Just got a U3! A few Qs...

[scotty]

just got a U3 (im in the UK) and it looks great although have a few Qs..

1. Do you know where I can buy the official ac adapter from?

2. Is it supplied with a 1 or 2 year warranty?

3. How long does it take to fully charge, im charging it with the usb, but unlike using the ac in the manual, I dont think you can tell when its fully charged.

4. Firmware, Im getting the 1.27...

If you have updated the firmware for your player with version 1.12 beta or lower, you must upgrade the firmware V. 1.21 first. And then, please upgrade the firmware V. 1.27. If not, your player will be damaged and need to get serviced. In this case, it is not under warranty. So you have to pay for it. The firmware version can be confirmed via [information] under [settings] menu.

That wont effect me will it cause I havent done any updates so I can just install this right?

5. why is the manual so tiny! My previous iriver came with like a 100 odd page manual (which I didnt really read anyway) and this is like 2 pages!

6. If i turn this thing off, does it stay off fully and not just go in standby mode like the samsung Z5?

[dfkt]

1. From Jetmall, and possibly from http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/

2. You got to ask the place where you bought it about the warranty.

3. & 4. I couldn't say, since I don't own an U3.

5. Cowon keeps costs low by not providing printed manuals. Either there's the full manual on the CD that came with the player, or you can get it here: http://www.cowonglobal.com/zeroboard...bmenu=download

6. It should turn off completely.

[dossi]

3. Depends. But you can make it signal when its fully loaded. Using Windows? Klick on the "Safely Remove Hardware"-Icon in your taskbar. Stop the U3. Now the screen shows a charging Animation and says full when full

4. When you bought your U3 recently it should come with 1.26 preloaded. So there should be no trouble upgrading. BUT: to be on the safe side - why don't you just check what firmware your U3 currently is running? Go to Settings > Information.

Have fun with your U3!

[scotty]

does this not play mpgs? doesn't seem to.. do I need to convert to avi?

[dfkt]

Yes, it only plays XviD/160x128/15fps - the easiest converter is iRiverter. Just choose the X5 profile, it's the same specs.

Better use 12-14fps, it's less choppy than 15.

[scotty]

thanks i will try it out.

[scotty]

It converted it using the X5 profile but when I try to play it on the iaudio its so choppy and it just stops after a second and does nothing. I dont see any option to change the fps...

[dfkt]

Hmm... I forgot, the fps are only available in the "profiles" subfolder of iRiverter 0.16.

Go to the profiles subfolder, open x5.profile with a text editor and change maxFrameRate=12.

Also, make sure to use 128kbps MP3 audio... anything higher might also give problems.

[scotty]

changed the audio bitrate to 128 and the max frames to 12 but its still not playing properly. Will try again tomorrow with a different vid.

[dossi]

Your U3 comes with a copy of JetAudio.
It is also able to convert videos.
Install it. Run it. Click convert Video. Choose iAudio 6/U3/F2 Output Format. And go for it.
Works quite fine.

[scotty]

^^that works great thanks.

one last thing...whats the best/highest quality audio to convert MP3s to? OGG or flac? OGG is about the same size but FLAC is about 10 times larger..

[dossi]

well, converting mp3s to some other compressed format doesn't make much sense. you will loose pretty much quality.

[scotty]

Originally Posted by dossi

well, converting mp3s to some other compressed format doesn't make much sense. you will loose pretty much quality.

but the bit rate of FLAC is much higher so wouldnt it be alot better?

[dfkt]

You cannot restore audio information that is already lost in the MP3s. Converting it again always makes it worse, never better.

[scotty]

so where abouts do you download ogg/flac tracks from?

[dossi]

http://www.jamendo.com/en/ offers ogg download for example.

[scotty]

is there anyway to get the original movies and stuff back that was there by default? after I upgraded the firmware it wiped em all.

[scotty]

Originally Posted by dfkt

You cannot restore audio information that is already lost in the MP3s. Converting it again always makes it worse, never better.

what about converting mp3s into mp3s but with a much higher bitrate? will you still loose quality?

[dfkt]

Yes, the information simply isn't in the audio file anymore - converting it from a lower quality format to a higher quality one only makes the file bigger - but it can't magically add the missing audio information.

The files will get bigger and sound worse.

[scotty]

k thanks one last thing...its wont damage it by leaving it charging overnight for like 7 hours will it? it cant overcharge or anything can it.