Personal Video Player

[smoaky]

I'm in the market for a personal video player, and I've narrowed it down to the Cowon a2, the Archos AV500 and the Creative Zen Vision. I've read great things about all of them, so i thought id get some at opinions. The Archos is a bit pricey, and I like the cowon a2 cus I can buy a 20gb model which is a bit cheaper. The only thing I want to do with this is play video. I picked these because they have larger screens than an ipod and I already have a 4g ipod. I want the best looking video on the biggest screen. I want it to support xvid and divx and probably be able to upgrade to new codecs (I dont know if thats feasible). I know atleast the archos and cowon are used for video recording, but thats not something I'm especially concerned with, although it seems like a nice option to have - to record shows then watch them on the go. For the record feature, I would only need the recorded video to look good on the player, not provide uber quality on my pc or television. I will basically upload compressed dvds or tv shows in divx or xvid format and watch those.
Any and all opinions, reviews are appreciated! Thanks.

 

[powerMarkymark]

I am also looking into getting an Archos, it has video out connections that I find interesting for my needs.

Do the others you mentioned have that option?

M@rc

I Am Canadian!

 

[smoaky]

the creative seems the lesser of the the three. The cowon a2 and archos av500 seem the best. But i cant find a head to head comparison anywhere on video quality etc.

 

[DeathReborn]

Archos have a proven track recorn in the PVP market. It may be expensive but it's well worth the investment. The Creative Zen Vision could very well replace your iPod but I think it's battery life is the lesser of the 3.

If you can afford it, get the Archos.
If you can't quite afford the Archos get the Cowon.
If you want 1 device for MP3, Video & Radio get the Creative.

 

[smoaky]

I've basically ruled out the creative, I just want it to play the video files. The Archos seems to be more expensive since it records better. Im looking at the av700 which seems to have the biggest screen. That seems nice.

 

[Jawo]

I'm looking at the same market.....It seems that the Cowon and the Archos are the two competitive models. The general rule I have heard is that the Archos is more for recording and the Cowon is more for viewing. If you are going to use it primarly for viewing I would recommend the Cowon.

Check out some of these reviews:
iaudiophile.net
Amazon
CNet

 

[Oyeve]

Sorry to revive an old thread but I recently bought the AV500 100gb model for $500. Prices dropped considerably since the AV700 came out. I love this thing! This baby records any DVD from my portable insignia dvd player ($85 from BB) and is all around great! I didnt go for the AV700 as it was too big to be pocket-portable. The features of the AV500 are great. I was tossed up between the new Zen vision and the Archos but when the salesman at J and R said they had a 100gb model for 500 bucks I jumped on it. No regrets. 4" WS, TIVO-like capabilities, 100gb storage and the ability to record video direcly to it plus 15 hours battery for music and 4.5 for video is awesome. My 2 cents.

 

[corkyg]

I have used the Creative Zen now for 7 months - and it suits my needs. The battery slips off easily and I carry the larger spare - I have never run out. The cradle that links it to my laptop is sweet - makes putting stuff in and out a breeze. I have also connected it to big screen TVs and shown ripped DVD movies as well as slide show.

It fits in my shirt pocket when flying, and I drown out the world with the Bose Quiet Comfort 2 headphones connected to it. The ear buds suck. 🙂

 

[tjpark1111]

rule out the creative if your movies are mostly 16:9. I have the A2 and can honestly say I am in love with it. But since you are only playing video, I could suggest the AV500. Do you care for recording much? if not, get the A2. The A2 has double the battery life, but the AV500 has a user-replaceable battery. You decide if you're ever gonna watch more than 8 hours of video without being near an AC wall socket. How many movies do you exactly want to store? Because if 20GB is plenty for you, no reason to get more. The A2 has been getting constant firmware updates every 2 weeks or so, check out iaudiophile.net The disadvantage in video for the A2 is that it doesn't support WMV7 or WMV8, but only WMV9. Kinda stupid, but if you watch a lot of WMV7/8 videos, the A2's out. The AV700 SUCKS because it uses the same resolution of the 4-inch screen(480x272 i believe)on the larger screen so picture quality is horrible. Picture quality between the A2 and the AV500 are largely similar, seeing that they both use the same samsung LCD panels. I've seen some bad banding and some annoying ghosting in some files, but I think that's the source's fault. Looking at the features list now, the A2 is just so much more feature packed than the AV500, but the key deciding factors are the battery that I mentioned, and if you care for recording or not. I think you would be happy with either though.
EDIT: i actually read your entire post and because you only want the recordings to look good on the player, thumbs up for the A2. A PSP could be a feasible option with the 8GB drive attachment if that's all you need for video, since it does have a larger screen than either of the players mentioned here.

 

[Oyeve]

I record quite a lot so the archos suits me. I also travel a lot and used to bring my laptop and/or portable DVD player and a bunch of DVDs. Now with the 100gb AV500 I can just record a boatload of movies and leave the dvds, laptop and portable dvd pllayer at home and the AV500 is much smaller than all that crap and the battery lasts much longer than the laptop and DVD player. I just bought the triple battery that last nearly 3 times longer than the already great AV500 battery! almost 42 hrs music and nearly 13 hrs video!