User manual ARCHOS AV500

1 ARCHOSTM MOBILE VIDEO RECORDER AV 500 SERIES Video Player & Recorder / Music Player & Recorder / Photo Wallet & Viewer / USB 2.0 Hard Drive English Language User Manual User Manual for ARCHOSTM AV 500 series Version 2.5 Please visit our website to download the most recent manual and software for this product 1 2 Dear Customer, ARCHOSTM thanks you for your choice of this exciting AV 500 product. The AV 500 is designed to be the companion to your home entertainment system. You can connect the AV500 to your TV system to record your television shows as well as connect it to your PC to transfer over your favorite photos, videos, and music. By connecting to a computer, you get the advantage of being able to download legal music and video content from the Internet. Since it is a PlaysForSureTM device, you have a wide choice of music and video content available on the Internet. For more information about the PlaysForSureTM program, see www.playsforsure.com. This manual will explain, in detail, the functionality of your device. We have packed this product with many functions and capabilities. The better you know how to use it, the more enjoyment you will get from it. Remember, with the AV 500, you can... · Play MPEG-4 SP & WMV video files* on the built-in screen, a television or video projector · Record and edit MPEG-4 video files from a television or other video device · Listen to MP3, WMA, or WAV music files* or PlaysForSureTM downloaded music files · Record music files into digital format directly from your home stereo without a computer · Synchronize your Windows® Media Player music and video library to your AV 500 · View JPEG and BMP digital photos and create slide shows · Copy Pictures directly from your digital camera via the built in host USB port · Store .DOC, .PDF, or any type of data file ­ it's a portable hard drive too! 2 3 We wish you many years of enjoyment from your AV 500 product. Please do register your product at our website www.archos.com to ensure that you get have access to our help line and to be informed of technical support and free software updates for your product. Wishing you the best Video, Music, and Photo experience, The ARCHOSTM TEAM *For full information on compatible file formats, see the technical specifications. Please take the time to read though this manual. There are many things that this device can do that you may not be aware of. 3 4 Table of contents 1 2 INTRO ­ Buttons and Connections INTRO ­ First Time Usage 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 3 Charging the battery Turning on the AV 500 Shutting off the AV 500 and Battery saving features Changing the Interface Language Foreign Character Sets Caring for the AV 500 Hardware Reset 11 11 11 12 12 12 13 14 15 16 17 17 17 19 19 21 22 23 23 26 28 29 29 4 8 11 VIDEO ­ Playing Video Files 3.1 3.2 Video Playback Action Icons Resume Function 4 VIDEO ­ Playing Video Files from the Internet 4.1 Protected Internet Video content 4.1 Non Protected Internet Video Content 5 VIDEO ­ Recording Video Files 5.1 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Video recording connections Setting the Recording Parameters Where is the Recording Saved? Copy Protection Manually Setting the Scheduler 6 7 VIDEO ­ Automated Yahoo!® TV Recording Scheduler VIDEO ­ Setting the Infrared Emitter Code* 7.1 7.2 Part 1: Choose your Device and Brand Part 2: Finding the Right Emitter Codes 5 8 9 VIDEO ­ Editing Video Files VIDEO ­ Creating MPEG-4 Video Files with your Computer 9.1 9.2 Installing the PC Software Using MPEG-4 Translator 35 36 39 40 40 42 43 43 44 45 45 46 47 47 47 48 48 48 49 50 51 51 53 54 31 34 10 MUSIC ­ Playing Music Files 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 11 Button Control Play Screen Icons Browsing through your Music Library Playing Through your Stereo System Setting a Bookmark The Resume Function MUSIC ­ Putting Music onto your AV 500 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 Synchronizing Music from Windows Media Player (WMP) to the AV 500 Comparison of Windows Media Player 10 to Windows Media Player 9 Transferring your CD collection to the AV 500 Installing Windows Media® Player 9 (WMP9) Installing Windows Media® Player 10 (WMP10) ® 12 MUSIC ­ Playlists 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 Playing a Playlist Creating a Playlist Saving a Playlist Adding songs to a Playlist while listening to Music 13 MUSIC ­ Recording Music 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 Cable Connections for Audio Recording Recording Procedure Microphone Where is the Recording Saved? Audio Editing 55 55 57 5 14 MUSIC ­ Using iTunesTM with your AV 500 6 15 PHOTO ­ Viewing Photos 15.1 15.2 15.3 Viewing Photos Viewing a slideshow Transferring photos to your AV 500 58 59 60 62 63 64 67 68 68 68 70 72 73 73 74 75 76 77 77 78 79 80 82 83 84 85 85 6 58 16 BROWSER ­ Using the Browser 16.1 16.2 16.3 Navigating the Directory Structure File and Folder Operations Using the Virtual Keyboard 17 Connecting/Disconnecting* the AV 500 to/from your PC 17.1 17.2 17.3 USB Connection Type (`Hard Drive' or `Windows Device') Connecting the AV 500 Disconnecting the AV 500 from your Computer 18 Connecting Devices to the USB Host Port 19 SETTINGS 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 19.5 19.6 19.7 19.8 Sound Settings Play Mode Settings Clock Settings Display Settings Appearance settings Power Settings System Settings TV control 20 Updating the AV 500 Firmware Operating System (OS) 21 TV docking pod Description* 21.1 Remote Control Description 22 Connecting the TV docking pod to your Television System* 22.1 22.2 Connect & Test Method Connection (1): Powering the TV docking pod 7 22.3 22.4 22.5 22.6 22.7 Connection (2): Breaking your regular TV Connection Connection (3): Put the TV docking pod between your TV and Tuner Connection (4): Connect the AV 500 to the TV docking pod Connection (5): the S-Video In Connection (6): the Infrared Emitter 85 85 86 87 87 89 89 90 91 94 94 95 95 95 98 100 104 23 Replacing the battery 23.1 22.2 "Thin" version Standard version 24 Technical Support 25 Troubleshooting 25.1 25.2 25.3 25.4 USB Connection issues Charging and Power issues AV 500 locks up (freezes operation) or Stops File issues, corrupted data, formatting, and partitioning 26 Technical Specifications 27 Legal 28 Index 7 8 1 INTRO ­ Buttons and Connections 8 9 a On indicator b Hard drive activity indicator (read/write) c Battery charger indicator (blinks when battery is charged) d Infrared sensor for the remote control e Loud speaker f Move UP (also increases volume during media playback) g Move DOWN (also decreases volume during media playback) h Move LEFT (also plays previous song or fast reverse through song or video) i Move RIGHT (also plays next song or fast forward through song or video) j Accelerate UP ­ go up the list of items at high speed k Accelerate Down ­ go down the list of items at high speed l Play/Enter/On o ­ Hold for 3 seconds to switch on the device m Stop/Escape/Off x - Hold for 3 seconds to switch off the device n UP action button (move up on the list of action icons) o SELECT action button (select the highlighted action icon) p DOWN action button (move down on the list of action icons) 9 10 a LCD/TV button ­ Hold down to switch between the LCD and an external TV display b USB Host port ­ to connect compatible USB devices c Microphone d USB 2.0 High speed device port (USB 1.1 compatible) to connect to your computer e Power Connector (Use only the supplied Archos power charger/adapter) f Multi-connect jack* ­ for headphones, TV docking pod, FM Remote and AV in/out connections * The AV 500 is sold with different options. It is therefore possible that you do not have a TV docking pod, FM remote or `traveler kit' multi-connect adapter. These are available for purchase from the ARCHOSTM web site - www.archos.com. 10 11 2 2.1 INTRO ­ First Time Usage Charging the battery · Use only the included ARCHOSTM charger/adapter. · You can charge the internal battery of the AV 500 by plugging the included adapter/charger directly into the device, or you can charge it by plugging the adapter/charger into the (optional) TV docking pod and connecting your AV 500 to the Pod. · Before using for the first time, charge the battery completely. The charge indicator (CHG) light will start to blink when the battery is charged. 2.2 Turning on the AV 500 · Hold the PLAY/ON button o for 3 seconds. The green "On" indicator light will turn on. Be patient, it will take a few seconds for the operating system to boot up. · If the unit shuts off after holding the ON button for several seconds, plug in the ARCHOSTM adapter/charger to make sure the battery gets charged. 2.3 Shutting off the AV 500 and Battery saving features To shut off the unit, press and hold the STOP/ESC/OFF button x for 3 seconds. In the Power menu [Display setup screen Power: Battery Operation] there is a Power Off parameter. Thus, if your AV 500 is idle for a couple of minutes, it will shut itself off. This setting can be changed from one to nine minutes or to never. In the Power menu [Display setup screen Power: Battery Operation] there is a Backlight Off parameter to save battery power (the lighting of the screen consumes a lot of the battery power). That is, if the AV 500 is not being used, the screen will shut off in order to save battery life. To turn the screen back on, just click once on any button. See the section Power in the Settings chapter for a complete explanation. 11 12 2.4 Changing the Interface Language The AV 500 interface can be set to English (default), French, Spanish, German, or Russian. · Using the UP action button, highlight the Settings icon (showing a wrench) and then click the center SELECT action button. · Highlight the Display icon and click the PLAY/ENTER button. · Highlight the Language parameter using the UP/DOWN buttons. · Click the RIGHT or LEFT button to choose the desired language. · The language displayed will change immediately. · Click on the STOP/ESC button to return to the Setup page and again to return to the main menu screen. 2.5 Foreign Character Sets You have the option of displaying file names, folder names, and music tags in various character sets (ex: Korean, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, etc.). You can find the language files CodePage_name.4FZ in the font folder under /Data/Foreign Fonts on the AV 500 hard drive or on the ARCHOSTM website under the heading Software. If, for example, you would like to have the Korean language display, then you would copy the file CP949.4FZ into the folder /system on the AV 500 and shut down and restart the AV 500. File names, folder names, and music tags written using the Microsoft® codepage for the language will now be displayed in that character set. Only one .4FZ can be used at a time, thus you should only put one .4FZ file into the /system folder. When an .4FZ language file is used, the interface language will be set to English. 