H1XX and H3XX Series FAQ's

[Odie]

Question:

What are the stock ear buds that come with the iHP-120?

Answer:

Some people believe that the stock earphones that come with the iHP-120 are re-badged Sennheiser MX300's.

They are in-fact manufactured by a Korean company called Cresyn.

Further Information:

http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=557 77&highlight=iriver+mx3 00

http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=53895&highlight=ihp1 20

[Odie]

This FAQ is brought to you courtesy of Big D

Please note: The 'study mode' feature was introduced in the v1.20b (beta) and v1.40 (release) firmware versions.

To use this feature, you must upgrade your iHP-120 to firmware v1.20b or higher.

Study Mode

Study mode allows you to skip by a preset time (from 00:01 to 10:59 minutes) rather than by tracks.

This is particularly useful for really large songs.


Setting Study Mode

1. Hold down the joystick button while in play or stop mode.

2. Select Mode

3. Select Study

4. Use up and down to select minutes or seconds and then left and right to select the correct time to skip.

5. Press stop three times to go back to play or stop mode.

6. To turn off Study Mode just set both mins and secs back to zero.


Using Study Mode

While playing a track just press FWD or BACK to skip through the track by the time that you had set.

If there is less than this time before the beginning or end of a track then it will skip to the start of the track or skip onto the next track.

It will not skip through into the next or previous track by the time you had set.

This will be handy for those who can't wait for gapless playback for their mixed dance albums.

[Odie]

Is the warranty for the iHP valid internationally?[/b]

Answer:

No, the warranty supplied with the iHP series players is only valid in the country of purchase.

A few people have had success sending their players to their local iRiver center for repairs, but this is the exception and not the rule.

Further Information:

Please also note that the standard iRiver warranty covers the main unit for one year and covers the accessories such as the remote for 90 days

[Odie]

This FAQ entry is not complete, if you can tell us the official iHP colours for a certain region (Japan, Korea, Asia in general), please send me a PM

Question:

Which colours does the iHP-120 come in?

Answer:

The iHP comes in "champagne" colour for most of Europe and "black" in the USA.

Further Information:

There are pictures of a blue/purple coloured iHP on the internet, however this was just a prototype.

Current information suggests that the iHP-140 will be available in "black" in all regions.

[seadzz]

I just loaded a number of tracks into my new player and they only play in alphabetical order. How do I get them to play in track number order? I want to hear my music the same way as it was on the album.


Answer:

You need to include a number in the track naming sequence. For your existing track rips download a track name editing software package from the download section of this website. Using the freeDB lookup function get the names from the DB and make sure you include the track number. For new rips make sure your ripper includes a numbering function.

Your rips should look like this:

01 – first song

02 – second song

09 – this song

10 – song after that

Without the zero in place your player may skip around in playing tracks so remember to include this place holder.

Enjoy

sdz

[seadzz]

Just got my new player and it has firmware 1.XX installed how do I upgrade it?

Answer:

Go to the iRiver Site and download the most current firmware. The last time I checked the iRiver firmware site was located here but this may have changed. If so google to find current site. When you start the download be sure to save it to your desktop or some other easy to find place. Depending on which site you down load from this file may be in a hex format or may be a zip file. If its a zip file unzip the ususl way saving it to your desktop.

Plug in your ihp to your computer, and copy the .hex file to the root folder of the ihp, eg the first one that is shown when you double-click on the drive in "My Computer".

Now, disconnect the ihp from your computer and make sure you have the AC adaptor plugged in and turned on, just in case the battery power is low.

Go into the menu. It's in the first sub-menu, the very last option is for performing the firmware upgrade. Make sure the 'yes' box is ticked, and exit the menu, the firmware upgrade screen will now be displayed, do not touch the player until the firmware upgrade is complete.

When the upgrade is completed, the player will switch itself off. Now all you do is switch it on, and you should see the version of the new firmware on the startup screen.

You can safely delete the .hex file from the ihp now.

enjoy the music,

sdz

[coreman]

I have been adding and deleting songs but my hard drive space is getting smaller, what is happening?

Answer:

The iHP is just like the hard drive in your PC, it has a Recycle Bin on it but it is hidden. Whenever you delete a file it goes into the recycle bin and stays on your player.

