Dane-Elec and their Custom European Firmware

Err0r · 12-26-2006

Attention! The Meizu miniPlayer distributed by Dane-Elec in Europe under the name "Meizu by Dane-Elec" has a special customized firmware where:

The volume limit is set to 33 rather than 40. This is to comply with European volume regulations.
The FM Radio is disabled. This is to bypass an import tax of 10% that the EU has on devices with FM Radio.

Upgrading the Meizu by Dane-Elec with official Meizu Firmware will remove the volume limit and enable FM Radio but will result in the voiding of the warranty. Therefore, Meizu advices you not to upgrade/change the firmware.

w3rd · 12-26-2006

This does officially suck.
On the other hand, since they will provide their own updates, I think there is no way of knowing I flashed with the meizu firmware.

cheezum · 12-26-2006

That's weird, the reseller (in the Netherlands) told me this has no impact on the warranty. In fact the advised me to use the firmware from Meizu.
Were did you get this info Err0r?

Err0r · 12-26-2006

Originally Posted by Err0r

Therefore, Meizu advices you not to upgrade/change the firmware.

See news item above.

w3rd · 12-26-2006

cheezum.
I bought mine at divxplayer.nl and they told me to use the meizu firmware.

I got an email from dane-elec today:
""3) Yes. An update of the firmware without agreement of DANE-ELEC will void the guarantee."

on the other hand: I read in the meizu forum that the "important tips" on the miniplayer state to visit meizu.com for firwareupgrades. Even with the dane-elec firmware. That looks like an agreement to me...

Meizu5689 · 12-26-2006

What if!!! You change the firmware to meizu firmware and if it breaks or you wanna return it. change it back to dane elec....

cheezum · 12-26-2006

Fortunately the player did work after the FW upgrade. But where do I find the Dane-Elec FW? The support-site of Dane-Elec pretty much sucks.

marcelo1251 · 12-26-2006

I dont think it keeps some sort of history in the board but anyway, hope everybody think about this twice before upgrading and avoiding warranty.

BuLLiT · 12-26-2006

too late, i updated my firmware, and i have to say it was worth it :D

Pascallo92 · 12-27-2006

Is there any case it didn't work? I didn't hear about one...

Rossi46 · 12-27-2006

hi people i have had my for nearly 2 weeks and was on the point off taking it back......untill i found out how to do the new firmware.now i am well happy sound to wake the dead and the radio works what more can a man want.why not do that first time round.i dread to think of how many people have taken it back to media markt totally disapointed.or who may not have inter net access.

XMagic · 12-27-2006

I was wondering about how they will prove that you have ever updated your firmware after a hard reset. I mean a hard reset is the most obvious way to solve a problem with your player and after that they can't determine whether you've updated or not, can they?

Pascallo92 · 12-27-2006

I think they can, if you format your harddisk it's also possible to get the data back. Anyway it's unprobably ((<-- cant remember the right word)) that the firmware update crashs the player.

RoLL · 12-27-2006

Hi everybody

So is there some people who can clarify this point

Can we update a "Dan Elec" M6 mini player with official firmware to recover the radio function, and if some people do this, feedback well be very appreciated
Living in France, these informations are very important for me regarding where i'm going to order a M6 player in a couple of days.

Thanks

XMagic · 12-27-2006

I don't think they make so much trouble out of a broken miniplayer ... I mean this player just costs 200 dollar and to recover this data from a formated harddisk there is a special procedure needed that is very expensive, more than the player at all, so I don't believe they're searching for deleted data

marcelo1251 · 12-27-2006

Originally Posted by RoLL

Can we update a "Dan Elec" M6 mini player with official firmware to recover the radio function, and if some people do this, feedback well be very appreciated
Thanks

You can update your player and get the radio back as well as remove the volume restriction BUT you can be voiding your warranty, so this means, if something happens with your player and you turn it back with the Meizu Firmware or one of the mods posted in here... you're screwed, Dane-Elec won't fix it, nor replace it.

12-28-2006

Originally Posted by Err0r

Attention! The Meizu miniPlayer distributed by Dane-Elec under the name "Meizu by Dane-Elec" has a special customized firmware where:
The volume limit is set to 33 rather than 40. This is to comply with European volume regulations.

The FM Radio is disabled. This is to bypass an import tax of 10% that the EU has on devices with FM Radio.

Upgrading the Meizu by Dane-Elec with official Meizu Firmware will remove the volume limit and enable FM Radio but will result in the voiding of the warranty. Therefore, Meizu advices you not to upgrade/change the firmware.

Is there some official notice I can check? Because my Dane-Elec has a working FM radio and it also has volume up to 40. I received mine through Walgreens.com in the U.S.

marcelo1251 · 12-28-2006

This is only for UE regulations, so if you bought from Walgreens.com there's no restriction on volume nor radio.

12-28-2006

Originally Posted by XMagic

I was wondering about how they will prove that you have ever updated your firmware after a hard reset. I mean a hard reset is the most obvious way to solve a problem with your player and after that they can't determine whether you've updated or not, can they?

I write firmware for a living. For three different companies this was always true: an end user or a technician can always read the firmware version number.

The firmware is likely not on the flash card but on its own much smaller flash device so as not to use up your flash card. Also this would isolate it from formatting (though you could isolate it by reserving sectors too). If you wipe the flash card the device can still boot right? If it can boot, that is because it has some or all of firmware on it still.

In short, I don't think you can hide the fact that you upgraded the firmware unless you reloaded the original firmware on top, which you could probably do if you could find it somewhere.

jvander59 · 12-28-2006

You can update your player and get the radio back as well as remove the volume restriction BUT you can be voiding your warranty, so this means, if something happens with your player and you turn it back with the Meizu Firmware or one of the mods posted in here... you're screwed, Dane-Elec won't fix it, nor replace it.

Well I understand this point of view but I don't think that could be so easy. Here is food for thought :

When you buy a meizu miniplayer on the internet, do you receive a "Legal Information & Notices" document that prevents you from updating your firmware from an other official source (meizu.com) ?

When you buy a meizu miniplayer on the internet, are you supposed to go to Dane-Elec website and read their so called "warranty procedures" since Dane-Elec is not your direct supplier ?

Moreover, if you look carefully to your not-updated Dane-Elec meizu miniplayer , you could read this particulare comment in the "important tips" section : "Please access www.meizu.com to upgrade the player with the latest software"