these devices & saw the n810 & got really excited. So excited that I was going to sell my laptop & only carry one of these. I thought really what do I do most on my computer now - email, surf web, listen to music. watch movies.

BUT now my excitement is fading. This seems like an amazing device but what real media functions are there? I have to first get a dvd & then rip it & then load it on my n810? Well with no computer & now way to plug in an external dvd player, watching movies on this thing will be impossible. Same thing with music. At least with the Ipod, I can download shows, movies right to the device. I wish there was this functionality on the n810. So I can watch youtube, big deal. This does not seem like a media device at all.

Am I missing something here?

Um, it's not really a laptop/desktop replacement, nor is it a "media device". It's an "Internet Tablet". It's main purpose is surfing the internet and using it for email, IM, and VoIP (or if you get the N810, GPS).

Think of it as a "laptop/desktop on-the-go supplement".

so then I will have 3 devices. my treo, laptop & nokia 810. what sort of media capabilities does this thing have then?

I found this by googleing N810 codecs.

If you're willing to put to the time in to get media on the device that it will run well, yes, it's an absolutely fantastic media player. Basically, MPEG4 at no more than 400x240 at less than 1500Kbps with MP3 audio in the 96Kbps-192Kbps range. This will produce good quality video that plays perfectly on the device. Now, if you expect any old .avi you toss on there to work, you're not going to be in for a good experience (though there are plenty of on-demand on-the-fly transcoding options available for accessing media in a central library of some kind).

anyway to "convert" movies/ shows from itunes to on on the n810? or which one of those movie download sites (netflix, amazon unboxed, vongo, etc) can play movies on the n810?

I would recommend a N800 over an N810 if media is a big concern. The N810 only has a Mini-SD card slot and 2 GB of flash (which is mainly full by default with maps), while the N800 has 2 full sized SDHC card slots, which will let you carry a lot of music and video with you.

As an audio device, the N800 isn't too shabby. There are a number of excellent 3rd party audio players with spiffy user interfaces. I recommend checking out Camola and UKMP to start.

You can find a video of UKMP at Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFyJy3_uUGw

You can find Canola here:

http://openbossa.indt.org/canola/

The N800/N810 also has a Rhapsody client, so you can download oodles of audio content directly to the device. The N800 also works with upnp media servers, so you can just leave all your media on a PC and stream it to the N800 over your network. I also use ORB to stream media to my N800 while out and about in the world. The N800 also plays internet radio and has an FM tuner built in.

Video format and resolution support with the default media player is somewhat limited, but Mplayer is also available and is capable of playing a wide variety of formats. Typically, PC downloaded video will need to be transcoded to something ~400x240 to play well in Mplayer. Thankfully, there is a drag and drop simple app put together by Kontorri to make the conversion easy:

https://garage.maemo.org/projects/mediaconverter/

My N800 has kept me happily ensconsed in media on many a plane and car ride. My only wish is for official A2DP bluetooth headset support and the ability to play back high resolution video without transcoding.

after my first day of using my n800, i can report that media is indeed awesome on this device! i have installed Canola that has an interface that works in a similar way to the windows media center interface. the desktop radio widget is great to quickly access your favourite online streams. i've installed the Garnet Palm OS machine as well - its great to see bejeweled that i loved playing on my treo work seamlessly on this device. another palm freeware app that i can't live without is Metro - it helps me find my way around subway systems around the world. day 1 with my n800 = <3

So is there an easy way to convert a dvd or a movie i have on my harddrive to a format that I can view on my n810? what would the file size be for a 2 hour movie?

The technologies to convert a dvd to play on the N800/810 are exactly as easy as the tecnologies to save and play a dvd on your laptop.

But if your primary interest is in watching movies, I would think you'd be better off buying a subscription to Netflix and maybe a bigger tv.

One difference between a tablet and other medias that the screen is smaller. No tablet can fix that.

As far as disk space usage goes, you should have room for a few movies with a 2-gig sd card.