2.6 Caring for the AV 500 The ARCHOSTM Video AV 500 is an electronic product that needs to be treated with more care than typical consumer electronic products. · Do not subject it to shock. · Do not subject it to heat. Keep it well ventilated. · Keep the AV 500 away from water and excessively humid areas. 12 13 · Keep the AV 500 away from high electromagnetic fields. · Keep any connected cords to the AV 500 neatly arranged. This light product could fall if a cord is accidentally pulled by a child. · Do not open up the AV 500. There are no user serviceable parts inside. Opening will void your warranty. 2.7 Hardware Reset In the event that your AV 500 freezes operation (due to electrostatic phenomena for example), you can reset the AV 500 by holding down on the STOP/ESC button x for 15 seconds. In normal operation, the STOP/ESC button x will shut down the AV 500 after being held down for 3 seconds. 13 14 3 VIDEO ­ Playing Video Files Click on the Video icon in the main menu, highlight the desired video file, and then click on PLAY/GO o. The thumbnail images on the right side will show you a frame from the highlighted video file (center) as well as a frame from the file above and the file below the highlighted one. By clicking on the Video icon in the main menu, you will enter into a `video only' mode. Other playable file types, for example music files, that may be in this folder are only listed if you enter the folder via the Browser. To watch your videos on a television, you must hold down the LCD/TV button for two seconds (or click on the TV button on the remote control). The AV 500 screen will go black and the video will be sent out to your connected television. Switch your television to auxiliary video input (often found just below channel 1 ­ sometimes called L1 or L2). If you don't see a clear color image, you may have to set your AV 500 to your local television standard (NTSC-North America or PAL-Europe) in Display (Setup action icon > Display Icon. Button controls while playing a video file Vol + Vol Rew. FF HSR HSA O X 14 Increase volume Decrease volume Fast Forward Fast forward High speed reverse High speed advance Play/Pause Stop 15 Video Browser Action Icons Hide the Thumbnails Reset thumbnails. The thumbnail images on the right side of the screen will be reset to their original default setting. 3.1 Video Playback Action Icons While a video file is playing, click on the Select action button. The action icons on the right of the screen allow you to make video adjustments to your personal taste. Play & Sound Settings Use this setting if you would like to have the video files play one after the other, or just play one and stop. You can also adjust the sound settings and the amount of time the On Screen Display (OSD) information remains on the screen when you start a video file. Built-in Speaker Turn on or off the built-in loud speaker. Slow Motion Put the video into slow-motion view. You can cycle through the values Normal , ½ , ¼ , and 1/8 speed. The sound is muted when in slow motion. While in slow mode and paused, you can step image per image with the RIGHT button. Set Screen Format Video files come in various aspect ratios. That is, they can be TV sized (almost a square image), or in cinema size (much longer than high). To change the screen to your personal tastes, the following screen format options are available. 15 16 Auto Format Maximized Image Full Picture Format Set a Book mark If you are watching a video and would like to place a bookmark in it in order to continue from this point at another time, you can use the Bookmark function. Highlight the icon and click on the Select action button. This will set a bookmark in the video file at the current position. You can only set one bookmark per file. When you look at the file in your browser, it will have a yellow check mark on its icon indicating that this file has a bookmark set within it. You can have a maximum of 16 files book-marked. Setting more bookmarks will then start to erase the oldest bookmarks. The next time you play this video file, you will be presented with three options: Resume Ignore Clear Save as Thumbnail Save the current image on the screen as the video file's thumbnail in the Video browser view. Start playing from the book-marked position. Keep the bookmark but start playing from the very beginning. Clear the bookmark from this file and start playing from the very beginning. Default mode. Adjusts the video size to best adapt to the built-in screen or television. Enlarge the image to fill the screen (LCD or TV). Sides may get slightly cut in this mode. The entire picture will always be seen on the television and the built-in screen. No cutting. On Screen Display (OSD) off Select this icon to shut off the On Screen Display (the status bar, action icons, and other overlaid informational graphics). 3.2 Resume Function When you turn on your AV 500 you may notice that the icon which is highlighted on the main screen is not the Video icon but rather the Resume icon. This icon is highlighted when the AV 500 can resume the last played audio or video file. 16 17 4 VIDEO ­ Playing Video Files from the Internet When using Windows Media® Player 10, you will have the advantage of being able to download protected video content from the Internet. When you see the PlaysForSureTM symbol on a web site for Windows® Portable Media Center (PMC)**, then these protected downloads will be playable on your AV 500. 4.1 Protected Internet Video content If you check the PlaysForSureTM website (www.playsforsure.com) you will find web retailers who offer rental, subscription, or purchasable video content. Remember, web sites must carry the PlaysForSureTM symbol in order for their videos to play on the AV 500. 4.1 Non Protected Internet Video Content The AV 500 plays .AVI files that are encoded with in MPEG-4 format. It can play such video files at a maximum size of 720 x 576 pixels (25 frames/second). It can also play .WMV files (WMV9 SP) up to a maximum size of 352 x 288**. The AV 500 will not directly play files of type .mov, .mpg, or .mpeg. The number of encoding and compression schemes currently used to create video files is very extensive and seems to change on a weekly basis. There are so many standards and formats that it is very possible that the video file you download from the Internet will not play right away on your device. Due to certain "variations", even when video files are formatted in "MPEG-4" they may not play right away. If you have some video files that do not play directly on your AV 500, they will have to be converted first. Windows Media® Player 10 (Available only for Windows XP) will convert your video file automatically when you sync the file that is on your PC to the AV 500. It will display a little message `converting'. * MPEG-4: ISO standard by Moving Picture Experts Group ; AVI: audio/video file container by Microsoft. MPEG-4 SP with B-frames AVI up to 704x480@30f/s NTSC or 720x576@25f/s PAL. ** Microsoft WMV9 SP up to 352x288@30f/s and 800 kb/s ; supports WM DRM. 17 18 You can also use the software MPEG-4 Translator included on the AV 500 hard drive to re-encode your video files into the proper MPEG-4 SP format that the AV 500 can play. See the chapter Video ­ creating MPEG-4 video files with your computer for more details. 18 19 5 5.1 VIDEO ­ Recording Video Files With your (optional) TV docking pod or AV cable properly connected to a VCR, cable box, or satellite receiver, making a recording is simple. Video recording connections See the relevant chapter for instructions on connecting the TV docking pod to your television system. To connect you AV 500 to your TV (or another tuner such as a VCR, cable box or satellite receiver) using an (optinal) AV cable and multi connect adaptor, see the illustration. Plug the colored connectors to your TV's audio and video outputs. European user may need ot use the Scart Out plug. Then plug the other end of the cable into the multi connect adaptor, and plug this into your AV 500. Recording connection using just the multi connect adaptor. 19 20 5.2 Recording a video file Pre-record Screen 1. Select VideoCorder on the main menu screen. On the following screen (the pre-record screen), you should see movement on the sound level bar indicating that sound will be recorded. Adjust the sound level by clicking the LEFT/RIGHT buttons. Before starting the recording, you can adjust the recording parameters via the Setup action icon. Setup Parameters 2. In most situations, the video recording will work fine without your having to adjust the settings. However, by selecting the recording settings , you have access to a number of parameters that you can change before you start the recording. See the table below for descriptions. During Recording 3. Click on the PLAY/PAUSE button o to start the recording. While recording, you will see the length of time of the recording in the top of the screen as well as a red "record" indicator. Click on the PLAY/PAUSE button o again to pause the recording. Click on the STOP/ESC button x to stop the recording. The AV 500 will take a few seconds to complete the proper saving of the video file. 20 21 5.3 Setting the Recording Parameters You can set the recording parameters manually to suit your specific needs. Click the Setup action icon in the VideoCorder's pre-recording screen. Rename Auto Stop Rec Allows you to change the filename before the recording begins. On, Off. If set to On, the AV 500 will stop recording after the duration set in the next line. For example, you want to record a television show for two hours but do not want to stay around for the two hours to manually stop the recording. You would set this parameter to On and the next parameter to 2 hours. If set to Off, the recording will continue until you click on the stop button or until the entire hard drive fills up. This is the duration of time your manual recording will last if Auto Stop Rec above is set to On. This is a safety margin added to the beginning of a scheduled recording which was set via the My Yahoo!® TV scheduler of your personal Yahoo!® calendar. It affects ONLY these recordings. This is just in case the clocks between your AV 500 and the broadcast station are different or if the broadcast station starts earlier than expected. This is a safety margin added to the end of a scheduled recording which was set via the My Yahoo!