elta 8883 MP4 modded firmwares [Archive]

pirates

10th January 2005, 23:49

hello !

here (http://phl.php5.sk/firmware) you can find modified firmwares for the elta 8883 MP4 player with some very interesting features:

* fullscreen browser
* centered subtitles
* subtitles moved lower
* selectable subtitle colors
* selectable subtitle size
* OSD relocated to the top left corner for volume control, mute and 3D mode
* localized OSD and menu (currently in hungarian, slovak and czech)
* some other minor changes
* nice background pictures by Laza
* displays 60 characters in 2 lines for subtitles and decodes DTS encoded sound or displays 88 characters in 3 lines for subtitles, but DOES NOT decode DTS encoded sound

the firmware is not 100% bug free, but it's definitely far better, than the official one !

enjoy !

pirates/phl

UPDATE: URL changed to new location

Top_Cat

11th January 2005, 02:14

Does this firmware display longer filenames in the menu? Its really annoying to have lots of TV shows all on a DVD and you can only read the first few letters, I never know what I am about to play!

Top_Cat

11th January 2005, 02:30

Just installed the firmware, the menu system is vastly improved! I can now see the complete filenames for all my TV shows. Great work :)

manzu68

11th January 2005, 09:51

Very good indeed!
I wonder if this firmware mode supports all europian letters in the subtitles. How about these letters: "Ä ä", "Å å" and "Ö ö".

pirates

11th January 2005, 10:00

Originally posted by manzu68
Very good indeed!
I wonder if this firmware mode supports all europian letters in the subtitles. How about these letters: "Ä ä", "Å å" and "Ö ö".

hi !

the aim by now is to fully support the windows CP 1250 in every possible way (subtitles, browser, OSD). there are some letters that do not work yet, but hopefully they will in a short time.

other codepages are not planned at this moment, as it is more important to get one CP work properly, other CPs are then just a matter of the fontset...

manzu68

12th January 2005, 22:16

Well, I updated with the "NO DTS" and English+Hungarian version.
Very nice interface, indeed. Great work!!
BUT, it did not show any subtitles at all. It showed fine with the official firmware though. I tried with my sevarell disks which worked fine before, but none of them worked.
I had to flash back the official firmware. Now I can see the subtitles again.
May be I was supposed to push some button or something else. Any idea?

pirates

12th January 2005, 22:40

Originally posted by manzu68
May be I was supposed to push some button or something else. Any idea?

yes, you have to push the Subtitle button on the remote control.

BTW, if you would have had the latest official firmware, you should have known, it's just the same... i suppose, you've got the verzion from May 10th 2004, because this was the one, which enabled subtitles for the first time, and this was the version, which displayed them automatically...

there is one more FW from elta available, where you have to push the button first, in order to see subtitles.

pirates

13th January 2005, 11:09

just to inform you, that the german version will be ready by tomorrow noon...
the czech version is to be released tonight...

manzu68

13th January 2005, 18:21

One must push the subtitle button on the remote with the latest official firmware to view subtitle. And I'm aware of that.
Yes I had the latest subtitle from Elta.

I wondered if there ware any other options besides the subtitle button on the remote. I've already tetsted that without success.

Anyone (besides pirates)have succeeded with the subtitle feature of this firmware ?

Zhnujm

13th January 2005, 20:53

Originally posted by manzu68
Anyone (besides pirates)have succeeded with the subtitle feature of this firmware ?

Yes, works for me.
Have you tried playing around with the subtitle color/size settings in the setup ?

Leak

13th January 2005, 23:20

Originally posted by Zhnujm
Yes, works for me.
Have you tried playing around with the subtitle color/size settings in the setup ?

Well, after upgrading the subtitle options on my Elta 8883 were set to "Transparent" for the characters, the outline and the background - that of course would explain their absence... :)

(Disclaimer: I haven't tried using subtitles yet)

np: Okino Shintaro - Cloud Age Symphony (Last Exile OST 1)

Hans Scheike

15th January 2005, 13:33

Excellent firmware, thank you very much.

manzu68

16th January 2005, 20:11

Zhnujm, playing arround with subtitle features helped, thanks! I found the subtitle colour by default was transparent and that is the explantion why I did not work before.

Now it is working fine...Great work!!

But I miss the letter "Ö and ö" with the english and german version. Instead of the "ö" I get something else. Is it limitation or is it bug?

pirates

16th January 2005, 21:10

Originally posted by manzu68
But I miss the letter "Ö and ö" with the english and german version. Instead of the "ö" I get something else. Is it limitation or is it bug?

do you mean in the file browser ? there it is a limitation yet, but those characters should work for subtitles...

pirates

26th January 2005, 22:37

hi there !

as i was testing the newest firmware mods today, i got the idea, that i could share some pictures with you. just to show some preview on new features, at least on those, which can be seen. well, then let's see...

