[Acer Iconia A500] Neoprimal:
I'm not an expert but I do my research and reading before I post information.

That being said, here's a little education - maybe from the wrong sources (lol) in video profiles and resolutions.

Many people want to know what the A500 can play. Currently, the answer to that is "probably not everything you have". The reason for this is HONEYCOMB, not Tegra 2. Tegra while aged, is still a pretty potent media powerhouse.

Now I shall hit you with a barrage of stats, don't worry I'll cite the sources.

First we have to know the details on what profiles are. I didn't until probably 2 days ago because frankly I didn't care, so long as it sounds good and looks crystal clear on my LCD-LED TV or Notebook, I'm a happy camper.

Profiles & Resolutions

Take a quick look at that. What you're looking at there are some examples of what profiles are. As you can see there are 3 profiles in general for the vc 1 codec. You can also see why there are profiles and the details of what each profile entails and the resolutions and bitrates of the files considered in each of them. Also consider that this is just a part of the wider audio video container file structure.

Here's a comparison of the various container formats

This is why so many people are confused really. What we're seeing right now is a big limit on what Honeycomb can play. In general, HP 1080p are pretty rare in file form because they're absolutely huge and you can barely if at all stream them over wifi even as compressed as they are. It's really exactly like pushing blu ray over wifi.

Here are common formats and extensions used by itunes/amazon and the stuff you'll find on torrents (if you do that sorta thing).

Most popular and what you probably have:

AVI Extension

MP4 Extension

MKV Extension

AVI uses most recently the H264/MP4 format which is very popular. When you hear people talking about Baseline, Main and High profiles this is what they are referring to generally. MP4 also uses this format as well as MKV. Something special about the MKV extension is that it can house almost ANY format.

Less popular and you may have a few:

RMVB

DIVX

WMA

Some of these also utilize H264/MP4 though it may cause issues. But they will generally use Mpeg4 part 2 or mpeg 2 as they are older or not necessarily striving to be top quality. Divx are generally given out with Blu Ray discs.

Hey, where's xvid?!

Xvid isn't a format at all. It's a codec for encoding in mpeg 4. So your xvid encoded stuff can be avi or mp4.

HD Flash stutters!! GAaAaAhHh!!!

Yep, it was provided as a rush job imho and enhancements in Honeycomb should provide a better experience by the time 3.1 hits. I also suspect that some things will be ironed out when we next get updates but that's not a fact, just something I think will happen. Right now, I just think media decoding was a last priority for Google. But I have no doubt they'll get around to it. What I'm saying is that flash stuttering again, isn't Tegra 2's fault. It's Honeycomb and Adobes.

480p/576p, 720p, 1080p?

If a video runs natively at 1920x1080, it is considered full HD. If 1280x720 it's full HD 720p. Under to a certain value then marketed and considered as 720p HD. Even 1280x544 or such may be considered 720p HD. As a general rule of thumb if the Frame width is 1280 or higher, it's generally considered HD. This is due to aspect ratios and such, I won't get into that as I think you get the point.

If it falls below that, it's generally not.

Now for the good stuff, What CAN Tegra 2 decode/play?

Tegra 2 Hardware [What it can play/record]

As you can see here, officially Tegra 2 is not limited to the few filetypes or profiles we're able to play currently; of course Nvidia doesn't specify detail profiles at all but it's understandable as it'd be difficult to specify profiles for every format and extension it can play. The good thing is that certain manufacturers attempt to, so I'll post that next.

Note however that almost every format is compatible, which in essence means you're covered over a number of extensions.

H.264

VC-1 AP

MPEG2

MPEG-4

DivX 4/5

XviD HT

H.263

Theora

VP8

WMV

Sorenson Spark

Real Video

VP6

Now for the ugly details. What can and can't WE do and what will we never be able to do? (Because of Tegra 2 vs. Honeycomb limitations).

I owned a Gtablet, and it was advertised as being able to play S1080p H.264/H.263/ VC-1/MPEG-2/4/WMV9/DiVX 4/5 Video.

Acer's manual states that the Iconia is able to play H.264 BP, H.264 MP, H.264 HP, MPEG-4 SP, H.263 at 720p. H264 HP = High Profile and we also are told that it's limited for now to 720p video. This is agreeably very limited right now, but you can clearly see (if your power of comparison is on key) that this is due to either the manufacturer or Honeycomb and not Tegra 2.

I was able to play everything I have including my 1920x1080 resolution stuff on my GTablet.

Because both the Xoom and Asus tablets, the only other 2 Honeycomb tablets on the market right now are in a similar predicament, I'm pointing the finger (and blame) squarely on Honeycomb being the limiting factor for us right now.

I don't think the Tegra 2 can handle very HP Full 1080p video. I don't think anything out there save for top end CPUs and dedicated blu ray players can play hardcore really high profile full 1080p and I also don't think there are many people that will have these files sitting on their PC in data form. They also can't be streamed because they're encoded so they play at higher bitrates than wifi N can handle. 20+ GB is the filesize of true high profile encoded stuff. 4GB and 8GB BR rips are generally using the Main Profile or High Profile 720p which it CAN play as well as S1080p which if you do happen to have 1080p stuff, is more than likely what you have.

Hmm, so what can the A500 play, and what can it play in the future?

We have to be careful and responsible about what we're saying here. So many people are claiming Tegra 2 to be the culprit. While Tegra 2 DOES have that limitation of not being able to play very high profile stuff, the truth is that no tablet or phone can. What people are likely miffed about is the issue of getting the "cannot play this file type" or whatever the message is and THAT isn't due to the hardware, but the software and is indeed fixable in the future.

There's no reason Froyo/Gingerbread should be able to achieve this (even on tablets) and Honeycomb not.

To say the A500 can't play HP 720p HD is therefore 100% incorrect. It can, it just is very limited about what formats it can play it in right now. To say the A500 can't play 1080p HD is correct, HOWEVER to say it's a Tegra 2 limitation is incorrect, it's a Honeycomb limitation right now.

To say Tegra 2 isn't capable of playing high profile HD is also 100% incorrect. The only real limitation is playing high profile 1080p stuff which I think only a very few people would do (considering that's an ~ 20GB big file). It's kinda like telling a True Lie or 1/2 truth? Whatever.

Update: Forgot to touch on Audio which is an important factor of this whole debacle. According to the manual, the A500 will decode AAC-LC, AAC, AAC+ (Not raw AAC), AMR-NB, AMR-WB, MP3, OGG Vorbis and WAV.

Hopefully this biblical length post will point some people in the right direction and clear up some misconceptions.

If others who know in detail about this stuff want to chime in and make the details more clear, feel free.