A3 FAQ : Frequently asked questions you should read :)

[nivlacbot]

You know the drill... no discussions.. just QnA
to save some time for the new A3philes (and some of the old who are a bit slow like me.)

Creating a separate FAQ scratchpad thread, where we can have discussions, point fingers at wrong answers or post FAQ-worthy questions yet to be answered.

I'd had some time waiting for a DivX compression of a recorded video to complete... Long Story.. it was a waste of time.. except that I came up with around 30 Qs while I was waiting.

Here we go.. Please contribute..

#1 : How do I stop a playing video/track/radio ?
Ans: Keep the back button pressed for about 2 seconds or more

#2 : How much is the real-world audio-video battery life for the A3?
Ans: With the newer firmwares, ~6 hrs of video / ~9.5 hrs of audio [http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=20844]

#3 : Any accessories that are *must-have* with my new A3?
Ans: Get a anti-glare screen protector + better earphones (unless you already your weapon of choice). Check out this thread for screen protectors[http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=20092]. Also you may want to get yourself one of these awesome-for-2$ DS Cases[http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=20219]
Personally I have Westone Um-1s, the Brando TomTom XL One, a DS Case and a my-hand-made custom case..

#4 : Does it do gapless playback ?
Ans: No... as of now.

#5 : What about playlists ?
Ans: You have one playlist called DPL per content type (audio/video/photo..).
The A3 does *NOT* have multiple playlists.
The A3 does *NOT* recognize .m3u style playlist file types. So existing playlists are useless for the A3.

#6 : Does it have tag-based track browsing, searching, etc..
Ans: No.
The A3 takes a simplistic folder based approach to the entire thing. Although it does display album art and information from the mp3 tags.. it doesn't use it for sorting / searching.
You could organize your content in the form of Artist\Album\Tracks folder hierarchy and then use the 'Add to playlist' or 'Play folder' from the file browser popup-menu

#7 : What are the things that don't work "as advertised" ?
Ans: HD support is questionable. The last word was that the A3 is capable of BP and MP with some options turned off. Long story short... If you get a HighProfile anime video, chances are you'd have to re-encode to a lower quality before the A3 can grok it. Doesn't look like the A3 will be able to do H264-HP ever [http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=20542][http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=20290].. unless Cowon pulls a rabbit out of the hat.
Other than that MPEGs do have some audio-video sync issues.. Usually seen with high-bitrate videos. Maybe ironed out soon.. but not yet.
VOBs direct play also seem to have some issues... occasionally.

#8 : I can't transfer files from my PC to the A3 via USB.. The A3 seems to be rebooting over and over again.
Ans: There's this thing called 'Powered USB ports'. The A3 needs a powered USB port to drink enough juice to spin its disk. So try connecting to a USB port at the back of the machine (which are normally powered). Also make sure you are not going via 'extender cords'. If everything goes well.. you should see a removable drive named 'COWON' in your PC file browser.
Note: Connecting the power adapter doesn't help this scenario. As the A3 needs power from the USB port while its connected.

#9 : Can I expand the default storage space ? Does it take SDHC cards like the D2?
Ans: No. Currently the maximum is 60Gigs.. with a reports coming in of 80Gig variant.
It doesn't have a SDHC card slot. However you could go via a USB card-reader and that works like reading stuff from a normal USB device/pen-drive with the A3 acting as the Host.

#10 : Can I play content straight off a connected USB device ?
Ans: No.
You have to copy content over to the internal disk before you can play it..Kinda sucks that you can't preview stuff before copying.. The Q5 does this .. So fingers crossed... maybe with a f/w update.

#11: What file-systems does the A3 support?
Ans: The A3 uses FAT32 like most devices. This means that it can read the usual pen-drives and SDHC cards via readers.. but not NTFS external drives and the like.

#12: what colors is the A3 available in... apart from the usual ?
Ans: You can have any color you want as long as it is black.

#13: Does it recognize videos that have multiple (language) audio streams?
Ans: Yes.
You can use Settings > Audio Tracks to switch.

#14: Does the A3 come with a remote control to lay back and watch videos off TV-Out on the television?
Ans: No. Ain't that a bitch.
The Q5w comes with a wireless remote. But not the A3.
Update from Quatermass ( There is a wired remote for the A2 that also works with the A3. Not included - purchase separately. Only use I can think of is e.g. not having to pull your A3 out of the bag/pocket to change the track/volume etc..
Check out McSmarties most excellent post for the lowdown and pictures )

#15: How long does it take to completely charge an A3 from the juiced out state?
Ans: Around 5.5 hours from the power outlet. No one has survived a full charge via USB and returned to post the tale.

