Ok, I think I might have this one licked. I found this utility that was make at xda (where esle) - specificallly made for handhelds by HTC. It puts vids in MP4 format which allows you to open them via the built-in HTC album player. The big upside here is that it is the only program that can access the hardware acceleration in the Pro - so the resulting playback is supposed to be WAY better. I will update when my first vid is done re-encoding, but based on the comments @ xda, this is the answer.

ok, this works and looks really great. The only issue is load time, somewhat slow to start a movie. Also, for some reason, some of my converted movies dont show up in htc album. I have to open them thru file explorer - not a very good UI. But in the end - the video quality i great - WAY better than tcpmp- and looks really nice on tv out as well.