Firmaware Hack for Samsung DVD-P171 (add DivX sub. lang.)

[david2tm]

I've that player.
Now, I want to see DivX movies with subtitles.
I've them both, but subtitles is in Hebrew language.
This DVD player don't have Hebrew fonts for subtitles.
Is there any way to add them thru firmware hack?!

PS
there's firmware which add Arabic language, which is also language written from right to left, so... only thing needed is to change glyphs of fonts on firmware.

[Krispy Kritter]

You will need to find a firmware with the needed fonts. This isn't really a hack, it is altering the firmware. Your best bet would be to contact Samsung and see if they have a firmware for your player/region with the appropriate subtitles.

[david2tm]

Krispy Kritter, thanx
I already done that. the answer was "lame":

Hello David. Thanks for your request.

Your model DVD-P171 supports divx codecs and subtitles which using
for play PC movie file for many customers' convenience to play.But the Divx
codecs and Divx subtitles made so many different ways and keep increasing.

Unfortunately, we can not support all the codecs and subtitles to install all
home DVD players.

Most PC codecs and subtitles are costomized by small groups or personal
users without following Licence Law. So we can only support licenced and
contracted one to our product.


If you want to play and read unknown video codec and subtitle file then you
can check the file by "VirtualDub" and convert to our supporting codec file and
insert subtitle into movie file. After that you may solve all the problem for DIVX
or XIVD files to play with your model.

Please contact our branch office if you have any problem on your DVD Player.

by saying firmware with needed fonts, you mean firmware for another player which have that fonts?

[Krispy Kritter]

I was simply referring to finding a firmware for your player which already has those fonts (hacked or from another region), but you already know that.

I've only seen a few firmwares that have ever been altered in the way you are wanting in all the years that I've been following video hardware. And those were for very popular players (such as the Philips DVP642) that had a very large following and worth someones time to alter. It's not a simple process.

Your best bet would be to find a player that already supports the font that you need or alter your video files (as noted in your email response above).

[jman98]

Arabic has over 180 million speakers (many estimate it to be over 200 million, but accurate numbers seem hard to get) and Hebrew has about 15 million estimated speakers, so unless someone who speaks Hebrew wants to do the work required, I doubt that Samsung considers it worthwhile to support Hebrew subtitles in Divx when Divx playback is not the primary purpose of the player. Playing DVDs is the primary purpose of the player. You can always convert the Divx files to DVD as your subtitles will work there or watch them on a PC.

Krispy Kritter is absolutely correct that such firmware hacks are very rare. The only one I ever saw was one for the Portuguese language, which only has a few accent marks that aren't used in English. I've never seen one done where support was added for a language that wasn't supported at all before.

[david2tm]

jman98, the number of speakers is really irellevant
since adding new ABC, is only adding glyphs. and i mentioned arabic - because it uses right to left system too.

Krispy Kritter, from a programmer point of view, fonts, are simple images residing in that firmware file. the problem, is to find there and find how.

if only i had an example of this being done to another samsung player....

[Krispy Kritter]

And programmers use tools specialized for whatever they are working on.

You are going to find a tools specifically for working with firmware. All of the firmware work i've seen referenced is all done by trial and error editing hex code. While that may be acceptable for turning options on/off or changing the font color, you won't be able to add a whole new alphabet that way.

If you want to play around with it, more power to you.

Good luck.

[jman98]

jman98, the number of speakers is really irellevant
since adding new ABC, is only adding glyphs. and i mentioned arabic - because it uses right to left system too.

It's NOT irrelevant at all. If there aren't enough speakers of a language to justify the costs to support it, it won't be done. Hint - that might be why you have the problem you do, but if you want to believe otherwise, go ahead. There's an awful lot of circumstantial evidence that I'm right, but you can believe what you want. It's still not going to change things for you.

If "adding glyphs" is as easy as you think it is, then surely you are going to reverse engineer the firmware yourself and do it, right? After all, it's only "adding glyphs" so surely this must be trivial.

[Midzuki]

jman is correct, the problem is bigger than just
"to add more glyphs". Displaying non-ASCII characters
requires a) appropriate handling of the "codepage hell"
that dwells within the ASCII's 8-bit extension, or b)
appropriate handling of "printable" UTF-8 or "binary"
Unicode-text, or c) both things --- not to mention
some more megabytes for storing jumbo-sized font files.

***************

[david2tm]

sorry.. wanted to wright "change" instead of "add"

my idea was to change manually glyphs of arabic to those of hebrew.
i think, they are stored as simple bitmaps. i'm student of electronics, writing those firmware - is what i learn, the "only" difference, our labs hardware is cheap altera processors.
in altera, if i want to create "glyphs", i will store them in memory as bitmaps. and changing them is realy simple. then, just appropriate ascii symbol of arabic, will be changed to that of hebrew.
but you right, the only they - as it seems now - is by trial

i thought, may be someone already done something like that. and have clue on that.

google can't help, or, more likely, i don't know how to ask

PS.
XORO players have support for hebrew. and adding support for new ABC is really cheap. no more then hour of work. especially if arabic language is supported. after all arabic and hebrew are very similar unlike politics

[kingfire]

sorry for bumping this old topic, but where can I find the Arabic firmware for this player?

[david2tm]

From Samsung's site of OAE.
I actually saw it there.

[kingfire]

^^^You mean Samsung "UAE" site?
I really need that firmware.

thank you.

[david2tm]

yes

[kingfire]

yes

you mean specifically this page?:
http://www.samsung.com/ae/support/download/supportDown.do?group=audiovideo&type=dvd&su...ia_cd=03010600

if this is what you meant, then I've tried both Firmwares, they both don't support Arabic subtitle, the only way that I can watch movies with arabic subtitle on that player is use xsubs, which is painfull and doesn't work quite well.

but if this is not the page you were talking about, refer me to the firmware that you're talking about.

and sorry for bothering you with my annoying replays.

thanks in advance.

[david2tm]

http://www.samsung.com/ae/support/download/supportDownDetail.do?group=audiovideo&type=...047&prd_ia_cd=

[kingfire]

this is the firmware I currently use, and I'm sure it doesn't support Arabic subtitle, in fact, I've never put my hand on a DVD Player that plays Arabic subtitle. they all failed.

well, I'm thinking of modding the firmware myself(I know some idiots here will say :"OMG!! IT'S SO ******* HARD!! NO YOU CAN'T!! GET A LIFE INSTEAD OR BUY AN OTHER PLAYER!!!, well, I don't give a damn about your lame unhelpful opinion, so keep it to yourself.), I'd really like to know how can I do it myself and where I must start.

[david2tm]

I was pretty sure there was arabic support. But may be I was mistaken.
The easy way is to find support for language which is written from right to left like Arabic and Hebrew, and then replace glyphs of fonts.
It will be easy if ANSI is used, if Unicode - it will not work.

Easiest way... is to ask Samsung to give spec. of firmware file format - but they wouldn't...

For me... I gave up in December 2007, and bought Apple TV, hacked it - and now can see AVI, DivX, XviD with Hebrew/Russian/Hebrew subs. It also have HDMI connection - so DVD-P171 forgotten.

[DenysBoss40]

dvd-p171 firmware 8)

http://www.samsung.com/download/Model_Select.aspx?type=DVD+Player&typecode=3&subtype=S...e=FM&language=