#16: Can I use the A3 as a comic book reader ?
Ans: You could.. but you shouldn't.
It has just 2 levels of zoom (4X). For most high-res images, that means the captions are too tiny to read.
The best I could do was this [A3 feature requests thread Post#32 Workaround for reading .cbr / comics on the A3] however it involved a lot of scrolling and no joy for the joystick.

#17: How do I apply the firmware updates?
Ans: Check out cowonglobal.com - The firmware update download page has instructions with pictures. Read it.
Basically download the firmware zip file. Extract it to a folder on your machine. Connect your fully charged A3 to a USB port at the back of your computer. Copy the extracted files and paste it to the root folder of your A3. Now 'safely remove' the A3 (Windows system tray). Press the power button to start the A3. You should see the firmware-update-in-progress image on the LCD. Wait for it to complete, the A3 should then boot to the Main Menu. You're done.
Update: The Korean download site has a history of better issue-free updates. Prefer it over cowonglobal.. link at Q#36

#18: Can I use the A3 as a PDF reader?
Ans: Once again.. You could.. but you shouldn't
A3 does not have a native PDF reader app. You need to convert the PDF to A3's common denominator CSD format (via software on cowon's site). However no dice.. layouts screwed up.. file size bloats.. not all PDFs are alike.. Try-n-see.

#19: What's with the TV-on-the-go/ mobileTv with the A3 ?
Ans: Works only in Europe/Korea (Japan?)
You need to buy a separate attachment/thingie that attaches to the left side of the A3 (where all the ports are). If you have the service, the A3 will dish it out for you.

#20: Can I use it like a DVD Player... push stuff on the device and then relay it to my television?
Ans: Yes. Works great... apart from a remote that you're gonna miss.
TV-Out Display is great.

#21: During TV-Out, I find that background sound-effects are too loud and voices are not audible.. I need to keep fidgeting with the volume control. Help?
Ans: Try turning OFF 3D Surround via Settings (Press Button B and scroll).

#22: During TV-Out, I find that the volume is low. I need to turn the volume on my A3 way up + the television volume too. Is this normal?
Ans: Yes. If you still cant hear stuff.. try getting a video encoded with better audio quality.

#23: What was the whole deal with batteries expanding? How do I know I don't have a problem child?
Ans: Towards the end of 2007, there were multiple reports of the batteries expanding during charging to an extent that the casing bulges and the unit is deformed. [http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=19225] [http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=20249]
Apparently this was due to a bad batch of batteries... and the problem has been resolved now.
If you have an A3 that has a SN like KB0801XXX (08 = 2008 01 = Jan) or later.. you should be just fine.
When you get your A3, try running few complete charge-discharge cycles and check that the unit does not bulge to be sure.

#24: Can I record stuff from the television ? Is it any good?
Ans: Yes and Yes.
You need to connect the bundled cables from your TV Out ports to the A3's AV In port. From the main menu > Record > Video and press A to start recording. Videos are recorded in .asf format ( MS MPEG 4 format with its quirks ). Quality of the video can be tweaked via A3 settings.
You can also setup Timed recordings. Program the recording time and duration. Leave the A3 connected to the TV, it will turn itself on at the right time, start-stop recording and go back to sleep (if you have auto-off lcd -n- power configured.)

#25: The auto turn off when the A3 is left idle is bugging me. I am mid-way through a video, I pause the player for a while and it just switches off. Why doesn't it remember where I left off, when I restart it?
Ans: You need to turn on Boot Resume.
Main Menu > Setup > System. Turn on Boot Resume. You're all set... Videos will auto-start from where you left off.

#26: Can I use it as a voice recorder ?
Ans: Yes.
The A3 has an inbuilt mike at the top side panel. It records to .wma format (proprietary again). Good-to-great quality unless you really need something professional.

#27: Can I access the menu / browser while a movie/track is playing without interrupting it?
Ans: Yes. Press the Back button repeatedly to cycle through the different views.

#28: What's the best way to rewind-forward in video mode?
Ans: You can keep the joystick pressed towards the left-right. It will rewind/fwd in increasing intervals (the longer you keep it pressed, the bigger the jumps).
You can configure "Skip interval" via Settings to one of 5s-10-20-30-1min-2-5-10. If you tap the joystick once to the left/right during playback, it will skip by this interval.
A 5 min skip interval + continuous press combo works best for me

#29: How do I pause a running video?
Ans: You press the joystick down centrally. Another press would resume.

#30: The panel displaying the media file information is flaky. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't.
Ans: The panel would display information only when it is not playing content. So keep Back key pressed for 2-3 seconds to stop playback and then tap back once to get back to the media browser. Now you should see the file information displayed.

#31: Are the A3 external speakers good for party use?
Ans: No.. Some say it's not even as loud as the A2.
But nonetheless, useful in a crunch.. audible. But not for open-air broadcast purposes.

