COWON A3-30SL 30GB Portable Media Player (Silver)

Got mine delivered by Amazon yesterday. Since people already know the good stuff about it, I won't harp on same string. A couple of bad things I noticed are--

1) At times, it's difficult to have the joystick register what you really wanted it to do, ie, it works as if you'd pushed it toward the left when all you really wanted was a center click--will surely take some time to get used to this erratic control mechanism--and this is something that can't be fixed with firmware upgrade.
2) Had audio-video sync issue with one of the video files when I played it the first time--the next time I played it, they were in perfect synchronization.
[...]

I have been thoroughly disappointed with their products and lack of customer service. They average about 2-3 weeks to return an email for customer service issues. I finally got through to a representative and was advised to send the product back to them, at my own expense and they emailed back about 1 month later stating that there is no problem with the item. When I emailed back with a detailed description of the specific situation I encountered (item stopped powering on or charging through the USB port) they ceased communication. I still haven't heard back from them, but will never buy their products ever again. They are terrible both at manufacturing and caring for their customers.

OK item. Would only recommend for people without a laptop or portable DVD. Limited memory. Wait a few years with this one - I'm sure the price will decrease.

The player actually has 30gigs worth of memory on it as advertised. However, it cannot handle file sizes (for single files) greater than 4GB because it uses the outdated FAT32 File System as opposed to NTFS. I have been having trouble with putting large video files on to the device without having to find a way to split them up first which takes a considerable amount of time. For any file that's over 4GB a false error shows up saying that the disk is full even though there is plenty of space. Right now I am looking around for a fix or firmware update to see if I get lucky. Other than this, I love my purchase. It's the best portable device you can get for a nice price and without having to pay with monthly bloodsucking fleas... err, fees.

The A3 is better than the A2 a little bit. A3 better Screen and Sharper Picture But Not as Bright. Sound the Same as A2 , Video Recording better But Will Not Record DVDs Direct Like A2 it Records Everthing DVD,Bluerays,HDdvds Everthing. Had my A2 for over 2.5 Years No Problem. Great Product With Limits.