J3 Bugs list

[ninjakke]

j3 freezes up when i use stopwatch and stops responding.

[CrowdAds]

[tarkil]

Originally Posted by dfkt

2. is with high probability nonsense. None of my ~8 Cowon players ever got "bricked" by yanking their cable out. I might get the J3 soon, but I've read the same misleading "bricking" theory about the D2 and S9 as well, and it's just not true. FWIW, I never safely remove any players, and they're all fine.

Actually, I do confirm that on MACs, when removing the J3 "unsafely", it does get bricked. It happened just yesterday to me.

Do you know what's the easiest way to notify Cowon for this bug ?

[NeedBalanceCtrl]

Originally Posted by tarkil

Actually, I do confirm that on MACs, when removing the J3 "unsafely", it does get bricked. It happened just yesterday to me.

Do you know what's the easiest way to notify Cowon for this bug ?

But the problem is that I don't think Cowon considers this a bug. I believe users are expressly warned in the manual not to "unsafely" eject a device. If you choose to--or accidentally--unsafely eject the device, then it's not really Cowon's fault.

I'm not saying Cowon is in the right and you're in the wrong. I would be equally annoyed and frustrated if this happened to me. Cowon should fix this. But my point is that I don't think Cowon considers this a "bug" as they are aware of this and expressly point this out in their manual.

[tarkil]

Yup, I know what you mean... That's quite disappointing though.
Well, first thing will be to try to get a new one from the shop as it seems to be completely broken right now, then pay extra care to this, but I'm sure it will prove annoying... Shit always happen : computer going to sleep, power cut, etc.

I'll try to send them an email anyway, just in case... Maybe if many users send mails they'll solve this (which mustn't be too hard if they have a look...)

[NeedBalanceCtrl]

Originally Posted by tarkil

Yup, I know what you mean... That's quite disappointing though.
Well, first thing will be to try to get a new one from the shop as it seems to be completely broken right now, then pay extra care to this, but I'm sure it will prove annoying... Shit always happen : computer going to sleep, power cut, etc.

I'll try to send them an email anyway, just in case... Maybe if many users send mails they'll solve this (which mustn't be too hard if they have a look...)

I agree with you. It's very disappointing, but I don't understand why it doesn't happen on the PC but happens on the Mac. It would seem something on the Mac OS is doing this.

In the interest of full disclosure, the very first time I plugged my J3 into my laptop (PC), I pulled the USB cord out without "safely" ejecting the J3. So I know it could happen to anyone. But thankfully on the PC platform, it doesn't seem to cause this type of "brinking" problem. If I owned a Mac, I probably would definitely stay away from the J3 until this problem is worked out--and it may have to be Apple which provides a fix, not Cowon, as the J3 doesn't seem to have this problem with Windows.

[tarkil]

I think it's due to the fact that MAC OS will write all kind of shit files (e.g. ".whatever") everywhere, which the J3 will try to read or interpret or whatever, and which makes it crash. And Windows doesn't create this kind of trash files everywhere, hence the difference... Just my guess though.

For instance, I found this in the Cowon Q&A for S9 :

Cowon S9 No Font No Resource Error (Mac/Linux users)
When transferring your files, instead of dragging and dropping your files, please copy and paste them instead. It looks like when you drag and drop, Mac and Linux OS's will create a hidden file, corrupting your S9. If that does not work, please contact our live chat technicians or submit a trouble ticket. Thank you.

Anyway, yes, it's really disappointing.
I just created a new Question in the J3 part of the website, let's see if it does anything...

[deadohiosky]

Originally Posted by tarkil

I think it's due to the fact that MAC OS will write all kind of shit files (e.g. ".whatever") everywhere, which the J3 will try to read or interpret or whatever, and which makes it crash. And Windows doesn't create this kind of trash files everywhere, hence the difference... Just my guess though.

For instance, I found this in the Cowon Q&A for S9 :



Anyway, yes, it's really disappointing.
I just created a new Question in the J3 part of the website, let's see if it does anything...

yap, i think that's it. according to multiple sources those files will brick the s9 and apparently the j3 as well. after removing the files, it might work again.

but is it really only cowon's fault? i think not. why must apple create hidden files (for their file system convenience?) while windows and linux (and other OS) will not?
i think there is also some shit that's going on with apple formats. cowon players are capable of playing many apple file formats, but they won't/can't officially say that. pretty suspicious if you ask me. i think there are some patents/contracts in the way. like: only ipod shall play aac/ mp4 files and stuff.

this is just their way of saying: fuck you apple, you don't want to play? well, we don't wanna fuck around either.
but who loses in the end? it's the customer.

(this is only wild speculation)

[Typhoon859]

Originally Posted by Typhoon859

1) The search function in the File Browser occasionally fully freezes up the player (happens at different times, sometime when typing). The player must be restarted with the reset button.

