User’s Guide ver. 1.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE Thank you for choosing COWON. We continue to strive to achieve a higher level of customer satisfaction and hope to instill “Digital Pride” to our customers. Please read this manual carefully before using our product(s), for better understanding of technical aspects of the COWON product(s).
COPYRIGHT NOTICE 3 Legal Notice • COWON is a registered trademark of COWON SYSTEMS, INC. • This product is intended for personal use only and may not be used for any commercial purpose without the written consent of COWN SYSTEMS, INC. • Information in this document is copyrighted by COWON SYSTEMS, INC. and no part of this manual may be reproduced or distributed without the written permission of COWN SYSTEMS, INC.
Table of Contents COWON A3 1)Before Using this Product 5 1. Precautions for Using this Product 2. Package Components 3. Names of Parts 4. Power Connection and Charging 5. Connecting to your PC 6. Charging with your PC 7. Saving Files and Disconnecting A3 8. Upgrading Firmware 2)Basic Features 1. Running Files 2. Button Controls 3)Advanced Features 1. Filer Browser 2. Playlist 3. USB Host Connection 4. DMB ( Mobile TV Mode) 5. Radio Mode 5. Record Mode 7. AV OUT 8. COMPONENT, S-VIDEO OUT 9.
Before Using this Product 5 1. Precautions for Using this Product COWON is not responsible for any damages or failures to products that are caused by user misuse of products and by not following the set rules/guidelines that are described in this manual. • Do not use this product for other purposes than those described in this guide. • Handle manual, product package materials, accessories, etc with care to prevent cuts and injuries to your hands.
Before Using this Product • Only use the AC power adapter and USB cable provided by COWON SYSTEMS, Inc. • When connecting to a PC, use only USB ports on the mother board or a USB Host card. Using an external USB hub may not guarantee proper operation. (e.g. USB ports on a keyboard or an external USB hub) • When formatting the built-in hard disk, select FAT32 as the file system. Firmware must be reinstalled according to ‘Upgrading Firmware’ procedures after format.
Before Using this Product 7 2. Package Contents COWON A3 Body Bundle Earphones Hand Strap USB 2.
Before Using this Product 3.
Before Using this Product 9 1 Earphone Jack : Connect the bundled earphone or any earphone with a standard 3.5 mm plug 2 AV OUT : Connect the AV Cable to send A3 still/video images through composite ports of external AV devices. (TV etc) 3 AV IN : Connect the AV Cable/Line-In cable to record contents playing on external AV devices with your A3 player. 4 COMP / S-VIDEO : Hi-Quality viewing via COMP/S-VIDEO cable, and recording via S-VIDEO cable. 5 USB Port : Connecting to PC via USB 2.
Before Using this Product 5. Connecting to your PC 1. Connect the device’s “USB DEVICE” and the USB port of the computer with the provided USB cable. 2. If properly connected, the following appears on the LCD. 3. Check the recently added drive from My Computer and Windows Browser. 6. Charging with your PC If connection to PC is made while HOLD switch is ON, A3 will only be charged thru USB port. - When using your player as a portable storage device, connect the adapter for stable power supply.
Before Using this Product 11 7. Saving Files and Disconnecting A3 1. Launch COWON Mediacenter - JatAudio/Windows file explorer after connecting A3 to a PC. 2. Store video, audio, and other files to COWON A3. 3. After all files are saved, click the icon from the PC tray. 4. Click the following popup message when it appears. 5. When the Safe To Remove Hardware window appears, separate the USB cable.
Before Using this Product 8. Upgrading Firmware Firmware is a program embedded in the hardware. Firmware update may provide the player with feature enhancements and/or bug fixes. Frmware versions may have bugs that will be fixed in the next version. Upgrading Firmware 1. Visit our home page at www.COWON.com, and download the latest firmware version. 2. Connect A3 and your computer with the provided USB cable. 3. Extract the downloaded file and copy it to the top level folder (Root folder) of the A3.
Basic Features 13 1. Running Files 1. Connect the earphones to A3. (No need to connect the earphones if you want to listen through the speakers.) 2. Press and hold the power switch to turn on the player. 3. Press Lever in each playing modes (Movie, Music, Photo, Document) to play media files. 4. Use the lever to move the cursor to + or - and press the lever to open a folder that contains the file to be played. 5. Press the lever on a desired file and the file will start to play. 6.
Basic Features 2. Button Controls Button Description • Press and hold when the player power is off to turn on the player. • Press and hold when the player power is on to turn off the player. • Short presses will turn the LCD on and off. • If the player does not work properly, press and hold for 9 seconds to it turn off. • Increases volume during file playback. • Moves up through the File Browser and Setting items. • Moves to the top of the enlarged screen in image viewer.
Advanced Features 15 1. File Browser A3 provides 10 modes. Movie, Music, Photo, Document and Browser modes can be navigated by the File Browser ■ Opening File Browser Press the lever in Movie, Music, Photo, Text or Browser mode and the File Browser will appear. By default, only playable files in each mode can be viewed and selected. All files appear in Browser mode. ■ Moving a File Browser Cursor Move the lever towards + or - to move through items up and down.
