Cowon V5?

[kemlo]

been looking for a good pmp device to watch my anime on the move, would prefer to not have to re-encode everything but if thats necessary no way around it.

seems to be several on the market and so i thought i would check on here and see if anyone else has had a similar idea - success i found this thread here http://forums.bakabt.me/index.php?topic=23720.0 however as it is over 120 days old i figured i would make a new thread as its not the same question.

is the Cowon V5 still the best pmp for anime/video is there something better now?

i am a UK resident and the cowon V5 is over £200, however if i buy it from the US it comes to considerably less (including p&p) is there any downside to this?

generally those who have researched/bought pmp's for the purpose of watching their collection on the move, any advice?

[rostheferret]

I was just going to get a cheap laptop, but then my boss told me if I watched stuff at work I'd get fired

Personally, I'd look into something like the Archos 705 (7" screen vs 4.8." Do the math) but the way things are going, you might as well get a tablet when the tech nerds have stopped jizzing their pants whenever its mentioned and prices become reasonable. I tried watching TV on my small screen, and I couldn't do it. I was either forced into an uncomfortable position holding it, precariously balancing it somewhere, encoding stuff so it'd fit (though naturally this depends on how much stuff you want on there), and the tiny screen was simply painful.

[kemlo]

im looking for something portable, so the screen size is not really an issue, in regards to tablet pc's is it possible to install codecs on them? such as cccp, or would VLC become almost necessary?

[tomoya-kun]

An iPad is awesome for watching anime!  Great screen! 

[halfelite]

An iPad is awesome for watching anime!  Great screen! 

Do you use vlc on the ipad? i thought ipad did not have native xvid support. and so forth so how do you watch anime on it?

[fohfoh]

An iPad is awesome for watching anime!  Great screen! 

Do you use vlc on the ipad? i thought ipad did not have native xvid support. and so forth so how do you watch anime on it?

AFAIK vlc for ipod/ipad etc. is indeed out... but unless I am given an iPad, I will not purchase one for that price.

[kemlo]

what foh foh said 

ive looked into the archos 5 and 7, both would require me to re-encode everything, and i would have to pay extra in order to get better h264 support (sneaky buggers) so again im thinking that the cowon v5 might be the best solution especially considering its considerably cheaper than the ipad and i literally only want a pmp for watching my stuff while traveling etc i dont need wifi/bluetooth/webcam/compass whatever othe gagets it has

[flynn]

all about the -> HTC Google Nexus One <-

Its basicaly a laptop that makes phonecalls XD, still by far the best phone on the market untill someone comes
with a 1.5/2Ghz processor in a phone.

Does everything you want and everything you wouldnt expect it to.

I've had it since day one, had zero problems, Froyo2.2 update has full Flash 10.3 support, great for crunchyroll, phoanime
or any streaming site, assuming you get good signal- 3G, or wifi.

RockPlayer media app is free and supports-

RockPlayer can support audio and video container format: avi mkv rmvb mp4 mov wmv asf wma wav mpg ts mpa dvd au mp3 mid ivf aiff ogm ogg cda flic d2v aac roq flac drc dsm swf pls pmp.
Audio and video encoding format AAC AC3 DTS FLV4 LPCM ALAW ULAW MPEG Audio MPEG-1 MPEG-2 RealVideo RealAideo Vorbis AVC VC1 XVID DIVX SVQ H264 Theora Bink...
Theora Bink basically includes all popular multimedia formats.

and some softsubs, support for .ass subs is in the next update, and currently utilises FFmpeg decoder.
with a handy 'stretch to window' option

The phone has a 3.7 inch display with 800x480 resoloution...
I'll be honest- you can push 720p encodes at max, provided the 'kBit/s' isnt too much, but it will likley drop frames,
certainly on an intro with max effects and styled karaoke subs, keep in mind it has a 1Ghz snapdragon processor,
think of it like a PC with 1Ghz, 512ram and onboard graphics, 1080p is not likley.

It realy depends on what you download and want to watch on it.

Battery- you can probably get 6 full eps out of a full charge, low brightness ect...
you can get double capasity batterys with an altered case that sticks out abit,
But I dont realy need one im always near a charge point at work or my car ect...

?Most people carry a phone on them, always a bonus if it plays anime too ahaha I swear its the best!

It has amazing capabilitys and come 'region unlocked' as standard, so if you already are in a contract with your
current mobile provider, just put the sim into the Nexus and have fun.