® TV scheduler of your personal calendar. It affects ONLY these recordings. This is just in case the clocks between your AV 500 and the broadcast station are different or if the broadcast station runs overtime. Composite, S-Video, Auto. You can choose which video input you want the AV 500 to use. Normally, with a good video signal, you can set it to Auto, and the AV 500 will scan the (optional) TV docking pod's two inputs to see which one is receiving video (AV In or S-Video). Auto, 4:3, 5:3, 16:9, 2.35. This is the aspect ratio of the screen that the AV 500 will record. You can set this manually, but in most cases you can just leave it on Auto. Optimal, VGA. Use this to set the resolution of the recorded image. You can leave this on Optimal. Optimal (512 x 384) will give the smoothest image quality, with the smallest file size. VGA (640 x 480) will give sharper images, which are less smooth during fast moving scenes. However, the file size is larger. 500 kb/s, 1000 kb/s, 1500kb/s, 2000 kb/s, 2500kb/s. Use this to set the encoding quality (similar to the idea of JPEG image quality settings). The higher the encoding rate, the higher the image quality but also more hard drive space will be used. Lower bit rates will use less hard drive space. 32kHz, 48kHz. The sound sampling rate. The higher value gives a higher quality sound but will take up more space on the hard drive. 21 Duration Pre-record Post-record Source Format Resolution Bitrate Sampling 22 Brightness Contrast Saturation Hue Reset Use this to increase or decrease the recorded image brightness Use this to increase or decrease the recorded image contrast Use this to de-emphasize or saturate the colors in the recorded image Use this to change the color spectrum in the recorded image Change the above settings to the AV 500 default settings · Once you have finished changing the parameters, click Stop/escape button to return to the pre-record screen. · Concerning the video standard, the AV 500 will automatically recognize whether the incoming video signal is NTSC (American), SECAM, or PAL (European). There is no need to set anything. You will see the signal type, as well as the selected aspect ratio on the top left of the pre-recording screen. · Click the LEFT/RIGHT buttons to adjust the sound input level. Too far to the right will often give an overdriven distorted quality. Too far to the left may make for a very soft sound. Try a few recordings to get a sense of what is the best sound level. Do not let the headphone volume fool you. That can be adjusted independently with the UP/DOWN buttons. · If you would like to make a recording in another folder instead of the default "Video" folder, go to the desired folder via the main Video icon, then click on the Videocorder action icon. 5.4 Where is the Recording Saved? The default location for video recordings is the folder called Video. If you click on the Video icon in the main menu, you will go to this folder. Notice that there is a Videocorder action icon. Each time you use this button to record video instead of the VideoCorder icon in the main menu, you set the recording default location to the current folder. For example, you have created a folder called /Video/Television/Documentaries. If you go to this folder and then make a recording using the Videocorder action icon, you will set the default record location to this folder. Now, each time you use the VideoCorder icon to start a recording, your recording will be saved in the folder /Video/Television/Documentaries. 22 23 5.5 Copy Protection The AV 500 video recording system is designed to respect the Macrovision® copyright protection system. If the source of your video is copy protected, the AV 500 will record in protected mode. You will see a "P" icon on the recording screen (not during playback) indicating that the file will be a protected file. Protected files can only be played back on the AV 500 that created it. The file will not play on a computer. Further, the playback of protected files will be limited to the built-in LCD screen and not to an external television. 5.6 Manually Setting the Scheduler If you would like to make a video recording for a future date or time, you can use the scheduler. You can find it in the main menu. You can program up to twenty different recordings up to one month in advance. Once you program your dates and times of recording, press the action button Save to set them. You must now put your AV 500 into standby mode by pressing on the red Standby/wake-up button on your ARCHOSTM remote control or just leave it alone. If left alone, the AV 500 will go on standby itself after a few minutes. Please note: Using the scheduler is particularly useful when you have the TV docking pod and you have set up the Infrared connector. Otherwise, the AV 500 will be unable to change channels on your tuner. It will record the currently selected channel. Furthermore, the AV 500 needs to be powered by a charger in order to go into standby mode rather than switch off completely. 1. Click the Scheduler icon. 2. Select the line you want to edit using the UP and DOWN buttons, then click RIGHT to start editing. 3. Set each line to the desired date, time (and channel if you are using the Infrared emitter to control your VCR, cable box, or satellite receiver). 4. Click on the bottom action icon Edit program title and give a name of your choosing. Click on the Save action icon to save the program. Click on the STOP/ESC button to return to the previous screen. 5. DO NOT shut off the AV 500! Set the AV 500 to Standby (red `standby' button on remote control) or go back to the main menu screen and allow it to automatically (after a couple minutes of inactivity) go into standby mode. 23 24 Empty Scheduler, ready to be programmed. Once a valid record time is entered, and the save button pressed, the empty box will get a green checkmark. Scheduler after having been set. The "--- Current" means that the AV 500 will record the current video signal (no channel changing). This is for people who do not use the stick-on infrared emitter. Notes about setting the Scheduler. · The scheduler automatically reorganizes the recording events chronologically. · In order for a scheduled recording to start, you must leave the AV 500 in the main menu screen or set it to standby mode (press Standby button on remote control). That is, if you are listening to music, watching a video, or looking at photos on your AV 500, it will not interrupt you in order to go make the scheduled recording. · If you have connected and will be using the IR Emitter system (see the TV docking pod chapter as well as the chapter Setting the Infrared Emitter code below) with a video cassette recorder (VCR) please note that in order for the IR Emitter to properly control the VCR, your VCR should not be left in sleep mode. · When the AV 500 user interface is in English, the Date format is set to Month/Day. 24 25 · If the end time is earlier than the start time, then it is assumed that you start recording on the start date, and the recording ends on the following day at the end time. · Once a scheduled recording has been made, or the date of a recording has been passed, without the recording having been made (the AV 500 was not connected to the pod or not in Standby mode), the schedule entry will be erased from the scheduler. · Long recording times (2 hours and more) can create files that are larger than 2 gigabytes (GB) each. The AV 500 will create multiple files in order to make long recordings. Thus a long scheduled recording may produce video files called VID0000, VID0001, and VID0002. This is only in the case of recordings that are over 2 GB in size. This 2 GB file size constraint is due to the Windows® FAT32 AVI file type specification. · When you set the scheduler, the AV 500 will create a text file in its System folder called DVRTimer.txt. You should not erase this file. 25 26 6 VIDEO ­ Automated Yahoo!® TV Recording Scheduler For those who have a My Yahoo!® account and use the calendar feature, the AV 500 can read the TV programs scheduled into your personal calendar and transmit these to your AV 500 to be included in the AV 500 scheduler. This way, you do not have to input all your scheduled recordings manually. You can sign up for an account and learn how to use the My Yahoo!® TV and calendar functions at the Yahoo!® Website (www.yahoo.com). Please note: Using the scheduler is particularly useful when you have the TV docking pod and you have set up the Infrared connector. Otherwise, the AV 500 will be unable to change channels on your tuner. It will record the currently selected channel. Furthermore, the AV 500 needs to be powered by a charger in order to go into standby mode rather than switch off completely. You must do the following: 1. Connect your AV 500 to your computer. 2. Go to your personal Yahoo!® calendar which has your TV programs scheduled. 3. Choose the Week view ­ starting with the current day as the beginning of the week. 4. Click on Printable View to show a cleaner printable version. 5. From your browser menu click on File > Save As... to save the file. 6. Do not change the File Name, but do change the Save as Type to Web page, html only. Now save the file to the folder System on your AV 500. 7. Once you disconnect the AV 500 from your computer, the AV 500 will automatically update its scheduler with the newly saved TV programs from your My Yahoo!® calendar. If the AV 500 encounters a television station name that it does not know the channel number for (was never set), it will indicate so, and direct you to go to the scheduler to manually assign a channel to the station name. 26 27 Notes: · If the TV programs from your personal calendar do not seem to be correctly copied to the AV 500 scheduler, go to the ARCHOSTM web site to make sure that have the very latest version of the AV 500 firmware. Update your firmware (Operating System) as explained in the chapter Updating the AV 500 firmware Operating System. · If you change your Yahoo!® personal calendar by deleting some TV programs and adding new ones, only the new programs will be added to the AV 500 scheduler when you save the html file to the AV 500. If you want to delete scheduled items, you must do this in the AV 500 scheduler itself. · Missed recordings (because you did not have the AV 500 connected to the pod at the record time) will be deleted from the scheduler. · If a personal calendar recording event does not find the station name in your list of channels, it will put the event into the scheduler and mark it with a ?, indicating that you must assign a channel number to the name. Move the cursor to the line containing the ?, and click on the action icon "Set Channel". You can now scroll through the channel numbers and assign a number to the station name for that event. You only have to do this once. The AV 500 will keep the station name and its channel number. 