Beginner's Guide to the Cowon S9

[Kizune]

No, this is a limitation of Flash 7 (the whole interface is created in Flash).

I hope in Cowon's next firmware update they improve the pictures browser... and/or they upgrade to Flash 8 or higher.

[MFauli]

oh, and a music-related question:

What is it that you have to edit so that album cover art and information are displayed correctly? Im a music-noob, but heard of ID3-tags and m3u-tags and whatever. Once i know which i need i can search for edit-tools, but i dont know where to begin with

[ledifni]

Is there a ten commandmets sort on the s9??

i need something like this:
1. don't defrag it.
2. don't reformat it.
3...

stuffs like that..

i think you should not include "don't drop your s9." - seems pretty obvious for me..

so basically, i need a list of "uncommon/not so obvious" things that you shall not do to your s9..

[nightrush]

MFauli:

ID3-Tags are special information about a song, that are included in the mp3-file and can be edited. When you rip a CD you normally have not all Tags set, but have to add them afterwise.
Those Information include: Cover Art, Songtitle, Componist, Band, The year when the song was made, and some more I can't remember.

To add the information you can use free software, e.g. Mp3Tag. Of course you don't have to add everything manually, but can use online services that provide the tags to the software, e.g. Amazon.

M3Us are indeed playlists and no tags. They consist of a .m3u file and can be used with WMP or a mp3-player.

ledifini:
Don't really understand what you want. Some kind of "never put ya S9 into the microwave"!?

~ nightrush

[MFauli]

Originally Posted by nightrush

MFauli:

To add the information you can use free software, e.g. Mp3Tag. Of course you don't have to add everything manually, but can use online services that provide the tags to the software, e.g. Amazon.

Thanks, already used it, works great. Though: I cant find an option for manually adding cover art. Sometimes theres a song that amazon doesnt have the cover of. Could you tell how to add covers like thaT?

thx

[Dunsany]

Originally Posted by MFauli

Thanks, already used it, works great. Though: I cant find an option for manually adding cover art. Sometimes theres a song that amazon doesnt have the cover of. Could you tell how to add covers like thaT?

thx

When I can't find an album cover with a tagging software, I use the Google picture search engine. Go to Google site, click on the "Images" button in the upper left corner. Then click again on the "Advanced Image Search" on the right. On this page there's an option for choosing the exact size of the picture you're looking for (Width an Height). If you are using Claw's UI, you can display large album art, wich is 272x272 (full width of the S9 when you hold it vertical). This is the ideal size for album cover art, but this is a very uncommon image size on the net. On the opposite, a size of 300x300 is very common: use that size, because it's the best compromise between file size/picture quality and details. And it's also pretty close to 272x272, wich means that there will be no "downscaling artefact" when it will be displayed on the S9. Now just enter the name of the album you're looking for in the search box. If the name of the album is very short or too general, enter also the name of the artist. You should have now an array of pictures with a size of 300x300. Check them in full size, and choose the one that has the best colors/sharp edges. This is a big advantage of adding the covert art manually: you always can find a picture that will look a lot better than the one on Amazon (an with the amoled screen, a nice-looking cover art will look awesome on the S9). Riht-click on the picture and save it on your hard disk. Now that you have your picture, you have two choices: you can embed it in the ID3Tag of the file (software like MediaMonkey and MP3Tag let you do that) or you can just copy the picture in the folder that contains all the songs of the album concerned. Personnaly, I prefer the latter because it uses a lot less memory, and you can delete/swap/modify the music files within the album folder with the assurance that the cover will be always displayed properly.


Have fun!

[MFauli]

ah, thx for the long answer, but i knew how to find cover arts. my problem is, that i cannot find the option within MP3TAG, that allows me to manually add the cover art. Theres only an option to search within Amazon.de or Amazon.com.

[Dunsany]

Ok, this time the answer will be shorter

In MP3Tag, right-click on the file you want to add cover art to, choose "Extended Tags...". You will see two sections, one for metadata and one for cover art. Just click on the first button of the cover art section (with a star). Now just choose any picture file you want. Voilà!

