PhatHack
Other => Forum Help => Topic started by: admin on December 01, 2005, 07:23:23 pm
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We've done it. It's hacked. It's pretty simple to do now (though there are a few difficulties still being worked out.) So what do we do now?
I want to see Phat4X become a far better option than PMM. I want phatvoice and phatsort to be somehow integrated (in Phat4x?) so that people can have any kind of voice prompt (of the highest quality) as simply as snyching their DMS.
What do you want to see?
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Hi Paul,
Well, here's my two cents...
The forum has also done a good job of encouraging people to connect boxes for, say, a VW, to a different vehicle / head unit. When people change cars every 2 or 3 years this is a real benefit. Of course, it may not be what Phatnoise or the vehicle brands want us to do - I am sure they would rather we buy a new box. And of course with the relatively cheap VW boxes that are available, someone may be losing out somewhere. But my view is that those if us that hack these things are the smalll minority of users, who then go out and evangelise about the product. The efect could very well be that more "official" PB installations then get sold.
I have just about finished hooking a VW box up to my Volvo S80. I will be happy to post some more details of the wiring etc when I'm done.
Regards,
Les.
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not make people reply to threads under penalty of account deletion? :P
I want to see some mods come out to replace phatnoise software with better features.. (like a way to mark songs for deletion and phat4x being able to delete them, or some other tool perhaps.)
I want to see detailed hacks on the hardware side for adding larger drives, multiple drives, digital output, serial port / infrared or something. Let's make this thing really do whatever we can. Hell, maybe we can come up with a Navi mod for it>?
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Serial port would be awesome, from there the box could go Bluetooth so it could be controlled via PDA and/or music could be added remotely. FLAC tag support. Nested SSA modes. Cup holder attachment.
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Serial port would be awesome, from there the box could go Bluetooth so it could be controlled via PDA and/or music could be added remotely. FLAC tag support. Nested SSA modes. Cup holder attachment.
someone really should pressure phatnoise about releasing the code they built for ALL the opensource tools they have. FLAC / Busybox / linux (we have this one already) / mp3 codec if they are not using the closed source fraunhaufer version etc... might be useful
as for FLAC tag support, its not the phatbox that is the issue as the phatd / audio player executables don't read the tags.. PMM does. so phat4x could solve that issue. the flac decoder might not properly handle files with vorbis style tags in them which then we'd need the source to apply a fix.
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I've submitted a request for a new project on SourceForge called PhatOS - there we can make a full replacement for the current software.... if we get into it properly we should be able to have some really cool features...
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Hi Paul,
Well, here's my two cents...
The forum has also done a good job of encouraging people to connect boxes for, say, a VW, to a different vehicle / head unit. When people change cars every 2 or 3 years this is a real benefit. Of course, it may not be what Phatnoise or the vehicle brands want us to do - I am sure they would rather we buy a new box. And of course with the relatively cheap VW boxes that are available, someone may be losing out somewhere. But my view is that those if us that hack these things are the smalll minority of users, who then go out and evangelise about the product. The efect could very well be that more "official" PB installations then get sold.
I have just about finished hooking a VW box up to my Volvo S80. I will be happy to post some more details of the wiring etc when I'm done.
Regards,
Les.
Make a HOWTO on the Wiki ;)
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I definitely agree with the any type of voice prompt idea.
Also, I'd like to see hardware accessories such as displays and remotes.
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I definitely agree with the any type of voice prompt idea.
Also, I'd like to see hardware accessories such as displays and remotes.
The SOC (System On a Chip) that phatnoise uses has pins for a video frame buffer but it does not have them connected anywhere if I recall correctly so we would have to do some form of physical hacking (like building a pogo pin board that gave you a VGA connector output... I don't think theres an intergrated RAMDAC though so we'd need to add one of those perhaps.. it gets quite complicated fast.. if you dont go pogopin you have to pull out a soldering iron.
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I agree with S80_UK about different head units just about to change from an Audi concert II to a Kenwood would be nice to know if I had other options with a different manufacturer.
Voice tags on a VW box using a different head unit would also be nice from my understanding I don’t think I can even buy it for a modified VW box it has to be a keg
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Ohh, scarey! I better respond. ;D
Anyways, I would really like to see Phatvoice intregrated with it being able to resample the 16k voices without having to run a different program.