27 28 7 VIDEO ­ Setting the Infrared Emitter Code* This is a one time step to set your AV 500 to send the correct infrared codes to control your video cassette recorder, cable box, or satellite receiver. This is done so that the AV 500, via the TV docking pod, can turn on and off your video device and also change its channels. If you do not plan on making scheduled recordings, then you do not need to install the IR emitter or set the infrared emitter code. Before beginning this procedure of setting the emitter code, your AV 500 must be connected to the TV docking pod, the pod powered with the charger/adapter, and the IR emitter connected to the pod. Hold the IR Emitter in front of the IR receptor (remote control reception panel on your tuner) so that the IR Emitter can control your device. See the chapter Connecting the TV docking pod to your Television System section Connection 5 : the Infrared Emitter of this manual if you do not know where the IR receptor on your VCR, cable box, or satellite receiver is located. Once you have verified that the AV 500 is controlling your VCR, cable box, or satellite receiver, (explained below) you can peal off the white ring protecting the adhesive, and stick the IR emitter to your device. Your tuner may be your VCR, cable box, or satellite receiver. * Concerns users with TV docking pod only. 28 29 7.1 Part 1: Choose your Device and Brand Select the Settings action icon and click on the TV Control icon. 1. Select the type of device that you will stick your IR Emitter to. You have the choice of either a VCR (video cassette recorder), Cable Box, or Satellite Receiver. 2. Select the brand of your device. 3. Click on Tune IR Emitter button. 4. The TV Channels button allows you to give names to each channel. For example, if channel 6 is CNN where you live, then you can give channel 6 that name in this screen. Or, if you use the My Yahoo!® personal calendar to set your recording scheduler, the AV 500 will allow you to assign a channel number to a station name given from your scheduled TV programs. (see the chapter Automated Yahoo!® TV Recording Scheduler for details). 7.2 Part 2: Finding the Right Emitter Codes This screen allows you to correctly set the codes and parameters to allow the Infrared emitter to correctly control your tuner (VCR, cable box, or satellite receiver). 1. Tune device code (one code available): Some manufacturers use only one code for all of their products. The code does not change from one model to another or from one year to another. In this case, there will only be one single code available. You can now test the channel select. 2. Tune device code (multiple codes available): Some makers of video equipment don't use the same set of control codes for all of their products. They have various code sets for various models and various years. You will have to try each of the codes to find 29 30 out which code works with your device. In the example screen, you see the code V009. If this code does not work when doing the Test: channel select, advance it to the next code and then test to see if that next code works. 3. Test channel select: When you press the Test channel select button (highlight test channel select and press ENTER), the AV 500 will send a signal through the pod to the infrared emitter and change the channel on your tuner (VCR, cable box, or satellite receiver). If the Number of digits parameter is set to three, it will try to select channel 123. If that parameter is set to 2, it will send the code for channel 12. If your tuner does not change channels when you click on this test button, try the next code for your device (step 2 above). 4. Test ON/OFF: When you click on the Test On/Off button, the AV 500 will send a signal to the infrared emitter and turn your device on or off. Click this test button again and your device should change from on to off or off to on. If pressing this button does not turn your device on or off, try the next code for your device (step 2 above). If none of the codes work, check that the infrared emitter is stuck directly over the infrared sensor on your tuner device. Note: In some rare cases the ON/OFF functionality may not work. 5. Tune channel select: These four parameters usually do not need to be set. Keep the default values to start with. See the table below for an explanation of each. Parameter Key: -/-Number of digits Key: Enter Key Delay Description Set this to On if normally, you have to press this same key on your device's remote control in order to select a channel. Set the number of digits that your device can recognize for a channel. Example: Set to 3 if you need to choose a channel greater than channel 99. Set this to On if normally, you have to press the Enter key on your device's remote control after you enter the channel number. Example: If you normally press 1, 3, Enter for channel 13, then you would need to set this parameter to On. Change the delay between the emission of each digit of a channel. You may need to adjust this if the AV 500 seems to send only half the digits of a channel or more digits of a channel. Example: Adjust the key delay and retest channel select if it sends channel 2 instead of 12 or sends 112 instead of 12. 30 31 8 VIDEO ­ Editing Video Files Video files recorded by the AV 500 can be modified by deleting the sections you do not wish included. The editing you can do is either cropping or cutting of particular segments of the video file. You will mark a segment of your video file, and then you will tell the AV 500 to delete everything except the marked segment (crop) or to delete the marked segment (cut) from the video file. These operations can be done multiple times on the same video file. Once finished, you will have the option to save the edit marks with the video or to write a new video file. If you save your file with edit marks, you can always go back and change your edits at another time. The actual video information is not deleted. On the other hand, you can write a new file which will only include the video parts that you specified in the edit session. This file will be smaller but you can never un-edit it. Example 1: You have recorded a music video program and would like to keep one single music presentation. The rest of the television recording you do not care to keep. In this case, you would set a Start mark (a) at the beginning of the desired segment, and an End mark (b) at the end of the desired segment. You would then choose the Keep selected part action icon which would then delete everything except the designated section. 31 32 Example 2: You have recorded a television program but would like to remove certain sections before the program started, parts during the program, and the program afterwards because you had recorded a little extra. In this case, you would make a Start mark (a) at time 00:00 and then forward to the end of what you want to delete and make your End mark (b), and choose Remove selected part. This part of the video recording will now be cut out. Fast-forward to the center of the recording and make a Start Mark (c) where the section that you want to delete begins, and make an End mark (d) when it finishes. Again, choose the Remove selected part action icon and this section will be cut out. Do the same for the final section that you want to cut out. IMPORTANT NOTE When you pause at a given point to make a Start or End Mark, the actual point of the cut will be the nearest I-Frame. I-Frames are special frames in the video file which come about every one to four seconds. The editor can cut ONLY at an I-Frame. It is thus recommended that when you pause at the point you want to make your Start or End mark, that you click the LEFT button once (will jump to the previous I-frame) and then click the RIGHT button (shows the next I-frame) so that you can see your choice of I-Frames to cut at. Go to the I-Frame you desire and then set your Mark. Trying to set a mark between I-Frames is ineffective since the AV 500 will just choose the closest I-Frame. 32 33 1. Play the file and pause at the spot you want to make your Start mark. Select the Set a mark-in here action icon. Let the video play ­ you will notice a small blue mark. 2. Now click on Pause at the location you want to mark the end of your segment. Select the Set a mark-out action icon. Now that you have defined a segment in the video, you can click the Remove selected part or Keep selected part action icon. Although the set-mark action icons are available, you can only mark one segment at a time. 3. Continue to select or delete other segments as in 2. Once satisfied with your edits, you can Save the selection which keeps the edit points and allows you to re-edit another time, or you can Save Selection as a new File which will create a new edited file named (name_Edit0000). 33 34 9 VIDEO ­ Creating MPEG-4 Video Files with your Computer How to create an MPEG-4 video file Video files that come from your digital camcorder, sent to you via e-mail, or which are freely available on the Internet are encoded in many different ways. If not already in the proper MPEG-4 Simple Profile or WMV9 Simple Profile format, a transformation operation must be done in order that these video files can be played by the AV 500. This transformation process is called re-encoding. There are basically two ways to do this; 1) Use the Synchronize button in Windows Media® Player 10 or 2) Use the PC tools which are available on the AV 500's hard drive. The first method is very simple and merely requires that you synchronize a video file in your Media Player library to your AV 500. You do not have much control in this converting process though and Windows Media® Player determines which video types it will and will not reencode. The second method, though it requires some learning, will allow you to have much more control over the final quality of the re-encoded (converted) video file. It is described below. There are other tools available on the Internet, some free and some for sale, that can also convert your video files into the appropriate MPEG-4 SP video file format for the AV 500. See the web site www.mpegmobile.com for a list of a few of them. PC Tools The AV 500 is delivered with two Windows® based programs that allow you to create MPEG-4 Simple Profile .AVI video files. They are the MPEG-4 Translator and Virtual DubTM. The MPEG-4 Translator will call the Virtual Dub program and give it the correct parameters to encode your video from its original format, .avi or .mpg (mpeg 1), and then encode it into a MPEG-4 SP .AVI file. The file will be scaled in order to be played back properly. 