ARCHOS
AV300
Battery Life FAQ
2/18/2005
v1.4
My
AV300 Battery Life Sucks. What can I do?
Below I have
tests that tell you what you should expect from your battery life. If
you are getting only 50% to 80% of those numbers and have had your unit
for a long time, you may need a replacement battery. If your battery
life is much lower (say <40%), here's a trick that may solve your
problems:
Likely your
battery is not making a solid connection with its contacts. I recently
had my battery life drop down to 30-60minutes after dropping it on the
ground. By opening my unit, bending the battery contacts back in place,
I was able to restore my unit to full, normal battery life! Here's what
you do:
- Go through Glenn's Hard
Drive Upgrade Guide up the point where you've removed your hard-drive
- Note where the battery
contacts are - if you need to, re-insert the battery to see. The bottom
of the battery (the side you insert) is where it makes the electrical
contacts with the circuit board. Are your contacts bent out of whack?
Mine were clearly bent back from vertical.
- Bend the contacts so they
are straight and parallel with each other. Optional: If you can figure
out some way to brace those contacts (they have no support), you can
avoid this problem in the future. The -second- time I had to do this,
I tightly rolled up some paper cut to fit exactly so as to brace the
contracts against other componants in the case. So far this has held
up pretty well.
- Re-assemble your unit
as noted in Glenn's guide.
Where
can I get a replacement battery for my AV300?
There are a
few places now that will sell you a replacement battery for your AV300.
Unfortunately you still can't get them directly from Archos. Check out
these links:
How
many hours of VIDEO can the AV300 play on one charge?
- The quick answer:
- about
3h30m with LCD at full brightness (=2)
- 4h45m
to 5h45m with LCD at lowest brightness (=0)
- The detailed
answer - a list of actual tests on 3 different AV300s. LCD
brightness=2:
- 3h30m
(AV300#1) (All timeouts=Default, DSP Freq=Std)
- 3h24m
(AV300#2)
- Looping 1 vid:
- (640x304@30fps
1200v+192a kbps, 1h17m, 675megs
- 3h43m
(AV300#5)
- Looping short
videos (approx 900v+160a kbps)
- The detailed
answer - a list of actual tests on 3 different AV300s. LCD
brightness=0:
- 4h45m
(AV300#1) (All timeouts=Lowest, DSP Freq=Std)
- Looping 4 vids:
- (352x240@30fps,
1318v+192a kbps, 2m16s, 25,264k)
- (352x240@30fps,
1257v+192a kbps, 2m29s, 28,308k)
- (560x304@31fps,
1504v+128a kbps, 1m02s, 12,440k)
- (640x288@24fps,
1503v+160a kbps, 1m19s, 16,044k)
- 4h58m
(AV300#3) (All timeouts=shortest, DSP Freq=Std)
- 5h20m
(AV300#3) (All timeouts=shortest, DSP Freq=Std)
- Looping 4 vids:
- 10, 15, 20, and
35 minutes long
- One was only 375kbps
vid/128kbps aud, the rest were higher but not more than 1000kbps
vid
- Two were 320x240,
Two were 352x224
- 5h45m
(AV300#1) (All timeouts=shortest, DSP Freq=Std)
- Looping 1 vid:
- (352x240@24fps
616v+128a kbps, 42m29s, 192megs)
How
many hours of AUDIO can the AV300 play on one charge?
- The quick answer:
- The detailed
answer - a list of actual tests:
- 8h30m
(AV300#1) (LCD=0,All timeouts=shortest, DSPFreq=std, avg bitrate=128kbps)
- This wasn't a
"clean" charge
- 9h02m (AV300#4)
(LCD=0,All timeouts=shortest, DSPFeq=std, CBR=192kbps)
- 9h15m
(AV300#1) (LCD=2, DSPFeq=std, left the LCD on constantly for the
first 20 minutes - oops)
- 9h19m
(AV300#1) (LCD=0,All timeouts=shortest, DSPFreq=std, avg bitrate=200kbps)
- 9h34m (AV300#5)
How
many hours of VIDEO can the AV300 Record on one charge?
- Only one test
so far:
- 3h42m
(AV300#3) (LCD=0, All timeouts-shortest, DSPFreq=MaxOverclock)
- On for 4h5m total
(3h42m actually recorded)
- Source: VCR, NTSC.
Two movies at 5:3 ratio, 3rd at 4:3
- Quality: 1000kbps
- FPS: High
How
many hours of VIDEO can the AV300 play connected to a TV on one charge?
- Only one test
so far:
- 6h27m
(AV300#5)
- Looping short
videos (approx 900v+160a kbps
How
many hours of Audio can the AV300 record on one charge?
- The quick answer:
- The detailed
answer - a list of actual tests recording from internal mic with lowest
MP3 quality.
- 6h35m
(AV300#1) (All timeouts=Default, DSP Freq=Std, LCD=2)
- 5h51m
(AV300#1) (All
timeouts=Default, DSP Freq=Std, LCD=2)
How
many Photos can I take with the Cam300 on one charge?
- Only one test
so far:
- 164
(AV300#1 12/18/2003 - 6 month old battery)
- All in one day,
turned unit on and off many times, zoomed in and out lots,
left on for long periods between shots. All pictures where
highest res/quality
How
do I achieve maximum battery life?
First you need to start with
a "clean" charge:
- Drain the battery all
the way (run video in a loop with the LCD at max brightness does this
quickest)
- Charge it for 5+ hours
w/o unplugging it.
- It will charge faster
if you don't use it while it is charging.
This seems to give a good
charge. Now to make sure you get the maximum time out of your "clean"
charge:
- Use DSP Frequency: Standard
- Use LCD Brightness = 0
(lowest)
- Set all time-outs to the
shortest possible.
- Try not to turn the AV300
on and off too much.
- Minimize the amount of
time you spend browsing so you maximize the amount of time playing
or recording.
- Leave file renaming, moving,
copying, and deleting until later when you have battery to spare.
Depending on what you are
doing there are further ways to improve battery life:
- Listening to MP3s:
- Try to not turn on
the LCD too often - you'll get the longest playtime if you just
let it play
- Watching Video:
- Encode your videos
at 320x240 resolution and at lower video bitrates (500-750kbps).
- Try not to FF/RW too
much.
- Try not to start videos
too often - just start them and let them play.
- Watching a few, longer
videos will get you more playtime than many short videos.
-Shane
Brinkman-Davis |