Oh- also supports upto 32GB micro SD cards which is lots of animes ^_^, not built in like those pice of crap iphailz. ahah

Might be somethig to consider, as I was the same, I used my satnav for PMP but now its all nexus baby,
imean even my Nexus replaced my satnav with google navigate ahah its so pro.

Feel free to ask any questions, I tried to cover it the best I can

Edit-
Just scoped through your active anime list on the tracker, I notice you like alot of dual audio content,
afaik- there is no way to switch audio tracks in the media app, deafult is deafult, I did send a mention to the dev
about this so hopefully in the next update...
But I only tried and found this out once with deathnote, unexpectidly got english audio by deafult...
I never watch dubs and use subs for refrence so I didnt consider this...

so basicaly, some dual audio might be lucky dip as to which you get for now ahah

[kemlo]

seperating out dual audio files to single audio with 1 sub track is easy (far easier than having to re-encode) the problem is playing both the video and audio and getting subs to show up

been digging about for a bit, given the above link that indicates a media app for android products solong as they have 1.6-2.2 android os and an ARM processor it might be worth waiting on the new Archos Line (Gen .....tho Archos do have a pretty piss poor track record :/

[mgz]

(click to show/hide)

all about the -> HTC Google Nexus One <-

Its basicaly a laptop that makes phonecalls XD, still by far the best phone on the market untill someone comes
with a 1.5/2Ghz processor in a phone.

Does everything you want and everything you wouldnt expect it to.

I've had it since day one, had zero problems, Froyo2.2 update has full Flash 10.3 support, great for crunchyroll, phoanime
or any streaming site, assuming you get good signal- 3G, or wifi.

RockPlayer media app is free and supports-

RockPlayer can support audio and video container format: avi mkv rmvb mp4 mov wmv asf wma wav mpg ts mpa dvd au mp3 mid ivf aiff ogm ogg cda flic d2v aac roq flac drc dsm swf pls pmp.
Audio and video encoding format AAC AC3 DTS FLV4 LPCM ALAW ULAW MPEG Audio MPEG-1 MPEG-2 RealVideo RealAideo Vorbis AVC VC1 XVID DIVX SVQ H264 Theora Bink...
Theora Bink basically includes all popular multimedia formats.

and some softsubs, support for .ass subs is in the next update, and currently utilises FFmpeg decoder.
with a handy 'stretch to window' option

The phone has a 3.7 inch display with 800x480 resoloution...
I'll be honest- you can push 720p encodes at max, provided the 'kBit/s' isnt too much, but it will likley drop frames,
certainly on an intro with max effects and styled karaoke subs, keep in mind it has a 1Ghz snapdragon processor,
think of it like a PC with 1Ghz, 512ram and onboard graphics, 1080p is not likley.

It realy depends on what you download and want to watch on it.

Battery- you can probably get 6 full eps out of a full charge, low brightness ect...
you can get double capasity batterys with an altered case that sticks out abit,
But I dont realy need one im always near a charge point at work or my car ect...

?Most people carry a phone on them, always a bonus if it plays anime too ahaha I swear its the best!

It has amazing capabilitys and come 'region unlocked' as standard, so if you already are in a contract with your
current mobile provider, just put the sim into the Nexus and have fun.

Oh- also supports upto 32GB micro SD cards which is lots of animes ^_^, not built in like those pice of crap iphailz. ahah

Might be somethig to consider, as I was the same, I used my satnav for PMP but now its all nexus baby,
imean even my Nexus replaced my satnav with google navigate ahah its so pro.

Feel free to ask any questions, I tried to cover it the best I can

Edit-
Just scoped through your active anime list on the tracker, I notice you like alot of dual audio content,
afaik- there is no way to switch audio tracks in the media app, deafult is deafult, I did send a mention to the dev
about this so hopefully in the next update...
But I only tried and found this out once with deathnote, unexpectidly got english audio by deafult...
I never watch dubs and use subs for refrence so I didnt consider this...

so basicaly, some dual audio might be lucky dip as to which you get for now ahah

i wouldnt waste time expecting wonders out of android phones for players.

I know my htc evo can barely play my non hd files that arent nicely encoded already. It had huge issues with all kinds of file types. And when i used things like rockplayer i encountered audio video desyncing issues.

The 1ghz processor cant keep up with the video yet atm IMO.  I think its proin who has a v5 someone on this forum has one and there was a post about it and some other stuff

[flynn]

i wouldnt waste time expecting wonders out of android phones for players.

I know my htc evo can barely play my non hd files that arent nicely encoded already. It had huge issues with all kinds of file types. And when i used things like rockplayer i encountered audio video desyncing issues.