2) The player consistently freezes on many flash applications that don't work. It must be locked (so that the screen turns off) and then unlocked for it to unfreeze.

3) In general, almost no Flash application works properly and the sound often cuts off at some point.

Originally Posted by Need Balance Control

There have been reports of time going out of sync once you upgrade to firmware 2.10. Have you upgraded?

I encountered the same problem after upgrading to firmware 2.10.

4) The time always goes out of sync now after the update.

5) In the custom home menu, when going from page to page, it occasionally stops in between briefly/until you further slide it. That'd be okay, only, it frequently screws up the position of some of the icons on that page. Quite annoying.

6) I have no idea why, but from time to time, it detects another contact point and zooms in instead of scrolls; more annoyingly, it stops/slows down scrolling and makes it jittery. Veeery frustrating... It's not VERY frequent but it definitely happens enough.
-This can be because of how flimsy it's built, and even if it doesn't happen to you, it might over time. I handle mine with care, I'm certain there is nothing wrong/possibly worse with it relative to others, and it's obviously quite new considering its release. This problem might also be related to the update since it only started happening afterward, but that's hoping..

7) It gets to be slow and lags sometimes after being used for a while with Sleep Mode on.

*The firmware upgrade reset the custom home menu...

[Calon]

I agree with:

4) The time always goes out of sync now after the update.

I updated the firmware immediately to 2.10 and after a while the time is way off, not by a few minutes, but more than an hour over a few days' running time

[Typhoon859]

Originally Posted by Calon

I agree with:
I updated the firmware immediately to 2.10 and after a while the time is way off, not by a few minutes, but more than an hour over a few days' running time

Well, there's nothing to agree or disagree with. You either noticed that certain things happened, used certain functions that made things happen, or not. It's not like I made things up - those are actual bugs.

[NeedBalanceCtrl]

Originally Posted by deadohiosky

i think there is also some shit that's going on with apple formats. cowon players are capable of playing many apple file formats, but they won't/can't officially say that. pretty suspicious if you ask me. i think there are some patents/contracts in the way. like: only ipod shall play aac/ mp4 files and stuff.

this is just their way of saying: fuck you apple, you don't want to play? well, we don't wanna fuck around either.
but who loses in the end? it's the customer.

(this is only wild speculation)

we can all speculate and mine is just speculation as well, but I believe the real reason Cowon doesn't say it supports h.264 or mpa is because it doesn't fully support all the specs. H.264 playback on the J3 is notoriously finicky. Just imagine the number of support emails Cowon would get if they claim the J3 supported h.264 playback? It's easier for Cowon to say they don't support it and for the techie-geek users to tinker around themselves to see what works or not. With regards to mp4/mpa audio, I just copied some Apple mpa tracks to my J3 last night and to my amazement they work fine. However, the J3 can't display the bitrate. It shows 0 as bitrate. And it's not because it's variable bit rate as I have mp3 files that are VBR and the average bit rate is displayed for those files. At any rate, I believe Cowon doesn't officially admit they support these codecs because Cowon's implementation is imperfect. I have yet to find a xvid or mp3 file which doesn't play on the J3. In contrast, I have yet to find one mp4(h264) video encoded file that I've downloaded off the net that would play on the J3. None I've downloaded plays. I have, however, been able to encode mp4 (h264) video files myself with a very specific profile setting and they have played very well on the J3. It is my belief that Cowon would love to claim that the J3 plays mp4 video (mp4) and mp4 audio (mpa) files but it doesn't because its implementation is imperfect. If Cowon gets it all worked out, I'm sure Cowon will claim that the J3 officially supports these formats. (Also just an opinion/analysis; not definitive info from Cowon.)

[deadohiosky]

well, that's what i meant. and again, i don't think it's necessary cowon's fault. you see, almost every free codec that's around is pretty much supported by cowon. h.264 is not a free codec, i think you gotta pay fees if you're a company. apple's codecs aren't free either. i really think it's a license/patent thing. why is the j3 (and almost all recent cowon products) able to generally play aac/mp4 but fails to display cover art or bitrates?

[NeedBalanceCtrl]

Originally Posted by deadohiosky

well, that's what i meant. and again, i don't think it's necessary cowon's fault. you see, almost every free codec that's around is pretty much supported by cowon. h.264 is not a free codec, i think you gotta pay fees if you're a company. apple's codecs aren't free either. i really think it's a license/patent thing. why is the j3 (and almost all recent cowon products) able to generally play aac/mp4 but fails to display cover art or bitrates?

