iAudio

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
iAudio U3 multimedia player

iAudio is the brand name of the portable media player series, which is manufactured by the Cowon company .

The iAudio series

Cowon iAudio makes two types of portable players: players with flash memory and players with built-in hard drives .

Flash memory player

iAudio CW100, CW100s, CW200, CW250, CW 300

Cowon entered the MP3 player market with the iAudio CW100 in October 2000 .

In March 2001 an improved version followed, the CW100s.

In December 2001, Cowon released the iAudio CW200. In addition to playing audio files, it could also play FM radio and use the built-in microphone to make noises such as B. the voice, record. An improved version was the iAudio CW250.

In December 2002, Cowon released the iAudio CW300. This corresponded to the CW250, but it could also be used with AA batteries and was better made.

iAudio 4

The iAudio 4 was presented in December 2003 and expanded the previous capabilities of the CW series to include usability as a USB stick , BBE sound effects, line-in recording and an LED display with 124 background colors. It was equipped with the STMP-3420 chipset from Sigmatel .

iAudio U2, G3, G2

In 2004 the smallest player available at the time, the iAudio U2, was presented. It was based on Sigmatel's STMP-3520 chipset. New features were USB 2.0, the ability to play the Ogg Vorbis format and an integrated clock with an alarm function. The built-in lithium-ion battery allowed a playing time of 20 hours and was recharged via the USB port.

In November 2004 came the successor to the U2, the iAudio G3, which differed from the iAudio U2 in that it was operated with a conventional AA battery and thus ran for up to 50 hours without charging.

The iAudio G2, introduced in 2005, was a cheaper version of the G3: it offered no FM radio, USB 1.1 instead of USB 2.0, and a 40-hour playback time, also using an AA battery.

iAudio 5

The iAudio 5 came out in December 2004 and also offered 1000 different display background colors.

iAudio F1

In July 2005 the iAudio F1 was presented. This was similar to the iAudio U2, but in a more interesting design, with an OLED display and 32 mW output. It plays the Ogg Vorbis , WMA , WAV , ASF and MP3 formats and can play and record FM radio. Recording from other sources such as a microphone is also possible. Flash memory capacity: 256 MB / 512 MB / 1 GB.

iAudio U3

The successor to the U2 was presented in October 2005: the iAudio U3. The display, which shows 260,000 colors and has a size of 160 × 128 pixels, allows Xvid videos to be played. It can also display JPEG and TXT files. The audio output has been increased to 30  mW per channel. The U3 was delivered with a Telechips TCC770 audio chipset and the Cirrus Logic CS42L51 codec. With the lithium-ion battery, the player can be operated for 20 hours before it has to be charged via USB. New: ID3 tag display and DRM . Flash memory capacity: 256 MB / 512 MB / 1 GB / 2 GB / 4 GB.

iAudio D2

Cowon presented a new multimedia player with video function at CES 2007. The control is characterized by a touchscreen that reacts to touch. The player has been available in Germany since February 2007 with a capacity of 2, 4, 8 and 16 GB. In addition, the memory can currently be loaded with max. 32 GB SDHC memory card can thus be expanded to a maximum of 48 GB. A version with digital audio broadcasting reception has also been available in Germany since the beginning of November .

Specifications:

  • Menu navigation optionally in: German, French, Italian, English, Spanish etc.
  • Playback formats: MP3, OGG, WMA, FLAC, WAV, TXT, JPEG, XviD (.avi) up to 320 × 240 pixels ( JetAudio for converting videos)
  • Touchscreen operation (in addition a total of 4 control buttons: On / Off / Hold, volume - / +, menu)
  • Numerous sound effects (BBE Jeteffect sound systems)
  • Internal memory: 2 GB / 4 GB / 8 GB / 16 GB Flash
  • External memory: optionally expandable via SD / SDHC / MMC memory cards (currently up to 32 GB)
  • Fast data transfer with USB 2.0
  • TV out: Videos that are stored on the player can be viewed in full format with the television set / video projector etc.
  • Radio recording, voice recording with the built-in or external microphone as well as line-in recording from external audio devices are possible in good quality
  • the recording of radio broadcasts can be programmed and the D2 can be used as an alarm clock
  • Battery life: up to 52 hours of audio or 10 hours of video
  • Battery charging: via USB on the PC or with the supplied plug-in power supply
  • Is recognized by the PC as an additional drive and displayed in a file manager or in My Computer
  • Display 2.5 "TFT-LCD / 16 million colors, QVGA (320x240), touchscreen
  • Playback formats
    • MP3: MPEG 1/2 / 2.5 Layer 3, ~ 320kbps, ~ 48khz, mono / stereo
    • WMA: ~ 256kbps, ~ 48khz, mono / stereo
    • WMA-DRM: copy-protected files from download portals
    • OGG: ~ Q10, ~ 44.1khz, mono / stereo
    • FLAC: Compression Level 0 ~ 8, ~ 44.1khz, mono / stereo
    • WAV: ~ 48khz, 16bit, mono / stereo
    • Video in Xvid format (* .avi) up to 320x240 pixels (QVGA), 30fps
  • Dimensions: 78.0 × 55.4 × 16.6 mm
  • Weight: 91 grams (with battery)