[EddieE]

You can also just right click on the frame where the album art is displayed on the regular MP3Tag screen and, if you have the jpeg saved somewhere select "add album art" and browse to it, or if you've just copied it to clipboard from the 'net select "paste album art".

That's the easiest way for me, just don't forget to hit save before deselecting the tracks you wanted to add the art to, or you'll have to do it all over again.

As said above, 272 is the perfect size for the S9 so if you have software that can resize (such as photoshop), I do recommend it. Especially for albums with fine writing or line work which doesn't look so great re-sized on-board the S9, whether they are bigger or smaller than 272.

If you've added the album art from a saved file, resizing is simple, if copied and pasted you can get the file by extracting it with right click on the album frame and "Extract album art". Then you can put in back on at the right size by right click "remove art" and then adding it again.

I've just completed the arduous task of resizing every single album art currently on my S9 (will resize others as they go on). Was pretty boring job but worth it.

[cintrain]

Hello all. I am the proud new owner of an s9 and am blown away by the sound. I am however a little confused as to how to make it do what I want. Let me start out by saying I am probably the least technically savvy person on here so please keep that in mind.

I downloaded the FW 2.41 last night(as many have said that 2.5 isnt as good) and then this morning downloaded the latest version of claw along with what I think is a theme called fringe for the icons. I cant seem to get the icons to change as I dont know if I am sticking them in the right place. Also when I go to put the new icons into the s9 (via jet audio) it converts them to jpeg which i think I read somewhere is not what I want. (cant remember the acronym I think its PNG is what was recommended) If anyone could help I would greatly appreciate it!

Bill

[ledifni]

pls. add on the guide how to use the tv out.. it would be helpful to beginners..

i already saw a thread about the tv out, but it would be much easier for the beginners if they find it here..

[shurynn]

Hi everyone. Another happy new owner of the S9, which I just got yesterday. Everything is perfect, with the exception of one little annoyance...

When I click on "Browser', it goes to one of my music folders. Is it possible to set it such that it goes directly to Folders instead? It's annoying having to keeping going a few levels up every single time.

ps: anyone know what the third icon on the bottom of the Browser (the one with a square and a plus on the right corner) does? I played around with it and still can't really tell

Thanks in advance to whoever that replies!

[ericp1791]

Originally Posted by CAPTAIN_CAPSLOCK

How Do I make sure Album/Cover Art shows up correctly on my S9?
There are two possibilities:
- You can either embed Album art in your MP3’s ID3-Tag using Programms such as Mediamonkey or MP3Tag. Make sure the Id3 tags are v2.3 since other versions are known to not always work as intended.
- Or you can just put a picture named either cover.jpg or folder.jpg in the respective folder/album the Cover is designated for.
- If you are using Windows media Player just drag'n drop the album cover image on the respective album in media player (Thanks, TimMun!)

To get the best possible result make sure your Album art is squared and not slightly off proportion since the S9’s rescaling ability can lead to slightly unclear/distorted images. A range between 130x130 up to 600x600 should produce good results, ideal for the S9’s screen is a resolution of 272x272 since that’s the given width of the S9’s screen.
Please note that the transfer speed may be slower and you won’t be able to install any themes in this mode (install them via MSC and then switch back to MTP).

After a very extensive trial and error process, I found that 320 x 320 is the ideal size if you're using Claw's UI and have Album Art Mode set to Large. If you like your album art looking perfect, like myself, than that's what I found to be the best size.

[ledifni]

the s9 does not have loudspeaker??

[CAPTAIN_CAPSLOCK]

Originally Posted by ericp1791

After a very extensive trial and error process, I found that 320 x 320 is the ideal size if you're using Claw's UI and have Album Art Mode set to Large. If you like your album art looking perfect, like myself, than that's what I found to be the best size.

Thanks, added to the Guide (with credit to you, of course!)

Originally Posted by ledifni

the s9 does not have loudspeaker??

If that is a statement, you may have confused question with exclamation marks. If, however, that is indeed supposed to be a question, well, thanks for using the search function, taking a look at the specs on any random site selling the Player, and then, after not finding the required info there, asking here.

The answer is........:
NO! (CLICK HERE!!!)

If required by others, i will add that to the Guide. Interest, anyone?