CEC HI-X8

[MadChef]

Alright, so I read the "Read this first" thread and I know how things are meant to work around here...

However, I know nothing about coding and very little about electronics!

I recently bought an HI-X8 player from China and my search for an alternative firmware led me here.

I found a log from a random forum where some people were discussing trying to port rockbox to this specific player, one person had gotten a copy of the schematics from the developer of the player but then the discussion didn't lead anywhere past this.

This player has absolutely amazing features:
  Mine has a Seagate 120gb drive in it
  Built in microphone and line-in recording capabilities
  Built in FM modulator that works flawlessly
  USB OTG support

It also has firmware upgrade abilities, so from what I understand it should be possible to make a rockbox port for this player.

Basically, I am willing to do what it takes to help make this happen.  As amazing as the potential of this player is, the firmware it comes with absolutely sucks.  It doesn't alphabetize the ID3 tag lists, or even the basic drive/file browser for that matter.  Above all, it won't let you do anything while you're listening to music.  You can't even browse files and add songs to the current playlist while listening. 

If someone could help or has any advice, I would really appreciate it.  I think this thing has the potential to be really great.

[Bagder]

Yes, and the already existing thread that discusses a possible port is found here:

http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=3978.0

... even though it has been rather silent there for a while.

(I think this thread serves a purpose and didn't merge them since this uses the player name nicely and easily found in the subject)

[MadChef]

Oh, my apologies.

I had tried searching these forums for references to this player but didn't find anything.

Thank you very much.

[portable]

Just to update everyone that it is highly likely that we can't obtain the source code for the telechips because telechips simply aren't providing their source code!!!!

Anyway, if we can't get this Hi-X8, A8, X6 to use rockbox. We will probably use Rockbox in the other upcoming mp4 players.

If anyone would still like to do the hard work, and reverse engineer the telechips, you are welcomed to do so. We will support you with whatever information we know. (we have the source code for the OTG chip, hardware diagrams for the X8, etc)

[Escape-Artist]

oh that's a really bad news.... I was about to buy the H-X8 because of the futur port with RockBox.
Because from what I've heard, it is a really good device, but the interface is really bad... No I'm really unsure.

[portable]

If you can wait, we can going to release a comprehensive review of X8 along with X6 and A8. This will include anyalysis of the sound quality output of these mp4s, from what I know, sound quality is reasonable but not as great as Ipod.

However, that will probably take a few more months.

Cheers
Eric

[portable]

Here is the X8 firmware and the programming software (1MB) --> www.hdmp4.com/X8_super.zip

If you have to have a go to reverse engineer the OS to port Rockbox.

I was told everything is written with nucleas

Rockbox developers - more information on the X8 hardware available from the Rockbox Committers List.

Cheers
Eric

[Escape-Artist]

from what I know, sound quality is reasonable but not as great as Ipod.

what do you mean? I thought the sound quality was one of the key point of the device? So it's not as good as an Ipod??

[portable]

what do you mean? I thought the sound quality was one of the key point of the device? So it's not as good as an Ipod??

I mean if you use a comprehensive sound analysis package to do the analysis, that's what you see. (I have not seen the result myself because I don't have it. But that's what I was told by the one doing the analysis. It was better than some creative mp3 models though.)

Please do not ask me to give you the analysis now because I am having trouble doing that. However, be assured that it will be done in the next few months.

[MadChef]

So do any of the rockbox developers have one of these units?  Or is this dead in the water already?

[saratoga]

what do you mean? I thought the sound quality was one of the key point of the device? So it's not as good as an Ipod??

I mean if you use a comprehensive sound analysis package to do the analysis, that's what you see. (I have not seen the result myself because I don't have it. But that's what I was told by the one doing the analysis. It was better than some creative mp3 models though.)

Please do not ask me to give you the analysis now because I am having trouble doing that. However, be assured that it will be done in the next few months.

Once you get a unit, it takes only a couple minutes and a half decient soundcard to test it with RMAA.  You just unzip the program, load the test file, and plug the player into the PC's Mic jack.  Totally free too, and it spits out graphs of SNR, frequency response, distortion, etc and HTML that can be dropped on a website or posted on a forum.  Its pretty much a standard on many enthusiast sites.

[talos321]

I think the sound quality is based on those preset defined settings. I found while dealing with the Hi-x6 that using a user defined setting improved the playback dramatically.

  The firmware though on this device is primative in that in order to sort anything you had to use a program to reorganize the device since it sorts files by when you put them on the device so if you put an S folder before C it was like that until you used an external program that changes the attributes on the folders/files by file name by changing their transfer time. CEC didn't supply this program of course.  Stopping a song sent the device to the main window instead of stopping at the folder where you were playing. Mp4 playback was always out of synch. Photo viewing painfully slow.

  In any  case I gave my Hi-x6 away because it was pretty user unfriendly. It does though have great potential with good firmware the case is solid and it does offer lots of features and is smaller/lightweight than one would assume a 2.5 hdd based player to be. Think of the old archos recorder with the side battery compartments removed which also makes it much lighter.

   I'm sad to hear that telechips won't be helping out with getting rockbox onto this player. I would buy two x8 if rockbox were on them. CEC does make a solid feature rich player but I don't think they have a clue on making any kind of usable firmware.

[RaeNye]

Here is the X8 firmware and the programming software (1MB) --> www.hdmp4.com/X8_super.zip

If you have to have a go to reverse engineer the OS to port Rockbox.

I had a look at this and it looks quite commented (as far as ASM can go...) but to ease the RE, I'd like to have more information which is probably not confidential --
A device memory map (addresses to which the various chips are mapped, e.g., LCD, USB, ...)

BTW, why are there two files there?

[portable]

I had a look at this and it looks quite commented (as far as ASM can go...) but to ease the RE, I'd like to have more information which is probably not confidential --
A device memory map (addresses to which the various chips are mapped, e.g., LCD, USB, ...)

BTW, why are there two files there?

One of the file is the firmware and the other one is the software that write the firmware into the mp4 player.

E-mail me if you need more information!!! I have the X8 circuit diagrams and some information on the OTG chips. (sorry, can't post these on the web.)

Sorry for the late reply, I didn't receive notification on the new post.  

[portable]

Mp4 playback was always out of synch.

Question: Why does the video and sound do the match in the X6?
Answer: It is partly due to the low frame rate on the X6, temporary fix at the moment is to use the older movie conversion software to convert movie files to 15 frames/s. At 15 frame/s, the sound and picture are in sync. Old movie conversion software can be download here - http://portable.geek.nz/?q=node/6