X5 60 Gig only please (not the 20/30GB or "L" please)

[slojotaa]

I have had poor results from my last post.

I am starting a "true" poll re: the x5 60GB only, not the 20 gig, 30 gig, or the x5l please, as it distorts the results.

Please respond if you are having any problems with this battery life, by answering the poll. The last poll I posted has been distorted by folks answering for the the 20/30 GB, or the x5L. Different roducts totally, and we need to keep this as a sterile X5 60GB response only.

This is for the good of the users, as well the "good of COWON" who need to know about this problem and get the engineers fixing this right away.
Thanks,
Joe

[Mathias]

Yeah man, I got one of these for Christmas and I've been worried about the same thing. I considered the X5L but I really need the 60 gigs... if only there was a 40 gig with extra battery.

I plan to test the battery in full tomorrow, so I'll post my results then. Also make sure people post under what settings they are testing, and perhaps how old their unit is.

[slojotaa]

I first ran my test on the x5 60 on the way home from Switzerland. It died out in 5 hours, no video, some searching, base half way, treble half, some enhancements, no video etc.....

I turned things down, no enhancements, no video once again, and I picked up one additional hour.

I conditioned that battery as I always do, and was shocked at the lack of result. Look forward to hearing your result as well. I wish and advised COWON of introducing a 60x5l, despite the slight aditional size. After all, how big could it be? Worth it, however, the l's get 30 hours on the 20's, 30's, if you double the 60GB, you will get 12 hours then? Not good.

I did order another unit from J&R music today, and am planning on testing it. I almost went the IPOD route, and last minute returned things back to B-Buy. Just couldn't do it. BTW, I am excited about the possibilities in a couple of weeks comming from the electronics show. I have a hunch (just a hunch), that we haven't heard the last from I-river on the larger capacity drives. I called customer service today, didn't hear this from them, but wow, how refreshing it was to talk to a guy today who was a total gentleman, professional, understood our plight and disgust with loosing the ihp 140's and the 340'w....etc. We had a great discussion. However, don't let me start a rumor, I just have a hunch that they know they had the world by the balls with these two units which were near perfect, and let them go out of production. Is something else on the horizon....will let you know when I get a call back on Monday regarding my very, very specific questions.

So, let's see what happens with Cowon and the battery life problem(s) on the 60GB x5, and if Iriver comes out with a follow on to the two greatest units that have ever hit the market. It should be an exciting start to 2006!!
Happy New Year, and look forward to your polling vote. :bigthumbs
Regards,
Joe

[Mathias]

I got an estimated 8 hours with some skipping, I'll do a more precise test soon though.

[slojotaa]

Appreciate the followup. Interesting, isn't it!:lol:

[swedish_fish]

i got about 14 1/2 hours with no skipping and volume at 16. everything seems fine to me

[slojotaa]

Is this the 60GB unit? Where did you buy it?

[Mathias]

I got 10 hours today with a moderate amount of skipping, volume at 12, brightness and contrast at 0, no enhancers and flat eq. Its still got half the bar left too.

I still fear that its got its battery life due to its newness, and that in 6 months I'll be down to 6.

[swedish_fish]

Is this the 60GB unit? Where did you buy it?
I bought mine at ecost and it is the 60 gig

[Xpander]

I never let the batteries die out, but it looks like I'm on track to 9-10 hour battery life, playing considerable amounts of vorbis and doing a lot of skipping (anywhere up to 50-60 minutes when fast forwarding through live set/mixes).

It looks ok for now, but I'll be keeping an eye on the battery life.

[Mathias]

I bought mine at ecost and it is the 60 gig
Yeah same for me.

I may get the X5L 30 gig anyway, I think I can live with the drop in size by just being a bit more selective. It'll give me more reason to stop downloading anyway lol.

[slojotaa]

I thought about dropping down in size as well. I like the idea of having all of my music on one unit however.

I do get the point of cleaning up files. After eliminating duplicates, dislikes etc., one could take "several gig" out of the memory usage. However, I like so many different types of music, and am half way through cleaning, and don't know if I will be able to get below 70or80Gig.

I must admit though, I have great difficulty on the playback of the battery results that I am hearing about. I will advise when I get the new unit. Too many folks that I know are talking about 8 hours or less?????/

Lastly, I would wait until after the CES show (Jan. 5 to the 9th). I-river may possibly be comming out with something......just a hunch!
Thanks,
Joe

[Mathias]

Keep me posted on iRiver if something comes up man.

