2008/05/28

Switch the YP-S5 from MTP to UMS

I managed to switch the YP-S5 from MTP to UMS by installing the Korean firmware v1.50. I don't understand why North America and Europe are stuck with the MTP version while Asia and south America get the UMS version. Perhaps Samsung wants to experiment with DRM on a limited scale?

MTP (Media Transport Protocol specific for Windows Mediaplayer) is really not user-friendly:

  • Doesn't work under macos or linux (support through libmtp is still limited). Ubuntu is my main OS .
  • I couldn't get it work under XP ("error mtp device")
  • Does work under Vista, but only after installing the latest patches.

Use at your own risk -- not sure if this voids your warrranty. But the YP-S5 did survive my unsuccesful attempts with the previous firmware v1.07.

Download the asiatic V1.50 version from Samsung Singapore (it's an English site):

http://www.samsung.com/sg/support/download...disp_nm=YP-S5QW

Unzip the file and under Vista, put the S5.rom and Config.dat in the root of the S5. I also put he Config.dat file in the subdirectory SYSTEM/ -- not sure if this is needed, but it doesn't harm... I had some trouble with copy/pasting the files. Drag and drop did however work under Vista.

After unconnecting and starting up the YP-S5, the new firmware is installed. The display shows up in Korean. This is quickly fixed in the Settings/Language menu. The first submenu item allows you to switch the language.

The S5 is now automatically supported under Ubuntu, but with a small issue: two S5 devices are mounted. No big deal...

See also http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30155

UPDATE: Maybe it's not necessary to start from the Asiatic version; the 'original' V1.50 MTP version can also be switched by altering the Config.dat - this info seems unverified, however: http://mp3.generationmp3.com/2008/05...le-samsung-s5/

UPDATE 29/6/2008: apparently, you need a USB 2.0 connection to your YP-S5. See the comment below

1 comment:

ernie said...

Thanks for this wonderful tip - I also managed to get the S5 to work this way. A few additional remarks: you don't need Vista, but you do need XP (with service packs) AND a USB 2.0 port. Otherwise you can't write properly to the S5 in MTP mode - you might need to reformat the S5 to fix its filesystem. The files from the Korean zip have to go directly under s5\data. In MSC mode the device can also be used on a USB 1 port.