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Archos FAQ - By Experts for Experts

Previewing photos on gmini400 & av400
file corruption issues with CompactFlash cards & Gmini220
av480 battery life
9v Archos ac power supply tests 16v. Why?
PocketDivXEncoder
Video Cropping

Previewing photos on Gmini400 & av400

martin cohen <mjcohen@a... in ArchosAV320340@yahoogroups.com, 10th September 2004 wrote:
Q) One of the few complaints I have about my av320 is that large photos (say 2000 x 3000) take a number of seconds to display. Do gmini400 and av400 display these types of images quickler than av300 (less than 1/2 sec would be nice) or are they still slow?

A) technicsplayer [amp1000@onetel.net.uk] says 'displaying photos on the gmini400; 4 Mpix jpegs (2304x1728) mostly display in 2 seconds, 3 secs for a complex light/shade pic. It is not annoyingly slow at these resolutions, 1600x1200 is somewhat faster generally. If you want faster - batch resize photos to keep on the device when you get home... or get a camera that automatically generates VGA copies internally and slideshow that folder instead. there is no way you are going to get 1/2 sec with todays portable chips, have you seen a flashtrax display :-) ? maybe in a couple of years.'

A) shane brinkman davis says 'The av400 & gmini400 are about 2x as fast as AV300.'

A) Bob Clevenger [bob@bobclevenger.com] A 2048x3072 jpg (2.96 MB) takes about 4 or 5 seconds to fully display on my AV420. However I resize the photos I put on the 420 because there is no sense in saving such a large file when it's going to be displayed on a tiny screen. If I were to use the 420 as temporary storage for my camera, that would be another matter. Even so, it takes about a second to display the same file on my 2GHz Pentium 4 with 1GB RAM, so 4-5 sec. is not bad for a portable device.

What are the CompactFlash file corruption issues with Gmini220?

A) Read Full summary of latest information by Jordi Monfar (to 10th September 2004).

Summary: Gmini220 with serial numbers (on outside of box above 'Made in China') UG40* or below have no problems. All other serial numbers UG41, UG42, UG43 may have problems in transfering data from CompactFlash cards to Gmini 220.

DataMind ONLY stock UG40* units here.

corruption of files when copying from the CF slot to the GMini is not an isolated issue. It affects a significant number of users.* From the same posts, it seems to be present in many, if not all, of the units sold from latest July to the present.
Early adopter units seems to be free from it.
This seems to correspond to S/N UG42* and above for affected units, and S/N UG40* and below for non affected. One user has reported a UG41* as working correctly. Nobody reporting a 40* has experienced the problem, anyone reporting a 42* and above that has checked the issue has found it. The number of people reporting starts to be pretty significant, so the clue seems pretty solid.* IMPORTANT: reports from most recent buyers (even a 43*) still mention the issue. There is not a single report, for the moment, of new units free of the defect.
Consider this if you are thinking on buying one...
The problem seems not to be affected by the OS version. The unit that fails do so whatever the OS version, and if the unit works fine (for this concrete issue), does so whatever the OS, old or new. The latest OS 1.10 definitively does not solve the problem, and some reports even show that the problem worsens (as in my own experience).
At least two workarounds have been suggested by users.
- One user has found that the problem disappears after connecting the Gmini to a computer and until the next unit shutdown. Other users seem to have confirmed this working for them; my own experience is that it does not work for me, and in any case it would not help much in practical use (if you have a computer at hand, would you transfer the files to the gmini?). Perhaps it could be useful for the investigation, anyway.
- Other users suggest that formatting the CF to a 8K cluster reduces the incidence of corrupt files. I cannot confirm it, but it has been acknowledged that it would only reduce the percentage of corruption, not solve it.*
- Archos seems to be monitoring the Yahoo group and has requested some info

av480 battery life (video)

Video play lasts 5.5 - 7 hours (Depending on the settings) [spook@sp000k.com] cf. Archos quote 4.5 hours

Archos av480 is 1 month old and has been used and recharged many times although never totally discharged, I estimate that the battery should be reasonably well 'conditioned'.

Started with fully charged battery, playing avi previously recorded from the TV at TV (not LCD) setting.

Avi. duration 2 hrs 40 min - Size: 1456 Mb, Resolution: 512x384
Bitrate: 986 Kb/s (Archos set to 1000 Kb/s), 25 FPS
Audio: 257 Kb/s, 32000 Hz, Stereo
Video set to continually repeat the clip

KEY: A) = Volume 28, LCD Brightness at middle level (1): B) = Vol 05, LCD Brightness at lowest level (0)

A) 0hrs:00min [3 Bars] B) 0hrs:00min
A) 1hrs:10min [2 Bars] B) 1hrs:31min
A) 2hrs:25min [1 Bars] B) 3hrs:21min
A) 5hrs:14min [0 Bars] B) 6hrs:32min
A) 5hrs:33min [END] B) 7hrs:11min

9v Archos ac power supply tests 16v. Why?

Archos product code: 100182; Kings Electric Adaptor / Model 41G-9-600 / Input 230V 50HZ / Output 9VDC 600mA. DataMind tested a new 100182 9V charger & found:-

that it was outputting 16V
using a voltmeter to test by connecting the positive lead to the inner side of the jack plug and the negative lead to the outer side of the jack plug.
Archos France tec support say ' No risk, as without any 'load' it is normal that the voltage is higher than the 9V specified (these 9V are reached when there is a load = a Studio or Recorder connected).'
- 'There are 2 types of AC Adaptors : the regulated ones and the not-regulated ( = 'coils') ones.
- The 9V is a 'not-regulated' one, which means that without any 'load' ( = resistor) on the output, the Vout is higher than 9 Volts. It becomes 9 Volts with the load of a connected unit.
- The 5V is regulated (Jukebox multimedia, av series) which explains that even without any load the output voltage is 5V.'

PocketDivXEncoder

Freeware DivX encoder recommended if you have problems with Archos supplied software.

Video Cropping

archos_hardware@yahoogroups.com, "bty94596" <andyloc@h...> wrote: I live in the Uk so most of my stuff is PAL, does this mean with gmini400 I can encode in 640X480? - why does the Archos site say 640X400 only?.

640x480 will only work in pal, for ntsc you have to crop pixels off the top and bottom of 4:3 program, otherwise you will get dropped frames and audio sync issues.

- need to vary the frame size with frame rate.

-UK PAL is by definition 25 frames a second, and the gmini will play 640x480 at the limit of its capability. US of A is ntsc which is 30 frames a second, gmini can't handle that so the screen resolution has to be reduced to 640x400 (which is the spec Archos quotes), cropping some picture off somewhere, usually top and bottom, but you could encode down in width to compensate and keep the 4:3 aspect ratio, as long as you keep the width and height figures divisible by 4 for optimum divx performance for example. Movies are not so critical since many are widescreen to start with, but on ultra widescreen you can lose 40 pixels from left and right to get more on the gmini screen without losing too much screen action. There is no point in wasting encoding on the black bars in widescreen so they should always be cropped out where possible.