We could try and have a master .subs list with each different 16k voice. Because Crystal may have a different subs file for a word and Audrey may need it done a little different. I'm only thinking we should/could do this for more "general" mispronounciations. (MAYBE ITS DO-ABLE)
Being able to "show duplicate songs" like Itunes is nice.
Printing your artists database, and track titles to a file. I'm thinking that these would need to be able to be done separate. So it could assist you in making a .subs file.
More CD Burners detected!
Add CD Text from the Phatbox to the Audi RNS-E head unit. (WOULD LOVE THAT!)
I guess a lot of people would like nested folders!
Handle "various artist" better.
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We've done it. It's hacked. It's pretty simple to do now (though there are a few difficulties still being worked out.) So what do we do now?
I want to see Phat4X become a far better option than PMM. I want phatvoice and phatsort to be somehow integrated (in Phat4x?) so that people can have any kind of voice prompt (of the highest quality) as simply as snyching their DMS.
What do you want to see?
What do you mean its hacked? Do this mean that we will start being able to use Phat4X soon? I mean I've tried getting all of the other components together to try it but I couldn't find everything or it was down.
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Enable the audioid lines in phatbox.ini for Kenwood units so that on demand voice announcements would work like on all other Phatboxes.
Need to agree a button on the Kenwood headunit that would trigger the announcement.
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I'd like software that properly supports x64 windows without the need to hack the msi files. Also the ability to create rules for the media library not just playlists would be nice. Honestly why the hell do you need to copy the whole library if the playlist rules say don't copy it.
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I too am new to this forum and I'm not sure I have any recommendations for the forum.
I've got a VW Phatbox that I want to convert to use with a Kenwood HU that I don't yet have. But I suspect that this info is somewhere in the Wiki.
I also want to put a bigger drive into my DMS... but that's also here somewhere.
And since I don't have any new ideas should I leave? :'(
There's got to be a better way to browse thru all my playlists. Some way to skip ahead 10 at a time or something. Is this a VW limitation? Is it better in Kenwood.
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Yes those questions are answerd. Use the search feature and set it to be like a 365 day search window to find your answers.
As for the kenwood, you can use a remote and type in play list numbers to jump around quickly which is handy. but in general its not that much better. I do my playlists as letters of the alphabet and then navigate by artist after getting to the right letter.. much quicker that way I think.
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Well I just joined up about 15 minutes ago and right now I am getting overwhelmed with some of the info here.
But I do know I want to add a much larger drive in my unit. Right now the standard 20GB. I have the VW Phatbox.
One question I do have though.
Is there a difference whether you get a 4200 rpm or can I get a 5400 RPM drive and will it work?
Thx
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The ability to mix by genre would be nice
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I'm interested in LBA48 support so we'll be able to use drives larger than 128GB when they become available. I think we have all the pieces necessary to rebuild the PhatBox Linux kernel, so it should just be a matter of applying LBA48 patches to the IDE driver.
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Add new codecs to the Phatbox!!
I had some successs with Apple Lossless but never had the time to follow it up to completion (it was decoding via a script at startup, then I got a new contract and have had to spend time doing "real work" ever since!) ::) Oh well.
Shame that Phatnoise don't release a SDK or similar, even a few basic docs would help. A lot of player routines are open source so it wouldn't take much to tweak/compile them, it's the "integration" part that I'm less sure of...
It would be nice to see a good solution to albums with "various artists" too...
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It would be nice to see a good solution to albums with "various artists" too...
Have you read my solution in the following thread?
http://forum.phathack.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1125375278
Its just a shell script and requires a Linux box, but someone should be able to develop something similar for other OSes.
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As for what should this forum do, maybe some of the more knowledgeable folks could try and figure out a solution to the problem of ogg files sometimes stopping playback before it reaches the end? [smiley=evil.gif]
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not delete me!
Things I would Like to be able to do
1. See as well as well as have announced the CD (esp track so I don't have to press scan to remind me what the hell I'm listening to) (have AUDI headunit)
2. Have support for HDD over 128GB, even if it means a physical hack to use a 3.5hdd (as I am just reripping my cd's to 320 Mp3's)
3. Have cleaner voice support, mine sound crap, pop and whistle and sound like the robot from lost in space
4. I know there was a 4 just can't remember it
Dave
P.S. thanks for the wicked stuff done here folks
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I'll put in a vote for integration with PhatVoice.
