New X5L user - and I hate it!

liverbird · 08-29-2006, 08:23

I recently purchased an X5L after reading several good reviews about it. I wanted an MP3 that I could watch video clips on and view pictures, as well as listen to music, and it seemed just right.

However, yesterday when I came to set it up I just ran into problems. Given it is "plug & play" I managed to load some songs on there quite easily. But that is about it. I am not technophobic, and have never had a problem understanding any sort of electronic equipment before but this has just got me stumped.

It will play the tracks in the order it wants to, but not the order I want it to - or at least I can't get it to. I comes on and starts playing without me doing anything, and seems to get stuck in a loop between the main menu and the tracks I put on there. I cannot even work out what mode I am in most of the time and just feel like sending it back. Except I hate giving up on things that easily!

Maybe it's me, but I don't find the user guide very helpful at all - I just can't understand most of it. I have tried to look for help on here first but there are so many specific questions, it just made me more confused - even though there are clearly a lot of people around that know a lot about them!! (I know nothing about so much I have discovered!!)

I just need a user-friendly guide that will take me step-by-step through the basics, and then I will build on my knowledge from there. But I can't find one! (I daren't even think about videos or pictures at this stage!)

I just feel really frustrated with the whole thing - and completely useless! Please tell me others felt like this too but managed to get it working okay. "Which?" said it was easy to use!! It doesn't seem like that to me! Can anyone recommend a good starting point before it ends up in bits on the floor?!!

Thanks very much.

doniago · 08-29-2006, 10:33

I hate to be this blunt, but while you've described the generalities of your problems, you're lacking in specifics. I've got a few questions which will hopefully help to narrow down the problems you're having-

1) What order do you want to play the tracks in, and what order does the X5 seem to be playing the tracks in? Have you organized your music into folders, or are they just one big collection? If the latter, you'll want to organize your music into folders (I generally use genre\artist\album), as the X5 doesn't support browing by ID3 tag (this has annoyed many people and been discussed to death here, so please don't start a thread about it (smile)). One problem people tend to encounter is the X5 playing in alphabetical rather than track order. You can fix this by appending the track number, i.e. "010 - Track Ten.ogg". If you don't already have a music organization program, I highly recommend MediaMonkey, which can handle batch edits to filenames and ID3 tags.

2) How did you obtain your music? Was it ripped off CD, or downloaded, and if downloaded, is it possible some of the tracks have DRM?

3) The mode is indicated at the top by a little folder with a letter on it. There is a shuffle indicator that will appear next to this icon if you're in shuffle mode.

4) There is a FAQ available in the main X5 subforum...I'd suggest taking a look at that. See here- http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=8647

liverbird · 08-29-2006, 13:24

Hi there. Don't worry about being blunt - be as blunt as you like if it helps me! I am determined not to be beaten by a little black box!!

You're right, I wasn't very specific - think I was still in mental-block mode after last night. I will try to elaborate....

1. On my PC, in Windows Explorer, I created a file of music I want to listen to whilst walking to work - called it "Work Journey" and saved it under Playlist. In there I put the tracks I wanted to listen to, and in my prederred order.

2. They were ripped from some of my CDs. (I got them to play, that wasn't the problem - far from it in fact, as it keep trying to play them. As soon as I switched it on, it does, and I quickly have to hit the pause button!)

I am not sure what DRM is - some sort of Digital Protection Mechanism?? I assume I should be ok w.r.t. that then?

I think you have answered part of my query though - in that, I was expecting it to play the tracks in the order that I loaded them - like you do when you burn a CD. It doesn't! So, yes you are right I can get round that by calling them 1,2,3, etc.

3. I have seen a folder with an "A" on but that is all, and haven't seen the shuffle icon at all. I'll try the book again for that.

I think it's the manual I am struggling with more than anything - I just don't find it very user-friendly. If there was an alternative version, that would be great. A mate at work has offered to have a look through it and see if she can translate some of it to see if that helps. (I feel unbelievably thick. I am usually fine with stuff like this!! Still, pride would just get in the way, better to ask!)

I can't seem to get some of the pictures of the screen in the user guide to appear so that I can then follow the instructions to learn how to do various things, though I did get the main menu up eventually (by accident). They show a directory called COOL - presumably that isn't standard, then?? That confused me a bit because I couldn't find it anywhere!

I tried going into radio from the main menu - fine, but it says to press << or REC to get back - neither work. I have to press the navigator for 2 secs to get the main menu and go into something else that way.

Thanks for your help though. I will try the FAQ as you suggest and have another go.

