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COWON

iAUDIO Expert

02-07-2007 13:41:46

COWON A2 Firmware V.1.91- Revised firmware version

COWON A2 Firmware V1.91

Please install the revised firmware V.1.91 to fix the error of the remote control. After completing a firmware update, new firmware version and application version (v.1.91F) can be confirmed via [information] under [ Setup] menu. If the version number may be displayed as 1.91C, 1.91D or 1.91E, 1.91F will only be displayed properly after the A2 has been rebooted.

Caution!
After upgrading the firmware version over 1.87F, you can not downgrade to version below 1.85E because of changing the internal structure. However, it is possible to downgrade from V.1.89F or later to V.1.87F: 1.89F -> 1.87F.

* Improved on MP3 decoder engine
Fixed the error that does not play MP3 files encoded with VBR.

* Improved Musepack decoder engine and fixed the error to extract Musepack audio Meta information

* Add Musepack file extensions
Support mp+ and mpp (Capital or small letters will work equally)
The compatible file extensions include: mpc, mp+ and mpp.

* Support to English word wrap in Text Viewer
If you set the language menu as Hebrew or Arab, it is not compatible.

* Support to move by page (%)
You can move per % by pressing B button in Text Viewer.
[Settings]-[Go to]

You can move per 5 %.

* Improved to recognize subtitles
Fixed the error that does not recognize some subtitles according to encoding process

* Fixed the error of multi tasking in Picture Viewer
Fixed the error to get noise on the screen by pressing 'C' button long when viewing pictures and playing music files at the same time

* Improved on playing Ogg Vorbis files
Fixed the error that can not play some OGG Vorbis files because of Parser error

COWON A2 Firmware V1.91
USER_STYLE.TXT
COWON A2 Font Maker V1.01
COWON mTrans V1.01
LDB Manager

Installation Steps

* Please read the notes before installing the firmware.
- The battery must be fully charged before upgrading firmware.
- Do not turn the power off during upgrading.
- Back up the files just in case.
- You must upgrade the supplied firmware from COWON SYSTEMS.

[Firmware V1.89]

* Support Musepack Audio files

-Support Musepack files (MPC format) as known as MPEGPLUS (MP+)
-Musepack is an audio compression format with a strong emphasis on high quality.
-You can easily convert Musepack files in JetAudio.
-To learn more visit: http://www.musepack.net

Caution) You can lose the sound quality if you convert one audio compression format to another.

* Support Musepack audio Meta information
-Support APE tag version 2.0
-Ability to extract Album, Artiest and Title information

* Fixed the error of timer recording after installed the firmware V.1.87

[Firmware V1.87]

* Added more items to set user GUI
The below items are added in a USER_STYLE.TXT file.
Please refer to the attached SER_STYLE.TXT file.

MUSIC_TITLE_FONT
MUSIC_TITLE_POSITION
TEXTVIEW_TITLE_FONT
TEXTVIEW_TITLE_POSITION

* Upgrade FLAC decoder
Applied the latest version of FLAC decoder (V.1.1.4)
Improved on decoding FLAC

* Fixed the error that displays lyrics of a playing FLAC or WMA file after playing a MP3 file with lyrics marked

* Fixed the error to display wrong coordinates on AV-IN preview screen

* Fixed the error that can not display the bottom of the album image when fast forwarding or rewinding a music file

[Firmware V1.85]

* Support LDB Version 2.0 (XLDB)

Support to display lyrics in Karaoke style with LDB Version 2.0 (XLDB)

If LDB Manager marked it as XLDB, then the audio file is able to display lyrics in Karaoke style. If a MP3 file has already been marked as LDB Version 1.0, then just text type of lyric is displayed.

* Added the function to select a language

When you turn your A2 on for the first time, or press A button in Setup, you can select a language. The feature is only applied on the player with version 1.82 E of the firmware or higher.

* Ability to set the user GUI

Change the color of fonts and background while booting if there is a USER_STYLE.TXT file in the .system folder. The USER_STYLE.TXT file must be according to the form prescribed.

Here’s the Sample form.

#
# 1. If the first character of a line is '#' or blank, then that line is comment.
# 2. The color representation is RGBA, 32bit.
# 3. It must be one color per one line.
#

MAIN_HEAD_FONT 0xFFFFFF70
MAIN_FOOT_FONT 0x808080FF
MENU_LABEL_NORMAL 0x999999FF
MENU_LABEL_SELECT 0x101010FF
MENU_S_LABEL 0x74F101FF
MENU_S_SELECT 0xCCCCCCFF
NAVI_FILEPATH_FONT 0x8BFD01FF
NAVI_FILENAME_FONT 0xFFFFFFFF
NAVI_PLAYLIST_FONT 0xFFFFFFFF
NAVI_INFOMATION_FONT 0x999999FF
NAVI_SELECT_LINE_FG 0xFDEB01FF
NAVI_SELECT_LINE_BG 0x262626FF
MUSIC_ID3_FONT 0xFFFFFFFF
MUSIC_LYRICS_FONT 0x777777FF
MUSIC_LYRICS_SELECT_FONT 0xFFFF00FF
MUSIC_JETEFFECT_ENABLE_FONT 0xFFFFFFFF
MUSIC_JETEFFECT_DISABLE_FONT 0x444444FF
POPUPW_TITLE_FONT 0xC4D3E9FF
POPUPW_MSG_FONT 0xFFFFFFFF

* Ability to change the Menu style by pressing B button on the Initial screen

* Support the maximum sound limit in some European countries when selecting German, French, Spanish, Netherlands and Russian languages.

