Miscellaneous


Q:"What can I do to ensure a gap between tracks?"

The JB7 normally blends one track into the next. Its called Segue. Classical listeners generally do not want that. To turn Segue off select Settings from the menu, then Play Mode, then select Segue Off. There is also a Classical play mode that turns segue off and stops playing at the end of each album - like a performance.

 

Q:"Can I record individual tracks from a CD onto the Brennan?"

The simplest approach to this is to load the entire album; then simply delete those which are not required.

 

Q:"Will the JB7 work in North America on 110V?"

Yes - the JB7 has a universal laptop computer style AC adaptor that will work on 110V. The mains lead/cord is detacheable with a small figure eight style connector.  


Q:"Can I open up the JB7 and put in a bigger capacity hard disk?" 

Not really - there a lot of screws and printed circuit boards to be removed. Then the hard disk will need to be formatted with a proprietary format and the database installed etc - so its not something we can support.


Q:"What is the best way to get music from JB7 onto my iPod?"

Transfer the music from the JB7 onto a USB memory stick. Then plug the memory stick into your PC. Copy the MP3s to a convenient folder on the PC then use iTunes to load these MP3s onto your iPod.

Q:"What happens if I try and load more than 5,000 CDs or more than 60,000 tracks?"

When the hard disk is full you will not be able to load any more CDs. If the hard disk has space you will be able to load more than 5,000 CDs (or 60,000 tracks) but you will not be able to find and play excess CDs and tracks. You can delete albums or tracks to remedy this.

Q:"Does JB7 have network connection or a WiFi connection?"

No - JB7 doesn't have a network connection. If you have a lot of MP3s from the internet JB7 will play them from your favourite MP3 player. Or you could transfer the MP3s to a USB hard drive where JB7 can play them. Finally you can load them into JB7 from the USB hard drive so you have an additional copy of the MP3s for safe keeping. 

 

Q:"In the play settings it is always on Segue Off. I cannot select Segue on. Is there a segue on?"

Go to settings then play mode and then select normal play. This will turn segue on.


Q:"I heard that your product supports lossless storage but I cannot find anything on the website."

JB7 is about convenience and accessibility so we tend not to focus on compression types and bit rates – I design the low level software that deals with inverse cosine transforms, Huffman codes, psycho acoustic masking and all that kind of stuff but when I listen to music I don’t want to deal with all that – I just want my music easy to get to. 

JB7 uses MP3 compression so it can fit more CDs on a hard disk – most people most of the time will not notice any difference. I know what to listen for and most of the time I cannot tell the difference and often think I am listening to one when its the other.

Some people may want to keep an exact copy of the CD so JB7 provides the option to enable/disable MP3 compression on a CD by CD basis. If you load a CD with compression turned off it will not be MP3 compressed but it will use more space on the disk.

This is lossless storage of the original CD but it is not compressed so it is not a lossless compression like FLAC - its just an exact copy of the CD.

 

Q:"I have a lot of MP3s on my PC what is the best way to get them into JB7 so that they are organised into albums?"

You need to use a USB memory stick or a USB drive as a go-between. There are three ways of transferring MP3s from the USB device onto the Brennan. 

  1. Load all the MP3s on the USB device to one new "album" on the JB7. Connect your USB device to the USB port and  select "Load MP3s" from the USB functions menu. You can rename the album later. 
  2. Load all the MP3s keeping their album organisation. "Upload Albums" from the USB functions menu loads all the MP3s from the USB device and uses the folders names on the USB as album names on JB7.
  3. Load one folder/album from the USB. Select USB on the remote. Pick the album/folder on the USB drive using Album Search or Browse Albums functions then chose Upload Album.

Q:"Please can you tell me if the Brennan JB7 supports Windows Media Audio (wma) format audio files?  I've got tons of files in that format"

JB7 doesn't play WMA but a customer in a similar position recommended using a program called Switch to batch convert the files to MP3. Once you have them in MP3 copy them to a USB drive/memory and plug that into JB7. You can download Switch here.

 

Q:"Why is the random play only selecting 50 or so of my many tracks?"

Random play is not quite 'random' in the mathematical sense. The JB7 first picks a random track - using a random number generator - then checks if it has been played recently. If you haven't got very many tracks in your JB7 yet there will inevitably be some repititon. As more tracks are added you won't notice this.


Q:"How can I eject a CD that gets stuck?"

We buy the mechanisms from three different manufacturers but they sometimes seem to take offense at a particular CD and will not eject it. If this happens we have a technique that usually does the trick. Simply turn the power off and re-apply the power with your finger on the 'eject' button. You can do this by turning off at the wall or pulling out and reinserting the 24V DC connector. This usually ejects the offending CD but leaves the JB7 in a diagnostic mode so you need to restart normally.


Q:"Can my 2011 model be updated/upgraded to browse, play and transfer music from my iPod?"

Sorry, the short answer is no, the 2012 JB7 is electronically different to previous models for example it has extended memory to accommodate iPod and AAC software.


Q:"My JB7 says disk error, what shall I do?"

A JB7 hard disk can sometimes get corrupted - especially if you turn the power off while
the JB7 is doing something.
 
Here’s a useful tip - press and hold the stop button twice before switching off the
power - the display will say “Disk stopped” so you know its safe to
turn off.
 
If your JB7 reports 'disk error' here are some of the things we do at the factory that you
can try first.
 
1) If the JB7 says “disk error - press play to fix” when you turn it on - then
press PLAY. Try this  for at least five attempts if needed.(If it locks up turn it off and on and repeat). You can try this more often it it appears to be making progress. The JB7 is quite good at fixing itself.
 
2) If the JB7 reports DISK ERROR (in large letters) during normal operation or during a
backup - then try Map Disk - this is a slow (overnight) operation - you can find it in the Maintenance Menu in Settings.
 
3) If the JB7 reports DISK ERROR during initial startup then try turning on with the BACK
button  pressed - this forces the JB7 to ignores disk errors and may allow
a backup to be made. You may be able to play the JB7 like this but the hard
disk has a defect that cannot be fixed so the disk drive needs to be replaced -
you need to contact us.
 
4) Some problems with the JB7 can be fixed by running “Cleanup” from the maintenance menu. This is quick so its always worth a try before making contact.