Zeus's Uncle · 08-29-2006, 13:36

Press and hold the joystick to get into the menu, and you can then go into the settings at the bottom and look around. Under the General settings there is one called resume, this will make it so if you pause and shutoff the player, it will remember the location in the file to start back up at that spot. There is another option called Auto-Play, that will make the player automatically start playing when you boot it up, sounds like your like me and want to have this set to off, but I still keep resume on.

liverbird · 08-29-2006, 14:01

Okay will try that. Thanks!

doniago · 08-29-2006, 14:10

"be as blunt as you like"

Dangerous words to use with me.

1. The only thing that should go in the Playlist folder are .m3u files (playlist files you can create (we'll call that an advanced topic for now)). Music tracks should be placed in the Music folder, at least while you're still new to this. You can create subfolders under the Music folder to better organize your music. Also, the X5 will always play files in alphabetical order. As I said earlier, the easiest way to cheat it is to append numbers to the names of your tracks (usually people use track #'s, but in your case you may want to consider other possibilities). EDIT- Nevermind, I see you got the part about cheating playing order.

2. As ZU said, you probably have Resume turned on, and it sounds as though you may want to turn it off. I tend to listen to music at work and want it to pick up from wherever I left off, so my Resume's usually on.

3. "A" means the X5 will play all playable files. Since Shuffle's not turned on it will essentially find the first file in the first folder, play that, then move on...I'm not sure how it handles subfolders.

I _think_ the CD that comes with your X5 contains a better copy of the manual as a PDF file. If not there may be a link on the FAQ. I agree that it could have been better written.

You can always get to the menu with a long press of the joystick. I don't use recording mode much at all myself, so I can't really help you there, sorry.

liverbird · 08-29-2006, 14:14

Cheers. Will try that too then. Hadn't even seen the music folder - that was another thing confusing me!

Too tired to take it in tonight but will come back to it. This help is all making it less scary anyway!

Tim · 08-29-2006, 14:44

Usually you put your music library in MUSIC folder, organized in subfolders by genre/artists... however you wish, then use some other program (e.g. winamp or windows media player) to create playlists like "Work Journey" and save the playlist file (m3u) in the playlist folder, instead of phyically putting the songs you want in a seperate folder. With 30GB you can usually put a portion (if not all) of your music collection on it.

From the trouble you are having I think you might be better off with an iPod. Formats and DRM aside, Apple did a great job with iTunes/iPod integration so that user don't have to mess with renaming files/folders and making m3u playlists. Unless you care about the file format (ogg, flac, wma... that's not supported by iPod), or DRM (if you ever purchase from online music stores like iTunes), or that you don't like the browsing by category that's widely used and prefer the old-fashioned file tree browsing, I don't really see why, especially considering how *old* X5 is. If you want videos/pictures on the go, iPod does it too, with a bigger screen, albeit with a much shorter battery life than X5L.

I got my X5L mainly because of ogg and flac support, then again I don't find myself using flac that much...

Panca · 08-31-2006, 05:38

I recently also got a new X5L, and found the manual a bit hard going, but has been said above the PDF manual that comes on the cd is much better, and more detailed.

Take Care

liverbird · 08-31-2006, 13:46

They looked the same to me at first glance but I'll try again this weekend then! Thanks.

A couple of techy mates had a play with it last night and even they said it's hard to get to grips with and the manual is awful to follow. Sometimes, the MP3 player just doesn't do what the manual says it will - like when it say to press REC or << to get back a screen. We have to go right back to the main menu and then back in! Frustrating....!

Zeus's Uncle · 08-31-2006, 13:55

I think the << means click to the left on the joystick, that's how I go backwards when navigating the menus or the folder structure on the X5. Yeah, the manual isn't the best, but I've never seen a good manual for any device really.

liverbird · 08-31-2006, 14:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeus's Uncle

I think the << means click to the left on the joystick, that's how I go backwards when navigating the menus or the folder structure on the X5. Yeah, the manual isn't the best, but I've never seen a good manual for any device really.

I realised that but nothing happens most of the time when I press it - even in examples it gives in the manual.

Zeus's Uncle · 08-31-2006, 14:20

Sounds like you could have a defective joystick. That has been a problem many people have experienced with this player and is considered a weak point of the design. You're saying that, for instance, when you're browsing your music you can click right to get into a folder but cannot click left to get back to the parent folder?

Arachnophilia · 09-01-2006, 05:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeus's Uncle

Yeah, the manual isn't the best, but I've never seen a good manual for any device really.

come to think of it, i haven't really read the manual.

