Recommend me an inexpensive (~€200) PMP that plays DivX!

Dave!

Hey folks,

I'm considering investing in a nice PMP. I'm going interrailing in July, so there'll be alot of time spent on trains, and I've got about 250 films burned to DVDs, so it'd be great to lash a load of them onto a PMP and have something to keep us occupied on the train. I wanted a cheapo one, but I missed out on the Commodore that was on iBood for €100 , so I'm still looking for relatively cheap, but I'm not under the illusion that I'll find a deal that good again.

Anyways, I've been looking through previous threads and 3 potentials are....

Archos 504 40GB (€300 excl. delivery) - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Archos-504-Portable-Multimedia-Player/dp/B000I6F45M/sr=8-2/qid=1172505639/ref=pd_ka_2/026-9485807-7448428?ie=UTF8&s=electronics

Archos PMA400 30GB (€330 excl. delivery) - http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007DFPUA/interactiveda3020-21

And more realistically.....

Cowon A2 30 GB (€225 excl. delivery) - http://www.amazon.com/Cowon-A2-Portable-Multimedia-Player/dp/B000CS1JRS/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-5954257-0359813?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1177624363&sr=1-1
http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/cowon/a2/

So have any of ye got thoughts on these? The Archos are getting great reviews on the forum, but they're a little too expensive I think. I'd like to hear some thoughts on the Cowon A2, cos that's closer to what I'm willing to spend. It plays DivX, has a decent storage capacity, and seems to have a good battery life.

Worth buying? It's cheap enough that if I lost it while interrailing it wouldn't be catastrophic (although it'd suck majorly), but it seems to be of good enough quality that it's a reasonable price to pay.

Any thoughts?

Gran Hermano

For compatibility to play most vids you throw on it you can't beat the
Creative Zen M. Prices are falling from the €269-289 they were retailing
for around Christmas time. You should be able to pick one up for slightly
over your budget of €200. You can also hook it up to your TV and watch
your videos of choice (it sure keeps me sane when I'm travelling with work
and is useful in hotels).

pleasant Co.

Gran Hermano wrote:

For compatibility to play most vids you throw on it you can't beat the
Creative Zen M. Prices are falling from the €269-289 they were retailing
for around Christmas time. You should be able to pick one up for slightly
over your budget of €200. You can also hook it up to your TV and watch
your videos of choice (it sure keeps me sane when I'm travelling with work
and is useful in hotels).

HA!!!
while the ZVM is good, I've heard so many reports of ppl having issues with video incompatibility,...

Dave you have a real gem on you list there in the Cowon A2,that thing will handle just about anthing you throw at it and would be my recommendation, fantastic pmp with great battery and SQ

Royale with Cheese

Mactard wrote:

HA!!!
while the ZVM is good, I've heard so many reports of ppl having issues with video incompatibility,...

It doesn't play videos with ac3 audio encoding... actually I think it plays them but with no audio. It doesn't play hd video files. That's about it. It'll play all of the other usual tv show/movie files you throw at it.

pleasant Co.

Royale with Cheese wrote:

It doesn't play videos with ac3 audio encoding... actually I think it plays them but with no audio. It doesn't play hd video files. That's about it. It'll play all of the other usual tv show/movie files you throw at it.

Incorrect, the A2 was one of the first pmps to have support for ac3, although it does not play HD (then again the PMP is 2 years old, and even now HD contect is not all that popular, give it five years and it'll be all the rage )

Royale with Cheese

Mactard wrote:

Incorrect, the A2 was one of the first pmps to have support for ac3, although it does not play HD (then again the PMP is 2 years old, and even now HD contect is not all that popular, give it five years and it'll be all the rage )

I was talking about the Zen

pleasant Co.

Ah.... of course, how foolish of me.

_CreeD_

I definitely recommend the Cowon A2. It shines in every dept.: Great screen, excellent video compatibility with no need to convert for most movie types,long battery life, superb sound quality and very extensive audio codec support (FLAC and MPC alone are worth it to me).
As for HD support...er...hello? It's a PORTABLE. You're lucky if screens that size can do 640x480, and most decent ones do half that. There is absolutely no need for HD on a device with PMP sized screens, plus the computational overhead/storage needs make it extremely impractical.

Royale with Cheese

_CreeD_ wrote:

As for HD support...er...hello? It's a PORTABLE. You're lucky if screens that size can do 640x480, and most decent ones do half that. There is absolutely no need for HD on a device with PMP sized screens, plus the computational overhead/storage needs make it extremely impractical.

