Discussion about
Better on paper then in reality?
Is it just me or did anyone else buy this player expecting huge things from it only to find out it is the biggest pain in the ass to use ever. he touch screen aint to great, the default theme has buttons that are to small, updating the player is needlessly complicated, the sd card expansion is buggy etc etc.
If I could go back in time, I'd try to find a player that was exactly like this, except with hard buttons. The screen is just too small to be useful as a touch screen in any situation other than dedicated music listening.
With that said, all I wanted was a small MP3 player that sounded good, used a USB cable for connecting and charging, didn't need proprietary software on the computer, and had good battery life. This device has delivered those things for me, and in the case of sound quality and battery life, exceeded my wildest expectations.
Plus, being a gadget guy, I enjoy the ability to change the firmware and mess around with different themes and skins. I don't find it overly complicated for that level of customization.
With that said, all I wanted was a small MP3 player that sounded good, used a USB cable for connecting and charging, didn't need proprietary software on the computer, and had good battery life. This device has delivered those things for me, and in the case of sound quality and battery life, exceeded my wildest expectations.
Plus, being a gadget guy, I enjoy the ability to change the firmware and mess around with different themes and skins. I don't find it overly complicated for that level of customization.
I love this player, and I wouldn't trade it for anything else. I love just copying files over - no need to sync using any special software. I love how the songs on the SD card are well-integrated with the songs on the internal drive. And i have no problem with the touch screen.
My only gripe is that it has too many features which, after now owning it for 1.5 years, I still don't use. so maybe it's just too much player for me.
My only gripe is that it has too many features which, after now owning it for 1.5 years, I still don't use. so maybe it's just too much player for me.
I really like this player. Except for the touch screen and the conversion of movies.
I cannot use this player blindly. Harware buttons are the way to go. Although I did get used to it, you just have to pay attention more. In the car or the gym that is a pain. Btw you can install different themes on this little player, some have better buttons. (cowonamerica.com)
The conversion of movies is easy but takes time. Apple has really won this war, all vodcast are in mp4 format. That is really annoying. The only vodcast that works right away are the ones form Revision 3. I dont understand why not other podcast makers provide this format. Allmost all othe rplayers than Ipod use this format: xvga (xvid and mp3).Still this can be a dealbreaker for some. Shame because the screen is excellent for movies.
Other than that....for me:
+Great screen
+Excellent sound quality
+Batterylife 50 hours!
+Sturdy player
-Have to convers every movie
- Handeling of the player (touchscreen)
I cannot use this player blindly. Harware buttons are the way to go. Although I did get used to it, you just have to pay attention more. In the car or the gym that is a pain. Btw you can install different themes on this little player, some have better buttons. (cowonamerica.com)
The conversion of movies is easy but takes time. Apple has really won this war, all vodcast are in mp4 format. That is really annoying. The only vodcast that works right away are the ones form Revision 3. I dont understand why not other podcast makers provide this format. Allmost all othe rplayers than Ipod use this format: xvga (xvid and mp3).Still this can be a dealbreaker for some. Shame because the screen is excellent for movies.
Other than that....for me:
+Great screen
+Excellent sound quality
+Batterylife 50 hours!
+Sturdy player
-Have to convers every movie
- Handeling of the player (touchscreen)
after having it for about ummm 2 years or so i think. i love the screen, never got videos to work very well with it, witout reencoding, it does have issues with jacked up id3 tags. If i have one track with a crap tag, it borks up tags on other files when i try to delete one off of it (which is what i do with my podcasts, delete them when i am done listening) the UI is kind of crap, but works well enough, but you need about 3 taps to do one simple act... and if it is a little MORE the simple well you are looking at 10-30 taps to get it done. Love that it has Audible support and Ogg, Flac, MP3 and supports a lot of video containers, but most videos i moved over would play the audio stream at 1x, but the video stream at about 0.5x. EVERYTHING i have just tried worked that way, you must reencode, from my experience, so i just quit playing video on it. Battery life is insane, i can listen all day at work for at least 3 or 4 days, i have gone a whole week....
+ Nice Screen
+ Stylus/Stand thingy
+ Battery Life
+ Sturdy (have dropped this A LOT)
+ works just like a USB Hard Drive
+ SDHC cards just work
+ seem to have released fixes for every bug in the firmware
- UI needs work, hard to do something real quick
- when you use the wall wart, if you have to stop playing to talk to someone, it will go into a charge only mode and you have to unplug it to turn it back on.
- was having an issue with audible bookmarking, had to start a book file turn off and start again to get it to place the first bookmark
I would buy it again, in fact i was hopeing the D2+ was more of a change or some other COWON would have audible support.
+ Nice Screen
+ Stylus/Stand thingy
+ Battery Life
+ Sturdy (have dropped this A LOT)
+ works just like a USB Hard Drive
+ SDHC cards just work
+ seem to have released fixes for every bug in the firmware
- UI needs work, hard to do something real quick
- when you use the wall wart, if you have to stop playing to talk to someone, it will go into a charge only mode and you have to unplug it to turn it back on.
- was having an issue with audible bookmarking, had to start a book file turn off and start again to get it to place the first bookmark
I would buy it again, in fact i was hopeing the D2+ was more of a change or some other COWON would have audible support.
I have owned this player for at least two years. I am still using and will keep using it until it breaks, It is a solid music player. The sound quality is outstanding. Sometimes I use it to read text and take notes when I don't have paper handy. I don't mind not being able to mess with it without looking at it since I mostly listen to entire albums while programming at work. You can train yourself with a little effort though. I easily use it for multiple weeks between charges. It has SD expansion which gave the player a much longer use life. My friend has an 8GB iPod Touch. He has no expansion slot. I do. Guess who is looking for a new player? I recommend it to anybody who asks me what mp3 player they should buy.
