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The Cowon A3 is the successor to the moderately successful A2 and is the less feature filled companion to the Cowon Q5W. Where the Q5W offers a multitude of features bordering on a full fledged computer Cowon kept the A3 to its portable media player roots and significantly upgraded the media capabilities. The A3 uses Texas Instrument's DaVinci chipset which decodes a bevy of formats including HD video and MKV container. Cowon also includes other features such as video and audio recording to stay competitive with the other players in this price range.

Where to buy

Cowon A3 $299.99 at J&R Music and C...
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Pros & Cons

Pros:
3 people have already voted. Do you agree?

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Fantastic screen quality
+3agreedisagree

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Can act as a USB host
+3agreedisagree

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Best format support
+2agreedisagree

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HD video support
+2agreedisagree

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Video output AND recording
+2agreedisagree

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Natively supports open source codecs such as ogg & flac.
+1agreedisagree

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The only true "iPod Killer"
+1agreedisagree

Cons:
Do you agree?

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Annoying joystick control
+3agreedisagree

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Poor menu design
+2agreedisagree

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Chunky body design
+1agreedisagree

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Expensive ! (80GB version almost twice the price of an 80GB ipod)
+1agreedisagree

Competing products

Cowon A3 is ranked 1st.  See the top picks in MP3 Players

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More information

Spec list

  • 4" screen with 800x480 resolution that displays 16 million colors
  • native HD video decoding, up to 720p resolution
  • line-in recording (with uncompressed FLAC support)
  • SD video recording
  • video output including HD output
  • integrated speakers and microphone
  • View office file formats
  • 30GB - $349 | 60GB - $399
  • Battery life: 7 hours video | 9 hours audio
  • Video formats: AVI, WMV, ASF,MP4, MATROSKA(MKV), OGM, MPG/MPEG, VOB, DAT,MTV DivX 3.11/4/5/6, XviD, MPEG-4 SP/ASP, WMV 9/8/7, H.264 MP, M-JPEG, MPEG 1/2
  • Audio formats: MPEG1 Layer 1/2/3, WMA, FLAC, OGG Vorbis, AAC/AAC+, AC3, BSAC, True Audio, WavPack, G.726, CM

Despite the relatively large amount of formats supported the A3 cannot play back files that are encrypted with any form of DRM, for both video and audio. Furthermore, as of firmware (1.18) h264 support is not functional, though Cowon is promising improved support in future firmwares. Video recording can be done through composite or S-Video to capture standard definition video, but HD video capture is not supported.

Latest firmware is V1.24

The unit can be charged through USB or the included power adapter. The USB port doubles as a data transfer port, not only between the A3 and your computer, but also between other devices and the A3. Cowon adds Universal Mass Storage reading which means that many digital cameras, portable storage drives, and even other media players can connect to the A3 and transfer data back and forth.

In the box

  • Component cables
  • Composite cables
  • Hand strap
  • USB 2.0 cable
  • Earphones
  • Cowon A3 unit
  • Intallation CD, Quick Guide
  • AC power adapter

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1 comment about Cowon A 3

1.  avatar quatermass  May 31, 2008 5:44am

The VOB side of it doesn't actually work. I tried my own DVDs (and Region 2/1 DVDs) that I've made and they don't play. A3 claims unsupported Codec! (I'm using the latest firmware V1.24).
I checked with Gspot and it says they're bog-standard MPEG2 files.

Also what I didn't realise is that when you've got it in music playing mode in your pocket with the LCD off, you can't skip past a track easily without picking it up and looking at it.

Also once you play a song, you get the music info screen which looks nice. But once you press 'back' you can't get back to that song info screen! Duh.

You have to go back to the menu, press music and then navigate back down to the song and then it starts it again from scratch. What alien from another planet wrote this interface! Do Cowon staff actually use it? I guess not.

So not a device you want to put in your car or pocket and just ignore it as it plays.
It really needs a skip button on the right-hand edge.

 

Also: The Cowon Support web site remains a mystery. They still have not send out my registration approval email after 24 hours. No approval, no access to their support!

If you buy this, ensure you have decent support from your retail supplier!

 

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    Key Features:

    Manufacturer Cowon
    MSRP $399.00
    Release Date Jan. 1, 2008

    Sponsors

    Product page stats

    1999 views and 56 edits (see all)
    Created: 11/07/2007 - 10:35
    Modified: 11/08/2008 - 19:39
    Model # variations:

    A, 3, A3