N8 Video prowess, AVI and all rejoice

Hello again,

I got to play for a while with the N8, and it's really impressive if you're looking for a capable video/imaging device.

I really love the USB OTG functions that allows you to hook up the N8 to all sorts of external storage devices like my WesternDigital drives or USB sticks. This way I can quickly transfer files back and forth without having to put a laptop or other device in the middle.

Since it was announced there were some cryptic messages that mentioned that AVI (Divx, xVid) was going to be supported in box. Along with the fact that 720p playback and AC3 (Dolby 5.1) decoding was possible.

I can confirm that it's all TRUE!


Well mostly true at least. 720p playback is possible but not 720p AVI files or WMV files, only 720p MPEG-4 are supported it seems. I haven't tried MKV at HD quality to see if that works but at least MKV does work.
FLV files are also supported, but only half way. FLV files will not be found by the videos app. You need to browse to them using File Manager and launch them from there. They also seem to play on a different player than the normal video player. And have less options to them. But at least now they play much smoother.

Speaking of smooth. WMV support seems to have been expanded quite a bit from the N97 or N96 days. But still I found a lot of files that just will not play or play partially. You don't get the annoying message (unable to play trying to play partially) but the end result is the same :(

The screen is good, though a bit dark for my taste. You need to have a dark room in order to really appreciate it. Also because you smudge the screen all the time it's a fingerprint magnet and is not so easy to clean or keep clean (at least in my short experience with it).

There's the video editor thing in there. I played around with it. It's not super respnsive or maybe my fingers are too fat. I had a lot of problems trying to enter transitions and animations. I just did a simple 6 picture slideshow with transitions and it was fairly easy to do. I need to play more with that to see if this would be a viable option to create movies. At least it didn't crash like Muvee used to do all the time.

HDMI out is a nice touch but unless your TV can output the decoded AC3 audio or your home theater or audio equipment is at hand to decode and reproduce 5.1 sound, I found this feature to be a bit of a head scratcher. To be able to enjoy the benefits of 5.1 surround 720p video you will need all of the following:

- A video that's 720p and includes AC3 sound
- Your N8
- The HDMI adapter cable
- An HDMI cable
- An AC3 decoder (like a home theater or similar)
- A 5.1 sound system and speakers
- An HD TV
- Cables to hook up the TV to the home theater or similar. Most TVs don't output the AC3 audio out of the HDMI.


So, unless you have all those things handy, and it's not a chore to connect (your home theater has HDMI ports in the front) it seems very difficult to enjoy this feature. An optical or coax audio jack may have helped. I wonder if it's there somewhere and I just haven't figured it out.