Have Firmware updates made the O2 a better PMP?

[kasrhp]

the o2 has a recent files list that are better than bookmarks if youd like. The s9 might,not sure though

[CrowdAds]

[barryem]

Originally Posted by Shortly

I'm considering the O2 or the D2 from Cowon. Also the Creative XFi. There are positives for each of the players, but I mostly listen to long (1 hour) radio programs. I never, yes, never listen to music. I'm mostly a talk radio listener. Not your traditional talk radio, but more targeted for my interest.

I need the ability for bookmarks since I might want to jump tracks and go to video every once in a while. The O2's auto-bookmarking feature is nice, with the SDHC card and many video codecs, but the portability is somewhat important.

I want a player that can be versatile. I like the ability to store contacts, link with my Outlook address book. Not critical, but most of my info is in my phone, anyway. I'd prefer not to have another device on my hip (O2 mainly would be in a belt clip, right? - too big for a lanyard??)

I'm currently using a Sansa e280. Nearly unwatchable video, and absolutely no bookmarking on any file. What really sucks is if you don't see the entire video, you power down, then power up again, you've lost your place and have to FF to the left off point. Frustrating. Small display... I need a massive upgrade.

So to summarize, most importantly Album art, audio (podcasts, radio), some video (20% of the time), and portability. By the way, do you have to convert videos if the codecs aren't supported? Is there a Cowon supplied tool to do this?

I know this is a thread for the O2, but would anyone have any further guidance for one of the three players?

For what you want to do I think either the O2 or the D2 are perfect for you. My suggestion is compare their size and see which fits your needs better.

Actually, conversion will be an issue for you, too. Most videos have to be converted for the D2 and most don't have to be converted for the O2, although if you want to you can cut down the bandwidth and resolution of videos to fit the O2 screen and make the files smaller without losing much quality.

Both players come with the same video conversion software and it'll convert for either player. It's very fast and it does a fine job. I wish it could adjust brightness, contrast and saturation but when they're off in the original I have other tools I can use. None as nice or as easy to use as the converter that comes with these players.

The converter installs as part of Jet Audio but you can load the video converter by itself. I don't care for Jet Audio so I almost never use it.

Your choice is between 2 fine players and either one will be a good choice so I wouldn't worry over it too much.

Barry

[barryem]

I had a Zen X-Fi and returned it because the backlight won't turn off without putting it on hold, which is inconvenient with audiobooks since I'm always jumping back to re-listen to something when my mind wanders or I get interrupted. Other than that it was a nice player.

It does let you set bookmarks and it does resume. I forget the details but it either resumes if you pause the file before turning it off or it resumes if you don't pause the file. One of those. Resume is a bit flaky and doesn't always work but it works most of the time. Bookmarks work very well.

My X-Fi was also defective in that it would play through the speaker but not through the headphones. I considered exchanging it but decided to simply return it because of the backlight problem.

Barry

[Shortly]

Thanks, fellas. I'm leaning again toward the O2 despite the negative review. It looks like Cowon has upgraded their firmware quite a bit in a month, most notably the upgraded album art resolution.

What I really liked about my small Creative Zen Nano (1GB player) was the ability to browse by file name. This was awesome! I see that the O2 does that too, and is limited to this feature only. Sometimes I prefer the ID3 tag browsing, but either way, I'll be happy. I like putting my monthly podcasts in one folder, anyway. It should be easy to find what I'm looking for since I'm almost exclusively a podcast listener.

One aggravating flaw in the hardware design of the O2 is the lack of tactile buttons, especially a much needed play/pause button.

There wasn't much said other than the quote about the lack of a dedicated play, pause button on the O2's hardware. Was it time consuming or aggravating to get the player to come back up and pause the player?

I personally have the Sansa e280, so anything will be an improvement, as you can well imagine.

The text viewer isn't too bad of a reader. Much better than ones you have to put in by graphic. Especially with a long document. I can easily save a long web page as text, and move it to the player. Anyone had success or lack thereof with this feature?

I was interested in the D2 because of the rave reviews, but it is nearly two years old already! Amazing, isn't it? I have the hope that the O2's further "flaws" are fixed with software. It appears they are listening somewhat...?

Is anyone who has updated the firmware willing to comment on the updates? I'd be very interested in hearing about the improvements, and what remains to be done... Anyone?