Martinp · 09-01-2006, 07:36

Huh, manual? I only ever get the korean ones and can never be bothered to check out the english PDFs

08-29-2006, 08:23	#1
liverbird Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 12	New X5L user - and I hate it! I recently purchased an X5L after reading several good reviews about it. I wanted an MP3 that I could watch video clips on and view pictures, as well as listen to music, and it seemed just right. However, yesterday when I came to set it up I just ran into problems. Given it is "plug & play" I managed to load some songs on there quite easily. But that is about it. I am not technophobic, and have never had a problem understanding any sort of electronic equipment before but this has just got me stumped. It will play the tracks in the order it wants to, but not the order I want it to - or at least I can't get it to. I comes on and starts playing without me doing anything, and seems to get stuck in a loop between the main menu and the tracks I put on there. I cannot even work out what mode I am in most of the time and just feel like sending it back. Except I hate giving up on things that easily! Maybe it's me, but I don't find the user guide very helpful at all - I just can't understand most of it. I have tried to look for help on here first but there are so many specific questions, it just made me more confused - even though there are clearly a lot of people around that know a lot about them!! (I know nothing about so much I have discovered!!) I just need a user-friendly guide that will take me step-by-step through the basics, and then I will build on my knowledge from there. But I can't find one! (I daren't even think about videos or pictures at this stage!) I just feel really frustrated with the whole thing - and completely useless! Please tell me others felt like this too but managed to get it working okay. "Which?" said it was easy to use!! It doesn't seem like that to me! Can anyone recommend a good starting point before it ends up in bits on the floor?!! Thanks very much.

08-29-2006, 10:33	#2
doniago I, Like, Do Stuff Here. Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Burlington, VT Posts: 4,651	I hate to be this blunt, but while you've described the generalities of your problems, you're lacking in specifics. I've got a few questions which will hopefully help to narrow down the problems you're having- 1) What order do you want to play the tracks in, and what order does the X5 seem to be playing the tracks in? Have you organized your music into folders, or are they just one big collection? If the latter, you'll want to organize your music into folders (I generally use genre\artist\album), as the X5 doesn't support browing by ID3 tag (this has annoyed many people and been discussed to death here, so please don't start a thread about it (smile)). One problem people tend to encounter is the X5 playing in alphabetical rather than track order. You can fix this by appending the track number, i.e. "010 - Track Ten.ogg". If you don't already have a music organization program, I highly recommend MediaMonkey, which can handle batch edits to filenames and ID3 tags. 2) How did you obtain your music? Was it ripped off CD, or downloaded, and if downloaded, is it possible some of the tracks have DRM? 3) The mode is indicated at the top by a little folder with a letter on it. There is a shuffle indicator that will appear next to this icon if you're in shuffle mode. 4) There is a FAQ available in the main X5 subforum...I'd suggest taking a look at that. See here- http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=8647 __________________ DonIago Iron Mod "When you do things right, people won't be sure you did anything at all." Last edited by doniago; 08-29-2006 at 10:42..

08-29-2006, 13:36	#4
Zeus's Uncle multimedia aficionado Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 2,157	Press and hold the joystick to get into the menu, and you can then go into the settings at the bottom and look around. Under the General settings there is one called resume, this will make it so if you pause and shutoff the player, it will remember the location in the file to start back up at that spot. There is another option called Auto-Play, that will make the player automatically start playing when you boot it up, sounds like your like me and want to have this set to off, but I still keep resume on. __________________ Ray, when someone asks if you're a god, you say "Yes!" Should afruff decide to contradict or address me, and you would like a response, please let me know; he is on my ignore list. Quality AND Quantity.

08-29-2006, 14:10	#6
doniago I, Like, Do Stuff Here. Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Burlington, VT Posts: 4,651	"be as blunt as you like" Dangerous words to use with me. 1. The only thing that should go in the Playlist folder are .m3u files (playlist files you can create (we'll call that an advanced topic for now)). Music tracks should be placed in the Music folder, at least while you're still new to this. You can create subfolders under the Music folder to better organize your music. Also, the X5 will always play files in alphabetical order. As I said earlier, the easiest way to cheat it is to append numbers to the names of your tracks (usually people use track #'s, but in your case you may want to consider other possibilities). EDIT- Nevermind, I see you got the part about cheating playing order. 2. As ZU said, you probably have Resume turned on, and it sounds as though you may want to turn it off. I tend to listen to music at work and want it to pick up from wherever I left off, so my Resume's usually on. 3. "A" means the X5 will play all playable files. Since Shuffle's not turned on it will essentially find the first file in the first folder, play that, then move on...I'm not sure how it handles subfolders. I _think_ the CD that comes with your X5 contains a better copy of the manual as a PDF file. If not there may be a link on the FAQ. I agree that it could have been better written. You can always get to the menu with a long press of the joystick. I don't use recording mode much at all myself, so I can't really help you there, sorry. __________________ DonIago Iron Mod "When you do things right, people won't be sure you did anything at all."