#32: Are there any themes for the A3 like the D2?
Ans: Not yet.. keep your fingers crossed. The A2 resource reader-writer app (Georgiano) seems to work for the A3 as well.

#33: Does the A3 have any game emulators yet?
Ans: There was a simple proof of concept for Sega master system games.. search the forums. But it was a high pain for low gain kinda thing. the A3 joystick is not for gaming.. so be warned.

#34: What formats can the A3 play?
Ans:
Video
AVI, WMV, ASF,MP4, MATROSKA(MKV), OGM, MPG/MPEG, VOB, DAT,MTV
Codecs (DivX 3.11/4/5/6, XviD, MPEG-4 SP/ASP, WMV 9/8/7, H.264 MP, M-JPEG, MPEG1)
Audio (MPEG1 Layer 1/2/3, WMA, FLAC, OGG Vorbis, AAC/AAC+, AC3, BSAC, True Audio, WavPack, G.726, CM)
Audio
MP3/2/1, WMA,ASF, FLAC, OGG, M4A, MATROSKA(MKA), AC3,TTA, APE, MPC, WV, WAV
Codecs (MPEG1 Layer 1/2/3, WMA, FLAC, OGG Vorbis, OGG FLAC, APPLELossless, AAC/AAC+, AC3, True Audio, Monkey Audio, MusePack, WavPack, G.726, PCM)
Pictures
JPG, GIF, PNG, TIF, BMP, RAW
(Check out Cowonglobal.com for tech specs)

#35: Do I need separate software to encode/transfer songs/videos for the A3?
Ans: Hell No.
No encoding (unless you have the top quality HD videos). Simple drag-drop via your PC file browser .e.g. Windows Explorer

#36: Whats the hue-n-cry with the Korean, Global and American versions for a particular firmware update ?
Ans: For v1.23 and v1.24, it was seen that there were things like mpeg playback/vob playback broken on installing the latest update from the cowonamerica.com or cowonglobal.com. The update from the Korean Cowon page however didn't have the reported issues.. Hence it is recommended to apply updates from the Korean download page for these versions. The exact reason for this mysterious behavior remains unknown to date

[nivlacbot]

#37: Can I really drag-drop .vob files from a DVD to my A3 and play it without ripping or encoding?
Ans: Yes. Make sure you are running firmware v1.23. A3 users have reported some issues with vob playback with v1.24. Update: Seems the korean fw versions play VOBs fine.. tried and tested 1.23A,1.27B

#38: Hey! My A3 doesn't play this video that my PC does. What gives?
Ans: Probably its a format that your PC knows how to read but the A3 doesn't.
Download-and-run GSpot [http://www.headbands.com/gspot/] and drag-drop the video file onto it. GSpot should identify the audio-video codec - if its a uncommon one, you would need to wait till Cowon supports it via a firmware update. On a PC, its easy as downloading the appropriate codec. Not so for the A3.
If you find that the codecs are ones that the A3 does support (listed in FAQ#34), fire up a post on the troubles sub-forum here.

#39: Gotta run.. What's the easiest way to place a bookmark so that I can resume watching my movie from this exact spot?
Ans: Pause the video if you so please.
Press a key to bring up the overlay GUI thingie.. Press A to bookmark this point. You can then resume from this point whenever you wish.

I use a Button A double tap to create a bookmark.
Stop video - Power down - take a break.
Start up the A3. Click Movie.
Press C to show the playlist.
Now for the joystick combo (Up-Right-Right) #U-selects the last bookmark, R-popup menu, R-play#
OR if you just wanna redial the last movie/track, turn on Boot Resume OR (Choices galore
From the main menu, Press Button A to jump to Recent Files.
Tap the joystick to the right twice.

#40: I got this video that my A3 plays but rewind-forward seems to be broken. I can't watch the entire thing in one go, what do I do ?
Ans: Yeah you get that once in a while.. Use the above Button A - Bookmark trick. It seems to work even when rewind-fwd is broken. Great

#41: Is the USB file transfer fast? At what speed can I hope to transfer media files via USB host/client mode?
Ans: 6 MB/s give or take a bit
It depends also on your USB device - if you have USB 2.0 compatible devices like the A3, you should max out at that speed. this means that a normal 700 Meg Xvid or avi would take around 2 mins to copy.

#42: What is this I hear that some A3s dont make as much noise as the others? How do I get the LOUDest A3 ever?
Ans: Contributed by camtheman2005
Cowon made all A3s alike
The reason behind all the hoopla is that EU countries have some product volume regulations that Cowon had to bend to. So they have a region setting on the A3, that you can change.

1. Start your A3.
2. On the main menu Press Button A to reset to Default Settings
3. You will be prompted for a country; choose one that doesnt lie in the hushed EU Zone. Go USA in case you have trouble making decisions like I do. (Flash decisions always win the day for me.)