iAudio 7

A new edition of the Cowon iAudio 6 will be available in stores from October 2007. The only difference compared to its predecessor lies in the type of memory and the different color combinations of the case. Instead of the 0.85 "hard drive, flash memories with a storage capacity of 4, 8 and 16 GB are installed, which also increases the battery life. The USB on-the-go function has been omitted.

Hard disk player

iAudio M3, X5 (L), M5, A2, A3, Q5

The iAudio M3 was introduced in March 2004. The integrated 1.8 ″ hard disk was available in a 20 GB and a 30 GB version. The M3 was the thinnest player of its time and could run for 14 hours without charging.

The X5 was the same as the M3, but with new capabilities and features such as color display and video playback ( MPEG-4 , Xvid), integrated clock and USB on-the-go , i.e. the ability to download images from a camera without a PC. The sound can be changed in many ways thanks to the integrated BBE Jeteffect sound system. In contrast to conventional MP3 players, the tracks are not organized using ID3 tags, but in a conventional folder system. This means that users can adopt structures from Windows Media Player or iTunes . The X5 supports M3U playlists and DRM. Storage capacity of the hard drives: 20 GB / 30 GB / 60 GB. The abbreviations L / V after X5 stand for an extended runtime (X5L 35 hours runtime for music playback) with a larger battery (L) or a model without radio (V).

The A2 PMP Portable Multimedia Player was released in late 2005. It is equipped with a TFT video display in 16: 9 format and an integrated video recording system that can both record and play back from TV or DVD or video recorder, camera, etc. using an AV cable. The supported formats are MP4 (video) and MP3 (audio). Otherwise it is functionally identical to the X5. The A2 is available with 20 GB and 30 GB hard drives.

The successor to the A2 is the Cowon A3. Technical data: 4 "TFT-LCD, TV Out: Component S-Video with H.264 support, WMV7 / 8/9, DivX 3.11 / 4/5/6, XviD, MPEG-4 / -2 / -1, D1: NTSC 720x480 / PAL 720x576, 30fps Document viewer: MS Office Hangul PDF.Audio: MP3, OGG, WMA, AC3, WAV, FLAC, APE, AAC.Can be used as a USB host.

The Q5 is a PMP for playing audio and video data and can also be used as a text reader. It does not support video recording, but is e.g. B. expandable to navigation systems. The Q5W (the European version of the Q5) has integrated WLAN, is equipped with a web browser and is therefore internet and network capable. The display has a resolution of 800 × 480 pixels.

Rockbox can be installed as an alternative firmware on the X5.

The iAudio M5 corresponds to a simplified version of the X5 (without FM radio, without video function, with black and white display and without USB On-The-Go).

iAudio 6

At the CES 2006 in Las Vegas, iAudio presented the first media player with a 0.85 "hard drive. The innovative operating system called Swing Touch was also used here. The iAudio 6 has USB on-the-go and FM radio.

BBE and jetEffect

Since iAudio 4, all iAudio players have BBE sound effects that can be selected via the jetEffect menu, e.g. B. a 5-band equalizer , various presets and the actual BBE system. jetEffect has the following BBE sound improvement options:

  • BBE (for more brilliance and clarity in sound)
  • BBE Mach3Bass (to improve and amplify the sound in the bass range)
  • BBE MP (restores and improves the sound of lossy compressed audio files such as MP3, WMA, Vorbis, AAC , etc.)
  • BBE 3D Surround (to enhance the 3D audio effect)

jetAudio and jetShell

The software media player jetAudio is included with all iAudio players .

The freeware program jetShell from Cowon is used to transfer data between iAudio and the PC ; if no conversion is necessary, any file manager can be used instead.

Web links