• wide array of video and audio format supported.

• exceptional sound quality.

• comes with an CSD viewer that allows users to view not only MS Word files, but also PowerPoint documents and other image files. It also supports TXT files

• You can record audio and video from a television set.

Thumbs down for:

• clumsy joystick

• no ID3 tag sorting only archaic sorting

• FAT32 doesn't allow transfer of 4GB+ HD movies

• Reflective screen

Final verdict:

The Cowon A3 portable video player(pvp) is really out of the world when it comes to file support and audio , video recording.but if you can tolerate the clumsy joystick and archaic sorting then this is the player for you.

Design:

The A3's 4-inch, 800×480 LCD is sharp and gorgeous. The tradeoff, of course, is that the Cowon A3's glossy plastic screen is a magnet for both fingerprints and scratches.

Unlike competitors such as the Archos 605 wifi or the ipod Touch the Cowon A3 does not use a touch screen interface for navigating through files and menus. Instead, Cowon employs a small joystick located in the top right corner of the A3's face, along with a series of four well-spaced buttons below it that serve multiple functions. The advantage of staying clear of touch screen navigation is that it keeps your fingers off the screen. Unfortunately, Cowon's miniature joystick navigation was so haphazard, it had us screaming for mercy. More times than we care to recall, the A3's joystick would accidentally shift up or down when we needed to push down on it to make a selection, requiring several careful attempts. Over time we became more skillful at using the joystick, but those of you with sausage fingers should stay away

The cowon A3 holds two stereo speakers and a mono microphone on its top edge,a power button on its right.On the left, the player houses an array of slots – earphone jack, composite AV-out and AV-in (both 3.5mm), S-video out, and a USB port. The player also feature stereo speakers and a mic

video:


The screen supports 16 million colors with a pixel pitch of 0.108mm. Unlike most PVPs, the A3 offers a simple drag and drop interface. Natively, the player supports almost every format except MOV. The list includes AVI, WMV, ASF, MP4, MATROSKA (MKV), OGM, MPG/MPEG, VOB, DAT and MTV. This pretty much covers everything, for whatever is left out; there's a conversion software bundled with the player.

The player supports HD playback of a resolution up to 1280 x 720 pixels without any decoding. The catch is that only the FAT32 file system is supported, which makes transferring movies over 4GB (most HD movies exceed that) impossible. We checked with cowon, and we're sorry to say there's no solution to this problem yet.

The A3 plays video better than most video players can, and without conversion too. The blacks were better accentuated than in the creative vision< span class="kLink" style="color: rgb(0, 89, 199) ! important; font-weight: 400; position: static;font-family:Verdana,Arial,tahoma,trebuchet MS;font-size:12;" >:W. Being a video player, the A3 also comes with a host of features like pan and scan that allows you to zoom into the movie and pan to the portion you wish to see. Aspect ratio can be changed on the fly without accessing setup from the menu. You can even save a snapshot of your favorite scene.

Music:

The music in this PVP is simply exceptional. Except DRM-protected wma files , it can take on anything, even FLAC. It supports MP3/2/1, WMA, ASF, FLAC, OGG, M4A, MATROSKA (MKA), AC3, TTA, APE, MPC, WV and WAV. Another good thing is that the files are arranged into folders, so you can arrange your music the way you want, just as on the computer.

The earphones could have been better, but they aren’t too bad either. Honestly I liked the music player, but then I tested the A3 with my sennhieser HD415.

Other features:

The player can be used for storing and viewing pictures. It supports JPG, GIF, PNG, TIF, BMP and RAW. Like the A2, the A3 too comes with a CSD viewer that allows users to view not only MS Word files, but also PowerPoint documents and other image files. It also supports TXT files. The nice screen really makes reading e-books a treat.


What sets the player apart is the fact that you can record both video and audio from a television set. Using the S-video (included with the package) you can record videos without losing much depth. The 3.5mm composite line-in can record audio in FLAC, so you can connect a cd player or a Walkman and record content without losing too much information. I tried it, and it rocks!

A unique feature of the A3 is the USB host that allows you to connect any other media device to the player via the USB host cable, and transfer data directly. You can copy songs, pictures, and video. It’s fast, and unlike the A2, quite reliable as well.

Battery life:

The battery life is claimed to be around 7 hours for continuous video playback. With the A2 I had been able to watch three movies in succession, but the A3 sadly disappointed – it couldn’t get beyond the first half of the second movie.While charging, the battery heats up the player uncomfortably. This makes charge-and-watch a bit of a turn-off

price:

The price seems quite justified. No other player in the market currently offers so much even at this price.

in rupees: Rs.25,000

in us$: 30gb version – $349

60gb version – $399

CH ECK OUT THE COWON A3 VIDEO REVIEW FROM GENERATIONMP3.COM

check out the comparison of cowon a3 vs ipod touch (courtesy UTVi)