That's it - more bang for your buck. You'll lose some settings like wallpaper.. nothing that you can't fix

#43: How do I format my A3?
Ans: Good question. First check if you really reaallllyy want to do it... [Disclaimer: I'm not liable if you dont know what you're doing]
Backing up 60Gb from the A3 is Slow. Next MS WinXP will not allow you to format anything upwards of 32GB in the FAT32 format. So...

1. Connect your A3 to your PC.
2. Next you need Ridgecrop's fat32format utility - go fat32format [A3 drive:] and POOF! (unzip to c:, On the cmd shell "c:\fat32format g:")
3. Next extract your favourite firmware files onto the empty root dir of the A3.
4. 'Safely remove' / unmount A3 from the connected USB devices list.
5. Power on the A3. This will do a firmware upgrade. You will be prompted to choose your region. Choose anything other than a EU Country (See Prev. Q). Once your upgrade completes.. voila you're done!

#44: What is the model of the HDD inside the A3? Any pictures? Has anyone upgraded their A3 with a bigger HDD?
Ans: Contributed by fromatoz
toshiba MK6028GAL (HDD1807)
Pictures
Not yet but you may want to follow this thread.

#45: What are the specs of the electric charger for the A3 in case I need a replacement?
Ans: Contributed by quatermass
The A3 needs a regulated 5V DC power supply capable of supplying 1.1A or more.
The power plug is a 0.7mm type with the tip being positive.

#46: How do I find the firmware version on my A3?
Ans: On the A3 Main Menu > Setup > Information. You should see the current firmware version.

#47: What are the specs for the battery inside the A3? Any Pictures? Has anyone successfully upgraded their battery?
Ans: Contributed by otterpopjunkie
The A3 battery is a 3.7v, 4200mAh Li-Po battery. Dimensions of original battery are 57mm x 110mm x 7mm thick.
Yes and yes... pictures and disassembly guide available here courtesy of the man himself.


#48: Where can I download Fimrware?
Ans: Contributed by i2van

1. Go to Cowon site
2. Select COWON A3 from list.

or use shortcut link

1.34 can be found on Japanese Cowon site here

It's recommended to use Korean Firmware (FAQ #36).

[joanandk]

Originally Posted by nivlacbot

[COLOR="Blue"]
#41: Is the USB file transfer fast? At what speed can I hope to transfer media files via USB host/client mode?
Ans: 6 MB/s give or take a bit

With my USB2.0, I can transfer data with 8 - 11MB/s.

I have a Cowon A3 with 1.23P firmware.

Greetings.

[quatermass]

I transferred the Windows XP sp3 file in 58 secs. That's 331,806,720 bytes.

Works out at 5,720,805 bytes a second or 5.4MB/s on my old Athlon 1.1GHz PC via USB2 with a Cowon A3 with 1.23p firmware.

A lot depends on the PC CPU, hard drive speed of the host drive, etc.
So a modern PC will be faster. In theory USB2 should do 48MB/s.... ;-)
The A3 HDD can manage a maximum of ~50MB/s
So the limit is the CPU on either end. :-)

[joanandk]

Originally Posted by quatermass

I transferred the Windows XP sp3 file in 58 secs. That's 331,806,720 bytes.

Works out at 5,720,805 bytes a second or 5.4MB/s on my old Athlon 1.1GHz PC via USB2 with a Cowon A3 with 1.23p firmware.

A lot depends on the PC CPU, hard drive speed of the host drive, etc.
So a modern PC will be faster. In theory USB2 should do 48MB/s.... ;-)
The A3 HDD can manage a maximum of ~50MB/s
So the limit is the CPU on either end. :-)

Well, I was suprised to see that the Cowon X5L had a transfer rate of 20MB/s, while A3 about 10MB/s on the same host computer. It is in fact lame!

[nivlacbot]

Guys... please use the companion thread for discussions. Or else pretty soon we'll have a demo of the 'Broken Windows' syndrome - this thread will be full of non QnA posts..
I leave it to the powers that be to delete the non-FAQ posts as they deem fit... mine included.

[quatermass]

Add this to the FAQ?

Replacement charger

A3 device needs a regulated 5V DC power supply capable of supplying 1.1A or more.
The power plug is a 0.7mm type with the tip being positive.

[quatermass]

Q14 is wrong. There is a wired remote control for the A3.

[nitzee]

#40: I got this video that my A3 plays but rewind-forward seems to be broken. I can't watch the entire thing in one go, what do I do ?
Ans: Yeah you get that once in a while.. Use the above Button A - Bookmark trick. It seems to work even when rewind-fwd is broken. Great

I usually try to fix the file's index using mplayer's mencoder.
command is: mencoder -idx input.avi -ovc copy -oac copy -o output.avi

Hope this helps someone.

[chovy]

Does not appear to work with MacOSX 10.4.x