I'd also love to see song information on my head unit (BMW). I know someone was looking into that at one point, but don't know if it ever happened.
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not delete me!
Things I would Like to be able to do
1. See as well as well as have announced the CD (esp track so I don't have to press scan to remind me what the hell I'm listening to) (have AUDI headunit)
2. Have support for HDD over 128GB, even if it means a physical hack to use a 3.5hdd (as I am just reripping my cd's to 320 Mp3's)
3. Have cleaner voice support, mine sound crap, pop and whistle and sound like the robot from lost in space
4. I know there was a 4 just can't remember it
Dave
P.S. thanks for the wicked stuff done here folks
You "NEED" to get Phatvoice along with the ATT 16k voices. That will solve the voice prompts issue.
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Could you add the possibility of "refreshing" all the databases? Or maybe even better "clean" and re-read? I've noticed that when PMM ejects and closes. Phatvoice reads the databases and it sometimes generates voice prompts for ID tags that I've "changed or modified." I then would end up having two voice prompts for one mp3? Or it will generate voice prompts for both the "old" ID Tag & the "new or modified" ID Tags.
I'm not sure how this exactly works but some of the databases are not being re-read correctly! And I'm not sure if this would eliminate this or not, but this is something that I've had a problem with.
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Personally, I've really wanted to write a new database generator that handles multiple artist and genre tags properly. That way, correctly tagged files with multiple artists and/or genres would show up under all of the correct artists and genres in SSA/VIOT mode. Unfortunately, time hasn't premitted me to really get into it yet.
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Shame people who have benefited from this forum (especially DMS hack) to contribute a one-off $20 to the running of the forum as per this earlier thread...
http://forum.phathack.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1119315190
I still can't believe that only a handful of people have donated......... :o
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Shame people who have benefited from this forum (especially DMS hack) to contribute a one-off $20 to the running of the forum as per this earlier thread...
http://forum.phathack.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1119315190
I still can't believe that only a handful of people have donated......... :o
I agree!!!
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The forum already serves the purpose of providing an alternative to Phatnoise's practically non-existent customer support, and that is something I hope will continue. The forum has helped to me to find answers to problems that I couldn't find in the Phatnoise "knowledge base." (And I don't know that I will live long enough to receive a proper e-mail response from them.)
I also hope to see more software and hardware tweaks. I think the PB has a lot more potential to be tapped, and innovation is more likely to come from the passionate users found here.
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Can the Phatbox be reprogrammed to be controlled via another language? What I'm talking about, since the Phatbox doesn't support CD Text but my head unit does (Audi RNS-E). It seems that if the Phatbox could be controlled via the CANbus in my Audi it would support ID tags on the head unit!
I't may not be that simple but, possible maybe? I know over at the navplus forums.
http://www.navplus.us/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8265#8265
There's a company called Dietz that knows the CANbus programming language. Is it possible to talk with them about how this would work. Well only if it could be reprogrammed?
This is just something that I've been thinking about!
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There's no CAN bus on the Phatbox of course, but if we had an open command interface that allowed control and access to tags etc, then it should be possible to add any kind of external protocol adapter, whether CAN, Bluetooth, or whatever. This could be connected to the PB via the serial port on the PCB, but for the hardware shy, maybe this could be done via the 26 way connector with a software layer running on the 8052 microcontroller - then no need to open the box.
Just an idea.
Les.
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Just had an idea - maybe we need to approach this from the other end. Is there merit in trying to understand more of the low-level details of the various head unit interfaces? It may well be that some of them can display text from a CD changer (CD text, MP3 file names or tags, etc). It may also be the case that the Phatbox emulation of a CD changer is deliberately basic in order to minimise the difficulty for the folks at Phatnoise when the want to support a new headunit.
But if more of the head units have the potential to support text, then I think that his would be a very worthwhile upgrade to the Phatbox software. I would love to have this working on my Volvo (which has a text capable display).
Or is there stuff already known that means that this is not possible?
Les.
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Just had an idea - maybe we need to approach this from the other end. Is there merit in trying to understand more of the low-level details of the various head unit interfaces? It may well be that some of them can display text from a CD changer (CD text, MP3 file names or tags, etc). It may also be the case that the Phatbox emulation of a CD changer is deliberately basic in order to minimise the difficulty for the folks at Phatnoise when the want to support a new headunit.
