[Warhawk]

Funny how everyone is fighitng over iPhone when no one is trying to answer the thread starters question...

Well, I would say either the cowon q5(w).

Their the only other big pmps(that I can think of this second) that can do a lot like the a3.

EDIT: well I ruled out archos since you didn't like, so q5w is only thing I can think of.

 

[ZarakiSan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shigzeo /img/forum/go_quote.gif ...

I'm a major Bleach fan, hence the name. PMP's are portable multimedia players, or at least, that's the de facto definition. Basically, PMP as a shorthand is used to represent players that focus on video, not audio. That's why I'm talking about video so much. For audio, I came to respect iPods lately, but for video, they're plain old rubbish compared to pretty much anything. Yeah, the A3 is big. I hope Cowon will bring out a Zune-sized player with the same power as an A3 soon. And with a touch screen, wifi, and 80 gig hard drive, touch-based controls... I'll shut up now. About the 605, I own one. It's pretty interesting, because it does a lot as long as you're willing to buy the plugins. There's the touchscreen, which is a nice navigation help, it has a nice UI I've come to respect even though lots of people hate it, and it's sole downside is the audio quality. It's not rubbish, but it's not good either. The A3 should sound better.

 

[GIGANTOID]

Well I was being facetious. Especially after reading a bunch of iPhone hate.

But I guess the point I was obtusely trying to make is there is no best, since best to me is different than the OP especially since he didnt specify in what ways the A3 wasn't good enough for his usage.

But it was in fun.

 

[Aevum]

the A3 was a large disapointment after the A2, shorter battery life, the h264 HP support not working, the WinCE core making it slow and wasteful,

and archos, with the 605 insisting on selling you the player in parts, while giving you wifi, and letting you expend the battery life with a battery dock, but the basic format support, which can be marginaly expended using paid plugins, is short even to compete with the A2 and leaves you with a feeling that you bought an incomplete player, if it had a good video file support and a decent line out, the poor sound quality might have been excusable, its a classic case of good hardware with bad software keeping it down, add some greedy frenchmen, and you got a wasted player,

PS: whats with the apple fanboys, its like a sect, you ask for advice about a DAP or PMP they basicly answer "get an ipod, its the best thing ever" and when you confront them about how you find it unfitting or lacking for your needs (poor format support, propietary cables, poor sq from headphone out, managment software lockin) they just give you some irrational response like "well, i like it" or "its all i need", i dont care if you have an ipod, if you like it and it fills your needs, mazel tov, i hope you enjoy it, but dont try to shove it in everyones face, and then troll about it when your option is rejected,


as for a PMP, i hope iriver puts on the market some of the PMP' s they showed at CES, becuase with the A3 being crippled by Windows CE and the 605 Wifi being crippled by some greedy french folk, theres no really good high capacity portable media player on the market right now,

 

[shigzeo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GIGANTOID /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well I was being facetious. Especially after reading a bunch of iPhone hate. But I guess the point I was obtusely trying to make is there is no best, since best to me is different than the OP especially since he didnt specify in what ways the A3 wasn't good enough for his usage. But it was in fun.

nice call shigzeo!

to the mozel tov: no one was trolling. giganticoid mentioned he was joking. myself? i just pointed out that the ipod touch or phone is good but not best for video and that for sound, it is quite good. i think you are missing out on the apple fan boys. also, try testing cowon for headphone out. they have often performed rather poorer than most competition except for signal to noise ratio. so you get a clear signal to a cramped headphone output.

i am not an ipod fanboy, i am finallyl had the wool scratched from my anti-ipod eyes. i would think the q5 is much better as it has so much more to offer. if you are going to spend as much as a3, you might as well get something a bit more expensive that can run foobar for instance.

 

[Phantom87]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aevum /img/forum/go_quote.gif the A3 was a large disapointment after the A2, shorter battery life, the h264 HP support not working, the WinCE core making it slow and wasteful, and archos, with the 605 insisting on selling you the player in parts, while giving you wifi, and letting you expend the battery life with a battery dock, but the basic format support, which can be marginaly expended using paid plugins, is short even to compete with the A2 and leaves you with a feeling that you bought an incomplete player, if it had a good video file support and a decent line out, the poor sound quality might have been excusable, its a classic case of good hardware with bad software keeping it down, add some greedy frenchmen, and you got a wasted player, PS: whats with the apple fanboys, its like a sect, you ask for advice about a DAP or PMP they basicly answer "get an ipod, its the best thing ever" and when you confront them about how you find it unfitting or lacking for your needs (poor format support, propietary cables, poor sq from headphone out, managment software lockin) they just give you some irrational response like "well, i like it" or "its all i need", i dont care if you have an ipod, if you like it and it fills your needs, mazel tov, i hope you enjoy it, but dont try to shove it in everyones face, and then troll about it when your option is rejected, as for a PMP, i hope iriver puts on the market some of the PMP' s they showed at CES, becuase with the A3 being crippled by Windows CE and the 605 Wifi being crippled by some greedy french folk, theres no really good high capacity portable media player on the market right now,

hmm, i wonder what iriver has got planned up? will defn8ly be looking forward to their line of PMPs

 

[dap_pad]

Well actually, alot of my videos now are H.264... so I'm also in a similar dilemma as the OP. My A2 doesn't support H.264

What supports H.264, DivX, Xvid, RMVB, has decent battery life and good sound quality.... nothing on the market so far... which is kinda sad, considering the A2 is like 2 years old.

iRiver has the P10 and P20 planned, both look pretty interesting and I might consider them as my next PMP, but none of them complete all my needs (h.264, RMVB, battery life, SQ)

DAPreview.net: MP3 Player News and Reviews: Forums / Digital Audio Players (DAP) / iriver 2008 thread [Lplayer Update!][Look on 1rst post]

 

[Aevum]

the P20 seems like the last hope for a decent pmp, people are reporting 4-5 hours of video playback from the A3, which i would consider lacking, the 605 wifi atleast has a battery pack giving you a few more hours and removing the proprietary dock, but the audio quality and having to pay extra for the h264 support leave a really sour taste in my mouth, so i cant really recommend it,

 

[shigzeo]

my friend enjoys the 605 which i had considered purchasing some time ago. it has a nice screen and well, all aluminium construction which is nice to hold and disipates heat much better. the archo is cool but all the addons to get it to work is somewhat frustrating. still though, it smacks of quality rather than toy

 

[Aevum]

as i said, as a video player, the 605 is great, shame you have to pay extra for the h264 plugin insted of having it included from the start like it should be, the battery dock also extends the battery life and removes the need for the proprietary cable,

but the sound quality and the fact that the player on its own isnt up to spec untill you pickup some upgrades worries me,

you can also run qtopia on it, might improve format support,

 

[dap_pad]

Ya... the Archos was an option, but my A2, being 2 years old, still holds a better charge than it... i still get around 4-6 hours on it for video. The plug-ins are annoying as well and the SQ is not even comparable. So the 605 is out of the question unfortunately

 

[The_X]

FWIW, the A2 is still the absolute best PMP in my experience. I've heard lots of bad things about the Q5W interface, and the A3 has shorter battery life for some reason.

Plus, the A2 sounds GORGEOUS.

 

[WindowsX]

Got iRiver P20 yesterday.....Poor iMod

 

[DJGeorgeT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GIGANTOID /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well I was being facetious. Especially after reading a bunch of iPhone hate.

A good iPhone is a dead iPhone

unless of course, rockbox can crack it and finally provide a good firmware.

 

[Calexico]

How would a netbook fare as a PMP?