1. new icons in setup and JPEG Preview from setup switchable

http://phl.host.sk/forumpics/common/capture_00.jpg

2. new icon in browser for folders, music-, image- and videofiles

http://phl.host.sk/forumpics/common/capture_03.jpg
http://phl.host.sk/forumpics/common/capture_04.jpg

3. MP3 counter is working at last ! :)

http://phl.host.sk/forumpics/common/capture_03.jpg

i hope i can post the new FW files soon... keep visiting...

telematic

28th January 2005, 09:50

I have been using the mtz firmware (http://mtz.softpedia.com) for the last week and I am very pleased with it. As far as I can see the improvements seem pretty similar. It doesn't have the new icons, but the browser is full width and the subtitle support is excellent. It also has lots of languages (not only 2).

From mtz forum:

- up to 88 characters for subtitles
- 3 sizes for subtitles (I recommend the big subtitle)
- many colours for subtiles
- long filenames in file-browser
- NO DTS decoding because of subtitles

Has anyone tried both? Are these different firmware modders collaborating?

pirates

28th January 2005, 15:37

Originally posted by telematic
Are these different firmware modders collaborating?
no

Jaco2k

28th January 2005, 21:12

Hi!

First of all thanks for your great work!
Do you think it will be remotely possible in the future to include support for SACD and DVD-Audio to the Elta?
I hear some people are experimenting with the ARM section (or parts of it) of players that support/have this features...
If i have some time later on i can help with Portuguese versions (localization)

...and a request: Could you include also a codepage 1252 version in your firmwares? In the previous version the portuguese special characters are not properly displayed (i can get some screenshots for you if you want)

Cheers and thanks!

telematic

28th January 2005, 21:36

Originally posted by pirates
no

They don't even look at each others code?
In this case,m where what everyone is trying to do is get the best firmware possible b reverse engineering the official firmwares. Seems foolish not to use the code from others doing the same...

Besides, the result of the two firmwares look so similar (menus, subtitles) that I doubt it they're not peaking at each otehrs and if they are. The best would be to work together.

My 2pence.

pirates

28th January 2005, 23:57

hello !

Originally posted by Jaco2k
Do you think it will be remotely possible in the future to include support for SACD and DVD-Audio to the Elta?

if there will be a compatible 1389DE FW with SACD (not so likely) or with DVD-Audio (more likely) support, my answer is yes. if there will be no FW to take a look at, then it would be difficult to program any or both of those two features from scratch. without knowing what the chip does and how it's like seeking the needle in the haystack for a blind man... :(

Originally posted by Jaco2k
If i have some time later on i can help with Portuguese versions (localization)

oh yes please ! i would be happy to post them on my page. :)

Originally posted by Jaco2k
...and a request: Could you include also a codepage 1252 version in your firmwares? In the previous version the portuguese special characters are not properly displayed (i can get some screenshots for you if you want)

yes and no. yes, i could do that, but i have to find a suitable CP1252 fontset first (i've got the idea from where). and no, you don't have to send screenshots (but you can, if you like), as i know very well, how it looks when the font codepage is no match to the subtitle codepage.

pirates

29th January 2005, 00:10

Originally posted by telematic
They don't even look at each others code?
In this case,m where what everyone is trying to do is get the best firmware possible b reverse engineering the official firmwares. Seems foolish not to use the code from others doing the same...

Besides, the result of the two firmwares look so similar (menus, subtitles) that I doubt it they're not peaking at each otehrs and if they are. The best would be to work together.

My 2pence.

look, you asked, whether they do collaborate. they don't. if you would have asked, if they look at each other's work, then yes, they do. someone took the other one's FW, added or changed a minor thing, and posted it as own achievements. or at least a part of it.

there are only two sorts of people, who know the truth. the one person, who really did those changes, and the ones, who took it from him.

i don't want to accuse anyone here of theft, because it's more important to me, that the better FW reaches a wider mass of people. it's up to everyone's conscience to give proper credit to the real programmer.

telematic

29th January 2005, 01:19

Originally posted by pirates
look, you asked, whether they do collaborate. they don't. if you would have asked, if they look at each other's work, then yes, they do. someone took the other one's FW, added or changed a minor thing, and posted it as own achievements. or at least a part of it.

there are only two sorts of people, who know the truth. the one person, who really did those changes, and the ones, who took it from him.

i don't want to accuse anyone here of theft, because it's more important to me, that the better FW reaches a wider mass of people. it's up to everyone's conscience to give proper credit to the real programmer.

That's cool with me, I am only benefiting from they work and grateful for it. Just thought it was a bit strange that two similar firmwares were coming from people not working together.