But if more of the head units have the potential to support text, then I think that his would be a very worthwhile upgrade to the Phatbox software. I would love to have this working on my Volvo (which has a text capable display).
Or is there stuff already known that means that this is not possible?
Les.
The kenwood Protocol supports that
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Hi,
Yes - I know the Kenwood does. I was wondering whether others could as well, even if they weren't supporting it today, on the basis that it may already be supported some other headunits but not by most PB firmware builds.
Les.
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Uhm, yeah. Just about everything already suggested:
Nested navigation
Updated PMM (Phat4X?)
Better database handling (PMM has to constantly be babysat)
OGG tags for FLAC (Phat4X)
PhatVoice/PhatSort/mark-for-deletion integration with Phat4X
Addition of a USB/Ethernet port to add/remove/manipulate music while on the go
LBA48 support
Notice the first line (and of course most important): nested navigation. That would be great. Also, the ability to go forward/back 10 entries at once.
I've wanted more out of the hacked PB ever since the first hacks were successful. It seems that the folks with the know-how have been busy with other things since then. Perhaps we need a way to entice people with the development and/or hardware knowledge to step up and begin producing new features?
I really feel for the people asking for text support for non-Kenwood HUs. I was squarely in that camp (BMW factory navi) until I decided "F it" and went the Kenwood HU route. It also helped Kenwood had a great product refresh just out at the time doing everything I wanted in a HU (the DDX-8017). I mostly navigate now by pressing the "LIST" button and waiting for my playlists (up to 255) to be populated graphically in the list format. Whenever I want a playlist I can read the name and just hop to it. I know I'm in the small minority of folks out there with this capability. Unfortunately it's very slow to populate, but I doubt we can do any modifications to the PB alone that would speed up that process.
I think we should focus on mods that would affect the greatest number of people (ie: everyone). While adding text for non Kenwood HUs incorporates a large sub-section of forum-goers, I think features that would serve everyone would be more useful at first.
Interestingly I've still never filled up my original 60GB DMS. Mostly I stay away from lumping all of my music onto the DMS because of the poor management software (PMM) and the nightmare of a navigation issue I'd have with the current feature set. I don't know how you guys do it: even with all of the myriad suggestions on how to organize music (and I've read them all on these forums for ~3 years now) I'm just like Prince: never satisfied.
John
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I'd like to see the community develop support for new codecs, including the various flavours of AAC, etc.
Also, surely, the most important function of this forum is to provide support to Phatbox newbies when Phatnoise let them down.
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I'm an Audi PB user (self - installed) and a computer "hacker" (not the malicious kind). My interests in this board are:
1. I recently bought a Kenwood HU for my other car and am interested in putting a keg/other compatible PB in too.
2. Using one music manager instance for an Audi PB and a Kenwood Keg.
3. Player Usibility/UI enhancements (SSA/VIOT)
4. DIY DMS size upgrades
5. Cable pinouts/How-Tos to integrate Sirius Satellite into the Audi factory head/PB combo
Great board, keep up the good work!
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I would like some better voice prompts, that about the only thing I am not totally happy with
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Paul,
As I have a VW Phatbox and am satisfied with the size of the original DMS, I have not had the pleasure of using the hack disk, until that time arises I will probably not hack my box. From other posts I am aware there is a seperate hack disk for VW Phatboxes that is being worked on, I would like to see that finished. For the future I don't have a clue and never will if my account is deleted..... :'(
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I thought I had replied to this thread already, and my post was mainly a thank you and please don't delete my account request. But since I can't find that post (maybe it was deleted by the moderator as insufficient), and I want to retain access to the forums, I will try again.
Here is my Phatbox "would like to do" list:
1. Retain access to the forums because I visit here often, but I have not assimilated all the information available here yet.
2. Be able to use VOIT with my PIE Kenwood to GM adapter. I don't have a scan button, only disc +, ff, rev, track -, track +, and I can't figure out how to go into VOIT mode.
3. Try out the Kenwood Kenwood KCA-R70FM RF modulator I bought as a phatbox controller.
4. Reflash the VW phatbox I have into a Kenwood phatbox.
Most of this list probably just requires better understanding on my part, so I would like to retain access to the forums to continue to learn. I do try to contribute what little help I can, and have posted my experiences to the forums. So please retain my account. Thanks.
