I am almost willing to bet that the Z1 is not ripping them into mp3 file format but rather the wma format with a variable bit rate. It is just the way that microsoft does things by default. And since they make the OS for Pioneer, it is almost a sure thing. Microsoft development teams that work with companies such as Pioneer always tend to steer them into thier products and not a 3rd party mp3 ripper. I also think that you will find that the library function within windows media player is very much in tune with that on the Z1.

Well, if it played WMA's, that's easy enough

Mmkay, now I grok what Cirbirus is describing. The catalog files and filesystem aren't the problem -- it's appears to be easy enough to follow.

The bummer part is that the Z1 appears to be hard coded for a header-stripped version of the file, which is (I assume from the file extension) encoded in Sony's ATRAC3 format.

The slight ray of hope is that this is the same format used by the Sony PSP, and there's an active hacker-scene there that figured out how to convert to the normal ATRAC3 layout. We just need to figure out how to munge up the headers so that it's playable on the Z1.

I'm probably repeating someone else's work here, but I can't seem to locate any older threads on the topic.

[update] aha, found a thread with useful info.

hmmm...why would Pioneer use a piece of software from a competitor? Or better yet, why would Sony allow a competitor use it's software. Just because the file has an extention that is the same as another, doesn't mean that it is the same file structure within that file. I wish that I had a spare HDD to play with this. Does anyone here do HDD emulation?

so since you guys finally figured out a way to unlock the hard drive, do you see any possibility of copying mp3's straight onto the hard drive from your computer?

I'm also willing to help out as I have alot of computer knowledge, but I dont have the Z1 yet...I'll be getting it in a few weeks.

I can just see now...Two pioneer geeks looking at all these posts and saying :shock: "We got em" :shock: ...
I only wish i had a ton of money to throw your way to do this...Can`t wait for the outcome, Keep up the good work guys...
Ain`t this fun.

bdmpastx said:

hmmm...why would Pioneer use a piece of software from a competitor? Or better yet, why would Sony allow a competitor use it's software. Just because the file has an extention that is the same as another, doesn't mean that it is the same file structure within that file. I wish that I had a spare HDD to play with this. Does anyone here do HDD emulation?

Thank you for treating my posts and actual research as if I had done nothing. Your baseless assumptions and uninformed opinions on how things SHOULD be are clearly more relevant than my actual research.

Keep up the good work.

On the Windows Automotive Embedded website they indicate that Pioneer uses this OS. Not sure what that means....perhaps you can do something with this information.

ducatiboy said:

Anonymous said:

Hi Guys

Any news on this topic? woudl ove to be able to dump mp3's directlly onto HD :)

The way it is stock, no you can't dump MP3's to the hard drive (while it is installed in the car). There is a theory that we can remove the hard drives out of the head units, hook them up to a PC and transfer directly. But so far no one (including myself) has had the guts to yank the drive out of their unit and try it.

New in the forum and just wanna say thanks for the all the infos.
Just an idea, I'm thinking of using a media enclosure for 2.5" HHD.
http://www.shop4tech.com/item4760.html and connecting it to aux via RCA, it's like a mini pc, mostly interested in playing MP4 videos, MP3s, jpegs...

Instead of connecting it to RCA, we can probably connect to the Z1 input "AV IP bus" (used for TV tuner) if there's an adaptor.
AV IP bus to RCa or
AV IP bus to USB then we can control the media enclosure from touchscreen and maybe even use the USB to power up the media enclosure.

