Need Help! Finding a new media player...

[sonicstorm]

Alright well Christmas is quickly approaching and I have quite the abundance of money to spend a present to myself. I've been looking for a new media player, here's the thing I want something specific (I will post my criteria below) and I would appreciate any help from my fellow tempers since I know most of you are electronic enthusiasts. Here are some factors, I already have an 80GB iPod Classic but I hate iTune's and I solely use it for music (its pretty much full), I used to have a PSP and I felt it was useless because I don't have the time for hand held gaming especially when my 360, PS3 and Wii are already being neglected sitting in my room. So I decided I could really use a new media player, mostly for video but some more options would be appreciated. Anyway this is what I'm looking for, I hope you guys can help.

1. It has to have a decent sized screen, so anything 2.5" and up.
2. Has to be able to play video formats that I don't have to constantly convert. So I really, really want something that plays .avi
3. Memory isn't really an issue but the more the better and a card slot would be awesome.
4. Price, more than $300.00 and I'll force myself to convert my video's to iPod's MP4

Anyway, I have considered a few different Archos and some Samsung players but is there anything out there that can support .avi without added programs, hacks, tweaks or anything along those lines. Thanks a lot for your help guys, if I'm going over the top let me know and if I'm going crazy and there really isn't anything that can support .avi alone, please also correct me.

 

[ojsinnerz.]

I'd look at the Cowon S9. Well, it's supposed to come out in a few days. Unfortunately, there's currently only 16 gig version. The 32 gig is coming out EARLY NEXT YEAR.

http://www.jetmall.net/index.asp?PageActio...&ProdID=469

I've heard that the firmware is surprisingly stable for a Cowon device (Cowon is well known to have pretty terrible firmwares for products that are just released). 16 million colors, and AMOLED screen.

If you need more space, you could go with a Cowon D2. It's cheaper, and I think it did support AVI. It's got 52 hours of battery life, lossless music file support, and a SDHC expansion slot (Ordinary SD cards, not Micro sds). 2.5 inch touchscreen, 16 million colors, etc. On the downside, it's quite thick, to most people's standards.

Lastly, there IS the Zune, but seeing how you don't like being locked down to using just itunes, I guess it's not an option....