What now .. Cowon

[dasreich]

What now .. Cowon ... Now that the A3 has reached EOL
How can I replace you and live thru another day..
Watching my A3 turn into a bricked machine.
And my accessaories turning into waste ...
(sang to What Now My Love .. maybe someone can improve on this)

Now that the COWON A3 has reached EOL, the only other HDD based machine seems to be the Frenchie brand.

I've seen a number of China PMP out there that seem to play just about everything, however the storage size is the only thing holding me back .. the best is 16GB .. a bit small for me.

Is there any hope for another machine with the playing performance of china PMP and the storage of at least 60 ~ 80GB HDD.

I love my A3 and I just can't live without it, it have helped me kill time during my bus rides.

[abyss x]

Nice song..

I guess that O2 is unacceptable for u as a replacement.. same as the S9 (small screen).

If u gonna stick with Cowon and with an HDD, the Q5 might fit the best for u. Problem is.. its too old + the Win CE isnt much of a successor (between us.. )
I laughed soo hard when u mentioned that frenchie brand (Archos, rite?).

Hmm, i dono exactly what to offer u as an alternative..

iPod Classic
Archos 5

I saw u're itchie for the Viliv S5 , but the price takes it back to .

Any chance u wanna buy again a new (or used) A3 ? Or.. getting the bricked A3 for some1 to repair it.. ??

[dasreich]

Well, the Cowon Q5 is also going to go the way of the Dodo ...

I tried the Villiv S5 at a show last year, not what I expected ... and the price
Although it's something I can consider now for the long term ... $549 for 32GB SSD or $599 for 60GB HDD (if it only was 80GB) .. Just have to hold out for a while ... before jumping in.

[abyss x]

and what u think about rebuying the A3?

[wellzy4eva]

what about the upcoming V5 HD?

http://www.cowonglobal.com/product_w...5_overview.php

It's only 8/16/32gb, but 32gb SDHC cards could help a lot http://product.cowon.com/product/COW...tainment_5.jpg

oh and a review: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/15/cowon-v5-review/

[abyss x]

Dude, i just compared the V5's spec and the A3's spec... Besides the HD compability, the A3 kicks its ass!!

[wellzy4eva]

Originally Posted by abyss x

Dude, i just compared the V5's spec and the A3's spec... Besides the HD compability, the A3 kicks its ass!!

I don't know, I wouldn't say it was completely one sided: bigger screen, expansive memory, no hard drive issues (flash memory), better battery life (probably to be improved upon with patches), need I go on?

although I see that they have put a lot more clauses with the description... (The specification and application are subject to change without notice by firmware upgrades) that annoys me, like giving them an excuse to back out of their huge claims, but that's Cowon, lol.

[qwiq]

Has anyone considered iPad as a replacement? Large screen, nice battery life, expensive. But probably need to use video converter most of the time.

[abyss x]

Originally Posted by qwiq

Has anyone considered iPad as a replacement? Large screen, nice battery life, expensive. But probably need to use video converter most of the time.

But iPad is literaly an iPod (touch) with a bigger screen. Meaning, its still has all the flaws that iPod put on their product that we, the audiophiles dont like, such as audio and video quality, supporting of formats and codecs (!!), and the accessories iPod dont wanna give and that u need to pay extra money for them.
All that makes it as a 'no-go'.

[wellzy4eva]

I agree with abyss x

I don't want to have to waste my time re-encoding all my videso because Apple only want to let you play the formats they approve.

I just wish Cowon would make a player like the A3 that runs on ANDROID or one of it's rivals, so when Cowon get bored of supporting it, third parties can still provide updates (Like you can still get for palm pda's that have been obsolete for years) so issues like MKV support and soft subs can be solved over time.

[doniago]

Just out of curiosity, is anyone commenting on the iPad basing their information on actual reviews, or is this all theoretical and/or based on assumptions?

Speaking as someone who's admittedly curious about the iPad's abilities, I'd much rather see hard information than preconceived bias myself.

[Mr. Black]

Originally Posted by doniago

Just out of curiosity, is anyone commenting on the iPad basing their information on actual reviews, or is this all theoretical and/or based on assumptions?

Speaking as someone who's admittedly curious about the iPad's abilities, I'd much rather see hard information than preconceived bias myself.

All the tech specs relating to video are available on apple's ipad webpage, same format support as the touch. From the previews/reviews it does indeed seem to be an ipod touch with a bigger screen.

[doniago]

That's fair.
I wasn't planning to buy it anyway.

[qwiq]

According to the specs, iPad supports:
1) H.264 video up to 720p
2) MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels
3) .mov file formats
There prob will be 3rd-party appz created so that it wld also play mpeg and xvid videos, or we have to work the converter overtime.

Anyway, 9.7" screen is really cool.

[abyss x]

Doniago, u sure know how to make me laugh.

iPod stays iPod

The Apple company (Steve Jobs) wants to aim their products to 1 kind of ppl, and Cowon (Chang-Yang-Ming-Lee, or watever..) aims to another kind of ppl, and i bet both companies will never meet with the same kind of ppl. since (u should mark this line on yr head):

Cowon gives the INSIDE POWER of hi technology with its amazing audio + video quality \ Processors \ Dispalys \ etc.. iCrap gives the beauty, sleekness, designfull, and all full of crap inside.

So bottom line: some1 that have bought iTouch\Phone wouldnt like Cowon touch products since everything he saw on the iTouch is the ultra fast and friendly touchscreen, so on the S9 (E.G) he'll be depressed to see that slow touch screen (compared to the iTouch)..
Like another guy who never had iTouch and only had a Cowon product would never love iTouch since it has no codec support, lousy audio, etc..

only positive thing i find on iPod is that they have a vast amount of accessories to buy (screen savers \ silicone protectors \ etc..)