[slojotaa]

Likewise if you hear of anything as well. Hopefully an exciting week is ahead.
Joe

[Mathias]

You got it man, hope your intuition is right on.

[slojotaa]

Sorry folks, just got off of the phone with I-River rep, and to I-River Customer Service, I want to pass my deepest regrets for this lady. Her responses were the pits, and to this lady I pass the old fashioned Jersey salute from my triplet brothers....:moonu: :moonu: :moonu:

I am not going to spend time ragging on customer service groups again, as I am convinced that Cowon and I-river are both lacking in this area today. The issue is, there doesn't look to be a large capacity hard drive player such as the H or 3 series comming out any time soon, and I will live with the Cowon 60GB battery problem going forward. Not happily but the sound is still awesome, and other things far outway the problem with Battery life. I still feel that COWON IS MISLEADING US IN THIS AREA, and refuse to do something about it. Recognition and a solution is key, that is all we need, want and BTW, ironically, Cowon can take the lead in my view in the market.

Wanted to just vent after a pretty shitty call just now with I-River.
:lol: :lol: :lol:

[smog_man]

Hi there

I recently boutght the x5 hoping that nothing would go wrong but the battery life is dire, can hardly get 8 hrs out of it

i was wondering wheter if you send it back to the supplier they will replace the player with a new one on htis problem alone?

i also have a problem with the joysitck but i think ill start a new thread for that one/

Smog-Man

[slojotaa]

If they get enough of these puppys back, they will do one of two thing:
1. - Recall them and finally recognize the problem
2. - Recognize the problem, and fix them (obviously our objective).
3. - Do nothing and watch their brand image sink, and drop out of the marketplace for false specs.(which they all do but not by > half:woh: :woh:

Watch this closely folks, and it is wrong of COWON to do nothing on this and stay silent. And before anyone responds about this site being the wrong one to say this, too bad....I am thinking of even putting this in my Church Circular just for the point of the issue, and non response from COWON. I already put this on their sight as well....(just kidding on the circular, but not the NYTImes, or the Journal though, which I am working on now!

[fracer]

I really really pray everyday for a 60/80GB X5L version :( :( :( 30gb wont hold by music collection and im hearing horrible things about 60GB battery life...forget about playin video..let alone music.

[slojotaa]

Get this....customer service when I finally got through :nutty: :nutty:
said that they don't recognize the problems surrounding battery life, and will move on to other products....no recog of any short term hgh capacity units

[GMan4911]

This poll is probably useless unless everyone was using the same bitrate/compression format. That being said, I get 9 hours of play time. I started with a fully charged unit and didn't touch the unit until the power was drained. All files are FLAC, level 8 compression. I suspect if I switched to low bitrate MP3 or Ogg, I could get a lot more time, probably close to the rated spec.

[fracer]

:( *tears*

So We are coming to the conclusion that 60GB X5's Battery Life is <50% of what is advertised and it sucks pretty bad??

:( *tears*

Can anyone post any testing done with video+audio playback? I am just curious.....and btw based on replies on this thread the poll is inaccurate...i think everyones just voting for no reason...And i am STILL CONFUSED if 60GB X5L Battery is really *that* bad, because I have been doing some reasearch on this player for a few weeks and I am getting ALOT of mixed reviews, some say its no problem, some say it sucks pretty bad, some say its horrible, some say its excellent, I am still confused if this players battery life is bad or not...I guess since a X5L version wont be coming out (or is there??) anytime soon I might just buy this...I will be mainly using it for audio and some video occasionaly (cartoons, tvseries 20mins approx each)...do you guys think I'll be fine w/ this.? (my main concern is battery life)

P.S: I know for Ipod video, the video playback is only 2 hours, BUT if you get a external battery pack (geekpod), video playback lasts 12 hours and audio 100 hours, Is there a external battery pack available for Iaudio X5 60GB? That would be awesome

thanks

[GMan4911]

So We are coming to the conclusion that 60GB X5's Battery Life is <50% of what is advertised and it sucks pretty bad?

The problem is that Cowon doesn't state the conditions under which you get 14 hours of playtime. I suspect you do get 14 hours playback if you use 128kbs or lower bitrates. Smaller file sizes means less hard drive access == longer battery life.

...based on replies on this thread the poll is inaccurate...i think everyones just voting for no reason...
As I said in my previous post, the poll is not accurate because everybody uses files of different bitrates. My results were using FLAC with level 8 compression. Of the compressed formats supported by the X5, FLAC files are the largest with typical file sizes around 20-40MB. Compare that to 128kbs MP3 or Ogg with file sizes under 5MB. Large files means more hard drive access and higher battery drain.