Thanks to both programmers for their work and let the best FW prevail!

pirates

3rd February 2005, 00:04

hi !

i've got some new pictures for you...

1. JPEG Preview ON/OFF as first menuoption

http://phl.host.sk/forumpics/common/capture_07.jpg

2. selectable browser font and color

http://phl.host.sk/forumpics/common/capture_08.jpg
http://phl.host.sk/forumpics/common/capture_09.jpg

3. font 02/white and font 01/black sample

http://phl.host.sk/forumpics/common/capture_10.jpg
http://phl.host.sk/forumpics/common/capture_11.jpg

pirates

9th February 2005, 00:27

and yet again some more pictures from the oncoming release...
this time about extra long subtitles. the good news is, that it's now possible to have long subs along DTS support ! :)

1. 3*62 chars with the small font

http://phl.host.sk/forumpics/common/small_font_01.jpg

2. 3*45 chars with the medium sized font

http://phl.host.sk/forumpics/common/medium_font_03.jpg

3. and 3*39 chars with the large font

http://phl.host.sk/forumpics/common/large_font_05.jpg

:)

pirates

9th February 2005, 00:36

Originally posted by Jaco2k
...and a request: Could you include also a codepage 1252 version in your firmwares? In the previous version the portuguese special characters are not properly displayed (i can get some screenshots for you if you want)

does anyone of you have serial cable ? i'd like to send the FW with CP1252 fontset to someone for tests.

it should support all the special characters according to this (http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/reference/sbcs/1252.htm) reference.

pirates

9th February 2005, 00:39

Originally posted by Jaco2k
If i have some time later on i can help with Portuguese versions (localization)

did you have the time yet ?
could you send me private message with you address to discuss the translation ?

ajax26

9th February 2005, 08:04

Hello!! I have one BIG question for you!! Do u think in the near future Elta 8883A will be able to read micro dvd ( .sub ) subtitles?
Would be nice for people like me that has a large collection of movies with that kind of sub and don't want to waste time to write the movie on a cd RW and convert sub into srt..
Thx very much!! U are doing a wonderful work ...

pirates

9th February 2005, 09:35

Originally posted by ajax26
Do u think in the near future Elta 8883A will be able to read micro dvd ( .sub ) subtitles?

there are just a few players based on the same chipset able to handle Micro DVD Player's *.sub format. for most of them there's no FW for download, they came with the *.sub support from the factory. therefore it's pretty hard to bring this functionality to more players. but it's one of the most often requested features, so I would say, that it will be available, but when, I can't tell.

one more thing. it's not me, who makes the FW better, I am just the messenger, who brings the good news...

Leak

9th February 2005, 09:58

Originally posted by pirates
there are just a few players based on the same chipset able to handle Micro DVD Player's *.sub format. for most of them there's no FW for download, they came with the *.sub support from the factory. therefore it's pretty hard to bring this functionality to more players. but it's one of the most often requested features, so I would say, that it will be available, but when, I can't tell.

Well, since upgrading the firmware via serial cable is possible shouldn't it also be possible to download the firmware over it instead of uploading it?

pirates

9th February 2005, 10:06

Originally posted by Leak
Well, since upgrading the firmware via serial cable is possible shouldn't it also be possible to download the firmware over it instead of uploading it?

that's true, but can you find me someone, who opens his player and downloads the FW for us ? thus risking to lose the warranty ?

would be very nice... i can give a list of players, from which we would need the FW...

Leak

9th February 2005, 11:01

Originally posted by pirates
that's true, but can you find me someone, who opens his player and downloads the FW for us ? thus risking to lose the warranty?

Sorry, I don't even have a cable for my Elta 8883 (nor do I know someone with a different player), although I really couldn't care less about warranty.

I was just thinking out loud, mostly. :)

ajax26

9th February 2005, 11:43

i know for sure that EBoda 5555X and Silva Schneider can handle .sub and for that 2 i know where i can find the FW. But i am not sure what version of Mediatek chipset they use ( Eboda maybe GE ) !!
Dunno if the fw is compatible with Elta which uses DE from what i know!

Jaco2k

15th February 2005, 14:11

Something interesting... Elta relased a firmware (http://www.elta.de/downloads/software/8903%20MP4_Firmware%205.0.3.5_3_4_5_7_10022005.zip) for the Elta 8903 that has OGG/OGM support. I have opened it up in MTK Remaker and sure enough it is a Mediatek firmware. Also from some pics i have seen, the remote is the same that is bundled with the 8883/8883A. Could anyone with a serial cable test this firmware?

Even better would be if someone with knowledge about the firmware components could take a look at it and extract the part with OGG/OGM support to add it to one of the lastest modified firmwares...

