Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation.
Current conversion policy (convert to extent, if first 64K are incompressible) allows to properly handle ~50% of all mpegs. I hope it can be increased up to 70-80% using only cosmetic changes. However, other problems you described (a lot of HD seeks, slow directory listing) should disappear with the _current_ conversion stuff.
1.) Ok, you convinced me ... I'll try it out very soon. Is the patch you mentioned against my patched 2.6.19rc4-mm1 kernel which has already been patched by a patch you posted on the list about 1 month ago when I asked about compression? I'll do some timings before and let you know how well it does. 2.) Is there a way to find out how much a file / files have/has been compression. If I ask konqueror how large all sub-stuff of a directory is, is this the compressed size or the size the uncompressed files have? Thanks a lot for all your patience, lg Clemens