ive read this whole thread and didnt see anyone mentioning this. so ive decided to share it with everyone.
TP can, i repeat, CAN play 640x480 pixel pefrect videos smoothly. you just gotta encode them right... ive been doing this for months so i know.
encode your videos into MP4 using any program that utilize x264 encoder. Personally i use MeGUI and find it to produce the best results. Now, set your encoder to use x264 @ 400Kbps-800Kbps for video depending on how much motion is in the video. Also set it to use AAC @ 64Kpbs-192Kbps for audio depending on what you use to watch (aka headphones vs external sound system). now, the important part. make sure to set x264 to encode using "Baseline" profile, cuz the Main/High profiles will NOT play smoothly on your TP...
once you've encoded your videos, make sure to play them using either WMP or HTC Album. CorePlayer & TCPMP do not utilize harware accelerated playback as efficiently as the other two so they will experience major stuttering on high-action parts...
those who claim that h264 videos look crappy simply havent seen a propely-encoded h264 video. so plz do some research before claiming Xvid/DivX/WMV/whatever is better.
PS: if there is enough interest, i can post a sample video to back up my claims
