Skinning/ Themeing FAQ

[alienshards]

well; here's some FAQ so maybe we won't get so many repeat questions.


WARNING:: SKINNING HAS THE CAPACITY TO RENDER YOUR PLAYER AN EXPENSIVE BRICK. Do everything at your own risk. Only you are responsible if anything happens. YOUR WARRENTY WILL BE VOID*
* see FAQ 6



1. How do i Skin/ theme?
answer: use H3mod, made by Lord Julius. found here. This program uses the .net framework, which can be found here, use the search and search for .net. Because of this, however, H3mod doesn't work on Macs.

be sure to read the help file. it does help. it's not long either

additional information can be found at the current h3mod sticky, or here for now.

URLs -
http://www.cerebus.de/iriver
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/s...displaylang=en
H3Mod 1.4 is out

2. How do i edit images for H3mod?
answer:
there are many image editing softwares avalible. Windows comes with Microsoft paint, which i personally thing sucks. Most programs, however, cost money, although you can find trial versions of them at the company's website. Free programs usually lack advanced tools
here are some programs:

FREE-
picasa 2 by google - this one is mainly an image searching software, but it does have basic editing tools on it. Note: it contacts google, so you may not want to use it. privacy issues?
PhotoPlus5.5- This one includes advance tools. Don't really see a reason not to use this one.
GIMP- GIMP, free image editing software.
Paint.Net - Paint.Net is supported by Microsoft and coded by Washington State University students. It has quite a bit of functionality, but is currently still in the beta stage. This is intended by microsoft to supplant Paint, and has layer support, etc. This requires the .NET framework to work. It's pretty much on par with older versions of Paint Shop Pro. However, you can only work with one image at a time.




google search will yeild many more.

`note: i have only used picasa, which i uninstalled because i did not need. i cannot say if the others are good.
These will probably be sufficient for your needs, but if you need something better, then here are two programs with trials .

FREE TRIAL (pay to use after trial expires, or uninstall then.)
JASC paint shop pro - 60 day trial avalible; they make the link for the trial small thuough, might have to dig around. Less complicated than photoshop, but also less powerful. $120 to buy .
Adobe Photoshop CS - 30 day trial; you need to become a member to use this; it's free to become a member. More powerful than Photoshop, it's also more complicated. $600 some to buy.

If you are new to all image editing; i'd suggest getting one of the free ones (not picisa, which is more an image searcher) and playing around with it before you try editing any images for your iriver.


URLs-
http://www.picasa.com/index.php
http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/serif/ph/ph5/index.asp
http://www.gimp.org/
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search
http://www.jasc.com/products/paintshoppro/?
http://www.adobe.com/products/tryado...jsp#product=39



3. How can i change _____ Image, it's not in H3mod
answer: images are found in H3mod through the use of advanced mode. People have to scroll through the firmware and search for images. Some images (like the dancing blue balance bars) are probably buried in firmware and thus uneditable. Others (like the battery empty one) have been found, but the pallates have not. Both pallates and images must be found for an image before it can be safely changed.

4. How do i use Advanced mode in H3mod?
Answer: You need to turn on advance mode. Read the Help file to know how to (i'm not going to give people information about how to use this if that means they won't read the help file.)
One thing i will say is, there is no separate window for H3mod advanced mod. Use the same main window and the shortcut keys mentioned in the help file.
the image on the right will change, and use this to search for images.
most important for this is to read the help file, which does a nice job of explaining it.

5. why do some images look different in h3mod?
Answer: various reasons. Most common are:
1. you have edited shared pallate images without using the shared pallate. This can be found in the help file which you haven't read yet, right? .
2. It's too many colors. the colors required can be found on the bottom left of the screen when you've clicked a bookmark.

H3mod will load the images, it will just cut off the extra colors, which is why it looks weird. Wrong sized images are also loaded this way, by cutting to the right size.

5. Where is the Help File?
answer: right of the menus. It says Help. click it, and go to help topics. Quick refrence will show you shortcut keys.

6. Will Skinning void my warrenty?
Answer: Yes, because you would be flashing your player with Unofficial firmware. However: if your player does not turn on, they cannot tell if it has unofficial firmware or not.
Note you can flash back with a clean firmware and your player will go back to not being skinned.

`note that for non-firmware related problems they may honor the warrenty. This is entirely thier choice. Expect your warrenty to completely dissapear, and be happy if parts of it remain.

7. How do i use transparency?
answer: to use transparency, use the color bright pink 255 R,0 B,255 G This doesn't Work on every image however. There is no current list of images in which transparency work/ don't

8. Can skinning/ theming be reversed?
answer: yes and no.

For US h300s= yes, although you will loose DRM* key and DRM ability. basically, if you've flashed the firmware, you'll have lost DRM abilities. However, using the h300.hex file from medula will restore your player to near- original function, but without DRM function.

* DRM stands for digital rights managment and is used with music you buy from, say, napster. Also, certain CDs may require you use Windows Media Player to burn them to your comptuer, and require you to use DRM.

For international h300s*= yes. just flash with a clean firmware.

* i have no idea a bout lite versions. if the lite version was on US firmware originally, then it is a US h300.