P.S: I know for Ipod video, the video playback is only 2 hours, BUT if you get a external battery pack (geekpod), video playback lasts 12 hours and audio 100 hours, Is there a external battery pack available for Iaudio X5 60GB?
Try ebay.

[GMan4911]

Some additional numbers:

Using 128k bitrate Ogg (quality 4) and all JetEffects turned off, I was able to get 12.5 hours of playback. With JetEffects turned on to the default settings, it dropped to 12 hours so JetEffects probably does have a small effect on playback time. I suspect even lower bitrate encodings will get me to the claimed 14 hours of playback time.

So there you have it. To maximize playback time, use lower bitrate encodings in addition to minimizing activating the LCD screen and hard drive.

[fracer]

Gman, yea, when you said how cowon doesnt say its settings/environment when they got 14 hours its true..I mean they could have used all their audio @ 98kbps for all we know, this isnt the bitrate the avg user use so obviously its not accurate. I am most likely going to buy a 60GB in the next 2 weeks (got my $$$ ready on paypal)...no point waiting for a X5L since there wont be one.

P.S: Can someone please test their x5 60gb with video? I would really like to know if it atleast lasts 6 hours with video....also Im going to be buying mine from newegg....since it takes paypal...any ideas?

thanks guys! you rock my sox! :bigthumbs

[swedish_fish]

i havent charged mine in about 4 days and ive watched the two towers special extended, and about 4 aqua teen hunger forces and it just went from 1/2 to 1/4 battery.

[Getwired]

P.S: Can someone please test their x5 60gb with video? I would really like to know if it atleast lasts 6 hours with video....also Im going to be buying mine from newegg....since it takes paypal...any ideas?

thanks guys! you rock my sox! :bigthumbs
For video only, I got somewhere between 4 to 5 hours (wasn't paying exact attention) on my X5 60GB on a flight from Washington DC to Vegas, a few days after I first got my player (from NewEgg of course). That particular battery charge also included about 2 hours of nothing but music, and as I recall, even after all that, the battery wasn't totally dead yet.

Dude, I hope you're not buying this player for it's video capabilities, because as I'm sure you're aware by now, video is certainly not it's forté. I wanted to puke after watching it for that long. Unless you enjoy headaches and / or extreme nausea, don't do it. :nutty:

For audio, I get about 10-11 hours on a charge. Here's my settings and typical media type:

Firmware: 2.10b5
Screen brightness: 5
Screen "off" delay: 30 sec
BBE: 5
Mach3Bass: 8
MP Enhance: ON
3D Surround: 2
EQ= User: 60Hz=11, 250Hz=8, 1Khz=6, 4KHz=3, 12KHz=11
Volume: 14-18 depending on track level, with my super.fi 5 Pro's. 25-30 with my modded Sony MDR-7506's. I almost always listen with the super.fi 5 Pro's...
Media: MP3 (Lame of course), usually VBR 192-320. Nothing below 192.

Don't usually mess with it too much when I'm listening -- I just let 'er rip.

I'll do some more thorough testing with it soon and post back here. It would be helpful if people would post their jetEffect settings and other parameters here with their results, then we might stand a chance of making heads or tails of the info.

I have had my player since the end of November, and it replaced my beloved iRiver iHP-140, which had started to exhibit decreasing battery life after nearly 2 years of flawless service. There's aftermarket batteries for those, so I'm gonna assume that the X5 will be the same. So, in December of this year when mine's outta warranty, I guess I'll open it up...

Bottom line is that battery length has not been a problem for me personally (yet), and my new USB sync charger (http://www.iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?p=63752#post63752) makes me happy. I just wish you could rapid-charge it while it's playing via USB (as in not the "trickle" charge, and without frying your USB controller).

Later!

BTW, if you've not purchased from newegg.com before, you'll find them to be quick, professional, and they usually have the best prices. I've bought many thousands of dollars worth of stuff from them without any issues.*

* Don't tell my wife, mkay? :bigsmile:

[swedish_fish]

if you are really concernd about battery life on the road, just get one of these, and put it in your bag with some AA batteries. It works well for me, and it calims to add 30-40 more hours of playback, which means a total of between about 40 and 54 hours. http://cgi.ebay.com/External-Battery-Pack-Charger-iAUDIO-COWON-X5-X5L-M5-M3_W0QQitemZ5822107963QQcategoryZ73839QQssPageName ZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem