Cowon Q5W vs. Archos 705 WiFi

• The Contenders
• Navigation
• Sexiness
• Compatibility
• Sound and science
• Wallet factor
• The winner is...

Round 3: Compatibility

File formats, music services, software

Archos 705 WiFi

Neither the Archos 705 WiFi, nor Cowon Q5W can afford to adopt Apple's narrow stance on file support. Video players have it particularly bad, considering the countless options users have when it comes to video file types, resolutions, and codecs. Let's not forget that both of these players also flaunt their photo, music, and Web support. This compatibility round is a subjective take on each player's compatibility with file formats, software, and services we personally like to use.

Player	Jasmine	Donald	Brian	Total
Cowon Q5W	4 No doubt, the Q5 supports a lot, but it's missing compatibility with subscription music and video services. The latter would be a particularly compelling option on a player with such a nice screen.	3 The Q5W eats codecs for breakfast, but it lacks support for uncompressed video formats such as VOB and vodcast codecs such as H.264. Audio support is good, but I'm lost without ID3 tag support. Getting Flash video to play in Explorer took some tweaking.	4 Tons of support but no love for iTunes DRM files which makes up a good amount of my collection. Apple locks people out and that's probably not going to change soon.	11
Archos 705 WiFi	5 Dude, this thing supports everything--formats, operating systems, recording, Wi-Fi video, and the list goes on. Done, and done.	4 I like how Archos lets you easily switch between Mac, Windows Media, and generic hard drive modes. Sure, you have to pay extra for some format plug-ins, but the base price is a great value. The Opera Web browser is top notch and handles Flash well.	4 Tons of support but having to pay an extra $20 each for AAC and MPEG-2 compatibility doesn't really seem too nice. However, wireless movie rentals bring its score back up. No support for iTunes DRM content is not surprise either.	13

Winner: Archos 705 WiFi