34 35 9.1 Installing the PC Software If your video file is not an MPEG-4 Simple Profile .avi file of the proper size, you will need to re-encode it using the following utilities. For the AV 500, you will need to create an AVI file that is MPEG-4 Simple Profile with a resolution up to 720 x 576 (depending on frame rate) and a sound track that is stereo MP3 or WAV. In actuality, in all cases, a resolution beyond 640x480 does not add any advantage. MPEG-4 codec (Compression/Decompression) In order for MPEG4-Translator to compress the video in a file of the format MPEG-4 SP that the AV 500 can read, it requires an MPEG-4 codec to be installed on your computer.If you do not have the approporiate codec installed, MPEG-4 Translator will tell you on start up which codec it requires. You will be able to download it for free from the Internet. Virtual DubTM A utility for transcoding one video file into another. This is a general purpose transfer and cleanup utility which has many options allowing for even the most difficult video translations. It will prompt you to save it to C:\Program Files\VirtualDub. You should use this default directory location. Otherwise you will have to instruct the MPEG-4 Translator program where to find it. For more information on Virtual DubTM see the website - http://www.virtualdub. org. MPEG-4 Translator This program, developed by Archos, is a "Front-end" for the Virtual Dub program. It has a simple interface which you use and it then tells Virtual Dub how to process the video file. It sets all the parameters for Virtual Dub specifically to create a video file in the right size and format to be read by the AV 500. When you run it for the first time, the MPEG-4 Translator will need to locate the Virtual Dub program. If you did not install Virtual Dub in the default location, you will have to show the program where Virtual Dub is. If you forget, Windows® will give you an error when you try to launch it. 35 36 MP3 Sound Codec If MPEG-4 Translator detects a suitable MP3 codec on your PC, it will use it, and your video file sound track will be MP3. Otherwise, it will use the standard IMA ADPCM codec. There are MP3 encoders (usually packaged together as an encoder and decoder) available on the Web for you to download. If you choose to use the LAME codec, make sure that you have a version built with the ACM front-end. You can find other MP3 codecs on the web by using the search terms ACM, MP3 and CODEC in your favorite web search engine. Once this MP3 codec is installed into your system, MPEG-4 Translator will be able to create final video files with MP3 sound, even if the source video file does not have an MP3 sound track. If you are unsure what codecs (audio and/or video) have been installed on your computer, you can see the list by going to the following location. For Windows XP, click on Start > Settings > Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices Properties > Hardware, choose Audio Codecs, then click on Properties. You will find a list here of all the audio codecs that are installed on your computer. Decoding of MPEG 2 video files is currently not supported by MPEG-4 Translator. These are usually .mpg or .mpeg format files, not the required AVI file. There are other tools found on the Internet (FlaskMPEG, Rippack, etc.) that may be downloaded in order to help you with these file types. A good starting place is the website www.mpegmobile.com. 9.2 Using MPEG-4 Translator Here you see the image of the main MPEG-4 Translator program. When you first run the program, if the required codec has not been installed yet, you will be notified. You should download the codec and install it on your computer. If the Virtual dub program has not been installed, you will also be notified, and you should install it. If you have placed the Virtual Dub program in a folder other than the installer default folder, it will ask you to locate the file. 36 37 Select Source & Destination Files In the example, a source file 24 hours of Lemans.avi has been selected as the source video. You can see on the bottom of the window its original characteristics (width 720, height 576, frame rate 24). Next, you must then tell the program where to place (Set Destination file) the newly recoded version of the file (don't worry, it will not erase the original). You should give it a new descriptive name, such as shown above Lemans.avi. Make sure you add the .avi extension. Change Settings Next, you can change the parameters (Change Settings) of the encoder to adjust the level of quality of the final image. Like MP3 music, the higher the bit rate setting is made, the higher the quality of the music, or video in this case, that you will get. However, this will also take up more space on your hard drive. A setting of 900 kbps will give you a nice looking image for viewing on a television. For near DVD quality, you can set it up to 1200 kbps. 37 38 Target & Priority If the AV 500 device is not listed, select "ARCHOSTM Default". You will see a Priority box appear. This control is to allow you to select which feature of the video to be guarded. If for example you are re-encoding a video file that is 800x600 in resolution and 30 frames per second, this is beyond the maximum resolution that the AV 500 can play. Thus, the MPEG-4 Translator program will have to decrease the resolution. Choosing LCD optimizes the final video format for viewing on the built in LCD screen. Choosing the TV option will optimize the movie to keep the highest possible frame rate. You can see what the size and frame rate will be by looking at the Video Image Size : Destination parameters. When choosing TV, it is understood that the output will be optimized for a television, and not the built-in screen. Start Click on Start and the program will call Virtual Dub to start processing the video. Depending on the power and speed of your computer, this could take real time (a 60 minute long video re-encoded in about 60 minutes) or much longer. As shown to the left, you will see the progress as it processes the video file. If the Start button is grayed out, it would be for one of two reasons. 1) The source file is not a true AVI file. Even if the file name ends with .avi, the internal file data determines if it is truly an AVI file. 2) The Virtual Dub program was not located when MPEG-4 Translator was started up. Close the program, restart it, and make sure you locate the Virtual Dub program. 38 39 10 10 MUSIC ­ Playing Music Files When you click on the music icon in the main screen, you will be sent directly to the ARCLibrary. From here you can choose to either browse your music by the file system (Browse hard drive) or by music characteristics (Album, Artist, title, Genre, Year). Use the LEFT, RIGHT, UP, and DOWN buttons to locate one of the factory installed music samples and then click on PLAY. If you hear nothing at first, make sure you have adjusted the volume control on the headphone cord. Display during music playback 1. Current Directory 2. Play Mode: One Directory 3. Status: Playing 4. Battery level 5. Volume (maximum:99) 6. Song title* or file name 7. Artist* or parent folder 8. Album* or current folder 9. Next track to be played 10. Relative location in the track 11. Elapsed, remaining, and total song time 12. Time of Day 13. Album picture* 14. File format and rec info 15. Volume level meters *If the file contains these tag data 1 23 4 5 12 6 7 8 13 14 9 10 11 15 39 40 10.1 Button Control Vol + HSA FF Rew Increase the Volume High speed advance Click once: Play the next song in the folder or playlist. Hold: Fast forward through the song. Click once: Play the previous song in the folder or playlist (during first 10 seconds of song) otherwise go to the beginning of the song. Hold: Fast reverse through the song. High speed reverse Decrease the Volume Play/pause/resume Stop Song To lock the AV 500 buttons, select the lock action icon on the main screen and press the Select button. The AV 500 will display the "locked" icon in the top left corner of the screen. Press the Select button again to unlock the buttons. You can still use the UP and DOWN buttons to change the volume. HSR Vol. o X 10.2 Play Screen Icons Status Stopped Blinks while Playing a track Current track is paused Recording a track 40 41 Play Order (no icon) Play once Repeat playing Shuffle (Random) track selection Play Mode AV 500 is currently playing from a Playlist Folder: Play all tracks in the current directory All: Play all tracks on AV 500 Single: Play a single track then stop Queue: User can queue the next track to be played * Scan: Plays first 10 ­ 90 seconds of each track* * See the PlayMode section in the Settings chapter of this manual for details. 41 42 10.3 Browsing through your Music Library The ARClibrary is your AV 500's music library. It is a system for indexing your music by album, artist, song title, etc. When you synchronize music files from your PC using Windows Media® Player to the AV 500, the ARCLibrary will get updated to include the new songs you have added. As shown in this screen capture, you can select your music by Artist, Album, Song Title, Genre, or Year. All music files that you purchase have internal `tags' which identify the artist, the album, and the song title. If your music files do not have internal tags (ex: WAV file format or untagged WMA or MP3 files) then the ARCLibrary will put them under the category (Unknown). Audio files created with the AV 500 from analog sources are indexed as Artist = (ARCHOS) and Album = (Audio Recordings). You can reach the PlayMode settings screen from the Setup action icon > PlayMode. The play mode determines how your music is played (just the current folder of music, all music, one file, etc.). See Playmode in the section Settings for a description of how each one works. 42 43 10.4 Playing Through your Stereo System To play your music through your stereo system, you can connect your (optional) pod audio outputs (red and white plugs of the cable connected to AV Out) to your stereo system inputs. You can also use the AV cable and plug it in directly. Playing through a Stereo system with an AV Cable 10.5 Setting a Bookmark If you are listening to a song, or perhaps a long recording, and would like to place a bookmark in it in order to pick up from this point at another time, you can use the Bookmark function. Simply select the Set Bookmark action icon. This will set a bookmark in the audio file at the current position. You can only set one bookmark per file. When you look at the file in your browser, it will have a yellow check mark on its icon indicating that this file has a bookmark set within it. You can have a maximum of 16 files bookmarked. Setting more bookmarks will then start to erase the oldest bookmarks. The next time you play an audio file which contains a bookmark, you will be presented with three options: 43 44 Resume: Start playing from the bookmarked position. Ignore: Clear: Keep the bookmark but start playing from the very beginning. Clear the bookmark from this file and start playing from the very beginning. 