9. Can Animated GIFs be used in skins/ themes?
answer: no. Skinning can only change pictures. Animated GIFs aren't just pictures.

10. Can I change the size or shape of an image?
answer: no; that is written into the firmware.

11. Can the background color(navi screen) be changed?
answer: no. it's been written into the firmware as code, not an image



Hope these will help you start skinning.

(note: i hardly think i'm qualified to write this... i just thought we needed one. i've asked some of these questions. so if anyone sees something wrong or that needs to be added, PM me and i'll edit this. And the best source for advanced info on h3mod is Lord Julius, who made the program.)

[Ego]

To set transparancy, use bright pink (255, 0, 255).

Save your work often.

To take images from video, both VirtualDub and VirtualDubMod have functions to put a frame onto the clipboard (so you can paste it into a photo editing program).

To upload your completed skin to the website, compress the entire folder to a .zip, less the font folder (if you change a font, delete from the font folder the ones you did not change and add the folder to the .zip). There are instructions for uploading your file under 'Downloads/Gallerey' at the top of the Misticriver page.

-EGO

[alienshards]

bump. this isn't much use at the bottome of the page.

[Praz]

Shouldn't this be stickied? It's helpful information that a lot of people ask questions about when they start looking into skinning.

Thanks for putting this together alienshards.

[alienshards]

bump. A sticky would be nice...

anyways: occasionally i'm editing it to add in more. so if you think of something that should be on there, PM me.

[alienshards]

bump. STICKKKY!!!!!!

[alienshards]

bump. anyone know how i can get this stickied?

[andrewmel]

stuck.

a

[I NEED HELP]

how do oyu no if your firmware is fried

[alienshards]

H3Mod will give warning messages if the firmware could be corrupted. If there are warning messages, and you continue to use it your player could display wierd images, or fail to turn on.

[AdmA]

what does INTL version of H320 mean? I bought mine in US but I have flashed with 1.27K firmware. I wish to have my player skinned, but I would like to be able to go back to the default skin later? Will this happen if I just flash with 1.27K again or what? I dont want to fry my baby...

[alienshards]

INTL- international, or non-US version.

if you want to go back to the original skin, you can flash with an unmodded 1.27K hex file and it will be the original skin.

Skinning (if you're already on 1.27K) is reversable, provided you heed any warning messages you get.

[DocMorris]

hi

just wanted to say thanks cause all went like creamy butter
i just own a cute iriver h320 with videosupport and a nice skin!

ThanX a l0t!

[viperboy]

i have a couple questions.

1. can you move the icon? like if you wanted to move the EQ icon to the top of the screen, for example, can you move it?
2. i see the color you have to set an icon for it to be transparent (225,0,225). how do u make it transparent. can you use irfanview?
3. are there ways to make an image transparent at times and not transparent other times? like the "locked" icon, when my h320 is charging, where the "locked" icon is, it is transparent through the white screen, which looks stupid. but when i'm listening to music, it is transparent like it should be. but the a-b button has a white background when i'm listening to music, so it looks transparent on a white background, but when i hit the button to make it shuffle when playing music, the white background goes away, and the SFL icon comes up, and it is transparent.

thanks. any help is appreciated. i hope this is clear cuz it was hard to explain in words.

[monkeyboy67]

1. No...locations are set.
2. On some icons, when placing the hot pink (255,0,255) color, it will show as transparent. On other icons, it will show as hot pink. Most of them will be transparent. So if you have the hot pink as the background and something else as the foreground, only the foreground will show.
3. No.....the image is either transparent or not, but not both.

[alienshards]

the way that transparency is done is strange...

sometimes transparency will not work like expected. however, there is no way to change it.

[alienshards]

This deserves an additional post:

Paint.Net - Paint.Net is supported by Microsoft and coded by Washington State University students. It has quite a bit of functionality, but is currently still in the beta stage. This is intended by microsoft to supplant Paint, and has layer support, etc. This requires the .NET framework to work. It's pretty much on par with older versions of Paint Shop Pro.


I suggest anyone using MS paint to upgrade to this paint. it's free, and it's supported by microsoft. (microsoft provided mentors to the students doing the coding)

this is easier to use than gimp (in my opinion) and unlike other microsoft things, this is open source (at least, i'm pretty sure. correct me if i'm wrong)

((edit))

one downside- only works with one image at a time.



((edit)))
yes, it's open source. shortest microsoft license agreement i've seen...

2004, 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

[sammyduelist]

what are the chances that my player will be damaged or "bricked" if i do this? i just got it and i dont want to destroy it.

[CheeseBurgerMan]

It is not likely, There was one brick with a beta version of H3mod, but since then there have been zero, zip, none.

[ToucanSam]

do we know why it happened?

[Lord Julius]

Since the beta didn't have all the security features H3Mod has now,
it wsa easier to create corrupted firmware. While I don't know exactly,
I guess that the firmware was somehow decrypted twice, resulting in
a complete binary jumble the second time, and that file was then
skinned and used for upgrading. Not possible today, since consistency
with the original firmware is verified before saving.

[andrewmel]

Hmmmm, not sure how I managed to miss m'Lords answer

a