Cowon A2 20 GB Portable Multimedia Player

by Cowon

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000E9DQ6M
• Item model number: A2-20WH
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #129,220 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Satisfy your music and video cravings wherever and whenever with the Cowon A2 portable multimedia player, which features 20 GB of storage and a crisply colorful 4-inch widescreen LCD. In addition to a wide range of audio, video, and still image compatibility, the A2 also offers an FM radio (with record function), voice recording (via built-in microphone), direct line-in audio recording, text reading, and PVR capability to record your favorite TV programs. Attractively sleek with rounded, ergonomic corners, the A2 measures 5.2 x 3.1 x 0.9 inches and weighs just 10.5 ounces.

For music files, the A2 can handle MP3, WMA, Egg Vorbis, FLAC (free lossless audio codec), and WAV (which provides the ability to configure the sound with a 5-band equalizer). BBE sound technology is included to aid in restoring the lost harmonics of digital music to its original clear sound. On the video side, it's compatible with AVI, Windows Media, ASF, and MPEG-4 file formats and DivX 3.11/4/5, XviD, and WMV9 video codecs. Movie file formats that are not supported at first try are easily viewable after a simple conversion using the included JetAudio Basic VX software. You can record video directly from external AV devices (TV, VCR, camcorder)--just connect the A2 with included AV cable and start recording. Video will be recorded in MPEG-4 up to a 640 x 480-pixel resolution at 30 frames per second.

The A2 also allows professional-level voice recordings through its built-in high-fidelity microphone and direct encoding through a line-in cable. You can record important lectures or directly transmit sounds from CD players or other audio devices with the line-in cable and save them in your A2 in MP3 (encoded up to 192 Kbps). The FM tuner has 25 station presets, and has immediate and scheduled recording capabilities.

The 4-inch widescreen displays provides a comfortable view of text files and image files (JPG, PNG, BMP). Images can be viewed in slide show mode or be magnified for detailed view. You can also use the A2 as a USB mass storage device to store and transfer your most important files. Additionally, it offers USB host support, enabling you to connect external devices such as digital cameras or other MP3 players directly to the unit for easy transfer of music, images and other data files without the need for a PC.

It connects to PCs using a super-fast USB 2.0 connection and it's compatible with Microsoft Windows 98SE, 2000, Me, and XP operating systems. It is not compatible with secure/DRM WMA content from online stores or subscription services. The A2's ultra power-saving circuitry enables up to 10 hours of video and 18 hours of audio continuous playback with its built-in, fully charged, 4300 mAh lithium-polymer battery.

What's in the Box
20 GB Cowon multimedia player, carrying case, strap, earphones, AC adapter, USB 2.0 cable, line-in recording cable, USB host cable, installation CD-ROM, printed operating instructions

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best there is., February 2, 2006

By 

Joseph F. Myers "Very Tough Customer" (State College, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cowon A2 20 GB Portable Multimedia Player (Electronics)

I dare say the build quality of this device rivals Apple's products' build quality. This is saying a lot coming from a lifetime Apple fan.

It is mass-storage compliant, so it mounts like a disk and is super easy to load up.

The interface is a pleasure to use, and firmware updates are frequent and easy to install.

The screen is delicious.

It even comes with a nice leather case. wow.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible !, April 16, 2006

By 

AVALLE enrique Alvaro (Montevideo, Uruguay) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cowon A2 20 GB Portable Multimedia Player (Electronics)

OVERAL IMPRESSION:

STURDY, designed to last, beautiful. It has two speakers (stereo audio) and a MIC.

It has a very nice interface, responsive, and it multitasks (you can read a doc, while listening to an mp3 or the radio, or you can even be watching a movie, if you set the DOC's Viewer background color to transparent (heh I doubt it would be practical to read while watching ... but it can be done).

Battery life is astonishing... IN EXCESS than 10 hours of video watching !!