10.6 The Resume Function When you turn on your AV 500 you may notice that the icon which is highlighted on the main screen is not the Browser but rather the Resume icon. This icon is highlighted when the AV 500 can resume the last played audio or video file. 44 45 11 11 MUSIC ­ Putting Music onto your AV 500 Your ArchosTM product is a certified PlaysForSureTM digital device which means that wherever you find music for sale on the Internet with this symbol, you can be certain that it will `Play for sure' on your AV 500*. The AV 500 is designed to work seamlessly with Windows Media® Player (WMP) versions 9 and 10. The Windows Media® Player software is used to download digital media content from the Internet to your computer and organizing it. You will also use it to synchronize (copy) the contents of your Windows Media® Player media library to your ArchosTM device. See the comparison chart below for an explanation of the different features available when running Windows Media Player 9 and 10 or check out the web site www.playsforsure.com. *Subscription services require you to be running Windows Media® Player 10. 11.1 Synchronizing Music from Windows Media® Player (WMP) to the AV 500 The Synchronize button in Windows Media® Player (WMP) is a one way `sync' button. That is, it will add music, video, and photo files to your AV 500 so that you have the same digital media on your AV 500 as you have in your Windows Media® Player media library. Of course, you can choose to sync only certain songs, videos, or photos, or sync your entire library. On WMP10, you can click the button Set up Sync in the Sync tab and then check the box labeled Synchronize Device Automatically. This is the auto-sync advantage of WMP10. If this box is checked, then each time you connect your AV 500 to your PC, Windows Media® Player will automatically start up and check to see if there are any new music, videos, or photos in your media library, and if so, will then copy them to your AV 500. You also have the possibility to decide what types of media automatically sync when you connect your AV 500. For example, you may only want music files to be synchronized. On the other hand, with Windows Media® Player 9, you have to tell it what you want to sync, WMP9 cannot synchronize automatically when you connect your AV 500 to your computer. 45 46 Note for WMP10 users: Files added to your AV 500 from another computer or files which are recorded from an analog source cannot be added to the Windows Media® Player Library when you connect your AV 500 to the computer. Songs which have been added, will however, be listed in the device's ARCLibrary. 11.2 Comparison of Windows Media Player 10 to Windows Media Player 9 Windows® Media Player 10 is only available for Windows® XP (service Pack 1) and newer operating systems. It is worth your while to upgrade to Windows® XP (home or professional) and to Windows® Media Player 10. The list below shows the advantages. Functionality Auto-synchronize the WMP library to ARCHOSTM AV 500 on connecting to PC Can synchronize subscription music (`to go' services) to your AV 500 Carefree USB disconnection (no special green arrow unmount procedure) Will convert video files** to play on your AV 500 if not in correct format Supports protected Internet video downloads PlaysForSureTM audio content WMP9 no* no no no no yes (download) WMP10 yes yes yes yes yes yes * Must use WMP9 manual sync function to copy purchased music to the AV 500. **Microsoft reserves the right to limit which video file formats it will convert with WMP10 46 47 11.3 Transferring your CD collection to the AV 500 The process of transferring music from a CD into music files for your AV 500 is known as `ripping'. It is actually a re-encoding process, taking the CDA (CD Audio) format and converting it to WMA or MP3 format which the AV 500 can read. There are many music ripping programs on the market, but ARCHOSTM recommends that you use Windows Media® Player to do it. In fact, when you place a music CD in your computer, Windows® will ask you if you would like to rip it. Depending on the power of your computer, to rip a 60 minute CD, it will take anywhere from 10 minutes to 60 minutes. Once this is done, the album will become part of your music library. Connect your AV 500 to your computer with the supplied USB cable. Now, you go to the Sync tab and tell Windows Media® Player to synchronize that album to your AV 500. It will then transfer that album to your AV 500. Note: Some music CDs have a special copy protection system that will not allow Windows Media® Player to make music files from them. 11.4 Installing Windows Media® Player 9 (WMP9) If you have Windows® ME or Windows® 2000, you should use Windows Media® Player 9. You can visit the Microsoft® Website to download the very latest version, or install the version found on the AV 500 itself in the folder /Data/PC Installation. 11.5 Installing Windows Media® Player 10 (WMP10) You must be running Windows® XP (Service Pack 1 or higher) in order to install Windows Media® Player 10. Please visit the Microsoft® Website www.playsforsure.com to download and install the very latest version. 47 48 12 12 MUSIC ­ Playlists A Playlist is a list of songs that the AV 500 will automatically play one after the other. The AV 500 can load one Playlist at a time into its internal memory. You can create new Playlists, add or delete songs from a Playlist, or Save a Playlist to be used another time. There is no limit to the number of Playlists you can save on the AV 500 hard drive. Playlists are indicated by a special list icon (circled icon to the left). 12.1 Playing a Playlist To play a Playlist, you simply scroll to the Playlist, such as `Sample Playlist' shown to the left, and click on PLAY o. The list of songs will be loaded into the internal memory of the AV 500 and then be displayed in a separate panel. Click on PLAY and the songs will be played in the order shown. To shuffle the music entries in a random order, you can click on the Manage Playlist action icon, then choose Shuffle. If you delete a Playlist from your AV 500, you are only deleting the list and not the music itself. 12.2 Creating a Playlist To create a Playlist, select the Open Playlist panel action icon while you are in the Music browser. A second panel will open on the right side to display the Playlist contents. You can now start adding songs to the current Playlist. In the left panel, locate the songs you would like to add to your Playlist. Once the song is highlighted, click on the RIGHT or ENTER button or select the Add to Playlist action icon to add it to the Playlist. The song will be added to the Playlist and a small mark next to the music icon will be made to indicate that it is in the Playlist. Continue searching and adding songs in this manner until you are satisfied. You can select the Add or Insert action buttons 48 49 when highlighting a folder, artist, or album. All the contents of the folder, artist, or album will be added (that is, appended) or inserted before the selected song in the current Playlist. You can jump back and forth between the browser and the Playlist by selecting the Focus buttons. A Playlist can have a maximum of 5000 songs. We recommend that you save your Playlists. 12.3 Saving a Playlist It is recommended that each time you create a Playlist, you save it to a separate folder called Playlists. These lists take very little space on your hard drive and if well named, give you easy access to your favorite songs. Go to the Playlist by selecting Music from the main menu and then select the Open Playlist panel action icon. You will then see the list of songs in the current Playlist. Use the action button to focus on the right panel, then select the Manage Playlists action icon, and select Save. ATTENTION: Make sure that your left panel is the Playlists folder because the open panel on the left is the location the AV 500 will be saving your Playlist to. Save Close Rename Clear Shuffle Saves the current playlist to Playlists or the folder open in the left panel. The * after the Playlist name indicates that this playlist has not been saved. Clears the Playlist and closes the Playlist panel. Renames the current playlist. Clears the contents of the current playlist. Randomly shuffles the order of the songs in the current playlist. The following Playlist action icons are also available Icon: Remove Track Icon: Move track Will delete the highlighted song from the Playlist. It will not delete the actual song itself from your hard drive, just from the current Playlist. Allows you to change the place in the list of the highlighted song. Click on Move and then click on UP or DOWN to move the song up or down the list. Click OK when finished. 49 50 Important: Once you save a Playlist it is important that you do not move or rename the actual music files since the Playlist searches in the original file location. If you need to move your music files to a different folder, you'll have to recreate your Playlist. 12.4 Adding songs to a Playlist while listening to Music This can only be done if you have entered your Music folder via the Music icon and not by the general browser. To add the song you are listening to or any other song to the current Playlist, do the following: · While playing a song, choose the action icon Playlist Editor. A new window will open with two panels, the hard drive contents on the left, and the Playlist on the right. · Select the Focus on the left panel action icon to go to the hard drive browser panel. · Select the song or folder of songs to add, then click PLAY or the action icon Add to Playlist. · Click ESC to return to the playing screen. Remember to save your changes before closing the Playlist. 50 51 13 13 MUSIC ­ Recording Music With the AV 500 series, you do not need a computer to create digital music files. It is capable of recording from any standard analog line source (ex: HiFi system, Boombox, CD Player, etc) into a standard Windows® .WAV format, either PCM (uncompressed) or ADPCM (compressed). 13.1 Cable Connections for Audio Recording If you are using the (optional) TV docking pod, then you will have to plug the Red and White connectors of the AV In cable to the output of your Hifi or other audio device that you are recording from. 51 52 If you are using the (optional) multi-connect adapter (can be purchased from www.archos.com) and an AV cable, you should plug the AV cable into the AV In side of the adapter, and then plug the adapter into the AV 500. 52 53 13.2 Recording Procedure Before the actual audio recording begins, there is a pre-recording screen which will allow you to adjust your recording settings. 1. On the main screen, select AudioCorder then click on ENTER. 