Cowon O2 32 GB Video MP3 Player (Black)

I use the Cowon O2 as a replacemrnt for a CD changer in our home audio system. I rip CDs in FLAC format and use compression level 4. The connection I use is an analog audio cable. The sound is almost identical to the sound I get when playing a CD on my blu-ray player. Fantatic sound and even with FLAC I can get about 100 CDs on the 32 GB memory card.

My set up begs the question: Why don't audio receiver companies make an audio amplifier with memory built in to play compressed digital music? Maybe next year.Buy Cowon O2 32 GB Video MP3 Player (Black)!

Cowon O2 8 GB Video MP3 Player (White)

I bought the Cowon O2 because I was looking for something with a good size screen (4.3 " in this case). I previoulsy had a sankey player with a 2" screen.When I got the cowon O2 I was amazed at the quality of the picture at 480 by 272 resolution.It was crisp and clear and when they say 16 million colors, they mean it !!

The features for music was terrific. Cowon has MAch3bass, 3d surround, BBE enhancement and MP3 enhancement and each feature has 10 levels of adjustment. Also there is a 10 band equaliser and for each band there is a 2 level adjustment for frequency and a 3 level adjustment for bandwidth. Putting all this together, this little device really does a whole lot of sound processing and thus it sounds excellent. i was really surprised and absolutely pleased with the sound and not to mention the awesome audio codec support, including lossless formats.

The video is awesome. Cowon supports a whole lot of video codecs. In general if you like encoding your own videos and words like "virtual dub", "subrip", "mkvtoolnix","xvid","dvd decrypter","H264" and "matroska" sound familiar to you, then the O2 will meet your needs happily.
I played matroska and avi files with no problems.The O2 will not allow you to access subtitles or chapters embedded in the mkv container,but it will play the movie. However if you have the subtitle ( in srt format) saved in the same directory as the movie and with the same name, The subtitle is loaded with the movie and you can adjust the size, position and color.I find this to be a very good compromise.If you have multiple audio tracks (up to 8 tracks ) embedded in the mkv, ogm or avi container, the O2 recognises it and allows you to choose which to play.

The O2 has decent battery for a 4.3" lcd device. It is about 6 to 8 hours when watching videos. The touchscreen interface is very cool. My suggestion is to dabble with it a little so you can get a feel for it.

Overall the O2 is great especially if you're a video buff. I haven't checked all the music features, but if you like good quality music, then I do think that the O2 and (I guess) other Cowon products do a whole lot more audio processing than other portable audio products out there. The sound is amazing.You will not be disappointed.Buy Cowon O2 8 GB Video MP3 Player (White)!

Cowon O2 32 GB Video MP3 Player (White)

Pros: Great screen, Sensitive touch controls, audio quality, tons of file support, SDHC slot, battery life, 10-band EQ, expandable extras

Cons: No EQ during video playback, gaps between audio tracks long, no playlist support, interface navigation slow, audio output less than previous Cowon players.

When the Cowon O2 was released, I was saving my pennies to pick up perhaps the answer to all my portable needs - a large screen for video viewing, excellent sound quality, and a SDHC slot. Granted, it does everything that it was advertised to do (minus poor MKV support, but I can live with that since the majority of my video files are XviD), but its the minor annoyances that prevent this player from being the ultimate PMP.

First the positives: The screen is excellent, although not as sharp as some would want (480x272 resolution), but for video viewing, it is more than acceptable. The touch screen is very nice and sensitive. Audio quality is standard Cowon stuff, you get the BBE, Mach3Bass, and 3D enhancements, along with the crystal clear reproduction that you would expect from them. The SD slot is a must-have for me, as I have tons of stuff archived on SD cards that I can just carry along with me, rather than move stuff around if I wanted something new. The 10-band EQ is excellent, as you can precisely tailor the audio output to your tastes. Battery life is rated at 8H Video / 18H Audio. My personal real-life performance shows that it's pretty close to that, provided you bump the brightness of the screen down and set the screen to shut off as fast as possible when playing audio.

The negatives: The interface is extremely slow and unresponsive at times, especially when browsing through your files. Sometimes the screen will register a touch, but the actual command is not recognized, sometimes needing a second touch. The interface reminds me of Windows Mobile, with X buttons, scroll bars, and non-finger-friendly lists. The included stylus is fat and not exactly helpful when trying to press some of those small buttons on the screen. The audio output is noticeably lower on this player than previous Cowon offerings, for video output (especially with no EQ settings for video) the volume has to be maxed out, there are no exceptions to this rule, and its STILL not loud enough for some situations. My audio volume is 35-38 (out of 50) and anything under 25 is not very audible. The lack of playlist support is not a big deal-breaker for me as I have all my audio sorted perfectly in folders, but for others, it could prove to be quite annoying. There is a "favorites" list that you can add tracks to, but it shares that list with video files as well, which negates any benefit you may have or want for playlist support.

My complaints regarding this player seem like they can be remedied with a firmware upgrade, and if Cowon gets around to fixing these issues, this could very well be the perfect PMP... however, until they do, these small nagging issues prevent it from being exactly what I was looking for. Buy Cowon O2 32 GB Video MP3 Player (White)!

Cisco Linksys 1 TB Media Hub with LCD

I really like this NAS. It was very easy to setup and very easy to use. The web based media player is a great feature which easily let me queue up music from any web browser in my house. The remote access feature just simply rocks! I live in California and during a recent trip to the East coast I was able to easily login and stream music across the country without any buffer delays (my friends back East didn't believe I was streaming music from my NAS in my house back in California). I bought a second 1TB WD green technology drive and was able to easily use the configuration page to configure raid for data protection. This is by far the best NAS I've ever purchased and used!Buy Cisco Linksys 1 TB Media Hub with LCD!