32GB Touch Screen MP3 MP4 MP5 RMVB Media Player FM ZT-In Snowierasha, mp3 plays YOU!!
 

In Russian, the word "eBay" sounds close to "ebat", a rude one for "to f*ck". The expression to shop "on eBay" gives even more convincing "na ebai", meaning to "get youself f*cked". So it's basically
"you've been pwned".

In a wild hunt to replace my iPhone 3g 16gb (hate itunes! hate jail!) till I get a nokia N900 for a reasonable price, I bought a
32GB Touch Screen MP3 MP4 MP5 RMVB Media Player FM ZT32
player off Ebay for 49.99$ shipping included.

Here's the listing:
http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/2...enmp3mp4mp.jpg

Of course, it is a hacked player. The actual memory size is around 4Gigabytes.
BTW, found an easy way to test a hacked player:
1) use any filemanager with transfer speed indication (I use Far Manager)
2) select a mass of files for say 8GB and start copying it to the device
3) the moment transfer speed jumps from 3-4mb/s to 25-30 mb/s is where the physical flash ends and the player starts to copy to /dev/null


Here's our hero:
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/3299/321p.jpg

It's a Rockchip RK27xx player. The battery indicator works, the audio speaker works, but I cannot set time. It also remembers file position (good for audiobooks).
It doesn't brick or hang if you copy over 4gb, the files are just not accessible (however visible in the filetable and can be copied to HDD as zeros).
The things I didn't like is there's no fast listing, so when you have 600 mp3s it's kinda annoying to navigate through them one by one. Same way you can't just tap of the scrollbar to go to a specific location in a song or a movie. You can click on the progress bar in movies and mp3 and even radio, it visually moves, but doesn't jump to the point.
The video playback is quite nice, it even played a 704x384 movie without problem. A 1.7GB avi without conversion!
It doesn't have problems with Cyrillic fonts, which is music to my ears.
The LCD is rather stylus-screen than touch-screen, but responsive anyway. Bright, with good angles. Then it is on, there's an audible hissing sound, probably from the illumination circuits.
The player can be operated while connected to a power source (i.e. when data pins of the USB are not used), which is crucial for me as I plan to use it in home theater.
Recording works okay. It stores wavs, mono 11khz.
Ebooks are stored in .txt. The codepage must be ANSI. For Russian, I had to switch to Russian menu language which is frustrating. In English interface, Cyrillic symbols in books are shown as Chinese.
Russian Mp3 tags will also be Chinese, however, and file names are displayed ok. When Russian interface language set, Cyrillic is displayed OK.
Radio module is quite powerfull and clean. But it shuts off when you go out of the radio applet. So you can read books while listening to mp3s, but not radio.

Anyway, that's a decent player, but not 32GB which could store all my music of some 20gbs and leave space for the future.
Of course I was so frustrated, I actually talked the seller to a complete refund without returning the player.
The seller's name is bestall, his paypal account is wujiarun88@gmail.com
So now I have a free player to brick.:)

Removing the memory hack is quite easy.
I followed Random667 and Skinski solutions (thank you guys) with some slight changes.
So that's what you've got to do:
1) Use Check Flash 1.10
2) selected the drive, selected as a “physical device”, Selected “low level initialization”. Hit Start.
3) In the new window, you should see 4 empty partitons! Select the 0 (zero) one.
4) Click new, and create a FAT32 partition of 3.84GB
5) After finishing with CheckFlash, format the drive in Windows (I use XP)

Viola!

Questions left:
1) A way to get some fast listing and touch-the-scrollbar navigation?
2) How to fix clock and date?

I got the same player from the same seller last week. Inside the chip says RK05. I copied all my music over to it and it made a bunch of duplicates. So far I haven't been able to theme it either as it replaces the firmware files after they have been deleted. Looks like I am just going to have to live with it. Oh, now I will be getting a refund.

I got the same item. I got a lot of problems. I follewed your instructions and correct the hacked memory. The most of them resolved so far. The battery time indicator is always at 2:30 hours and I cannot set time and date.(its not so importand) I thought to put an sd card so I increase the memory. Do anybody knows which is the maximum capacity card I can put in the mp3?

I think that maximum card is a 2Gb. However, this needs to be tested.

As for the time, actually, it could be important: I use shuffle option, and the tracks keep appearing in a pretty the (or almost) same sequence, which is annoying. Probably the ramdomizer is based on the clock.

hi
 

so how you think can set time and date? have you tried firmware update?

nope I can't, I also need a FW update

Hello. Looks like I've got the same model, but with "16"Gb flash drive on-board.
Thanks for the way to limit flash disk size to fail-safe, now I don't need to worry about data loss.
The only problem now is a poor functionality of current firmware, so I join KPAH's request.

P.S. I was wrong, poor functionality is not the only problem, there are more:
1. Contents of a firmware partition(at least the first of two appeared after I put a tag in a root directory) resets after I reconnect my MP4
to PC, so I can't modify firmware resource files.
2. Clicking sound can be heard while playback , you can check it by reducing sound volume to 0 and starting a playback of any mp3.

