The Itablets aren't the kind of media players that will play anything you throw at it; some will even argue that they're not media players at all (of course, they're conveniently ignoring the fact that Nokia put sample media files on it, which is a huge clue-by-four). The N8X0 series even have a nasty video display problem (that some call a design bug), preventing them from using the screen's full resolution in video playback.

Still, if you manage to set up a good video conversion routine (batch jobs that run at night), and reconcile yourself with the video limitations and occasional stutter, the media player function is nice enough for an add-on in a pocketable computer.

As to audio playback, I'm using my N800 with Kilikali as my only portable music player (again, 320 kbps MP3 files will stutter occasionally, but I rarely encode for over 128 KBPS anyway). Kilikali is nice, because it does what it has to: play music and nothing else; no fancy graphics, no "kewl" UI, no use of the screen other than for selecting the music; it just plays music...

Partially meant to be a joke (about the matrix) and partly a disbelief that someone can watch a film on a device and write a post at the same time.

I was hoping I wouldn't have to convert. I like to watch full movies but I like the internet alot too. The archos does both very well except for the internet since it seems a little slower. Maybe I'm just looking for a new device because it's just new. I don't wanna limit myself because a video is encoded in a certain way. That would just make the whole experience a whole lotworse. Thanks for all your help, more feedback would be helpful about the N9xx. When do you think it might be released, any chance it'll come in the summer or anything near there. Thanks once again.

It sounds like you have the best thing for playing videos - maybe it is just 'new shiney thing' lust?

Heh, probably posting from computer while watching vid on N8x0? Just a guess, though I'd do things the other way round, as my computer has a bigger monitor...

In terms of the versatility, quality, and stability of video playback, my un-nuanced ranking of the following devices:

1) Archos 605Wifi
2) Zune (2nd Gen, 80gb)
3) iPod Touch
4) Sony Mylo Com-2
5) Nokia N810

I own all of these devices (I'm a wifi-gadget obsessive). This is a rough estimation with subjective reasoning rooted entirely in unmeasured anecdotal observation. In my very humble opinion, the Archos destroys all of the competition.

I have a Cowon A2.
I bought a 770 to replace this when it was broken, and it just couldn't compare - much nicer to watch video on a Cowon or Archos.
However, video is VERY watchable on a 770 or N8x0 IMHO. With Nokia, watching movies is fine, the screen is big. I laugh at people watching viedo on a tiny ipod now.

So it does work well for watching video, but if thats a main function, a PMP like archos does it a lot better. One great feature of a PMP is you can zoom in and increase the picture that way (when cropping a little doesn't matter).
[I know you can do zoom on N8x0 too, but not easily).

I've been recently converting video podcasts and other things, having enabled ogg support in the media player and I'm really impressed. I can use ffmpeg or ffmpeg2theora to do the conversion and the videos work quite well.

I have Archos 605 Wifi(80G w/DRV & mini-dock) and N800.

As many have suggested already, 605's strenght is in PMP(but the device is basically lock-up and the chance of any 3rd party hack is close to nill(unless you want to stay with the old firmware where there was a hack available). As for N8xx, PMP functions are not as polished; but it is not that bad(or un-watchable) and it is capable of doing a lot of other task well.

As far as media quality, it comes down to what is your definition of 'well'. If at all possible, you can try to get a hold on a demo N8x0 and test drive it with a few clips from your collection of video/music. This will give you some idea. Alternative, there are two video conversion program specifically for converting video to play well on N80x(one is from Nokia and the other is from someone else, please do a search in here and you can find it), You can use these tools to convert some of your clip and try to play it on your 605(yes, I do mean 605 here), this will help you to decide whether the visual quality loss of the coverted clip is acceptable for your usage or not.

good luck,

here are some of the links:

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

http://xoomer.alice.it/sepaolo/n800vc/

I used the converter in the 2nd link.

good luck