Okay...I've unlocked the HD from my Z2 with 'high hopes' of being able to alter the appearence of the images used for all the interface buttons (play, pause, shuffle, etc.) to give them a cleaner look and get away from the bluish coloring.

To my dismay I am unable to find these images on any of the partitions...

Someone, somewhere please tell me they are just in some weird format and not part of the OS that is on the firmware.

I'm pretty handy in Photoshop...so I'd be willing to help folks design new buttons if we can figure out where they are and what format they are in.

Thanks in advance.

Nope, part of the OS as far as I can tell.

Okay...I think I've found these images.

I downloaded the latest firmware update and found what appear to be 'archive' files of some sort at the following location in the firmware archive file: Z2 firmware update\AVICZ1_HD1\APL\Menu

All the files are RFF and IMG files...if you open them in Notepad and scroll to the bottom you can find what appears to be a list of the files that the archive contains. The files MAY be the button images as a lot of them are BMP and GIF images...and there are A LOT them listed.

Now we just need to figure out how to open/extract RFF and IMG files.

NOTE: these IMG files are not compatible with MagicISO, UltraISO, etc., they appear to be a different type of IMG image.

First let me say I appreciate your ambition. =D

Unfortunately, I took a look at those way back when on the Z1 bluetooth update (same files). These aren't simple .jpg's on a nice & safe removable HDD -- these are integral, compiled, possibly compressed(?) image-sets waiting to be a part of the firmware. A sinle bit out of place would corrupt them. At best the update will fail. At worst, it'll brick your Z2. Without a de/compiler they're useless. =(

The biggest problem with modifying the firmware is accessing it. So far, the only way is to use Pioneer's updater application. You can only UPgrade; you cannot downgrade, 'samegrade,' or change the unit's current version number. This makes testing impossible. If you do mess up, you can't "undo" the mistake and you're left with a brick.

Also, for the record, the only "hacked" update is Hyperite's Bypass update, which is simply the CNDV-700HD (Z1 to Z2 update disc) with most of the files deleted. No files have been modified. Much like the Z1 bluetooth update, this disc already contained the necessary zero-byte PRG.FLG and dumped it in the root directory of the HDD to enable the bypass. Though we're all grateful he figured it out, the files aren't really hacked, and no changes are made to the firmware.

So again, I'd love it if a skilled programer like Dark_Alex decided to find an exploit and start hacking this thing, but for now, I wouldn't touch my firmware with a 10 foot pole.