Advanced Features ■ File Browser Popup Menu Move the lever towards ▶▶on a file to open a popup menu for the appropriate mode. Move the lever towards + or - to select a desired item, then press or move the lever towards ▶▶again to select. Press the “BACK” button to cancel the popup window.Play File, Add to Playlist and Delete menu items are displayed for Movie, Music and Document modes. For Photo mode, Slideshow and Set Wallpaper items are added.
Advanced Features 17 3. USB Host Connection and Usage USB Host can copy and delete files and folders in USB compatible devices (digital camera, iAUDIO, etc.). ■ Connecting USB Host Connect the USB Host cable to the “USB HOST” on your A3 and the USB port of the USB compatible device. ■ Starting USB Host To start USB Host, press the “C” button in Browser mode after connecting the USB compatible device.
Advanced Features 4. Mobile TV Mode Mobile TV mode lets you watch mobile TV programs on A3 using optional TV receiver. ■ Connecting TV receiver Connect optional TV receiver to USB port on the left side of your A3. There are 3 types of receivers depends on the region and A3 will automatically detect and install: T-DMB (Korea), 1SEG (Japan), and DVB-T (Europe) ■ Watching Mobile TV Execute Mobile TV while optional TV receiver is connected. Press the “B” button to scan channels.
Advanced Features 19 5. Radio Mode Usage Listen or record FM radio broadcasts in Radio mode. ■ Radio Listening Radio Listening Select Radio mode to listen to FM radio. Shortly move the lever towards◀◀or ▶▶to move through channels. Long pushes will scan channels. Press and hold the “BACK” button to stop the radio. ■ Preset Setting and Usage Press the “A” button on a desired frequency and the frequency will be saved.
Advanced Features S-VIDEO In (Record) YELLOW Television RED WHITE RED GREEN BLUE Connect the AV cable to the “AV IN” of your A3 and the “AV OUT (Video OUT, Audio OUT)” of the external AV device. For S-VIDEO recording, connect the S-VIDEO cable to the S-VIDEO Out of the external AV device. For audio recording, connect the line-in cable to the “AV IN” of your A3 and the Line Out (or earphone) jack of the external audio device.
Advanced Features 21 7. AV OUT usage Connect external AV devices (TV, VTR, etc.) using the AV cable. COMPOSITE Out (View) Television RED COMPOSITE Out (View) WHITE YELLOW ■ Connecting a Cable Connect the AV cable to the “AV OUT” of your A3 and the “AV IN (Video IN, Audio IN)” of the external AV device. Change the input mode of AV device. For more information, check the manual of your AV device.
Advanced Features 8. COMPONENT, S-VIDEO OUT Usage COMPONENT Out (View) YELLOW RED Television COMPONENT Out (View) WHITE RED GREEN BLUE S-VIDEO Out (View) YELLOW RED Television WHITE S-VIDEO Out (View) RED GREEN BLUE ■ Connecting a Cable Connect the High quality TV cable to the “COMP/S-VIDEO” Jack of your A3 and the “COMPONENT IN/S-VIDEO IN” of the external AV device. For audio, connect “AV OUT” of A3 to “AUDIO IN” of the external AV device using AV cable. Change the input mode of AV device.
Advanced Features 23 9. Wallpaper Set a desired image as the wallpaper. ■ Wallpaper Image Type Jpg, png and bmp of 800 x 480 sizes can be set as the wallpaper. Larger images will be resized and smaller images will be positioned in the center of the screen. ■ Setting Wallpaper Select the desired file to use as the wallpaper in Photo mode and move the lever towards ▶▶and select Set Wallpaper from the popup menu. If wallpaper is not set, enable wallpaper in Setup - Display - Wallpaper.
Advanced Features 1.
Setup Features 25 2. Display General • LCD Brightness Adjust brightness of the LCD. Brightness levels range from 1 to 10. • LCD Color • TV Standard Set TV output. Select from NTSC and PAL • AV Out Setting AV OUT mode. Composite (Standard), S-Video(High Quality), and Component (Best Quality) modes available. • AV In Setting AV IN mode. S-Video(High Quality), and Composite (Standard) modes available. Wallpaper • Wallpaper You can choose whether to use the wallpaper feature.
Setup Features 3. Sound General JetEffect • Speaker Adjust the built-in speaker settings. If set to Off, the speaker is turned off. If set to Auto-Off, speaker is quiet only when the earphones are connected. If set to On, the speaker is always turned on. • Volume Adjust the volume. Volume levels range from 0 to 40. Adjust the volume by moving either +, - in the playback screen. • LR Balance Adjust the left and right balance of the speaker and the earphones. • Stereo Set to either Stereo or Mono.