I like the sound clicking. That's an indication you're pressing the right button while in the pocket.
Would be glad to reprogram the middle button to a next-track. The power button swithces to next track, but it is usually down in the pocket (with the jack facing out).

Unfortunately, for chinese players, the first fw is usually the last.

I mean this sounds plays repeatedly together with mp3, it's very quiet, but it can be very annoying sometimes.

KPAH
If you want to read Cyrillic symbols, you can save you texts in Unicode, then you won't have to switch interface language.

P.S. Still looking for firmware update.

I surely tried that, but the device still show chineese instead.
the biggest problem is that if you switch to English interface, Russian mp3-tags (they are ansi 1251) are also displayed as chineese

Give it another try and make sure, that you encode your text in Unicode, but not in UTF8.
Yep, thta's pretty uncomfortable.
All we can hope for is a new firmware.

Hi KPAH,
I bought similar item. 32GB 2.8" MP4 --> http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/3299/321p.jpg
I think mine was also a fake ...

Boys, how to open my mp4? Is the same like your YASLICOCUK38. Thank you in advance!

There are two screws on the bottom side of a player, unscrew them and carefully remove metallic back cover.

http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/8359/img0884u.jpg

Thank you very much, AdverD. I'll try this.:)

Thank you. I'll try it too. After all, nothing does not open. There is nothing to lose:) I still write the result here ...


Is there write Information on the chip in the back of the device? Chip model or something? The need for firmware ...

I try this advice now. Unfortunately, I haven't metallic back cover. Now, I know - my mp4 player is fake. :confused: I hope that I'll refund my money. :rolleyes:


Thank you for help, boys. Have a luck with yours mp4 players! :)

And another victim needs help
 

I'm afraid that I'm another victim of the hacked mp3 player scam. I managed to follow KPAH's procedure to remove the hack. However, I missed the part about formatting the device in Windows. (Silly me). I loaded some music to the device and disconnected it from the pc. Now it is constantly stuck on 'Generating Database'. I have tried pushing the reset button with no luck. The pc does not recognize the device when I plug it in. Can I recover from this or is the device dead? Thanks for any help.
Tom

Try out some recover procedures here on the forum.
There should be a way to put the sucker into recovery mode and reflash it.
Like pressing this and that button together and power on.

I've pretty much tried pushing every button combination I can think of. I haven't cracked the case yet. I've opened a case with the seller and ebay/paypal. I want to wait to see if I can get my $ back. If I have to keep it, I'll peek and poke and blow up the house, and write off the $. I was just hoping there was something simple I could do to reset the darned thing. Thanks for responding.

Well, actually is up to you.
I wouldn't give up so early.
The problem with your player is most obviously a messed up partition - that's why the player cannot read files to generate the database and hangs.
The obvious solution is to format it somehow. Are you sure it is not recongnized?
Try following the procedure once again. There's a good chance the CheckFlash utility will see it in low level mode.
Try inserting a flash card into the slot. Perhaps the player will start and mount in windows.

The next obvious step is to reflash it. This is done by turning the player into recovery mode. Search for a combination. often it is hold power &volume down buttons, and then insert the cable.
For rockchip, it is often turn off power, hold the M button (or joystick up) and then plug in usb until RockchipUSBdevice is recognized.

The most effecient way is to shortcut I\0-0 I\0-1 flash outputs.
After that you can reflash it by utilities from the download sections.

I don't give any links on purpose. All could be found here on the site. Including the full flash firmware. Search for them! Many people took effort to contribute to the site, and you don't even want to search!
Your case is even not a brick one. The device obviously boots.
You lost your time and now you're to lazy to continue? Seriously, that's ridiculous. If this was in Snowierasha, the player would format YOU!!11

Thanks for your reply, but I really don't appreciate your snarky comments. I am a retired IT pro (DBA) and am a firm believer in the RTFM mind set. I have spent the better part of 2 days (on and off) searching this forum and I do appreciate the time and effort of the experts who have posted here. I have tried pretty much any solution which appeared to fit the problem. I only posted because I could not find anything specific regarding 'generating database' and no other solution seemed to work. I am not an engineer and am not comfortable cracking electronics. I would like to keep and fix this product, but it is getting to the point where it is no longer worth my time. I will try your latest suggestions. If they work, I will reply with my thanks. I they don't, you will no longer be bothered by me.

Removing the memory hack is quite easy.
I followed Random667 and Skinski solutions (thank you guys) with some slight changes.
So that's what you've got to do:
1) Use Check Flash 1.10
2) selected the drive, selected as a “physical device”, Selected “low level initialization”. Hit Start.
3) In the new window, you should see 4 empty partitons! Select the 0 (zero) one.
4) Click new, and create a FAT32 partition of 3.84GB
5) After finishing with CheckFlash, format the drive in Windows (I use XP)

Viola!

I've done all that and it still shows as 32gb :-( I don't know if I'm doing the right thing when the program tells me to "replug device"?

Anyone had similar issues?