O2 review coming soon - post your questions here

[dfkt]

Thanks, working now. Leeched all 3 versions.

[CrowdAds]

[Lord Froad]

This is more objective but what kind of an alternative is it to a d2.
Also how responsive is the touch screen.

[Lawliet]

How long do you think until the review comes out? Days from now? Week? Weeks?

[dfkt]

My O2 has been shipped from the USA to Europe yesterday. It should arrive next week.

I will be taking my time to write a proper review, since a complex player like the O2 certainly needs some time to get accustomed with. I don't wanna do a sub-par rush job with this review. Meaningless drivel is CNET's domain.

[UnbreakableCode]

Originally Posted by dfkt

My O2 has been shipped from the USA to Europe yesterday. It should arrive next week.

I will be taking my time to write a proper review, since a complex player like the O2 certainly needs some time to get accustomed with. I don't wanna do a sub-par rush job with this review. Meaningless drivel is CNET's domain.

First time posting..

hi dfkt . new to the forums

but i would like to share my review on it and willing to answer any questions

so here it goes

I have the cowon o2 "Black" 32gig with 16gig sdhc class 6 scandisk card also... memory is 29gigs out of the box with extra 16 sd card thats 45 gigs!

got sdhc card for 16gig 35 bucks off amazon

i had this for 3 days now and i basicaly mastered it

im pleased to tell ya its great

Tested as of 2 days battery life is stated 9 hours video and default brightness 5 is the settings is all you need..
goes up to 10 and unbeliveable picture oled!!!


now alot know it cant but there are other solutions

does not play true x264 720p says file not supported or resoultion to high .. probaly fixed with firmware update..

but it can play all others just not at that resolution ... it can also handle 720p still images. full screen plus the flac playback and other etc formats are outstanding and you can set a 720p wallpaper.

For sound quality superb! i have the skullcandy full metal jacket headphones ... its teeth shattering bass mids highs lows the dynamic value is impressive

i also used Shures e530 ( WoW ) i still like my fmj better :P

ill post some pics up with my sony 10mp camera.. soon

Now the screen is 4.3 inches oled display and trust me this thing shows off clean crisp visuals with vibrant and elegant lighting

now main purpose i bought this cause i wanted oled display and to play almost any format with out encoding.

it has lived up to its expections i tell ya.

Now i can help all that gets it .. with profile it handles perfect no problems even at 96khz!!!

fluid smooth vivid playback to the finest on such a 4 inch screen

Profile i use ( if want the very best ) untouched

download or use MediaCoder, then when open it any file it can open up all u gonna do is change formats for x264...

So it will play ... change to h264 for "format" than choose
container to "avi" after that make sure copy video is checked. and do not touch anything else ..Hit start.. takes 1 min or less each file...

I hope this help it has helped me i gone through variety of media players beside apple .. never bought a product from them

and im very pleased with this device ..and i hope you are too this my two cents and i hope it helps you ...

any other questions you like to ask about it .... post away ty and goodluck

[reineke]

The Cowon o2 is supposed to have a document and CSD (compact shared document) viewer for PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, HTML. I would like to hear about readability and text quality. The manual states it supports:

"TXT (EUC-KR(Korean), EUC-JP(Japanese), GB2312(SC), Big5(TC),ISO-8859(1:Latin,2:Central European,4:Baltic,5:Russian,6:Arabic,7:Greek,8:Heb rew,9:Turkish)". Adjustable text size.

One online review mentions that one needs to convert all documents with mTrans, a document converter for Windows that will allow the user to view .doc, .pdf, and other files and that the quality is not good.

Thanks!

[Syndrome]

Looks like alot of the basis are covered, I'm intrested in the .mkv with h.264 and maybe randomizing videos. And if you want, then give us an idea on the UI program that Cowon released.