Cheers!

pirates

15th February 2005, 14:34

Originally posted by Jaco2k
Even better would be if someone with knowledge about the firmware components could take a look at it and extract the part with OGG/OGM support to add it to one of the lastest modified firmwares...

we're on it...

Pulver

15th February 2005, 15:25

Originally posted by pirates
we're on it...

Great news!

I have a "Elta 8883 compatible" player (MTK 1389DE) with a serial cable and I tried the 8903 firmware.

However - no OGM or OGG files showed up in the filebrowser, so I think you have to modify the firmware somehow for it to work.

By the way - pirates - keep up the good work! Cant wait for the new firmware to arrive :)

Pulver

24th February 2005, 16:29

Any news about the new firmware ?

PlazzTT

25th February 2005, 20:26

Yes, I'd love to see this new firmware soon!

Great work!

JudasPriest

27th February 2005, 14:40

Just Try This: Rename an OGM video/audio file in .AVI (this works with BsPlayer and OGMFilter installed)

Leak

27th February 2005, 16:08

Originally posted by JudasPriest
Just Try This: Rename an OGM video/audio file in .AVI (this works with BsPlayer and OGMFilter installed)

You do realize that BSPlayer and a stand-alone MPEG4 player are two totally different pairs of shoes?

The first is a DirectShow player that can be extended by installing DirectShow filters and plugins (OGMFilter in this case), while the other can only do what the firmware you upload and hardware permit - and I seriously doubt that renaming the file is going to fix that; yeah, the file might then show up in the file list, but if the firmware itself doesn't support OGM it still won't play...

np: Pole - Bushes (There Is A Secret Behind) (Pole)

Pulver

27th February 2005, 16:25

Originally posted by Leak
but if the firmware itself doesn't support OGM it still won't play...

But the firmware I´m trying does support OGM - so it would be interesting to try what JudasPriest suggested.

However - there is one more small problem.

I have modified the 8903 firmware a little bit to get it to fit in my (1Mb flash) player - removing some OSD languages for exampel. I also replaced the remotecontrol instructions so that it would work with my player - and it does, every button except 'Play' ;)

I tried what JudasPriest suggested (the files show up in the filebrowser) - but I can´t play the files since I dont have a play button :p

However - it is possible to get ogg-files to work on my player.

I Modified a Yamada 6700 firmware to get it to "fit" in my player (removed a lot of stuff) and ogg/ogm files show up in the filebrowser.

No videofiles would play at all (green error pictures) but the ogg music-files played without a problem :)

edit:

My player is the Swedish 'Lumatron 1020'.

It is a "clone" of Elta 8883 (all except the front panel buttons and the remotecontrol instructions are the same)

Leak

27th February 2005, 17:14

Originally posted by Pulver
But the firmware I´m trying does support OGM - so it would be interesting to try what JudasPriest suggested.

Oh, okay - nevermind then. :)

Still, if the firmware itself supported OGM, shouldn't it also support a file extension for it? :confused:

np: Pole - Berlin (1)

Pulver

27th February 2005, 17:37

Yes, it should - but for some reason it doesn't (at least not on 'elta 8883')

Thats whats so strange :)

pirates

27th February 2005, 17:44

Originally posted by Leak
Still, if the firmware itself supported OGM, shouldn't it also support a file extension for it? :confused:

not neccesarily...
if a chipset supports a video compression or audio compression format, it must not neccessarily mean, that it will recognize standalone music and/or video files (*.ogg/*.ogm).

let me explain it with an example... we all know, that the elta supports divx+ac3, but it does not recognize file extension *.dvx nor *.ac3

there's no problem, however, to play these within a supported container, in our case it's the AVI. so, if you've got a file, e.g. video in xvid and audio compressed with OGG, with the FW support you should be able to play such a file back.

Leak

27th February 2005, 18:54

Originally posted by pirates
not neccesarily...
if a chipset supports a video compression or audio compression format, it must not neccessarily mean, that it will recognize standalone music and/or video files (*.ogg/*.ogm).

Maybe so, but both AVI and OGM are the extensions associated with different container formats, not with specific video/audio codecs. The same goes for QuickTime's .QT - you can stuff (almost) anything in there that you can get a QuickTime codec for, but you can't expect QuickTime to play it if it doesn't have a .QT file extension; after all, the file extension is a major hint for the playing application how to parse the file to even find the video, audio and subtitle streams...

Of course, if the player tries to detect the type of container even though the extension is wrong, this is much less of an issue - but you can't suddenly parse an OGM file with an AVI-only application just by renaming the file.

Not that I wanted to turn a fly into an elephant here, mind you... :D

(P.S., to get this back on topic: How's that firmware coming along? ;))

np: Pole - Rondell Zwei (3)