2. In the pre-recording screen, adjust the recording level* by clicking on the LEFT and RIGHT buttons. Click on the record action icon (or Enter button) to start recording. Attention, the first time recording you should adjust your Settings. * You should try some test recordings before deciding on which recording level gives the best sound quality. Don't be tricked by the volume of the headphones which can be adjusted independently with the UP and DOWN buttons. 53 54 3. Click on the Settings action icon to reveal the recording parameters screen as shown. 4. Once you have clicked on the Record action icon (or Enter button), you can pause the recording by clicking the Pause action icon (or Enter button) and then stop the recording by clicking on the STOP button. You can record from any line-level audio source to the AV 500. Be careful that the source audio is supplying a line level and not an amplified signal (turning down the volume on the player will work if you are using the headphone out signal of your audio device). A signal that is amplified too much will make for a terribly distorted recording. Microphone The built-in microphone is located on the top of the AV 500. Make sure that you have selected Microphone as the input source in the pre-recording Settings screen. The microphone level is preset. 54 55 Incremental Recording While recording, you will notice the incremental recording action icon. This allows you to create incremental recordings. This means that the current recording stops and a new recording instantly begins. The next recording has an additional number appended to its name. Thus if you create multiple incremental recordings, you might, for example, have files names of REC0000_01, REC0000_02, etc. This is good for recording old cassettes and old vinyl records. You can click on this icon during the blank space between each song. That way, each song of the vinyl disk or audio cassette will be one single music file. 13.3 Where is the Recording Saved? The default location for audio recordings is the folder called Music. This can be changed though. For example, you click on the Music icon in the main menu and then you choose Browse Hard Drive. Notice that there is the Launch Audiocorder action icon. Each time you use this button to start the Audiocorder application instead of the AudioCorder button on the main menu, you set the recording default location to the current folder. For example, let's say you have a folder called /Music/Vinyls/Soul. If you go to this folder and then make a recording using the action icon, you will set the default record location to this folder. Now, all your recordings you make with the Audiocorder icon will be saved in the folder /Music/Vinyls/Soul. 13.4 Audio Editing Audio files (only recordings that were made from the AudioCorder icon) can be modified by deleting the sections you do not wish included. If you would like to edit an audio recording, you have the possibility to cut the file down to the specific part you want to keep. In the example below, you have recorded a lecture of 33 minutes and 22 seconds in length. You would like to cut out and save just one particular important section from 12 minutes and 15 seconds to 21 minutes and 5 seconds. The diagram below illustrates the situation. To keep just this section (cropping it), you will: 55 56 · Locate this file via Browse hard disk in the Music application. · From the action icons, select the File Management action icon and then select Edit. · In the edit mode, set the Cut In point (12:15 in our example). This will remove the part of the file BEFORE the desired segment. · Now set a Cut Out point (21:05 in our example. Please note: As you have cut part of the file, this position will actually be earlier in the file now). · Validate and Save the edit. The file will be saved with the word "edit" appended to the file name in the same folder as the original. · If you do not want to save your modifications, click the STOP/ESC button and select OK. Highlight the file to edit and select the File Management action icon. Choose Edit. Only files which have been created with the AV 500 recording function will show Edit in the file menu. Files created from CDs or downloaded cannot be edited. Once you enter the edit mode, the audio file will play in a continuous loop so that you will be able to hear the changes to the edit as you make them. Use the fast-reverse and fast-forward buttons (LEFT/RIGHT buttons) to locate the points you want the new file to start and end. These are the Cut In and Cut Out points. Once you have set these points, you can save the edit. In this example, a new file REC0001_Edit will be made. Your original file is left untouched. You will notice that your Cut In and Cut Out times are marked just below the file name. 56 57 14 14 MUSIC ­ Using iTunesTM with your AV 500 The easiest way to transfer music files between a Macintosh® computer and your AV 500 is to use the Macintosh FinderTM to drag and drop the files to and from your Macintosh®. However, for Macintosh® users who do want to use the AV 500 with iTunes®, ARCHOSTM has developed a special i-Tunes® plug-in. You will find it in the folder /Data/i-Tunes Plug-in on the AV 500 hard drive or at the ARCHOSTM website. In this folder you will find a plug-in for Mac OS 9.x and another folder for Mac OS 10.x. You will also find a JPEG image illustrating where you need to copy the plug-in to. Once this is done, iTunesTM will recognize the AV 500 as a `Device'. Attention Your AV 500 needs to be set to "Hard drive" mode (see the section System Settings in the Settings chapter or the chapter Connecting/Disconnecting the AV 500 to/from your PC on how to do this.) Please keep in mind the following: 1) Music purchased at Apple's on-line music store are copy protected with a proprietary encryption system. The ARCHOSTM device will not be able to play this purchased music or files in ACC format which you might have created. It will happily play MP3 format files without problem. 2) When you create your Playlists with iTunes® (you can only create Playlists from songs that have been copied to your AV 500), your Macintosh® will save these Playlists to the root directory of your AV 500. It will not save them to the AV 500 Playlists directory. It would be best to use the AV 500 itself to make Playlists and then save these Playlists in your Playlists folder. (See section Creating a Playlist in chapter Music ­Playlists) 3) When you drag and drop MP3 files from your iTunes® library to your AV 500, the i-Tunes® program will look at the ID3 tag information of the MP3 file, and create a folder on the root of your AV 500 using the name of the Artist as the folder name. Then it will take the Album name ID3 tag, and create a subfolder with that album as its name. Finally, it will take the MP3 song itself and place it into that album subfolder. Thus, although it is a clean structure of artists and albums, i-Tunes® does not follow the AV 500 convention of placing the music into the Music folder first. 57 58 15 15 PHOTO ­ Viewing Photos The AV 500 series support the viewing of JPEG (.jpg) and Bitmap (.bmp) image formats. Progressive JPEG images are not supported. The AV 500 will resize the image to fit on the built-in screen or on a television screen if you choose the television output. When you are in the Photo mode, it means that only files of type JPEG or BMP will be visible in the directory. Other file types will not be visible. The three images on the right are thumbnail sized pictures of the highlighted file (center) and the picture just before and just after the highlighted file. Select the Photo icon, then click Enter o in order to go to the Photo directory. 15.1 Viewing Photos When you click Enter o on a highlighted image file, the AV 500 will display the image in full screen mode. Displayed as a full screen image, you can rotate it, magnify it, or set it as the AV 500 screen background with the Save as Wallpaper function in the File Management action icon. 1 x 1 image 58 2 x 2 images (Zoom out 1x) 3 x 3 images (Zoom out 2x) 59 Rotate picture 90° left View previous/next photo Rotate picture 90° right · Move up the action icon menu to select a picture option. · Select the Zoom in/out action icon to change the number of photos in the carrousel view. Magnifying Photos Once the picture is displayed in full screen, selecting the Zoom in action icon will magnify the image up to two levels. Each successive click will magnify the picture one more level. You can use your direction buttons to move the picture around in order to see the desired magnified area. The small + signs on the bottom left of the screen indicate the level of magnification, either + or ++. Click on STOP/ESC to go back to an unmagnified view. 15.2 Viewing a slideshow By clicking on the action icon Play a Slideshow, the AV 500 will present each picture in the current folder for a set amount of time and then go on to the next picture. You can set the amount of time that each picture stays on the screen under the action icon Photo Browser Settings > Picture Pause. This parameter is the number of seconds each picture displays on the screen. 59 60 15.3 Transferring photos to your AV 500 The AV 500 is equipped with a USB host port. This port, along with the USB Host adapter cable will allow you to connect USB Mass Storage Class (MSC) devices to your AV 500 and transfer files from that device to your AV 500. Many cameras produced today are MSC type devices. Thus you can often plug your camera directly into the AV 500's USB Host port and copy your photos with the ARCHOSTM browser. If you do not have an MSC type camera, you can use a USB card reader and plug this into AV 500's USB host port (via the USB host adapter cable). Finally if neither of these solutions is available to you, you can always copy the photos to your computer and then copy them from your computer to the connected AV 500 (via USB 2). 3 methods to copy photos to your AV 500 1) Connect your Mass Storage Class camera to USB Host port (via USB host adapter cable). 2) Use a stand alone USB card reader with the USB host adapter cable. 3) Copy photos to your computer and then copy (or Sync with Windows Media® Player 10) to the AV 500 (via USB 2). Once you plug an MSC type device into the USB host port (via the host adapter cable), the browser's left panel will show the contents of your external USB device, and the right panel will show the contents of your AV 500's hard drive. Navigate to the panel which contains your photos (in this example /DCIM/113CANON). Move to the right panel (action) and navigate to the folder you would like to save your photos to (you can create a new folder if you need to by selecting the corresponding action icon). See the screen images on the next page. Method 1 60 61 Photos from camera are shown on the left, and your AV 500 hard drive on the right. By using the Select right pane action icon, move to the right pane and choose the destination folder. Now return to the left pane and choose the Copy all files action icon. Your files will be copied to your AV 500 into the folder in the right pane. You can now unplug the camera from the AV 500. 