Setup Features 27 Screen • Aspect Ratio Selects the aspect ratio of movie files. If set to Auto, the aspect ratio is set to original percent. If set to either 16:9 or 4:3, original percent is ignored and the selected ratio will be indicated. • TV Type Select TV type (NTSC, PAL) for AV OUT mode. Subtitle • Subtitle Size Display subtitles when subtitles files (.smi, .srt, .sub(text format))are present.
Setup Features Display • Lyrics Display/undisplay lyrics entered using LDB Manager on the LCD screen. If set to ‘ON’, Lyrics will be displayed on LCD. Please visit our website at www.COWON.com for more details on Lyrics. • Time Display Sets the time display of playing music files. If set to Elapsed, the elapsed playback time will appear and if set to Remain, the remaining playback time will be displayed.
Setup Features 29 Region • T-DMB Setting for the DMB region. Optional T-DMB TV receiver required. • 1SEG Setting for the 1SEG region. Optional 1SEG TV receiver required. • DVB-T Setting for the DVB region. Optional DVB TV receiver required. 8. Radio General • Stereo Select from Stereo and Mono when listening to FM Radio. Radio broadcasts that only support mono, will not support the Stereo feature. If set to Stereo, unwanted static noise may be heard. In this case, select and use Mono.
Setup Features Video • Video Quality When recording Video, set the quality of the video file recording through the AV IN. Higher the bps and resolution is better the quality of video, but the size of the file becomes larger and more battery power is used. • Audio Qualiy When recording Video, set the quality of the audio file recording through the AV IN. Higher the bps is better the quality, but the size of the file becomes larger and more battery power is used.
Setup Features 31 10. System General • Set Time Sets the current time. • Boot Resume Automatically continues to resume from the end of the last file played when set to On. • Browser Resume Remembers the Browser location and cursor moves to the selected location when re-enabled. Alarm Power • Alarm Mode Select Alarm mode. Automatically turns on at the specified time and plays/tunes in the previously played file/to the radio channel. • Wakeup Time Select Alarm time.
Product Details Hardware Video LCD 4 in.
Product Details Applications Movie Player 33 - Specifications may change for performance improvements File Format AVI, WMV, ASF, MP4, MATROSKA(MKV), MPG/MPEG, VOB, DAT, MTV Video Codec DivX 3.11/4/5/6, XviD, MPEG-4 SP/ASP, WMV 9/8/7, H.264 MP, M-JPEG, MPEG 1 Note1 Video Resolution Max 1280x720, 30 fps Audio Codec MPEG1 Layer 1/2/3, WMA, FLAC, OGG Vorbis, AAC/AAC+, AC3, BSAC, True Audio, WavPack, G.726, PCM Audio Resolution Max 96KHz, 1.4Mbps Playback speed 0.
Product Details Applications Music Player Photo Viewer Document Viewer Mobile TV Note7 Note8 - Specifications may change for performance improvements EQ 10 band, 8 presets (Normal, Rock, Jazz, Classic, Pop, Metal, Vocal, User) Sound Field JetEffect (BBE, Mach3Bass, MP3 Enhance, 3D Surround) Visual Effect Sound Spectrum Lyrics LDB Music Playback Time Up to 9 hours of continuous playing File Format JPG, GIF, PNG, TIF, BMP, RAW Resolution JPG - Max 15MP Other - Max 5MP RAW - Unlimited CSD
Product Details 35 2. Installation CD The installation CD contains the world famous integrated multimedia program COWON MediaCenter- JatAudio. A3 software, multimedia sample files are also included in the CD. 3. Converting Video Files Using COWON MediaCenter - JatAudio 1. Install and run the COWON MediaCenter - JatAudio.
Product Details 2. Click “Convert Video” on the top to convert the video file. 3. From the Convert Video window, click “Add File” to select the files to convert. 4. Check the selected video files in the list. 5. After checking the target folder location to save the converted files and other settings, click on “Start” to start the video conversion process. - Movie files that have not been converted by COWON MediaCenter - JatAudio will not play in iAUDIO.
Troubleshooting Symptom 37 Explanation Power does not turn on or is not working properly. • If the built-in battery is or has been discharged, use the adapter to fully recharge it before use. • If the player does not turn on after it is charged, press the “RESET” button on the bottom side of the player and then turn on. • If the System folder is deleted, upgrade the firmware before use. • Check to see if the switch on the bottom side of the player is placed to “HOLD”.
Troubleshooting Symptom Explanation Video playback doesn’t work Play the file on your PC. If the file plays on your PC, please use the COWON Media center- JatAudio to convert the file to an A3 compatible format and play the file on A3. Can’t find files stored. Only compatible formats are shown under each playback mode. For eg, under Music mode, only audio files (mp3, wav, wma, ogg, and etc) are displayed. Use “Browser” mode to explore all files stored in A3. PC does not recognize A3.
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. ■ GNU General Public License version 2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html) Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02110, USA (www.fsf.org) ■ Free Software Foundation Europe (www.fdfeurope.