COWON people are baking new firmwares each week ! This alone is quite nice!. They are adding functionalities on every release. THIS DOES NOT MEANS that the A2 is mangled and is being fixed along each firmware update. NOPE ... it is working like a charm... but they are EXTENDING the features list.

For example: Last firmware, among other things, added slow / fast motion in movies and music ! So you can slow down action in a movie, or slow down an mp3.

VIDEO:

1) I throw inside this beauty all kinds of video files. They play FLAWLESSLY.

2) Picture size can be set up on the fly, for 4:3, 16:9 or AUTO, and then you can finetune it with PAN AND SCAN (which it actually means you can zoom inside the video, thus eliminating any black borders).

3) Screen quality and framerate is top notch.

4) Subtitles ! It support SMI format only, but there is a freeware software that allows you to convert SRT into SMI. After placing the subtitles file, you can turn it on, double its size, change color, SYNC IT (you can move your subtitles in time, in the event that they originally do not correspond to the spoken words)

AUDIO:

1) You can set up your own equalizer or choose among preset ones. You have several custom COWON music shapers, like BBE, mp3 Enhancing, 3D, Bass, etc. That actually shape the music in a good way (it is not a cheap echoing effects collection).

PICTURES: You can see your photos and pics, placing music on the background (radio, mp3) ... you can zoom over them.

RADIO: It has FM radio, quite usable.

DOCS: You can only read TXT docs ... this actually is not that good. BUt it may change in a future firmware upgrade.

RECORDING: It can record from the built in MIC, RADIO. It has AUDIO AND VIDEO LINE IN AND LINE OUT. You can SCHEDULE recordings from ANY source for ANY window time. If it is off, when a scheduled recording starts, it TURNS ON and records.

CONS: The only con I can find, is that it does not detect PAL N TV NORM, thus it records in black and white, in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Love it!, April 21, 2006

By 

me - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cowon A2 20 GB Portable Multimedia Player (Electronics)

Just got this yesterday, overall impressions are good, the best part in my opinion is the fact that my computer sees it as a drive and I can transfer whatever I want to and FROM it, unlike the iPod, which won't let me put my stuff back on the computer from it. I pretty much backed up all my must have program setup files, a few text files, 1200 songs, 500 pictures, and 2 movies, and haven't even used 1/2 the space on it.

Sound is great, even with the included headphones, or on a cassette adapter in the car, although the speakers themselves aren't that great, but what do you expect from speakers that small?

It plays OGG files, and is Linux-friendly.

I actually didn't buy it to watch movies on, but the price wasn't that much higher than the X5, so I couldn't resist. So far I have tried 2: one which I converted to avi on the computer, works great, and one that I just taped from the VCR straight to the A2, and both are good pictures and sound, I'm not that much of a movie fanatic, so I think I'll probably just go the straight from VCR or DVD player to A2 route from now on, it's easier and quicker, and the only time I'll probably use it to watch the movies are for the kids in the car, anyway.

It comes with everything you need! If you have an iPod, you will appreciate this. I can voice record and play FM radio straight out of the box (you need the headphones for FM, they act as the antenna). I can charge it either with the USB cable or the INCLUDED AC Charger. It comes with a headphone-jack to headphone-jack wire so I can record from my iPod or portable CD player. It comes with a AV cable to hook it up to the stereo or TV, so you can record from them onto it, or play it on them. and it comes with a USB host cable, so you can transfer from your camera or camcorder or whatever directly to your A2. I wish I had this before I bought all those XD cards, I wouldn't have needed tham!

I would personally have given this about 4 1/2 stars, but there is no option for that. The reason for that instead of five is:
Music browsing is file and folder based. I would like to be able to browse by ID3 tags, but they come out with firmware constantly with new features all the time, so hopefully there will be that feature soon.
I personally like the drag-and-drop file transfer, but I know that some people actually like the iTunes way, so if they would integrate a file transfer into the jukebox program, that would probably be good for those people.

I would definately recommend this!!