The Cowon A2 is a portable media player/recorder with a 30GB hard drive, a widescreen 4-inch LCD, and an integrated FM tuner. Its video and audio playback capabilities are good, the design is attractive, and the interface is fairly easy to use, but we’re a bit disappointed in what we feel is the device’s main feature: video recording. There are also some file-compatibility issues that need to be worked out before we can get really excited about this product.
Video playback is stunning with a crystal clear image even when being interpreted into widescreen from the native resolution. The display can be toggled between 4:3 and 16:9 or can be left on automatic so the player makes up its own mind. The unit supports playback of AVI, WMV, ASF, MP4 and video made with Divx 3.11 to 4.5, Xvid and Windows Media 9 codecs with reasonable resolution limits imposed on each. There are very few video formats that this unit doesn’t display, the only two major ones being Quicktime and Real Media. There is no noticeable slow down on any of the formats when played on the LCD screen and no audio lag. The video playback function also supports SMI subtitle files which make watching foreign films possible and also opens up a world of possibilities for those with hearing disabilities. Unfortunately, SMI is not the most widely used subtitle standard but there are free programs available on the internet for easy conversion. Video can also be played back via a television set with the flick of a switch and maintains its quality of image and sound reproduction.
Record video directly from external AV devices (TV,VCR, camcorder). Just connect your A2 with included AV cable then start recording.USB 2.0 support allows fast file transfer to the built-in hard disk, and the “USB HOST” feature allows you to transfer pictures from your digital camera (with UMS support) to your A2 without computer. You can record voice memos or important lectures with A2’s built-in high-fidelity microphone. You can also directly from any analog sound device such as a CD player with the lin-in cable.
Specifications:
Video Playback File Format : AVI, WMV, ASF
Video Codec : DivX 3.11 1) / 4/ 5 2), XviD 2), WMV9 (MP@LL) 3)
Audio Codec : WMA 4), MP3, AC3 5.1 Downmix
Audio Playback MP3, OGG 10), WMA 4), FLAC 10), WAV with 5 bands EQ, BBE, Mach3Bass, MP Enhance, and 3D Surround 5)
Photo Viewer JPEG 6), PNG 7), BMP 8 )
Text Viewer TXT (EUC-KR, EUC-JP, GB2312, Big5, ISO-8859-1, UTF-8)
FM Radio 76 ~ 108MHz with preset
TV Recording ASF (MPEG4 video and MP3) : Up to 640X480, 30fps
Line-in Recording MP3 : Up to 44.1KHz, 192Kbps
TV Out NTSC/PAL
DivX Certified Yes
Subtitle SMI Format
Playback Time Video : Up to 10 hours
Audio : Up to 18 hours
LCD 4″ 480×272, 0.183mm pitch, TFT LCD (16:9 Wide)
Storage Hard disk (20GB/30GB) 9)
PC Interface USB 2.0 (Max 480Mbps)
USB OTG USB 1.1 (Max 12Mbps)
USB USB 2.0