[UnbreakableCode]

Ok i just tested out few samples of my mkv at 720p the player does not accept the format no matter how put it..

i tried resolution's from 720 x 480 they all work.. somes times a bit higher... also depending what codecs where used and how it was encoded

anything above that .. Cowon firmware must fix that

But anything from mkv does not work

"tested"

hd divx files work flawless , mp4 , avi ,wmv , wmv vc1
xvid all work.. nothing needing to do, thats good news

also
sorry i haven't tested out the text reader yet... will do that later

voice recorder works great.

just reminder upgrade the firmware .. i did to the newest it improves touch interface and smoothness and fine detail during fast scenes

if anybody can past the resolution.. than 720 x 402 .. let me know ty

beside the point xvids is all i need anyway.. if anybody finds break through getting 1280 x 720 working beside images.. post away . have a good nite ciao

ps.. Cowon o2 UI is user friendly.
Not hard to search for stuff everything is organised from a to z ... it has favorite options where u can add selected files with in folders and stuff.. so u can have atleast a custom playlist of video

in addition cool feature i like is recent history.. when watching a video and you decide to stop for people dont know.. you can continue the file anytime i had up to 100 files so far in ..history... so i know it holds alot stored

very cool feature when you dont have time or gonna stop get back to it anytime any file

you get this with the music too. ( meaning favorite list ) no playlist support :/

its has scroll cross bar you touch to move to the sides .. icons are spaced out and information all there no need to go searching for anything ..easy axcess right at ur finger tips.

its open source to as well.. so developing on this unit should be fun

any other questions feel free to ask.

i also tested out the dark knight xvid played back on unit.. played at 96khz at 688 x402 gorgious

to me thats perfect and with oled display .. in <3 anyway ciao

[sprockkets]

So none of your mkv files worked? Sucks then for me. I could use the ogm container, no big deal, but I simply used mkv to better distinguish my encodes.
I may end up just getting a G1 Android phone, since Core Pocket Media player will be available for it soon, and its predecessor, TCPMP, worked very well on my Palm LifeDrive. It even allowed changing the audio sync.

I would never use the avi container. It's too old and doesn't handle b-frames well in newer formats, well, without hacks. However, it seems it isn't as bad as I thought it was...

Try a high profile encode with a ogm container with vorbis audio and using x264. High profile means using CABAC, trellis, 8x8 transform and such, but don't use "Use as Ref" option (this option messes up the flow of frames even on my desktop).
Or if you want, I'll add that to my ftp like the other files.

[UnbreakableCode]

Originally Posted by sprockkets

So none of your mkv files worked? Sucks then for me. I could use the ogm container, no big deal, but I simply used mkv to better distinguish my encodes.
I may end up just getting a G1 Android phone, since Core Pocket Media player will be available for it soon, and its predecessor, TCPMP, worked very well on my Palm LifeDrive. It even allowed changing the audio sync.

I would never use the avi container. It's too old and doesn't handle b-frames well in newer formats, well, without hacks. However, it seems it isn't as bad as I thought it was...

Try a high profile encode with a ogm container with vorbis audio and using x264. High profile means using CABAC, trellis, 8x8 transform and such, but don't use "Use as Ref" option (this option messes up the flow of frames even on my desktop).
Or if you want, I'll add that to my ftp like the other files.

no i meant by the resoultion 1280 x 720 or anything lower than 720 by 480 does not play. Says could not play this file it plays all formats mkv to but not anything higher than 720 x 480 .. i dont know why if says in advertised it can support 720p send me sample yousendit.com ill test it out if it works ill try your way just the link in your post ok thanx. h264 / avi is great but i dont see frame drop or quailty compared it from my netbook asus aspire so i am very happy also i can share my files to my friends anyway ust do that ill let u know if it works have any other theorys i be happy to test ciao

[palm]

I registered just to comment on this thread. like lord froad, I would also like to see a mention of how it compares to the D2. I think i've narrowed my choice of mp3 player down to the D2, but this o2 peaked my interest as an mp3 player. i know it's supposed to attract more the 'videophile', but it seems, initially, the only negatives of getting an o2 over a d2 would be the difference in battery life for playing audio (which i think the o2 still gives a decent amount) and early firmware. And in return, even more video and audio codec support, flac voice recording, 10 band custom EQ (compared to a 5 band eq from D2) and maybe more. Unless they have removed something essential from the D2 that would make an "audiophile' cringe (can't create playlists on the go..etc.), I am wondering if i should hold off on the D2.

looking forward to the review and any comments!