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I'm an Audi PB user (self - installed) and a computer "hacker" (not the malicious kind). My interests in this board are:
1. I recently bought a Kenwood HU for my other car and am interested in putting a keg/other compatible PB in too.
2. Using one music manager instance for an Audi PB and a Kenwood Keg.
3. Player Usibility/UI enhancements (SSA/VIOT)
4. DIY DMS size upgrades
5. Cable pinouts/How-Tos to integrate Sirius Satellite into the Audi factory head/PB combo
Great board, keep up the good work!
I've already done the #5 on your list. Email me for details!
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I think it should continue as a replacement to the (now-removed) Phatnoise support forums. It was users helping users, for the most part, there as it is here.
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Browsing this thread, I'm seeing lots of great software suggestions, some "pie-in-the-sky" hardware modifications, and some stuff I'd never use, but all in all, an awesome list of items.
There's a wealth of info here and the effort put forth to get to where we are is amazing.
My short list of items I'd like to see improved would be:
- Refining the hack disk so that it's fool-proof, esp for vw/audi units (This might have been done, i haven't checked lately.) One reason I haven't upgraded is the apparent issues that some vw/audi owners have had w/ upgrading.
- Better voice prompts (16k?), more complete subs files, etc. I see that todd1010 has tried out the Neospeech voice generator, but that (maybe) the voices require conversion to be used w/ the Phatnoise.
I'm not a linux guru and have no programming skillz, but I can see how much potential this project has, the results so far have been jaw dropping.
One other thing that *might* be nice is if some of the knowledge gained here was incorporated into future revisions of the Phatbox. Although I suspect this would start to kill any opensource aspect of it. I just don't know if there's resources here to really steer hardware modification/direction/progression. Seems like something that Harmon-Kardon would have to invest in, now that they own Phatnoise. :-/
-Steveo
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I think it would be cool to have a WiFi connection to the Phatbox. You could pull into the garage and the PhatNoise software would recognize your DMS without pulling it from the car. That would be cool.
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Hi everybody. I am so interested about this forum because i can´t read mp3 files in my bmw. I am thinking to buy a vw phatnoise and change the firmware to bmw. Actually is the 9.0. But i don´t know if this change will work fine. Please can you help me? About phat4x I am so interested.
Thanks from Spain.
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On penalty of being deleted...... >:(
It would be nice to have an option to, when in Album/Artist mode, to group those Albums/Artists that have less than x number of songs into "Various" Album/Artist.
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Hmmm..
I've been lurking in the forum for quite sometime now... Thanks for all the help everyone, very appreciated..
Now, anybody would have to courage to dive into the PB firmware itself?
I have the VW one and love it as it is, but it would be really helpful if we tweaked it a little bit.. Here's an idea...
I wish I could browse albums, but only among those that are in my smooth playlist for example... Not being forced to browse through the first playlist by default...
What do you guys think?
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As the "official" Phatnoise Forum is gone... I would sure love for this forum to stick around and help people address various Phatbox/Phatnoise issues... and not just "hacking" it.
But since I haven't had my VW Phatbox all that long I haven't gotten all that annoyed with the current features to think of some changes.
But I do hate the current way of browsing.
How do I get of the things like "car talk"... I searched using Windows Explorer and can't find where they are stored.
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A fully functional Linux linux version of PMM would be pretty sweet - and I see it's already in the works!
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If there's any doubt, I'll make another vote that this forum should continue to exist, especially since the 'official' ones went away.
For the Phatbox itself, I like the direction that Phat4X is going. PMM has too many nits. The Phat4X support forums are great.
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Hi Paul,
Well, here's my two cents...
The forum has also done a good job of encouraging people to connect boxes for, say, a VW, to a different vehicle / head unit. When people change cars every 2 or 3 years this is a real benefit. Of course, it may not be what Phatnoise or the vehicle brands want us to do - I am sure they would rather we buy a new box. And of course with the relatively cheap VW boxes that are available, someone may be losing out somewhere. But my view is that those if us that hack these things are the smalll minority of users, who then go out and evangelise about the product. The efect could very well be that more "official" PB installations then get sold.
I have just about finished hooking a VW box up to my Volvo S80. I will be happy to post some more details of the wiring etc when I'm done.