08-29-2006, 14:44	#8
Tim Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 104	Usually you put your music library in MUSIC folder, organized in subfolders by genre/artists... however you wish, then use some other program (e.g. winamp or windows media player) to create playlists like "Work Journey" and save the playlist file (m3u) in the playlist folder, instead of phyically putting the songs you want in a seperate folder. With 30GB you can usually put a portion (if not all) of your music collection on it. From the trouble you are having I think you might be better off with an iPod. Formats and DRM aside, Apple did a great job with iTunes/iPod integration so that user don't have to mess with renaming files/folders and making m3u playlists. Unless you care about the file format (ogg, flac, wma... that's not supported by iPod), or DRM (if you ever purchase from online music stores like iTunes), or that you don't like the browsing by category that's widely used and prefer the old-fashioned file tree browsing, I don't really see why, especially considering how old X5 is. If you want videos/pictures on the go, iPod does it too, with a bigger screen, albeit with a much shorter battery life than X5L. I got my X5L mainly because of ogg and flac support, then again I don't find myself using flac that much... __________________ X5 Skinpacks

08-29-2006, 13:24	#3
liverbird Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 12	Hi there. Don't worry about being blunt - be as blunt as you like if it helps me! I am determined not to be beaten by a little black box!! You're right, I wasn't very specific - think I was still in mental-block mode after last night. I will try to elaborate.... 1. On my PC, in Windows Explorer, I created a file of music I want to listen to whilst walking to work - called it "Work Journey" and saved it under Playlist. In there I put the tracks I wanted to listen to, and in my prederred order. 2. They were ripped from some of my CDs. (I got them to play, that wasn't the problem - far from it in fact, as it keep trying to play them. As soon as I switched it on, it does, and I quickly have to hit the pause button!) I am not sure what DRM is - some sort of Digital Protection Mechanism?? I assume I should be ok w.r.t. that then? I think you have answered part of my query though - in that, I was expecting it to play the tracks in the order that I loaded them - like you do when you burn a CD. It doesn't! So, yes you are right I can get round that by calling them 1,2,3, etc. 3. I have seen a folder with an "A" on but that is all, and haven't seen the shuffle icon at all. I'll try the book again for that. I think it's the manual I am struggling with more than anything - I just don't find it very user-friendly. If there was an alternative version, that would be great. A mate at work has offered to have a look through it and see if she can translate some of it to see if that helps. (I feel unbelievably thick. I am usually fine with stuff like this!! Still, pride would just get in the way, better to ask!) I can't seem to get some of the pictures of the screen in the user guide to appear so that I can then follow the instructions to learn how to do various things, though I did get the main menu up eventually (by accident). They show a directory called COOL - presumably that isn't standard, then?? That confused me a bit because I couldn't find it anywhere! I tried going into radio from the main menu - fine, but it says to press << or REC to get back - neither work. I have to press the navigator for 2 secs to get the main menu and go into something else that way. Thanks for your help though. I will try the FAQ as you suggest and have another go.

08-29-2006, 14:01	#5
liverbird Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 12	Okay will try that. Thanks!

08-29-2006, 14:14	#7
liverbird Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 12	Cheers. Will try that too then. Hadn't even seen the music folder - that was another thing confusing me! Too tired to take it in tonight but will come back to it. This help is all making it less scary anyway!

08-31-2006, 05:38	#9
Panca Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 1	I recently also got a new X5L, and found the manual a bit hard going, but has been said above the PDF manual that comes on the cd is much better, and more detailed. Take Care

08-31-2006, 13:46	#10
liverbird Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 12	They looked the same to me at first glance but I'll try again this weekend then! Thanks. A couple of techy mates had a play with it last night and even they said it's hard to get to grips with and the manual is awful to follow. Sometimes, the MP3 player just doesn't do what the manual says it will - like when it say to press REC or << to get back a screen. We have to go right back to the main menu and then back in! Frustrating....!

08-31-2006, 13:55	#11
Zeus's Uncle multimedia aficionado Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 2,157	I think the << means click to the left on the joystick, that's how I go backwards when navigating the menus or the folder structure on the X5. Yeah, the manual isn't the best, but I've never seen a good manual for any device really. __________________ Ray, when someone asks if you're a god, you say "Yes!" Should afruff decide to contradict or address me, and you would like a response, please let me know; he is on my ignore list. Quality AND Quantity.

08-31-2006, 14:20	#13
Zeus's Uncle multimedia aficionado Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 2,157	Sounds like you could have a defective joystick. That has been a problem many people have experienced with this player and is considered a weak point of the design. You're saying that, for instance, when you're browsing your music you can click right to get into a folder but cannot click left to get back to the parent folder? __________________ Ray, when someone asks if you're a god, you say "Yes!" Should afruff decide to contradict or address me, and you would like a response, please let me know; he is on my ignore list. Quality AND Quantity.

09-01-2006, 07:36	#15
Martinp Former iAudiophile/DAPreview editor Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Portsmouth, England Posts: 1,918	Huh, manual? I only ever get the korean ones and can never be bothered to check out the english PDFs __________________ Proud to be a part of the DAPreview webring: DAPreview \| epiZENter \| iAudiophile \| DAP.db

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode