Damn these noname MPx players!

Black Vinyl · #1 (**permalink**) 2nd Mar 2007, 5:26 am

G'day ppl.
I'm new to this forum and by the brief 2 or so hours I have spent reading certain topics, it seems rather intense. Pretty cool stuff I reckon.
Some of the info is very helpful.

Now let's cut to the chase...
A friend of mine owns an MP4 player (no name brand of course), it's relatively new I believe and I am ALMOST 100% sure it is this one ([web:eec5854294]http://www.tat-shing.com.hk/display.asp?id=196[/web:eec5854294]).
The problem is this...his son connected it to his pc via the USB cable, the window popped open showing the contents of the player's memory and he selected ALL items and deleted them. The he created a new folder and copied a couple of short video clips into it. When he tried to play them, he got an error that no files were found.

I am guessing that he deleted some important system-like files which are now preventing it from working.

I was considering an upgrade of the firmware, but after reading some of the horror stories, I decided against it. I am sure this thing has some sort of reset button/method, but I do not know what it is and the instructions are not worth the paper they were printed on.

Can anyone suggest anything...please.

Cheers,

BV

joecool · #2 (**permalink**) 2nd Mar 2007, 5:53 am

What Kind Of Video Files were they ,Probably Avi, Mpeg They dont work, MTV or AMV files do work,One or other.What I would do is put some mp3 files and tried to play them.If that don't work format the drive,.But don't upgrade the firmware at all.

delacerda · #3 (**permalink**) 2nd Mar 2007, 6:00 am

What joecool said.

There are also some sample video files in the download section that you can try.

Sample Videos

Hotboxx · #4 (**permalink**) 2nd Mar 2007, 6:54 am

NEVER upgrade the firmware, it can (and probably will) kill your mp3 player.

You can not damage the firmware by doing a format, it will only erase the files on the player. These files are usualy 1 or 2 demo songs (Say You Say me, and a Butterfly popsong), two lyric files, and one video demo (La Isla Bonita song by a fake Madonna).

Togheter with the mp3 player you will find a mini Cd-rom. On that CD-rom you can find the conversion software to create the AMV videofiles.

Just explore the possibilities from the mp3 player, you will start to enjoy it very much.

Black Vinyl · #5 (**permalink**) 2nd Mar 2007, 11:30 pm

Thanx guys.
Appreciate your feedback.

joecool you were right.
I copied some mp3's to the player and they worked. The movies that he had put on were not in the correct format. (AMV or MTV).
I just created some folders in the root of the drive (using windowz explorer) such as Music, Videos blah, blah blah, and placed some music and a short clip.
PRESTO! The player picked them up and they work.
Fantastic. Now I can hand it back and tell him to convert the videos using the tools supplied.

I am not a big fan of upgrading FW, because I know it can be a bit tricky (and detrimental) if you don't have the right FW for the right HW.
Oh, and you need to know what your're doing of course.

Thanks for your help ppl.
I'm sure we will chat again soon.

Cheers,

BV 8)

thatjanke · #6 (**permalink**) 3rd Mar 2007, 6:09 am

That is what happened to me... I have a player that looks exactly like that one. It was supposed to be a 2GB but now it is a 256MB. What version of Firmware are you runnig on that? The info is in the memory section of the system directory.

IPI · #7 (**permalink**) 3rd Mar 2007, 9:50 am

I am trying to get one ... so do you guys suggest this one "noname" player ? I can see there are some issues with it ... Let me know ...

Thanks,
IPI

Black Vinyl · #8 (**permalink**) 3rd Mar 2007, 9:36 pm

@ thatjanke

The FW version in this unit is as follows:
ACTS16D_37
2006/04/14

3.5.37-001
2006/4/14

I have NOT updated the FW and don't intend on doing so...unless it totally dies. But hey, that's up to the owner who asked me to look at it for him.

Hope that helps you.

@ IPI
What can I say? At the end of the day it comes down to personal preference, looks and functionality....oh, and price.

Personally, if you can afford the extra dollars, go for a NAME brand like that fruit company...what's it called again? Oranges or pine-apple or something like that.

Having said that, all brands will generally have their pros and cons, but I believe the brand names will have less issues and more support.

It's like they say, you get what you pay for.

Finally, I am not too sure why ppl would buy these anyway, when these days most cell phones do all this and then some!

Go figure!

Cheers and I hope I have cleared your mind.

BV 8)

lattesurf · #9 (**permalink**) 3rd Mar 2007, 10:06 pm

Black Vinyl , since your firmware is a v3.5.37, i'll greatly encourage you to backup your firmware. The guide is here http://www.mympxplayer.org/how-to-ex...tool-vt66.html

Firmware extraction would not harm the player as it does not write anything to the player, so it's very safe.

Keep the backup file safely, you'll find it to be very useful should you need to recover the player in future (fingers crossed, hopefully you won't need to).

Black Vinyl · #10 (**permalink**) 4th Mar 2007, 5:36 pm

@ lattesurf

Thanks for the heads up.

It's handy to know that you have a back up should anything go wrong.
I'm in the process of doing that now.

Cheers,

BV 8)