Regards,
Les.
I'll double that. How to get your VW/Audi PB to work with aftermarket units.........
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Hi,
I just joined this forum and it contains lots of great information but what I would like to see is perhaps a section somewhere on the forum that would tell newbies like me what headunits the Phatbox can be used with. I realize that Phatnoise has an application matrix, but that list is now 2 years old and does not include 2005 and 2006 cars not to mention any aftermarket radios.
Of course, I am speaking from experience as I have joined this forum to post to see if I can even use a Phatbox within my new 2005 Audi. I have searched this forum as well as other forums and have been able to get some information but nothing definitive to say whether the Phatbox will or will not work with my OEM radio.
I believe a section expanding on Phatnoise's application matrix along with hardware recommedations would greatly help newbies such as myself when searching the forum for information. That aside, I am disappointed that VW/Audi has discontinued the sale of Phatbox :(. Thanks.
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Hi,
I just joined this forum and it contains lots of great information but what I would like to see is perhaps a section somewhere on the forum that would tell newbies like me what headunits the Phatbox can be used with. I realize that Phatnoise has an application matrix, but that list is now 2 years old and does not include 2005 and 2006 cars not to mention any aftermarket radios.
Of course, I am speaking from experience as I have joined this forum to post to see if I can even use a Phatbox within my new 2005 Audi. I have searched this forum as well as other forums and have been able to get some information but nothing definitive to say whether the Phatbox will or will not work with my OEM radio.
I believe a section expanding on Phatnoise's application matrix along with hardware recommedations would greatly help newbies such as myself when searching the forum for information. That aside, I am disappointed that VW/Audi has discontinued the sale of Phatbox :(. Thanks.
You could start a Wiki page on that... try http://wiki.phathack.com/Interoperability
Sam
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I would like to be able to enable the voice navigation functions that were part of the VW unit I bought and converted to a Kenwood HU. Since this function is part of the unit I bought I should be able to use it even when connected to a Kenwood without having to pay another $75.
Pete B
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Hmmm...did you pay full price for the VW box and the functionality? Or did you get a box for $175, convert it to a Keg, and now want it to do $600 worth of work for $175? ;)
(just giving you a hard time)
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Additional functions on the Phatbox would be nice. For example, I think a simple one woul'd be a way to display the remaining play time.
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I'm new to all this too.
I'll be installing a Kenwood Excelon KDC-X689 in my car this afternoon/weekend (but no Phatbox).
Do any of these hacks apply to the ACDrive (mCD) cd's that are created with Media Manager?
Is there a way to auto-sync with my podcast downloads from iTunes?
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I'm not sure how long it will take to get Phat4X up to the same functionality level as some more mature products, but wouldn't it make sense to just develop a plug-in for a product that already exists? It's been a long time since I've used J. River's Media Center, but after taking a quick look at their site, http://www.jrmediacenter.com/, it looks like they continue to improve their product.
I searched their forum a while back and it seemed that the main obstacle was with the signing of playlists. Isn't that something that Phat4X is capable of now? If so, couldn't the code from that be used to create a plug-in for something like Media Center?
Sean
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I have not been the forum much but a couple of things if not already there and I just have not found them yet.
1. Better definitions of what all this is. Meaning - Phat4X, its benefits, its limitations, spelled out requirements for operation etc.
2. VOIT that would work within a playlist against a song title. Would be helpful when in random mode.
Thanks and great work
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2. VOIT that would work within a playlist against a song title. Would be helpful when in random mode.
huh?
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I would like to see phat 4x with more features.Also I would like to see this community stay together forever! I love you guys :'(
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I would make this forum pretty much an info page.
There needs to be more places to say "Cool, it worked or "Oops it didn't".
The truly cool thing would be to have open source Phatbox firmware.
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A small external text display would be nice. Currently I have to interrupt the playback by pressing "scan" to find out who the artist/track is.
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You can have that if you get/have a Keg. I used to have it myself.
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Now that I have got a hacked box and loads of CDs loaded up, high on my list of "would like to have" items is nested navigation of the database.
Currently once an album, artist or genre is selected, then the forward or previous commends revert to stepping tracks. If you have many CDs by the same artist, or within a genre then this is a pain. I would like to have a way to select a genre, and then make that selection stick while I then select from the albums within that genre. Maybe then make that stick and slect a track from within that album.