[dfkt]

I'm seriously annoyed - probably at the Austrian postal service, but I can't be sure... my O2 still hasn't arrived yet.

Sorry for the further delays of the review.

[no9]

Can you get any madder at the austrian post office? Or should I ask next week

[1337noob]

I'm keeping my eye out for this one

[WalkGood]

I don't mean to be rude here, but imo UnbreakableCode lost all credibility when he stated:

For sound quality superb! i have the skullcandy full metal jacket headphones ... its teeth shattering bass mids highs lows the dynamic value is impressive

i also used Shures e530 ( WoW ) i still like my fmj better :P

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by DaremoS

You are the proper users to answer the most important question for audiophiles... how is SQ of O2.

No idea for the moment about if it uses a dedicated audio chipset, but TI chipset have an excellent reputation concerning sound. It will be great to read in your review if this is maintained... and a good reason for order an O2.

Read here: http://anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37161

Originally Posted by sprockkets

Can you test a file/encode for me? I can encode a simple 1 min 640x480 x264/vorbis/mkv file to see how well it handles the format and how high a level a profile it can handle.

Only the most basic one, "Pizza with no b frames aka SP.mkv", did work. The other two had choppy video and were out of sync.

Originally Posted by FMerrin

Anything and everything about directory browsing! After having to deal with Zen and the horrible lack of any ability to browse by directories, I made this my top priority for any next player...

So:

- Can O2 browse files by directories? Yes
- Can it browse by directories on SDHC cards? Yes
- If so, does browsing by directories display filenames or only ID3 tags? Only filenames, no ID3 tags
- Are file extensions displayed? Yes
- Can files be sorted from the O2's level? If so, can they be sorted by extension, too? They're sorted alphabetically, you can't reorder them
- When a single file is added to a directory, will O2 sort it, showing its place in accordance with the first letter of its filename (as should be the case), or will that new file show up at the end of the directory list (as the Zen and its ilk would do)? They're sorted alphabetically

Oh, and from another field - how does the built-in speaker perform? It's very weak and sounds bad.

Added the answers in the quote above.

Originally Posted by no9

1. Did they learn from the D2 and it's bass roll off? Read here: http://anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37161

2. Is it picky like the D2 with start up times and the formatting of cards? Startup is very fast compared to the D2, even when adding new files. Thank god it has no ID3 database.

3. How is the video out? Haven't tried it yet, have no cable. Will try it soon.

4. How does it do rebuilding the database after a SD card hot swap? SD card is badly integrated. You need to "connect" to the card, and it takes some time.

5. What screen protector will you use with it? This one: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3800

6. Are the problems EnzoTen ran into fixable via firmware updates, or have they addressed these issues already? Firmware 1.14b is a disaster still. So much ass-backwards stuff, I don't even know where to start. Usability is much, much worse than even the first firmware release for the D2.

7. How's it do with a picky set of IEMs like the Shure 530 or when used with a fiio amp? SE530 hiss extremely bad, and theres even clicks to be heard when you navigate around the UI.

Added the answers in the quote above.

[sprockkets]

Thanks very much there dfkt. You wouldn't happen to stlil have an A3 to test those same files with?

[Yosh70]

5. What screen protector will you use with it? this one: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3800

Not trying to be a smarta** on my 1st post but it looks like that protector is for a 4:3 ratio, not a widescreen.....or am I blind?

And as far as protectors go, I was reading that the ones for a PSP will work.

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by sprockkets

Thanks very much there dfkt. You wouldn't happen to stlil have an A3 to test those same files with?

Sorry, I never had an A3. EnzoTen had one, but I'm not sure if he sold it in the meantime.

Originally Posted by Yosh70

Not trying to be a smarta** on my 1st post but it looks like that protector is for a 4:3 ratio, not a widescreen.....or am I blind?

And as far as protectors go, I was reading that the ones for a PSP will work.

I have that protector already on the O2, it fits perfectly fine and is of the highest quality (like most other DX protectors). Can't get any better for less than 2 bucks.

[Yosh70]

Ok, I see it actually is a 16:9 film rather than a 4:3 ratio, sorry bout that.

Any ideas on cases other than Cowon?....I ordered my O2 out of province since nobody here has even heard of Cowon.