To empty the Recycle Bin on your player:

1. Connect the player to your PC with the USB cable and turn it on.
2. Wait approximately 30 seconds until it shows up under "My Computer".
3. Empty the Recycle Bin on your desktop and it will empty both the PC Recycle Bin and the iHP Recycle Bin.
4. Disconnect the player from the PC using "Safe to Remove" tool.

There are (2) ways to prevent the files from going to Recycle Bin to start with:

A. Use "Shift-Delete" to bypass the Recycle Bin instead of "Delete" alone.

B. With the iHP connected to the PC and recognized under "My Computer":

1. Right click on "Recycle Bin" on the PC Desktop
2. Click on "Properties"
3. Click on "Global" Tab
4. Click on "Configure drives independently"
5. Click on the tab showing your iHP player
6. Click on "Do not moves to Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted"
7. Exit by clicking "Ok"

Now when you delete from the iHP, the files will no longer occupy your valuable drive real estate!

[seadzz]

I just got my new player and want to know what encoder to use, mp3, wma or ogg. What is the best one and what settings should I use?

Answer:

There is no simple answer to the question of which encoder to use. Lets talk about bitrates first and get back to the encoder. Bitrate is the speed of the encoder. Faster speed means better quality but also means bigger file size.

As a rule encoding at 128kbps will give you a file size of 1 MB per minute of encoded music. A four minute song will give you a 4 MB file and a 11 track album will result in a 44MB album. You need to take this into account since in HD players you do not have infinite storage space. You will need to ask yourself what do you want out of your player. If max number of songs is your goal then encode at a lower rate 96kbps for example. If max capacity is not important and you want max quality then encode higher maybe 320 kbps. A solution may be in the something in the middle, say 128kbps range.

In any event it's a balancing act between quality and capacity, which you need to wrestle with before you decide on which codec to use.

If you are really serious about finding the right bitrate and codec to use in your player then you need to perform a ABX TEXT. To learn more and get the freeware to do this you will need to do a search on ABX Testing and download some the freeware to accurately conduct this test. If all this sounds lile too much work you could always go through the second best method defined below. Just a word from your pal seadzz....they do not call it second best for no reason.....do they? You are worth the best, heck if this was not the case you would be a iPod user downloading music via iTunes......yuck.

The second best method is to rip a track you know well and encode it using several bitrates (use only one codec at this point). Go back and test these encodes against the wav file. Once you get a bitrate that is close or close enough to the wav file to make you happy AND the file size is about what you want then you have your magic bitrate. Note: I use a track with lots of violin, piano and female voices....heavy metal is not the best bet for use in selecting codecs since this type of music (Rock and Roll) tends to mask codec artifacts. Thie second best approch is kinda hack imho but it is at least an effort. Really do the ABX thing mentioned above....it is worth the time and effort.

On to the codec question:

The oldest and most universally supported codec is MP3. There are many variants but the most popular is called LAME. You can find a link to this download at the download section of this forum. MP3 LAME is supported in many audio devices other than mp3 players and if you intend to share music with others you should consider MP3 as your first choice. Also mp3 gives the best battery life so if battery life is important to you go mp3LAME.

WMA is a Microsoft developed codec that is newer than mp3 and is designed as a low bitrate encoder. This means it sounds best at low bitrates (so MS claims). Test it yourself to see if it is right for you.

Ogg Vorbis-ogg for short. Newest of the codecs and is open source if that is important to you. Generally thought to produce higher quality playback then mp3 files of similar size. Note: It consumes large amounts of battery power compared to mp3 but to some users the audio playback quality is worth the cost.

At the end of the day your ears need to be the judge. Take your bitrate of choice which you have determined earlier and encode a given track with mp3 LAME, WMA and OGG. Let your ears tell you what sounds best and take it from there.

In the area of encoding there is no best since the type of music you listen to R&R, POP, Classical all sound different at different bitrates and codecs. Your ears are not calibrated the same as mine and I do not have to listen to your player.

Pick what sounds best to you and gives you the total number of songs you feel you need to have.

Here is a link to more info on this topic.

http://grahammitchell.com/writings/vorbis_intro.html

While much of it is ogg vorbis related but it can prove helpful to all newbie's.

Gives you a step by step guide to help determine right bitrate to use for your ears and the logic is good for all codecs.

Enjoy the music,

sdz

[seadzz]

I just purchased and installed a ihp-120 or 140 but when I click My Computer and see the new removable drive it is labled ihp-100. What did I do wrong?