Or I may want to select an artist, and then after listening for a while, choose another album from the same artist. Currently pressing next will always select the next track, or if in artist mode, then the next artist. But as far as I can see there is no short way to select the next album by the same artist. Playlists help a little, but they are not ideal for this, really being track based.
I wondered if this was set up in phatbox.ini but is does not appear to be, so I assume that the underlying menu structure is at a lower level (is this known / hackable?), and that phatbox.ini just adapts this to the different head units.
One thing is for sure - there are plenty of ideas from the forum memers. The challenge will be to determine which are practical, which are just pipe-dreams, and which we might actually try to accomplish.
Les.
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A Backup feature.
As long as I understand, the hack requires the old, good DMS to copy from it the information that will written in the new one. Well: Is it possible to keep that read information? Because if (like me) you dont have the old DMS hard disk anymore and the new one one day quits....
Maybe the solution is already around. Any advice?
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I think the hack CD/floppy routine creates a backup of the data it copies from the original DMS to the new drive. That backup would be on the original DMS or course, but if you don't have it anymore, you could just use a low level disk utility like DD to get a copy of the data off of your new drive.
Also, the earlier versions of the hack only disabled the hard drive sig check and I think the rc.sh sig check. The data in the "hidden" area of the DMS was still needed during booting for even more checks, and that is what is copied from the original DMS to the new drive. Newer versions of the hack go deeper and seem to disable all of the checks that require that hidden data, so it appears that none of that hidden data is needed at all anymore, although AFAIK, this hasn't actually been completely verified yet, but the big brains are working on it. ;)
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Here are some of my ideas:
Circuit redesign for video addition to music keg
full os for music keg
high resolution audio support (ie.. flac @ 24bit and from 48khz to 192khz)
dvd audio (mlp support) with or without watermark identifier (doesn't matter)
wavepak support, ape support,
vob support
ide hard drive support
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Here are some of my ideas:
Circuit redesign for video addition to music keg
full os for music keg
high resolution audio support (ie.. flac @ 24bit and from 48khz to 192khz)
dvd audio (mlp support) with or without watermark identifier (doesn't matter)
wavepak support, ape support,
vob support
ide hard drive support
most of those are not possible due to the low speed of the processor but....
You can already do IDE Hard drives.. that's what the DMS is, if you mean 3.5" drives, you should be able to buy an adaptor to make that work as well... the only difference is in the size of the cable
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I think the hack CD/floppy routine creates a backup of the data it copies from the original DMS to the new drive. That backup would be on the original DMS or course, but if you don't have it anymore, you could just use a low level disk utility like DD to get a copy of the data off of your new drive.
Also, the earlier versions of the hack only disabled the hard drive sig check and I think the rc.sh sig check. The data in the "hidden" area of the DMS was still needed during booting for even more checks, and that is what is copied from the original DMS to the new drive. Newer versions of the hack go deeper and seem to disable all of the checks that require that hidden data, so it appears that none of that hidden data is needed at all anymore, although AFAIK, this hasn't actually been completely verified yet, but the big brains are working on it. ;)
The data is backed up in the backup folder of the original DMS (including the DD data of the private area of the drive that we use to make new DMS's with.. thats how that process works if I recall correctly. but I may have removed that in a newer script, i forget. check in that folder, it SHOULD be there.) If it isn't I'll readd it to my script. You can also make your own backup using the windows version of DD linked in the DMS hack forum and following the dd instructions for the method we posted prior to the hack CD.. its on the wiki.
Data has to be there, the structure has to be right but I don't think we can use any drive layout yet. Sam?
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Data has to be there, the structure has to be right but I don't think we can use any drive layout yet. Sam?
I can boot my boxes without the signature and with the partition starting on the first available block... I also have two audi phatboxes now, and I'll try it with the too.
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Sam, the issue here is that we've distributed 4 patchers since we started.. so I think some people may not be able to turn off all those checks yet. I know one of my kegs was done with just the 0.2 patcher and it requires the sig to be there.. and the sig has to be valid, you can't change any data inside it. the serial numbers dont have to match though.
So we need to find out if the latest patcher will disable that for everyone and then release an updated patch that removes the DMS copy method, which would rock!
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All we need to do is run the latest patcher... it won't hurt anything