61 62 16 16 BROWSER ­ Using the Browser The browser is used to navigate the file system on the AV 500. The file system is FAT32, the same type of file system that is found on Windows® based computers. That is, it is a hierarchical system which includes folders and subfolders. Because you will be putting hundreds of files on your AV 500, it is STRONGLY ADVISED that you keep a neat and orderly file structure. Otherwise, you will be spending time searching for files and not listening or watching them. ARCHOSTM recommends that you keep the factory created folders: Data, Music, Playlists, Video, and Pictures. The folders Music, Pictures, and Video are special folders in that the icons on the main screen lead to these folders and then places you directly in that folder. If these folders are deleted or renamed, you will be taken to the root level (highest level) of the directory hierarchy. 62 63 16.1 Navigating the Directory Structure To navigate the directory structure you will use: ENTER: Open the highlighted folder (directory) or Play the highlighted file. ESC/STOP x : Go back to the main menu. Move the cursor up and down to the previous or next file or folder. RIGHT: Open the currently highlighted folder. LEFT: Go back up one level in the folder hierarchy. Example: Go from folder AV500/Music/Wes Burden/ to AV500/Music. 63 64 16.2 File and Folder Operations Depending on where you are in the folder system, you will have the option to manipulate files and folders. From the main menu, click on Browser. Files that the AV 500 cannot play will be preceded by the unknown file type icon. Folder Operations Info Create Delete File Operations Show file information such as song length, video length, photo size, number of kilobytes used of hard drive space, date file was made, etc. Create a new folder inside the current folder. Delete the file permanently from the AV 500. (Before it is deleted, the AV 500 will ask "Delete file: xxxxx ?". Use the action buttons to reply Yes or No. For folder, it will delete the entire contents of the folder. It will ask "Delete folder: xxxxx and all files therein?" Use the action buttons to reply Yes or No. Change the name of the file or folder to something new. You will be sent to the virtual keyboard (see section Virtual Keyboard in the Browser chapter) to enter the new file or folder name. Create a new folder in the current level of the directory. You will be sent to the virtual keyboard (see section Virtual Keyboard in the Browser chapter) to enter the new folder name. Rename Create 64 65 Copying and Moving Files and Folders By using the unique ARCHOSTM double browser system, you can copy or move files from one location in the file structure to another (1000 files per folder maximum). The double browser can be used in: Photo View Music View Browser View The left panel is the connected USB device (ex: digital camera or hard drive) and the right panel the AV 500 hard drive contents. The left browser is the AV 500 hard drive contents and right browser the music Playlist. Two panels to browse two different parts of the AV 500 hard drive. In the Browser mode, you can jump between the two panels using the Focus on the left/right panel action icon. Where the cursor is highlighting a file or folder, that panel is the source for the copy. The destination folder will be the other panel. For example, we want to copy the file Project info.doc from the AV 500/Data/Files from Work folder to the AV 500/Data/Completed projects folder. We must start from the main screen Browser mode. 1) Locate and highlight the file to be copied. Using the action buttons, move to the right pane. 65 66 2) In the right pane, locate the destination folder. Then move back to the left pane. 3) Highlight the file to be copied and select the Copy file icon. action 4) The selected file will now be copied into the destination folder. 66 67 16.3 Using the Virtual Keyboard It is recommended that you create folders and rename files or folders from your computer when it is connected to the AV 500. The computer keyboard is much easier to use. However, at times when you are not near your computer and need to enter text directly with the AV 500 (ex: renaming a file or creating a new folder). For this, the virtual keyboard screen will appear. The new text that you are typing Cursor Press ENTER to enter the highlighted key/letter. Change keyboard between upper case and lower case Backspace button Clear the entered text Confirmation to use the entered text. Hold down on the LEFT or RIGHT buttons to move the cursor within the entry line. 67 68 17 17 Connecting/Disconnecting* the AV 500 to/from your PC 17.1 USB Connection Type (`Hard Drive' or `Windows Device') Your device comes configured as a Windows® Device and will be immediately recognized by your computer if you are running Windows® XP (with Service Pack 1 minimum) and Windows Media® Player 10. If you have another version of Windows®, not sure what version of Windows® XP you have, or if you are using a Macintosh®, then you will need to change the USB (Universal Serial Bus) Port setting on the AV 500. You will do this by going to the Settings action icon and then to System and USB Port and change it to `Hard Drive'. 17.2 Connecting the AV 500 Connection order: See the sections below for your particular computer's operating system. 1) Connect the power adapter to the AV 500. 2) With your computer running, plug the USB cable into your computer. 3) With the AV 500 off, plug in the other end of the USB cable to the AV 500 USB Device port. 4) Turn on the AV 500. (If your computer asks to install a new driver for the new hardware, then you must unplug it and change the USB Port to Hard Drive.) * Note that when the AV 500 is connected to a computer, it will use more energy than usual. Your battery power will be consumed at a higher rate than normal. It is normal that the AV 500 will get hot. If the AV 500 looses power while connected to your computer you could damage your directory structure and/or loose data. Thus, you should always use the AC adapter when connected to your computer. Be careful to understand the disconnection procedure also since disconnecting incorrectly can lead to data loss or computer/AV 500 freeze up. The AV 500 is not compatible with Windows® NT, Windows® 95, or Windows® 98. While connected to your computer, the AV 500 buttons are blocked and are no longer functional. 68 69 Windows® XP Please verify** that you have Windows® XP and it is updated to at least, Service Pack 1. You must also have Windows Media® Player 10 (WMP10) installed on your computer. This way, you can take advantage of connecting it as a `Windows Device'. Connect it to your PC as enumerated above and you can then see the AV 500 in Windows® Explorer and WMP10. Without Windows® XP Service Pack 1 (a free update) or Windows Media Player® 10, you cannot use it as a Windows® recognized `Device' and will have to follow the instructions for Windows® ME & 2000 below. ** Right-click on `My Computer' select `Properties', and then look in the tab labeled `General'. It should say "Service Pack 1" or higher. Windows® ME and 2000 Attention: Before connecting the AV 500 to your computer with the USB cable, go to the setup action icon and then to System and USB Port and change it to `Hard Drive'. When connected to your computer, the AV 500 will be recognized as an external Hard Drive and display automatically within a few seconds of being connected. You will see a new drive letter, such as E: in My Computer called AV 500. You can now use the hard drive called AV 500 like any other external hard drive. Simply access it using Windows® Explorer to drag and drop files to and from the AV 500's hard drive. MacintoshTM OS X If you have OS X, you must update to version 10.2.4 or newer. You must also change the AV 500's USB Port setting to `Hard Drive'. From the main menu, go to the Settings action icon and then to System and USB Port and change it to `Hard Drive'. You will now simply plug the AV 500 into your Macintosh® as enumerated above, and within a few seconds, the AV 500 will be recognized as a mass storage device (Hard Drive) and mount on the desktop. You can now use the hard drive called AV 500 like any other external hard drive. 69 70 17.3 Disconnecting the AV 500 from your Computer Windows Device Mode If the AV 500 is connected to your computer as a Windows Device, verify that no data is being transferred between your AV 500 and your computer (the HDD light on your AV 500 is not flickering). You can now safely unplug the USB cable from your AV 500 and/or computer. Hard Drive Mode If the AV 500 is connected to your computer as a hard drive, DO NOT SIMPLY PULL OUT THE USB CABLE AT ANY TIME! WARNING: You must properly remove (unmount) your AV 500 from the computer before disconnecting the USB cable to avoid loss of data or freezing the computer and/or the AV 500. Hard Drive Mode & Windows® To safely disconnect the AV 500 hard drive, click on the system tray remove icon (green arrow as shown below) and follow the instructions. Wait until you get a message saying that you can safely unplug the device before disconnecting the USB cable. 1. The safe remove icon is in the system tray next to the clock. Windows® XP Windows® 2000 & Windows® ME 2. Click on the icon to eject (unmount) the AV 500 from the computer and select the `Safely remove' message. 3. There will be a message indicating that it is now safe to disconnect the AV 500. You can now safely unplug the USB cable from your AV 500 and/or computer. 70 71 Hard Drive Mode & Macintosh® Drag the AV 500 hard drive icon towards the trash can, the trash can will become a big arrow as shown in the screen shot to the left. Drop the hard drive icon onto the arrow. The hard drive icon will disappear from the desktop. You can now safely unplug the USB cable from your AV 500 and/or computer. 71 72 18 18 Connecting Devices to the USB Host Port Thanks to the USB Host port, you can connect USB Mass Storage Class (MSC) devices such as many digital cameras and external hard drives in order to transfer pictures or data to/from your AV 500. Check your manufacturer's information to find out whether your device is an MSC device. Non Mass Storage Class devices such as printers, Ethernet adapters, mice, keyboards, etc. are not supported. To connect an MSC device, use the included short USB host adapter.