Nobody wants hd support so they can watch videos on a 2 inch screen in better resolution, but it would be handy if players did support hd files as many people may have hd files in their libraries they would like to be able to watch on their players. It's not like it plays the file but at a lower resolution, they just won't play at all and it can be very annoying.

zod

irish crowd on ebay http://stores.ebay.ie/LuzernTech_MP3-MP4-MPEG4-Players_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ16QQftidZ2QQtZkm

estariol

Really good deal, if you dont mind the colour (although its the old model and not the recently launched thinner version)


http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=318650

pleasant Co.

estariol wrote:

Really good deal, if you dont mind the colour (although its the old model and not the recently launched thinner version)


http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=318650

No man, you've linked to a 30gb model, there is no new slimmer 30gb one.
Creative updated the 60gb model to make it as thin as the 30 gigger.

Great deal besides the colour.

Dave!

There's an Archos 604 here
http://www.amazon.com/Archos-Ultraslim-Portable-Recorder-500860/dp/B000HAVWQE/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-1748384-3970227?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1178319566&sr=1-2

E213 (excl delivery)

What do ye think? Better than the Cowon A2?

daveg

I have the A2. Have had it for a while now. Really impressed with it but 2 things for me put it head and shoulders above the competition.

1/ Compatability - plays nearly anything you throw at it.

2/ Battery life. At least 10 hours. Superb for long flights.

daveg

DaveMcG wrote:

There's an Archos 604 here
http://www.amazon.com/Archos-Ultraslim-Portable-Recorder-500860/dp/B000HAVWQE/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-1748384-3970227?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1178319566&sr=1-2

E213 (excl delivery)

What do ye think? Better than the Cowon A2?

Amazon don't ship electrical goods to Ireland. I bought my A2 from this ebay seller. Top seller imo.

http://myworld.ebay.com/grupare/

Kintarō Hattori

Yup the A2 is a fantastic piece of kit. I bought mine when I was living out in Balbriggan and had to spend 2 hours on the train each day. As EVERYONE has mentioned it'll play just about everything you throw at it and the quality of the screen is just superb. The battery life is phenomenal and the sound quality is wonderful. I had it with me when I was in Poland on holidays last year and it was a real life saver!

Dave!

daveg wrote:

Amazon don't ship electrical goods to Ireland. I bought my A2 from this ebay seller. Top seller imo.

http://myworld.ebay.com/grupare/

That seller appears to only have 1 item for sale Is that incorrect?

If they're no longer doing the A2 -- does anyone know another place that sells it?

Based on all of your recommendations, I'm gonna buy that mudderb*tch

daveg

DaveMcG wrote:

That seller appears to only have 1 item for sale Is that incorrect?

If they're no longer doing the A2 -- does anyone know another place that sells it?

Based on all of your recommendations, I'm gonna buy that mudderb*tch

I'm not sure if he is still selling them tbh! Maybe drop him an email. He'll post it marked as gift to avoid duty. Be careful to check they are not now end of line.

Dave!

I dropped him an email, cheers.

Anybody know of another seller, in case this fella aint sellin anymore?

Dave!

Damn, he doesn't have any A2s left

pleasant Co.

sorry to hear that, i"ll have a look aroung my boards and see if i can't help you out in any way

daveg

DaveMcG wrote:

Damn, he doesn't have any A2s left

I'd do a bit of research then so. He's a reseller for Cowan and I'd say a new model is due out if he is no longer selling.

Dave!

I ordered it! :eek:
Here: http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=017&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&viewitem=&item=270109695074&rd=1&rd=1

Just waiting for the shipping price then I'll pay... Probs bout E330. Do ye think customs will rape me?

Royale with Cheese

Well if the item location is genuinely England then I seriously doubt customs will be doing any raping.

Dave!

awesome.

daveg

DaveMcG wrote:

awesome.

Let us know what you think once it arrives and you start using it. Would highly recommend some Eshure in ear headphones which block out the outside noise. Esp good on planes etc:

http://www.headphone.com/products/headphones/in-ear-monitor/shure-e2c.php

Royale with Cheese

Yeah I have the Shure e2c's. Quality earphones. Took a while to get used to at first but they give excellent sound quality and do a great job of blocking out the noise of all the knackers on the bus.

I bought them off ebay, from a seller... wind130 or something like that. She was reccomended on here. Got them for a little over €60 delivered.

Dave!

The Cowon A2 arrived this morning 4 days, not bad!

I'm still messing around with it, but I'm watching Heat on it at the moment and it's great Excellent quality, easy enough to use.

Seems like a good purchase! Thanks for the recommendations