Cowon iAudio

i've been looking recently at a cowon iAudio A2 personal media player, since it does music and video. it's 30gb and can manage 10 hours of video playback, so it's fairing up well so far.

i hate mp3 players with a passion, they all seem to have problems.

what i want to know is this, is this one of those players that doesn't play music with DRM licences? my old SanDisk wouldn't let me play DRM'd music (a lot of my music has licences) and i want to know if Cowon's players let you use it or not.

i've looked on their site, in magazines but haven't found anything.

can anyone shed any light on this?

Thanks,
Chris.

If they don't mention it anywhere, there's a good chance DRM files won't be supported, but the best way to find out is to try it.

If they don't mention it anywhere, there's a good chance DRM files won't be supported, but the best way to find out is to try it.

it's about $695aus. buying 'n' trying isn't really an option.

do you mean, if they don't mention it, my DRM'd music won't play?

Probably not.

that seems an awful lot for a 30gb music/video player, especially consider the equivilant ipod is only around £160

it is. but they seem pretty good.

if i have the money, might buy one.

at the moment i'm looking at a vaio VGN-TX5XN/B Woo! for my 18th coming up soon.

this is the spec off the Cowon website:


File FormatMP3, WMA(ASF),OGG, FLAC, WAVAudio CodecMPEG 1/2/2.5 Layer 3, WMA(ASF),
Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, WaveAudio Resolution8Kbps ~ 1.4Mbps
(Up to OGG Q10 & FLAC Level 0~8)ID3 TagID3 V1,ID3 V2.2/V2.3/V2.4LyricsLDBEQ5Band, 7set
(Normal, Rock, Jazz, Classic, Pop, Vocal, User)Sound Effectjeteffect
( BBE, Mach3Bass, MP3 Enhance, 3D Surround)
VisualizationSound Spectrum, Album/ID3 Meta ImageMax. Continuous
Playback timeMax.18 hours
does that shed any light on DRM files?

It doesn't mention DRM does it? As I said initially, if it doesn't say it supports it - it probably doesn't.

Why don't you email their sales department and ask them?

thought of that, going to tomorrow.

looked in their FAQ, nothing there.

from the looks of things, they are more of a rival to the archos machines.
have you seen them? they're not exactly pocket sized and the price is probably down to a decent sized screen.
with that in mind, I've heard nothing but praise for the archos players and am looking to buy one of them for myself.

Archos have most of the pmp market covered. but i just don't like their designs.

whoa...
I thought I was supposed to be the superficial designery type who would reject purely on looks?
You have to admit, Archos offer a bit of kit to suit most budjets and requirements.
they also have some nice big screen ones too which, on a plane when you've already watched the features, is a godsend AND gets loads of bonus Man Points when the guy watching his ickle Ipod next to you physically shrinks into his seat next to you, upon spying your big one.

i'm picky about design.

form follows function. but i don't like it, i won't buy it.

Cowon looks good, good functions. wins points in my book. Archos doesn't look so good, good functions. not many points. it just leaves too much to be desired visually.

well....
the old rules still apply; don't knock 'em til you've tried 'em.
Pop into your local DIXONS (I don't care what they say.... currys sells washing machines...) and ask for a play around on an Archos.

As a bit of kit to take on long flights, the AV700 is mightily tempting.
I've got to check up on some of the file type compatabilities but I'm an Adobe user so file converting and stuff is not really a problem.

But I also have to say, that the iAudio does look better but that doesn't fully justify the cost.
fot the price of the 30GB A2, you can get the 80GB AV700.

Personally, I'd probably end up getting a macbookpro instead.....

well....
the old rules still apply; don't knock 'em til you've tried 'em.
Pop into your local DIXONS (I don't care what they say.... currys sells washing machines...) and ask for a play around on an Archos.

they still both suck. John Lewis at BC is the best for customer servive when the thing inevitably goes wrong and stops working.

But I also have to say, that the iAudio does look better but that doesn't fully justify the cost.
fot the price of the 30GB A2, you can get the 80GB AV700.

birthday (and therefore money) rapidly approaching, if it's not really "my" money, then the Cowon is the one i'd get.

Personally, I'd probably end up getting a macbookpro instead.....

what's wrong with you? it only has one mouse button!

you forget that bit about me being a superficial designery type.....
it wouldn't be a proper use machine anyway.
it would only be a take with me when I'm not in the country and to present my portfolio around when I don't feel like carrying all of my drawings, models and other shit around to interviews, not to mention that I'm supposed to be going back to finish my part 2 study; nothing gets young, impressionable, female, first year degree students like a nice shiney macbookpro....

screw the silly fruit-powered computer.

i want a Vaio something-or-rather that's tiny. 11.1" screen!

1.33ghz, 1gb Ram, 100gb Hdd etc..