AAC was not invented by Apple, nor do they control the standard. Apple popularized it somewhat by adopting it as the standard format for its iPod players when iPods were first introduced. But the AAC standard existed before iPods came into being.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding

AAC is also the default or standard audio format for: Apple's iPhone, iPod, iPad, Nintendo DSi, iTunes, DivX Plus Web Player, Sony's PlayStation 3 and is supported by Sony's PlayStation Portable, latest generation of Sony Walkman, phones from Sony Ericsson, the latest S40 and S60 models from Nokia, Android based phones, Nintendo's Wii (with the Photo Channel 1.1 update installed for Wii consoles purchased before late 2007), and the MPEG-4 video standard.

As you can see from the above quote, many other manufactures fully support AAC.

Neither h.264/AVC, nor AAC is owned or controlled by Apple.

Cowon's support, or lack of support, for these two standards, I believe, have nothing to do with Apple or iPods. It may be due to licensing fees, but even if that were the case, Cowon wouldn't be paying licensing fees to Apple, so again it has nothing to do with Apple.

[Xul]

Hi, I just bought a J3 32gb and cannot set the clock. I go to the clock screen, enter the correct time and date, set 24hr and exit by pressing 'X'.

The clock just doesn't update. Am i doing something wrong?

the J3 treats audiobooks just like music, in that it will mix book chapters in if you ask it to shuffle. I regret buying this, My Fuze is 100 times better, it just works. You don't need a degree to use it. I wish i read the comments here before i bought it. This is NOT the best MP3 player in the world its expensive RUBBISH.

[dfkt]

The newest firmware that came out today presumably fixes that clock bug: http://anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56359

Put your audiobooks outside the music folder, make a separate folder in the root of the player, then only shuffle the music folder. That works for me on the Cowon S9 - I assume the J3 is similar in that aspect.

[Xul]

Cheers dfkt, My books are in a folder in the root alone. I just wish this device had a simple working interface like the fuze. I'm using the latest 2.21 firmware and it does not fix the clock. It has a mind of its own. All those a++ reviews and not one person pointed out these faults.

I have reverted to text view because the matrix view is useless as everything looks the same. All this on a brand new top of the range player. I'll never buy Cowon again.

[NeedBalanceCtrl]

Originally Posted by Xul

Cheers dfkt, My books are in a folder in the root alone. I just wish this device had a simple working interface like the fuze. I'm using the latest 2.21 firmware and it does not fix the clock. It has a mind of its own. All those a++ reviews and not one person pointed out these faults.

I have reverted to text view because the matrix view is useless as everything looks the same. All this on a brand new top of the range player. I'll never buy Cowon again.

You're entitled to all your opinions, but on factual matters, you need to be corrected. The new firmware indeed fixes the time going out of sync bug. (But you seem to be having a different clock setting problem altogether, not a time going out of synch problem.)

Many people don't like the Cowon J3 UI. I'm actually one of them. So I can empathize. But instead of spewing all this hate, just simply return the unit. You can do one better than not buying future Cowons and that's to return your current Cowon J3.

[Xul]

People need to be warned that the firmware [2.21] is in beta at best. I was conned by A-List reviews in magazines and on the web. There is noway all these reviewers never set the clock. Or noticed that there is no cover art in matrix view. Other programs, ie Windows, Winamp, MP3tag pick up the art but the flagship J3 needs hours of re-jigging files to make it work. Yet a cheaper unit allows you to view cover art and the time without incident. I set the clock and its now over 2 hours slow, go figure? I stand by my factual findings.

[deadohiosky]

Originally Posted by Xul

People need to be warned that the firmware [2.21] is in beta at best. I was conned by A-List reviews in magazines and on the web. There is noway all these reviewers never set the clock. Or noticed that there is no cover art in matrix view. Other programs, ie Windows, Winamp, MP3tag pick up the art but the flagship J3 needs hours of re-jigging files to make it work. Yet a cheaper unit allows you to view cover art and the time without incident. I set the clock and its now over 2 hours slow, go figure? I stand by my factual findings.

pls do not confuse personal and subjective findings/observations with facts.

also, i recommend informing yourself a little deeper than some random reviews (btw, there aren't many if any high profile reviews as of yet) about the player you want buy. this is a mp3 player. it's supposed to play music( and videos). it's able to play audiobooks, but it seems to be poorly implemented.

but: cowon is not boasting their audiobook capabilities, they just say that it works.

[Xul]

What about the none functioning 'matix' display? The reviews were not random. AMP3? PCPro? The Register, the list goes on.. I have solved the audiobook issue. And yes COWON do boast about audiobooks, They quote Audible. There is a massive sticker on the packaging offering FREE AUDIOBOOKS. What does Audible ready mean? (I know the answer). The FACTS are the hardware is great, screen great, but hardware goes nowhere without software, and COWON is lagging well behind in that area. FACT. This is why they are a small change (but expensive) player , this player will never go mainstream in the state that it is. My clock has lost another hour and 20 mins FACT!!