* Changed the range of frequency in Japan from 76 ~ 90 MHz to 76 ~ 108 MHz

* Added more languages in System Language

(Setup > Display > Appearance > System Language)
Central Europian (ISO8859-2)
Greek (ISO8859-7)
Turkish (ISO8859-9)
Baltic (ISO8859-4)

* Improved on MPEG4 Decoder

Improved on having noise at the bottom of screen in some movie files

* Improved on overlapping subtitles when seeing a pop-up window

[Firmware V1.81]

* Improved on displaying a split band at the top of the video when recording video

* Improved on the situation that can not play some MPEG files due to the data mining error

* Improved on having screen noise in some movie files with Xvid codec

* Improved on stopping abnormally when loading the video file with ADPCM audio codec

* Support Hebrew: COWON A2 now supports 11 national languages - Korean, English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Dutch and Hebrew.

"Special Thanks to the members of iAudiophile.net regarding translation."

Hebrew - Arye Levin

* Support fonts and alphabetical order for Hebrew and Arabic

Support Text Viewer, File Browser and File Information/Lyrics when playing music, Subtitles and so on for Right-To-Left Languages (Hebrew and Arabic)

Please set Hebrew (ISO8859-8) or Arabic (ISO8859-6) under [Setup] - [Display] - [Appearance] - [System Language]

"Special Thanks to the members of iAudiophile.net regarding Hebrew fonts and alphabetical order."

Arye Levin

* Upgrade FontMaker V.1.01 for supporting Hebrew language.

* Upgrade mTrans V.1.01

Support 8bit, 16bit bitmap when converting image book

* Control CSD Viewer via the remote control

[Firmware V1.77]

* Added Record Pause feature

- Ability to pause/continue recording to click on [OK] button when recording
- Applied all record mode (DMB, Line-IN record, Voice, Radio)

* Fixed the error that does not play correctly a movie file with Xvid

* Improved on handling the damaged part of files when playing a AVI file with AC3 audio

* Added ‘CSD viewer’

- Convert document or image files into CSD format with COWON mTrans
- Support all types of electronic document like MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Adobe PDF, and all kinds of Korean word processor.
- Support JPEG, BMP, and TIFF file format
- Move to other page
- Automatic move on next page (1~60 seconds)
- Move the document by 10~60%
- Rotation (0, 90, and 270 degree)
- View CSD document (Fit to screen, Fit to width, Fit to height, Actual size)
- Zoom in the document by 5~50%

mTrans can be available to convert if the original document or viewer (MS Office, Adobe Acrobat Reader) are installed on your computer.

The option settings of mTrans can have an effect on display speed, scroll speed, and playing files simultaneously. Please set up the option for personal usage. It supports MS Windows 2000, XP, and 2003.

CAUTION) Please uninstall mTrans on your computer, and reinstall the latest version of mTrans.

* Added CSD View Cartoon mode

- Applied to click on View Cartoon from the popup menu of the file when playing a CSD document
- Ability to open the popup menu of the file: [Search] - [Focus on File] - [A button] or [right button of lever]
- It can not zoom in View Cartoon mode.
- It can move to other page faster in View Cartoon mode.

* Added Automatic move feature on TEXT viewer (1~60 seconds)

* Released CSD converter (mTrans) V1.0

- Added the feature to convert Image Book (It can convert JPEG files into a CSD document.)
- Convert after cutting 2 images on both sides in 2 pages automatically (According to proportion of image's width/height)
- Ability to select Right/Left (Basic option is LEFT.)

* Support .srt, .sub(Text type) subtitle files

- Support only TEXT type of SUB file
- It does not support SUB file and IDX file of binary format.
- Subtitle Priority: smi > smil > srt > sub

* Fixed the error that displays not support codec in all files in a certain situation

* Fixed the error on selecting the number of multi-subtitle SMI file

[Firmware V1.73 ]

*Added "Play Speed" features for Movie and Music for all file formats.

- Applied "Pitch Correction" feature
- [Pitch Correction] on/off can be controlled from [Setup] - [Music] - [Pitch Correction] (Default is Off)
- Adjustable between 0.7x to 1.5x
- Controlled separately for Movie and Music.
- Movie Playback [B button] - [Play Speed] or [Setup] - [Movie] - [General] - [Play Speed]
- Music Playback [B button] - [Play Speed] or [Setup] - [Music] - [General] - [Play Speed]

Caution! Depending on what audio and video codecs your files use, the audio track may not play in time to the video.

