I myself own a 512MB MP3/WMA/FM/Voice Recorder unbranded unit and it works great.
#1. The Flashing.
DON'T EVER ATTEMPT FLASHING THOSE DEVICES UNLESS SOMETHING IS WRONG!
If your S1MP3 is broken and it's no longer under warranty, go to http://www.s1mp3.org/en/docs_deadrec.php?P...b1c4dd1f3fa664c for the CORRECT guide to recovering
your player.
#2. The Formatting.
Don't format them unless you run into serious issues. They invented Ctrl+A Shift+Delete you know
If you really need to format them, check for hidden files and back them up first. And for God's sake, DON'T USE WINDOZE TO FORMAT'EM!!! Use SwissKnife. It's free and can save you of a lot of trouble.
#3. Other questions.
I've seen questions about the lyrics display. The lyrics DO work. To be displayed in sync with the song, the lyrics must be in .lrc format, placed in the same folder and with the same name as the music file. Example: Chamillionaire-Ridin'.mp3 together with Chamillionaire-Ridin'.lrc (yeah, i like that rap)
To display the lyrics, press Mode for about 2 sec. (longer than the usual press but shorter than when you need to access the main menu).
(edit) And some more!!! OGG Support!!! You don't know unless you try it. My S1MP3 manual says it supports MP3, MP2, MP1, WMA, WAV, and ASF. I tried MP2. The sound sucks on the PC and the player doesn't recognize it.
I did some conversions of the same song in different formats (MP3 VBR, WMA VBR, MP2 and OGG) to see which sounds best at low bitrates. I forgot my S1MP3 doesn't support OGG and just threw them all in. When i played them: SURPRISE!!! OGG SUPPORT!!! TADA! The OGG file was played without any problems. So try putting an OGG file in your S1MP3, maybe you're lucky too.
Firmware modding. I don't mean upgrading here. As i mentioned earlier, DO NOT UPGRADE THE F/W!!!
I did some modding on my firmware (changed the startup/shutdown screens and a few icons too). The modded firmware works flawlessly and didn't crap my player.
How to do it the right way: Go to http://s1mp3.de and download the latest versions of s1fwx and s1res.
Use the extract.bat file that comes with s1fwx to dump your S1MP3 firmware to PC. Then run repair.bat. Now back up the damn file, you never know when you need it.
Now open your dumped firmware with s1res, edit whatever graphics you want, save it and flash it using the original MP3 Update Tool. If you lost the CD that came with your player, you can also find the update tool on s1mp3.de. Now you're done, enjoy your customized S1MP3.
Hope you get the point now. Note that i'm no expert in those players, i bought mine only about one month ago. If you got something to ask, ask on the S1MP3.org forum. They can help you a lot more than i can.
