A Final Thought Before buying...

[pumba_mike]

This is my first post so i would like to start by sayinfg a big hello to everyone [biggrin]

Right, down to business... i'm on the verge of buying a Cowon A2; however, before taking the plunge i would appreciate some inpout on two things that have been bothering me.

First of all, i would like to know if the pan and scan feature on the A2 acts just like a zoom function i.e. can you use it to make both widescreen films (with black bars top and bottom) and 4:3 films (wth black bars to the sides) take up the whole screen. I am fully aware that true pan and scan means converting a 16:9 film to 4:3 but i have read several people say that they use the feature to make 4:3 clips appear larger by (and i can only assume) cutting of the top and bottom of the picture. This is very important to me as when you have a screen that is only 4", i like to be able to use the majority of it for viewing. The AV500 is very appealing becuase i know it has fully integrated zoom for both 16:9 and 4:3.

The other question i have is: how good is the TV recording quality of the A2. I have read many posts about this issue but i would appreciate it if someone could make a direct comparison between the picture/audio of recorded TV and that of say, an xvid/mpeg. Maybe someone could even post a sample; the samples posted in other threads no longer seem to work.

I really want the cowon because i have a lot of downloaded TV shows and films (in mpeg and xvid format) and i have been lead to believe that nearly all of these i will be able to play on the A2 with no re-encoding; the AV500 cannot play .ac3 and i have heard of sync problems with VBR .mp3 audio.

Thanks for any help,

Mike

[eric3a]

Yes the pan and scan is a zoom and works as you describe.

TV recording quality is what I'd call good enough. Certainly for viewing on the A2's screen.

Not sure mpeg films will play (I haven't tried in latest firmware). Xvid shouldn't be any problem, provided no Qpel. AC3 works fine, and is a huge plus over Archos in my opinion.

Eric

[MCSmarties]

Hi, and welcome on the forum!

There isn't really too much to add to Eric's reply but here are a few thoughts of my own.

You seem to be pretty comfortable with video standards and encoding, so somehow I doubt that you will be using the TV recording feature very often.
The quality will definitely be worse than compared to a good XviD movie but as Eric said, it's "good enough" to watch a TV show on the go

Trust me: you won't be using the recording feature as often as you think you will.
Hell, it was a top-priority for me when I bought my A2... and the first time I actually
used it was a full 5 months after I bought it (mostly out of curiosity)

The A2 still does not like MPEG1. Yes it will play them, but in my experience it can make it unstable. Same with WMV: only WMV9 is properly supported.
Stick to DivX or XViD if you can (no GMC, no QPel - everything else is fine)

And finally, a message "from my guts":

I am convinced that the real geeks will prefer the A2 over the AV500.
It's much more versatile, gets firmware updates at an amazing speed, has tons of settings to play with, tweak, explore... you get my drift.

The AV500 is a fine gadget too, but I think it's more geared toward people who are happy with what they get "in the box" and will not be anxiously
waiting for the next possible update (good, because there aren't any! [devil] )

As for Joe Average, iPod + iTunes is all he needs... spoon-fed like a baby.
Nowhere near as many features, he gets screwed all the time with accessories, DRM-protected downloads etc... but he doesn't need a brain to use it! [rolleyes] )

Go ahead and buy your A2, you'll love it! :jamming:

[pumba_mike]

Thank you for such fast and and detailed responses. MCSmarties, you have got me down in a nut shell [biggrin] I am 100% happy encoding with xvid (no GMC etc.) and that's after i add to the player all the downloaded films on my HDD (which i should mention all have VBR audio or .ac3). As for TV, all the main programs i like i get of the web (we brits get all the best shows later than those lucky americans) and the ones i dont download can be watched live or put on my sky HD HDD/disk by by DVD recorder.

Just to confirm, if i had a 4:3 clip that would normally take up only the centre of the A2's screen , could i use pan and scan to make clip full screen (by cropping the top and bottom of the movie); same for a widescreen movie that i'd want to enlarge to avoid black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. If so, why did cowon call it "pan and scan" and not "zoom."

[fornies]

What pan and scan makes the movie wider to fill up the whole screen

[colinmcc]

The A2 still does not like MPEG1. Yes it will play them, but in my experience it can make it unstable.

Just to clarify ....

The A2 supports MPEG1 (VCD). Haven't had any stability issues with them myself but then it's not a format I use very much .... at all.

It doesn't support MPEG2 (SVCD) at all. Which is a bummer as I do have quite a bit of stuff in SVCD format from the bad old days before I got a MPEG4 compatible DVD player (and then subsequently realised that even that wasn't going to play EVERYTHING so bought a second PC to hook up to the TV downstairs [rolleyes] ).

[blairh]

Just to confirm, if i had a 4:3 clip that would normally take up only the centre of the A2's screen , could i use pan and scan to make clip full screen (by cropping the top and bottom of the movie); same for a widescreen movie that i'd want to enlarge to avoid black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. If so, why did cowon call it "pan and scan" and not "zoom."
yep that's exactly right. either that or you can make it stretch a 4x3 picture sideways so that you don't miss any of the picture. basically it's just as you change the viewing ratio while watching a movie. who knows why they called it 'pan and scan' ... has a nice ring to it though, huh? hehe..