Cowon D2-08BL 8GB Portable Multimedia Player Black

I wanted a touch screen mp3 player so I thought the Cowon D2 was my best bet. The one thing that sold me on it was the expandable memory. Overall I like it but there are a couple things about that annoy me. One would be creating playlists. I have yet to figure it out. Every mp3 player I've ever owned were easy to make playlists for. The Cowon D2 has left me clueless even though I've researched how to do it online through the Cowon website. The second annoying thing about it is that it won't play some of my wma files. My previous player,the Creative Zen (4G),had no problems. It even played unprotected acc files.

If I can get over these two flaws,I think I'll hold on to it for a while. If not,I'm gonna go back to my Creative Zen.

Let me say first, I bought this to watch videos while traveling. So the majority of this review is going to focus on the bundled video conversion software and video playback on the D2.

The Cowon D2 Portable Multimedia Player is absolutely, without a doubt, fantastic. It's nice and compact, the device is about the size of a credit card (width & height.) It is a little fat though. It's depth matches the width of a pair of basic fingernail clippers.

The 2.5 Inch screen displays a clear and colorful picture. The sound is crisp, though the headphones that come with the device are very cheap. I replaced the given headphones with a pair of Delta Headphones that I bought for two dollars during a flight, and the sound quality IMPROVED. The touch screen functions just as it should, responding quickly to every touch (there is a locking feature to keep it from responding while you're watching a movie or listening to music.) The MP3 playback has been entirely perfect for me. I've not yet had an issue to speak of.

OK, onto the true downfall of this product, the bundled software. JetAudio VX is absolute, without a doubt, garbage. For every good thing there is about the Cowon D2, there is an equally bad thing about the JetAudio VX software. Everything about JetAudio disappoints me, and that includes the sixteen plus typos in the Dialog boxes.

Now, I'm no novice when it comes to video conversion. I have six or seven different conversion softwares on my computer. I've used everything from Vegas to Nero to Pinnacle to Virtualdub. None of them have given me as much trouble as JetAudio VX has. The very first time I tried to convert a video with JetAudio, I had an error on EVERY SINGLE conversion option save one, WMV 512KB. Frequently, JetAudio has suffered codec errors that I cannot recreate with any other conversion software. I've seen JetAudio produce error after error only to watch Nero convert the video to the same file type without a single issue. It's utterly maddening. JetAudio usually tells you to go to an independent codec site (it gives the address) to download another codec as a solution. However, doing this has NOT fixed a single JetAudio VX conversion error.

I've read of people using other software to convert videos for D2 playback, but none of the conversion software I have seems to be compatible. 320x240 AVI conversions from Pinnacle, Nero, and Virtualdub have all failed to play on the D2. Currently my only option is to convert MPEG into AVI and then into WMV 512 for playback on the D2. I don't know if the $29.99 version of JetAudio comes with these same headaches, but I'm certainly not going to pay $30.00 just to find out.

Also, converting audio files to the MP3 format with JetAudio VX will cost extra. I've not tested the audio conversion at all, as the MP3s I converted with Nero (MP3Pro) have played on the D2 without issue.

Finally, the playback on the D2 is pretty straight on. I can really only compare it to watching a small flat screen television. There's minor pixelation on rare occasions, but it's extremely slight. There is a syncing issue when fastfowarding or rewinding videos on the D2. This, however, isn't really an exclusive problem. Most media players I've used have desynced at least once or twice while skipping through the video.

I love the Cowon D2 Portable Multimedia Player. On the other hand, I hate the required JetAudio VX software. I hate it so much that I almost returned the D2. That really sums it up I guess, if you're looking to watch videos on the D2, you have to decide if the D2's above average playback and everlasting battery (ten hours of video playback) are worth the headache of converting videos with JetAudio. For me, it was.

Unlike the iaudio U3 I have, this guy does not have the annoying bass artifacts (when a bass note hits, it sounds squeaky) when playing ogg/vorbis files. It sounds great, has a good eq, and has a nice interface for music, though it takes about a day or so to get the hang of it.

The bad? Video support. Don't get me wrong, it works great, if you pre convert the video though. My problem with that is, my old Palm LifeDrive using TCPMP can play any XVid video (OK, no quarterpel or GMC), even with the ogg container and vorbis audio, with no down converting resolution or changing audio codecs (it can handle VBR mp3, while the D2 needs CBR). I guess if you want that kind of playback, get the iaudio A3, or easier yet, get a Windows Mobile PDA/Phone since TCPMP is still available for it, and even though they stopped developing it about 2 years ago, it still works perfect for those videos, and can even play very hi res stuff.

But, the screen on the D2, and especially the 800x480 screen on the iaudio A3 blows them all away, save for a few PMPs.

The cowon can do so many things, the sound is great but you have to buy another headphone, the touch interface work very good and are very fast.
You can find on internet some way to modify the interface of the cowon like button, police and also the video at turn on.
But for seeing video you have to use the software to convert it in the scale of the cowon screen, too bad that you have to do that. That's why i only put 4 stars.

The Cowon D2, is a really good device for listening to music, watching videos, and looking at photos. I have about 400 songs, 20 videos, and 5 photos, and a couple of flashgames. I still have 3 GB left from 8 GBs. And the touch screen is really simple to use, and the device is the best so far.