portable media devices, colon, things sab wants! the michael scott story, by dwight.

[sab]

Okay. I'm deciding between the Cowon A2, the Toshiba Gigabeat and the Archos 604.

I'm leaning toward the Cowon (because it supports the most file formats, including XviD/DivX, which is pretty important), I think, but let's ask you savvy folks some questions. Like, the Cowon's drawback is that it doesn't support Windows Media DRM. How much does that matter to me? That is at this point the only thing keeping me from the Cowon.

The Archos is a beautiful device and can be used as a tabletop DVR and a video/audio recorder. Now, do I need a video/audio recorder? Because the Archos is also bulky and not intuitive and seems to require a whole lot of peripheral hardware and software to make it do things. On the other hand, maybe I don't NEED the peripherals, in which case, the Archos is not so cumbersome after all.

And the Toshiba just strikes me as outdated? Like it was the video ipod killer in its day, but that day has passed? Any info on the Toshiba device in real life testing?

Assuming everybody clocks in at roughly $300, and everybody's roughly 30 gig -- anyone have data on these products? I mean, in real-life trials?

Comments

[corinna-5.livejournal.com]

Windows DRM support is only important if you ever intend to buy digital media online.

If, let's say, your major sources of media are your friends, your family, and the Internet, it's not an issue. And if you decide to go legit, you can always get an eMusic account (no DRM at all, lots of indie bands).

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

I THOUGHT so. Same with PlaysForSure, that I don't care about.

AWES. I want this Cowon A2 like WHOA. I plan to ask everyone to get it for me. Want to chip in a dollar or two? If I get a hundred people to each put in three dollars... *g*

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

What she said. You're on livejournal! You don't need no steekin DRM!

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

I had an Archos Jukebox a few years ago. It ran fine, but the bulkiness was a little offputting, and I didn't find the interface as easy to use as the iPods I've tried. OTOH, that was a much older piece of hardware so they might have improved the interface. However, my husband had the same model and his kind of...died?...after a few years.

Anyhow, I can't glowingly recommend it or anything, so if you're leaning toward something else, I'd go for taht.

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

See, I THOUGHT they looked bulky and clunky and less intuitive. I'm leaning toward the Cowon, which WILL PLAY AVIs. Which is just amazing news. AND IS ALSO A DVR! FTW!

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

At the time, the Archos made sense for me -- I got it for like $150 and it held 10 gigs, and I was really only buying it to move all my files onto so I could wipe my harddrive. But I pretty much never used it for music, because I couldn't figure out how to do playlists on it.

[mercurydraconix.livejournal.com]

also, there's this program called iSquint? which if you decided to get another iPod, changes nearly every other video format into the iPod supported format. slightly lower resolution, but lets face it, the screen for nearly any portable player is damn small.