I use Core Player to watch videos on my N95, because of codec support. It plays a lot of different formats. Not all yet, but all I need. Using it, I don't convert videos, I just copy them to my memory card and watch. This method does mean that a lot of frames will be skipped, but for comedy shows (what I mostly watch on my mobile devices), it doesn't matter that much. The audio and video are at least in sync.
Don't get me wrong, the default Real Player is fine too. If you convert your videos in, say, H.264 format, the quality is astonishing. However, I normally can't be bothered with converting anything into anything. The 15 or so minutes that it takes to convert an XviD into an H.264 for a 22 minute show seem way too much for me. This time is what I normally achieve with Alloksoft's converter (I've tried many, and this is one of the best in my opinion).
Okay. I've introduced you to my mobile-video-viewing habits.
Enter the N810.
One of the first things that I thought of (I've mentioned this before) when I first saw both the N800 and the N810 was: "wow, that screen would make for perfect video viewing!". You see, these tablets have a screen with 800x480 resolution, which is way more than your usual smartphone resolution of 320x240. Other than HD videos, no video is encoded at a resolution higher than this. So obviously I think "I'll throw some unconverted .avi XviD videos at it".
Which is the first thing I did.
Didn't work. I've tried Media Player, MPlayer, Canola and Media Box. Not one would play.
Ok, I think, time for some converting. So I Google "tablet video converter" and come across a Beta software from Nokia's own BetaLabs, called Internet Tablet Video Converter (ITVC). I download. I install. I start it. Nice UI. I go to settings, which are few. Good for a normal user, doesn't seem too complicated.
But wait, what is this? Even the "best" setting has a resolution of only 400x240! Anyway, I stick with "better" and convert.
30 MINUTES LATER the video was converted. I barely stopped myself from cancelling the process a couple of times. I have no patience. Such things should "just work", not make me wait minutes and minutes. Oh, did I mention the video I was converting was 22 minutes long? Yup.
The result? It was ok. It played rather smoothly (the keyword here being rather). I was however able to count the pixels. A little bit of research later (definitely not something an average Joe would do, but I just couldn't bear not knowing) I found out that, indeed, 400x240 is the highest resolution officially supported. You can try higher resolutions, but trust me, it ain't worth it.
WHY?
Actually, rationally speaking, I think I understand why. The processor surely can't handle higher resolutions...but wait! The processor in my N95 can! I may be wrong, but to my knowledge the clock frequency on both is more or less the same. So then what's up with this?
And it wasn't over. I had a 2-in-1 episode of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations (which was aired years ago, but I never got a chance to watch it). So I open ITVC again, keep the "better" video quality setting, and hit "Convert". This was a 723MB .avi XviD file. The running time is about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Why am I writing this? Because converting it took (get ready for this) ... 1 HOUR AND 35 MINUTES! I had set a new record!
Here is a bit of the result (forgive the video recording quality):
No, no, no. Last time I ever did that. Now one might argue that my computer might be to blame here, but...
The resulting video was 320x240 (since it was in 4:3 format). I proceeded to convert the same video in Alloksoft's converter. Encoding: H.264, "high" video setting, 96 kbps audio, 320x240 resolution. 50 minutes. Now that's a big difference! Which, to tell you the truth, makes absolutely no sense to me.
Problem is, the Alloksoft converter, as well as many others, does not have a 400x240 resolution to choose from. So for 4:3 videos all is fine, since the maximum height is 240 pixels, it is common sense that the width will be 320, but with 16:9 videos, who knows... Oh, and by the way, 400x240 is not 16:9, it's actually 15:9. Confused? That's exactly my point.
I don't know whether or not this is an issue with the ITVC, although it does seems that way.
The real problem here is how messy getting videos to the tablet really is. Maybe the average consumer will google for conversion software. Maybe. Then he or she will install ITVC and...what if the experience is as bad as mine was? I can't imagine any normal person spending a total of more than two hours (copying time included) to get a movie onto the tablet. Let me rephrase that: would you spend more time getting the video on the tablet than it takes to actually watch it?
And the obvious solution of the day is...
Codec support. Actual codec support. Fine, I'll get used to viewing videos at half the screen's resolution. But I really want at least .avi XviD support, if not DivX. And I'd like the ITVC to convert videos to XviD, or leave them with that codec, and only change the resolution. And do that fast.
Maemo is open source. XviD is open source. What is the problem then?
I am aware that there may be workarounds for what I've described above. However, keep in mind that I'm trying to keep an average consumer's perspective on things. Now the average consumer is not that person who would spend hours and hours reading hundreds of forum posts to get around these issues.
Video players
I've tried all of them. UI-wise, the clear winner is Canola2. The wonderful UI does come at a RAM cost, so don't think of running Canola and the Web browser, for example, at the same time. Also, keep in mind that Canola is a work in progress (currently at Beta7), and the final release will definitely be more polished.
The default Media Player is good too. The UI is finger-centric and the converted videos play fine. Canola does, however, have additional features all grouped in one UI: podcasting, Internet Radio and YouTube.
Functionality-wise, if I may even use that word, MPlayer seems to be the best. It at least attempted to play the XviD I threw at it. Didn't succeed, but it was the only one that even bothered to try. The UI however is a disaster. No on-screen controls, there are apparently some keyboard shortcuts, but I have no clue what they are.
YouTube
The built-in browser supports Flash, which means that sites such as YouTube will supposedly behave as they do on your computer. I have not tried it, though. I will for other Flash video sites, but for YouTube, I find Canola's YouTube plugin to be almost perfect. Very finger-friendly interface, fast searching, a little lag before the video starts, but then none whatsoever. It plays fullscreen too.
Also for YouTube playback without actually visiting the YouTube site are UKTube and mYTube. Haven't had a chance to try any of these yet, but, in theory at least, both should provide a better searching and playing experience than you'd get by using the Web browser.
Is the N810 a consumer-friendly device? NO and YES.
Not for getting videos on it. It is decent at actually playing videos (including Internet videos).
More pictures
More pictures of the N810 will gradually be available on this Share on Ovi channel. When there are new pics up, the posts about the N810 will also have an embedded slideshow of the channel. Such as this one:
