Converting the NS-DV into an iriver x20

[Tobey]

A few months ago I had the urge to attempt to load firmware of the NS-DVs cousin, the iriver x20, onto the NS-DV. I didn't have much success, as the NS-DV would reject the firmware. Today, I realized I had a player which still had the old firmware version 1.104 on it. I figured maybe this version doesn't check the firmware before loading it. So I renamed the x20's firmware file to “NS-DVxG.rom” as I did before, I put the file on the player, and pulled the USB cord... The player gave me the usual loading firmware message. To my surprise it then said “SUCCESS!” and shut off. I figured that was it, I bricked it. I held the power button and was soon greeted by a glorious, albeit upside down, “iriver” logo. Success indeed!




Here are the major changes I noticed:

• The obvious one: pretty GUI.
• Blazing fast startup times. Max 4 seconds with a filled 1 GB card inserted. iriver clearly uses a different indexing system.
• MicroSD mount/dismount is much faster.
• MTP/MSC mode is selected via the settings menu
• Text scroll speed can be adjusted in three steps.
• FM radio recording quality can be changed.

But I must say, it isn't all that impressive. I have to hand it to Insignia, they put much more thought into their version of the firmware than iriver did. With the exception of faster start up times, and prettier graphics, the x20s firmware is quite inferior to the NS-DVs. For example, there is no full-screen album art, the volume can't be changed while viewing photos, you can't use the menu button to quickly exit the menu (you're trapped in there until you scroll around to “Now Playing” and hit select), you can't hit the up button to view the OSD while watching a movie, photos can't be rotated, and the LCD can't be turned off. It seems like iriver spent more time on eye candy, then they did on usability...

Because it wasn't designed for the NS-DV, there are some weird problems. Headphone jack B doesn't work, the screen is upside down (can be corrected in the menu though), left and right are reversed (due to the screen being upside down), and the hold switch is backwards for some reason...

You probably shouldn't go nuts trying to get this onto your NS-DV. It's not worth the trouble. Although, a person could get used to these faster start up times... Now that I know it's possible for this thing to load so quickly, I think I'll add this to the feature request list...


Disclaimer:
Trying this will void your warranty. After loading this firmware, it is not possible to return to the original firmware. I cannot be held responsible if your NS-DV blows up after trying this.

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