Answer:

Do not worry. You will always get the ihp-100 display even if the unit is a 120 or 140. What you want to look for is how much memory the computer tells you the new drive has available. If it is close to 20GB (ihp-120) (40GB for ihp-140) then you are good to go.

Again, do not worry you are ok. That is the beauty of the ihp-1XX most computers do not need a driver to be installed in order to use it. You can always rename the drive if you want to by right clicking on the drive and name it to match your player.

enjoy

[seadzz]

Question:

I have a huge vinyl album collection. How do I convert these to digital and get them into my player?

Answer:

Go here and read this...far too long to post here but not too hard to do.

http://www.delback.co.uk/lp-cdr.htm

Have fun and enjoy.

sdz

[seadzz]

So you are going to travel to another country and are wondering if your charger will work at your destination? The answer is yes. Your charger will work from 100VAC to 240 VAC at both 50 and 60HZ. HOWEVER each country has differing electrical outlets.

See this link for the country you are headed to. When you get there just go to a nearby electrical bits and pieces store and purchase an adaptor to allow your charger to connect to the local female wall socket.

http://kropla.com/electric2.htm

Remember...no transfomer is needed just a plug shape converter...Can't cost but $2 USD at a local Rat Shack equil. Look at this site which has examples of the most common types:

http://www.voltage-converter-transfo...g-adapter.html

happy travels,

sdz

[Big D]

Originally posted by Coreman

Why does my H140 play a second or two of the last song when I skip to the next song?

It has been reported that firmware version 1.40 or higher solves this problem. Go to the Downloads section of iRiver site and upgrade to latest firmware version.

This problem was reported in 1.19 and earlier.

[Big D]

Originally posted by Odie

The iHP comes in "champagne" colour for most of Europe and "black" in the USA and Japan.

There are pictures of a blue/purple coloured iHP on the internet, however this was just a prototype.

[Big D]

Please note: The 'study mode' feature was introduced in the v1.20b (beta) and v1.40 (release) firmware versions.

To use this feature, you must upgrade your iHP-120 to firmware v1.20b or higher.

Study Mode

Study mode allows you to skip by a preset time (from 00:01 to 10:59 minutes) rather than by tracks.

This is particularly useful for really large songs.


Setting Study Mode

1. Hold down the joystick button while in play or stop mode.

2. Select Mode

3. Select Study

4. Use up and down to select minutes or seconds and then left and right to select the correct time to skip.

5. Press stop three times to go back to play or stop mode.

6. To turn off Study Mode just set both mins and secs back to zero.


Using Study Mode

While playing a track just press FWD or BACK to skip through the track by the time that you had set.

If there is less than this time before the beginning or end of a track then it will skip to the start of the track or skip onto the next track.

It will not skip through into the next or previous track by the time you had set.

This will be handy for those who can't wait for gapless playback for their mixed dance albums.

[Big D]

There are 4 different region firmwares released by iRiver:

Korean (which is installed differently to the rest)
Japanese
US
EU

You can install any region firmware on the corresponding machine. e.g. the iHP-120 Jap, US, EU, or Korean firmware can be installed on any iHP-120. There is no regional difference in the hardware except the colour of the 120.

The difference between the US and EU firmwares is that the US firmware allows you to select the tuner region from:

Japanese, US, EU, or Korean

This is not available in the EU version.

[Big D]

The .hex file flashes RAM memory inside the iHP.

Once the firmware has been successfully upgraded it serves no further purpose and can be safely deleted from the iHP.

[seadzz]

Question:

You just purchased a new set of ear buds and discovered one earbud cord is longer than the other. Are they defective? Is something wrong?

Answer:

This is normal with some manufactures. The logic being having a longer cord on one side allows you to string the longer side behind your neck and keeps the wire out of your mouth while eating lunch, talking or other mouth using events.

It also is a good way of telling which is the RH and LH speaker.

While some users hate this concept others embrace it....like it or not this is the norm with some earbud mfg's.

enjoy the music,

sdz

[seadzz]

Question:

You just purchased a new set of ear buds and discovered one earbud cord is longer than the other. Are they defective? Is something wrong?

Answer:

This is normal with some manufactures. The logic being having a longer cord on one side allows you to string the longer side behind your neck and keeps the wire out of your mouth while eating lunch, talking or other mouth using events.

It also is a good way of telling which is the RH and LH speaker.

While some users hate this concept others embrace it....like it or not this is the norm with some earbud mfg's.

enjoy the music,

sdz