The 1ghz processor cant keep up with the video yet atm IMO.  I think its proin who has a v5 someone on this forum has one and there was a post about it and some other stuff

I stated its likley to drop frames at 720p and 1080p is not plausable...

I recomended getting a HTC Nexus one your HTC Evo fails because it has HTC sense UI strapped ontop of androidOS
therfore slowing everything down, I sugguest you get a Nexus or root your phone with a custom ROM like CyanogenMod and see how you get on,
there is a big difference.
HTC Evo is basicaly a HD2 WindoesOS phone with Android in it lulz...

Audio Video desync from rock player is sometimes caused by the flash advertising, please close the menu bar asap after pausing if you experience desync to resolve this, or simply make a small donation to the chinese man who made the app to remove the advertising and logo... easy no ^^?

I have had no problems with any filetypes I have tried, excpet audio tracks as I said earlier, please example?

After much cookie collecting in various websites, I couldnt find any hardware specs of whats inside the Cowon V5?
apart from it has 128mb of RAM, and 'supports' 720p playback although the screen resolution is 800 x 480 making downscale
and onpar with the Nexus, although it has HDMI out for im assuming 720p ... but that kinda defeats the princaples of PMP?

yes, yes, I sound like a Nexus fanboy~ Because it realy is a great PMP as well as everything else it does, is always in my pocket anyway, is insured and carrying 2 devices is an inconveinience and requires an additional charger,
but thats just my opinion ha

[halfelite]

i wouldnt waste time expecting wonders out of android phones for players.

I know my htc evo can barely play my non hd files that arent nicely encoded already. It had huge issues with all kinds of file types. And when i used things like rockplayer i encountered audio video desyncing issues.

The 1ghz processor cant keep up with the video yet atm IMO.  I think its proin who has a v5 someone on this forum has one and there was a post about it and some other stuff

I stated its likley to drop frames at 720p and 1080p is not plausable...

I recomended getting a HTC Nexus one your HTC Evo fails because it has HTC sense UI strapped ontop of androidOS
therfore slowing everything down, I sugguest you get a Nexus or root your phone with a custom ROM like CyanogenMod and see how you get on,
there is a big difference.
HTC Evo is basicaly a HD2 WindoesOS phone with Android in it lulz...

Audio Video desync from rock player is sometimes caused by the flash advertising, please close the menu bar asap after pausing if you experience desync to resolve this, or simply make a small donation to the chinese man who made the app to remove the advertising and logo... easy no ^^?

I have had no problems with any filetypes I have tried, excpet audio tracks as I said earlier, please example?

After much cookie collecting in various websites, I couldnt find any hardware specs of whats inside the Cowon V5?
apart from it has 128mb of RAM, and 'supports' 720p playback although the screen resolution is 800 x 480 making downscale
and onpar with the Nexus, although it has HDMI out for im assuming 720p ... but that kinda defeats the princaples of PMP?

yes, yes, I sound like a Nexus fanboy~ Because it realy is a great PMP as well as everything else it does, is always in my pocket anyway, is insured and carrying 2 devices is an inconveinience and requires an additional charger,
but thats just my opinion ha

It is not so much then sense you UI that slows it down. I think rockplayer has a way to go its already improved from the first version I had of it and i think it will just get better.. And I have found I dont get a big speed boost going to a none Sense Rom like CyanogenMod plus I find it ugly lol . My biggest speed boosts come with running custom kernels that are overclocked and undervolted also if you really dont mind battery drain you can use setcpu to overclock to 1.2ghz then it plays a lot better. Using Quadrant my evo test just a little lower then a nexus running 2.2

[_Jitsu_]

An iPad is awesome for watching anime!  Great screen!

Do you use vlc on the ipad? i thought ipad did not have native xvid support. and so forth so how do you watch anime on it?

VLC for iPad is even worse than the regular one for watching anime. It took me some time to get the BEST solution for my iPad.


The app is called Air Video, along with free Air Video Server for win/mac. It basically streams all the content via local network with real-time encoding (decent PC required). Also it's possible to convert offline and later just move those files to the iPad, for offline viewing.

What is really interesting is that the app does MAGNIFICENT job for anime and mvk's. It looks as if it was written for that particular purpose. Multi audio/sub tracks support, no unknown codecs crap (uses ffshow!). The only bad thing is that the conversion, and therefore your output is limited to 2200kbps bitrate if i remember correctly, but that's usually enough to enjoy the video on the ipad's screen.

My no.1 recommendation.