;;

hello people hope this helps in the servece menu it will let u add files to the hdd or flash remove files or delete files also you can run apps from cds or dvds. so if someone can create a program for windows ce and for the cpu that the z1 uses and that will play mp3s and also let u swich between the z1 normal OS will be set or maby at least this will help because u can add files with out removeing the hdd and the many steps to unlock it hope it helps

P.s to get in to the serves menu hold down the rest and eject button as the z1 loads then let go of the rest button after a sec of black screen when it ses something let go of the eject button too the screen will be black hit p. list up twice and p. list down twice thats the password then hit T (t is always enter) and av is back now ur in the servece menu there are three menues the first is tests and screen cal go to the sec one and nere the bottom is ses force something yata yata yata thats where u can load apps from a cd/dvd in the file mang thing u can add files to the hdd or flash from a cd move files and what not theres more but havent played with it much

I'm sorry dude but I just couldn't get through your post; it hurts my brain-muscle. It's the web so I expect a few spelling errors and slightly sloppy grammar but if you can't even be bothered to use somewhat proper spelling and grammar then why should I be bothered to read what you wrote?

If you don't speak American or English as your native language that is one thing but "IM-speak" just doesn't cut it when you're not on a mobile device. It's incredibly rude as well as you are telling us your time is more important than ours.

I would suggest that you, at the least, use the spell checker built into the Google toolbar; I suffer from a debilitating spelling impairment myself so use it all the time. :wink:

Cirbirus said:

If you don't speak American or English as your native language that is one thing but "IM-speak" just doesn't cut it when you're not on a mobile device. It's incredibly rude as well as you are telling us your time is more important than ours.

100% agree except it probably took longer to write the im speak rather than physicaly typing the words out!

Cirbirus said:

I suffer from a debilitating spelling impairment myself so use it all the time. :wink:

Ah, but you can count though!

Cirbirus said:

I would suggest that you, at the least, use the spell checker built into the Google toolbar; I suffer from a debilitating spelling impairment myself so use it all the time. :wink:

The new firefox browser has spell check for web forms built in as well. http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

sorry i'll get the spellchecker thing next time

billyinlilla said:

I can just see now...Two pioneer geeks looking at all these posts and saying :shock: "We got em" :shock: ...
I only wish i had a ton of money to throw your way to do this...Can`t wait for the outcome, Keep up the good work guys...
Ain`t this fun.

LOL

Tonyflow420 said:

".....you can run apps from cds or dvds."


Can you tell me what menu choice you used to run applications off of the CD / DVD drive while in the service menu? If this is possible than it would be possible to turn off or disabling the security features of the drive by running an application while the drive is unlocked, like MHDD or something else more compatable with Windows CE.

or even, running update disks from the service menu instead of navi screen when it errors at 99%.. maybe possible?

tillithz said:

or even, running update disks from the service menu instead of navi screen when it errors at 99%.. maybe possible?

Once I got into that 99% and failed issue, I couldn't reset the unit or get into the service screen. It seems that the update program replaced the normal boot up and until it finished, it wouldn't let you do anything till it was done updating.

well that sucks.

I did notice it said something about bluetooth update in the service menu, and even looked for a file on the hd. might be an option for those that are weary of doing it with a disk

I read the entire thread and did not notice what sequence of events happened which allowed the hard drive locking program to be circumvented? Additionally has anyone been successful in backing up the drive? I am more interested in making a backup copy for the failed scenario.

I have made backups and restored them with success. I used ghost 8.3 corp myself. I haven't had any success restoring the backup to a different drive, but restoring it to the stock drive worked like a charm. Saved my drive too when the update went south. (so to speak)

Has anyone located a free unlocking service/tool as I am fimilar with the paid services that I use in our IT shop at work however they are all paid services.

I think that the CD that contains the Bluetooth fix also holds the some keys to the HDD. All of the interface programs are there like the Navi.exe, the AV.exe and such. I think that one could figure out how to test the audio AC3 file conversion by using a windows automotive simulation program and running the AV.exe on a standard PC until it is perfected and then you could copy the home made AC3 files from MP3 files over to the HDD that way. Other testing could be done in a simular fashion. At my job, we used a pocket PC simulation to design programs to run on Pocket PCs. I just figured that someone could do the same for this now that we have the CD. Of course these should exist on the HDD too but I never thought of this until now.

It's just a thought.