Caution! The Pitch Correction feature may introduce distortion to the music.

* Added album art (JPEG) display while listening to music files:

- Display as 160X100 size
- a. If ID3 Meta data of MP3 file contains JPEG image
- b. If folder contains JPEG file with same name as music file.
- c. If folder contains JPEG files (If it’s more than 1 images, displayed as random order.)
- Order Priority: a > b > c
- If any of these cases is matched with the above conditions, the A2 will display the album art
- Case “a” is only supported with MP3 files.
- Case “b”, “c” is supported for most audio files.
- Other image formats (bitmap, png, progressive JPEG and etc) are not supported.
- JetAudio’s tag editing menu will allow the insertion of JPEG images to MP3 files. (Tag Edit -> Picture)
- [Album image] on/off can be controlled from the display menu. [setup]-[music]-[display]

If the image size is very large, loading time can be delayed.

* Added Timer Record feature

- Up to 10 sessions can be added.
- Timer Recording sessions can be added via [Record]-[Timer Rec]
- Only ‘Play” feature is available with previous [Setup]-[System]-[Alarm] menu.
- Sessions will be started by start time and not list order.
- If device is turned off, it will be automatically turned on by alarm or timer record features.
- When the alarm or timer record starts while the device operating, the user will be asked to select an action. If the user does not take action within 10 seconds, the A2 will automatically operate the alarm or timer recording.

* Improved AC3 multi-channel audio decoder engine
- Improved AC3 surround system for movie files with AC3 multi channel audio codec.

* Support Spanish and Dutch: COWON A2 now supports 10 national languages - Korean, English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, French, German, Russian, Spanish and Dutch.

"Special Thanks to the members of iAudiophile.net regarding translation."

Dutch - Jan Bemelmans / German - Martin Plappert / French - Timothee & JiPe / Russian - Daniel

* Fixed the error that occasionally freezes A2 if you try to rewind or fast forward when you're paused.

* Fixed the error where some jpegs were not displayed correctly due to the fact that the files were not transferred correctly via the USB-Host.

* Fixed some errors with meta data on ID3 Version 2.4.

[Firmware V1.67]

* Improved features when playing OGG files.

: able to apply JetEffect such as BBE.

able to display spectrum during playback, but it might be instable in some OGG files.

* Able to view image files when playing OGG files.

* Added the function of PAN & SCAN (70% - 300%)

: it is a function of zoom in/out without distortion by keeping aspect ratio.

able to apply it when playing a movie file. ( B button -> PAN & SCAN)
able to apply it with Screen Aspect Ratio in Setup menu option.

only available in LCD mode.

* Supports multi subtitle in smi(smil) files.

: it is a function that displays two subtitles in different language at the same time.

(B button -> Subtitle Tracks -> choose smi 1 or 2)

* Fixed the error when playing a movie file with MPEG4.

* Improved AC3 surround system.

* Improved loading speed when playing audio files by buffering algorithm.

* Added Spanish language.

* Fixed the error when viewing image files while listening to the music or radio.

* Fixed the error of JetEffect when playing some files.

* Fixed the error when changing mode (Aspect Ratio, size or LCD/AV OUT) in pause mode of the movie file.

* Fixed the error that it displays wrong time on Recent Played List after pressing back button long while playing and turning it off.

* Fixed the error of LCD Off (SetUp -> System) during timed recording.

* Fixed the error that there's no sound in certain situation.

* Fixed the error that displays wrong ID3 tag information in certain audio files.

* Fixed the error when displaying smi subtitle file format.

* Fixed the error that doesn't save more than 100 screenshots from movie files.

* Fixed the error that stops abnormally in TV-out mode.

* Fixed the error that doesn't display JPEG file in TV-out mode.

[ Firmware V1.61]

* Able to view image files while listening to the music. It only works with MP3 files, and OGG files will be supported in the near future.

The maximum viewable image size:

1. Viewing image files when playing MP3 files:

JPG: unlimited pixels (file size is limited up to 5.4MB)
P-JPG: 1.4 Mega Pixels (Progressive type)
PNG: 1.8 Mega Pixels / 1.4 Mega Pixels (with alpha channel)
BMP: 1.8 Mega Pixels (24bit) / 1.6 Mega Pixels (32bit)

2. Viewing image files only:

JPG: Unlimited pixels (file size is limited up to 6.5MB)
P-JPG: 1.6 Mega Pixels (Progressive type)
PNG: 2.1 Mega Pixels / 1.6 Mega Pixels (with alpha channel)
BMP: 2.1 Mega Pixels (24bit) / 1.6 Mega Pixels (32bit)

* Fixed the error of the repeat function of the FLAC file.

* Fixed the error of encoding Unicode (UTF-8) in Text Viewer.

** The firmware V1.61 includes 4 files.

** You are not able to downgrade the firmware 1.54 Beta, 1.57 and 1.59.

* Notice of GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE

This product has some free software which are copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation and the library includes the software is subject to the observance of the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation.