Cowon J3 Firmware v2.25

[dfkt]

Website: http://www.cowonglobal.com/zeroboard...?id=C08&no=437
Download: http://dn2.cowon.com/data/C08/J3/x_25/COWON_J3_2.25.zip

- Fixed the error of displaying AlbumArt in Matrix browser.
- Fixed the error that Bookmark list was not saved.

[keiiferrer]

I can confirm that album art works once again on 2.25, just updated and tested

[Branais]

Great that they've fixed it. Thanks, Cowon.

Now, being ever-demanding, back to the wishlist for improvements ...

[Ruslana]

I wish the picture browser improvement will coming soon ):

[DSperber]

New bug/feature in 2.25: maximum limit of 40 distinct "years" in Music -> [Years] browse.

I've backed off again to 2.23 where there is no such maximum limit.

Problem reported to Cowon.

[Branais]

Thanks muchly for the update, DSperber, and well discovered!

Oh dear, I'd like to think this might spur Cowon to put some effort into the J3 firmware to make it more robust and complete some of the features on people's wishlist. But firmware 2.25 is a disappointment even without the bugs you've identified, and I can't help wondering if it's reaching EoL sooner than most of us might wish. With the D3's adoption of Android, I've no doubt that's where all the development money will be going, in the hope of carving out a slice of something like the Apple 3rd-party-apps pie.

No, I don't want the J3 to turn into an iPod-wannabe, but there's still plenty of room for development of the J3 as a more feature-laden PMP, don't you reckon?

[rutu3]

hi, i am from india. And recently purchased J3. Its firmware version is 2.22.
can i directly upgrade it to 2.25? is there any need of screen protector i have leather case.

[DSperber]

Originally Posted by rutu3

hi, i am from india. And recently purchased J3. Its firmware version is 2.22.
can i directly upgrade it to 2.25?

Yes. You just put the three BIN files from inside the ZIP file onto the root of the J3's internal storage, and then "safely remove hardware" and disconnect the J3 from the PC, and then boot the J3.

Whatever firmware version you do this with, that firmware will then be applied to the J3 and the three BIN files will be deleted. So you can upgrade or downgrade at will, just by using the corresponding three BIN files from that firmware ZIP file.

Personally, I would strongly recommend that you go no further from 2.22 than up to 2.23. That release was (and is) stable and appears problem-free.

Unfortunately, Cowon created three significant known and reported software problems with 2.24 (which also introduced Lyrics support), but only two of them got observed here and thus reported to Cowon so that they corrected them in 2.25. So when the corrections came out in 2.25, only two of the three 2.24 bugs got fixed. Hence the third bug from 2.24 (which has now finally been reported and ticketed to Cowon) is unfortunately still present in 2.25 and won't be fixed until presumably 2.26.

You can read on this thread about the three problems born with 2.24, and none of them are in 2.23. So unless you need Lyrics support I suggest you upgrade your new J3 from 2.22 to 2.23 and stop there, until 2.26 comes out.

is there any need of screen protector i have leather case.

I have a Cowon leather case, and I also have the screen protector sheet on my J3.

For me it makes it easier to keep my screen clean, because you're going to use your fingers on it and you'll get smudges and grease and spots. I find the best and easiest way to clean it is just to breathe on it and then use a micro-fiber cloth (like you'd clean eyeglasses with). Works fine on the plastic screen sheet.

[DSperber]

Originally Posted by DSperber

New bug/feature in 2.25: maximum limit of 40 distinct "years" in Music -> [Years] browse.

I've backed off again to 2.23 where there is no such maximum limit.

Problem reported to Cowon.

Response from Cowon received:

================================

Dear Darryl

Thank you for using J3.

Your message has been reported to our research team. They will try to refer to your suggestion to the next firmware, however, we're not able to know when it will be supported. I recommend you to install the previous firmware to solve the problem for now.

Thanks again for using the customer support at cowonglobal.com.

Regards,

COWON

============================

[Branais]

Does this mean they have actually acknowledged it as an issue, or is this just a "we have passed the message on" type of admin note?

But it doesn't really say there even *will* be an update version of the firmware, does it?

[DSperber]

Originally Posted by Branais

Does this mean they have actually acknowledged it as an issue, or is this just a "we have passed the message on" type of admin note?

Right. Usual mostly boilerplate auto-response, except that they did apparently read what I said and confirmed that for the moment their recommended workaround is what I already told them mine was, namely just to remain with the older 2.23 firmware where the problem did not exist.

But it doesn't really say there even *will* be an update version of the firmware, does it?

No, it doesn't.

Interestingly, this doesn't seem like a "casual coding error", where something malfunctions in an odd way or with strange symptoms that used to work before.

This almost seems like an intentional design change, to limit some internal table to 40 rows because of memory limitations or somesuch justification. But maybe I'm wrong in my interpretation.

Anyway, unless they actually fix M3U playlist support to handle music files on both internal and external storage, I can't think of any current defect still in the 2.23 firmware that would motivate me to upgrade beyond that point... if they're going to stick with a 40-year maximum on [Years] browsing from now on, because "they have to" because of something else related to Lyrics support (which was simultaneously born in 2.24). I don't need Lyrics support, but I do want complete [Years] support.

I'll just wait and see what they decide to do now that they're aware of the fact that we're aware of the new 40-year limitation issue.

[Branais]

Good points, DS, thanks.

I've lost track of some of the changes. Please correct me if I'm wrong: v2.24 was the firmware that introduced the Album Art errors, but what was the positive purpose for which 2.24 was released? What features or fixes did it bring?

(Edit: Sorry, wasn't thinking. Of course I could go and check the posts in the Firmware thread to see where it was announced. I forgot. It was 2.24 that added lyrics support - something I'm sure many people were seeking, but irrelevant to me. So I think I'll probably follow your example, DS, and stick with 2.23, pending an update that might fix everything.)

[DSperber]

Originally Posted by Branais

Please correct me if I'm wrong: v2.24 was the firmware that introduced the Album Art errors

To be historically accurate, this "album art" error had already appeared once previously, in 2.21. They fixed it fairly quickly back then, with 2.22 (like within a month). It really was that the "check albumart" function was not being performed at J3 boot time, hence all new/changed album art (both imbedded as well as "cover.jpg") was simply not being looked for and analyzed. You could see that because "check albumart" appears on the screen for as long as the process is going on, which when you have an external card inserted is always performed on each boot.

Quite surprisingly, it re-surfaced in 2.24, exactly the same problem. And once again, it was fixed in the next release 2.25 which again took under a month to release.