H264 encoder in android?

I've been having some problems while trying to fix a simple video recording app*. I think I followed the sequence of steps correctly. The following is a simplification of the part of the code that is giving me problems. This code is executed only as a callback once a button is pressed:

if ( mRecorder != null){
    mRecorder.reset();
    mRecorder.release();
}
mRecorder = new MediaRecorder();
if(mViewer.hasSurface){
    mRecorder.setPreviewDisplay(mViewer.holder.getSurface());
    Log.d(TAG,"Surface has been set");
}
try {
    Log.d(TAG,"Sleeping for 4000 mili");
    Thread.sleep(4000);
    Log.d(TAG,"Waking up");
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
    Log.e(TAG,"InterruptedException");
    e.printStackTrace();
}
mRecorder.setVideoSource(MediaRecorder.VideoSource.CAMERA);  
mRecorder.setAudioSource(MediaRecorder.AudioSource.MIC);
mRecorder.setOutputFormat(MediaRecorder.OutputFormat.MPEG_4);
mRecorder.setVideoFrameRate(12);
mRecorder.setVideoSize(176, 144);
mRecorder.setVideoEncoder(MediaRecorder.VideoEncoder.MPEG_4_SP);
mRecorder.setAudioEncoder(MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AMR_NB);
mRecorder.setMaxDuration(MAX_DURATION_TEST);

String targetFile = "/sdcard/webcamera/temp.mp4";
File localFile = new File(targetFile);
if(localFile.exists()){
    Log.d(TAG,"Local file exists");
}else{
    Log.d(TAG,"Local file does not exist");
}
mRecorder.setOutputFile(targetFile);
try {
    mRecorder.prepare();
    bPrepared = true;
    Log.i(TAG,"prepared");
    return;
} catch (IllegalStateException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();            
} catch (IOException e) {
    Log.e(TAG ,"IOException");
    Log.e(TAG,"Message: "+e.getMessage());
    StackTraceElement[] array = e.getStackTrace();
    for(StackTraceElement element : array){
        Log.e(TAG,""+element.toString());
    }
}

The important thing which I don't understand here is that whenever I put the video encoder to be MPEG_4_S it works. On the other hand whenever I put the encoder to be H264 it just does not. The problem is that this piece of code is just part of a bigger project, and the rest of it kind of expects this video to be encoded with h264.

I'm testing on a samsung Galaxy I-7500, running on froyo by the way. And I think the Galaxy I-9000 has the same problem.

The puzzling thing for me is that according to this documentation right here: http://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/media-formats.html, MPEG_4_SP encoding should not be supported at all, while H264 is supported since honeycomb. So why is it working with MPEG_4_SP at all? and is it possible to make it work with H264?

The error I get is not really clear.

07-11 00:01:40.626: ERROR/MediaSource(1386): Message: prepare failed.
07-11 00:01:40.766: ERROR/MediaSource(1386): android.media.MediaRecorder._prepare(Native Method)
07-11 00:01:40.766: ERROR/MediaSource(1386): android.media.MediaRecorder.prepare(MediaRecorder.java:508)
07-11 00:01:40.766: ERROR/MediaSource(1386): com.appdh.webcamera.MediaSource.prepareOutput(MediaSource.java:74)
07-11 00:01:40.766: ERROR/MediaSource(1386): com.appdh.webcamera.MainActivity.startDetectCamera(MainActivity.java:312)

*Actually, the app is a little more complicated than just that, as it also does stream the video over LAN, but the part which I am concerned here has nothing to do with that. You can check this interesing project out here: http://code.google.com/p/ipcamera-for-android/