FiiO X5 beta firmware 2.03 download and discussion. One word: Playlists!

After working on users' reports of various problems encountered in the current X5 firmware 2.0 and 2.02, a new beta firmware 2.03beta is now available for download and testing here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/68rmnrz46ze5z5n/X5_FW2.03Beta.zip

Please note the following:

1. This is a development beta. Please consider carefully whether you want to upgrade to it. (You can always downgrade back to 2.0)

2. Problems encountered with this firmware may be posted to this thread--please keep the main X5 thread free from clutter regarding bugs on beta firmware.

3. To avoid public misunderstanding, please refrain from posting about bugs and imperfections of the beta firmware outside this beta firmware discussion thread.

Main points of improvement are as follows:
(and then Joe Bloggs is struck down by a case of all-day explosive diarrhea )

Totally cut-down main POINT of improvement is as follows:
PLAYLISTS AHOY!

Enjoy! More detail to follow tomorrow, after I've hopefully recovered :blink:

Update 24 June:

Instructions for generating playlists for use on the X5 from the computer:
1. As mentioned before, mount the SD card on your PC (e.g. via the X5's storage mode) and import the songs you want playlisted from the SD card to a new list on your player of choice.
2. Export the playlist to an M3U or M3U8 file ON YOUR COMPUTER (e.g. your desktop), not the SD card. This will force the generated playlist to contain full absolute paths for each song as well as a drive letter reference.
3. Open the M3U file in a text editor.
4. If an "#EXTM3U" line is not seen at the top of the file, add it. (without the quotes)
5. Replace all drive letter references (say, "X:") with "TF1:" if the card is to be placed in X5's slot 1, or "TF2:" if in slot 2. (this can be done using a "replace all" action on your text editor)
6. Save the modified file anywhere you like on the card (anywhere where you think it will be easy to find the playlist, e.g. in the root directory or in the same directory where most of the songs themselves are found. Since absolute paths are used the X5 obviously doesn't care where you put them)

Click to expand...

Edit 22 June: here's the full changelog:
The following improvements were made over 2.02beta:

1. Added support for M3U playlists and internally generated playlists.
a) Internally generated playlists
Adding songs: through the "add to playlist [+]" icon in the shortcuts menu of the Now Playing interface.
Browsing / deleting playlists: Playlists are shown in the Play by Category menu and available for browsing and deletion.
b) Externally generated M3U playlists stored on the TF are shown via Browse Files and available for browsing.

2. Improved responsiveness of the player to file browsing when there is a large number of songs loaded onto the X5.

3. Fixed issue where songs of 176.4kHz sample rate could not be output through coaxial digital out.

4. Fixed issue where the X5 shows "Media Lib updating" by mistake when a TF card is removed while the X5 is connected to the PC.

5. Fixed issue where after holding down a volume button in lockscreen mode to skip to a previous / next song, one had to wait 3 seconds before holding down the volume button again to skip again.

6. Fixed issue where changing TF cards while playing a song in the Now Playing screen may cause the X5 to hang.

7. Fixed issues with priority order of album art (embedded art should take precedence).

8. Fixed issue where Now Playing screen does not display album name of CUE files as read from the music file it is attached to.

9. Fixed issue where "total no. of songs" and "no. of songs on TF1" are shown to be the same and "no. of songs on TF2" is shown to be zero when number of songs on TF1 exceeds limit.

10. Fixed issue where songs from CUE files are not shown in "Play all" and "Play by Category" if the TF card is formatted in NTFS.

11. Fixed issue where the artist of a track in a CUE file is shown according to the performer tag "per track" in the CUE file in the Now Playing screen while it is only shown according to the performer tag "for the whole CUE" in the "Play by Category" listings.

12. Tracks defined by CUE that are of "unknown genre" are now sorted according to CUE files.

13. Fixed issue where tracks defined by CUE from a TF card formatted in NTFS that are of "unknown album" could not be shown.

Hi Joe, is it possible any of these firmwares can change the sonic character of the DAP anyway?  LIke possibly improve the sound in any way?  I sometimes read posts of people that say after update, it sounds better.

As far as we can tell, various improvements in sound were made up to firmware 2.0 over 1.x, such as this:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/661411/fiio-x5-thread-info-updated-on-jan-17th-2014/7890#post_10498071

There should be no sonic difference as far as we can tell from 2.02 onwards. (Unless I'm missing something from the 2.03 changelog that I haven't even been able to read yet! )

Installing, will report in a bit.
Nice saturday afternoon for testing

Will install soon, as well. Thanks for posting it, Joe. Hope you feel better soon!

Oh I don't know where to start...
I know is a beta, but my initial feel is that it adds a functionality that makes the player complicated to use.
 
1, When I browse a playlist that was created on the PC, I get a different order, example:
 
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:418,Wilco - I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
01 - I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.flac
#EXTINF:210,Wilco - Kamera
02 - Kamera.flac
#EXTINF:309,Wilco - Radio Cure
03 - Radio Cure.flac
#EXTINF:229,Wilco - War on War
04 - War on War.flac
#EXTINF:232,Wilco - Jesus, Etc.
05 - Jesus, Etc..flac
#EXTINF:284,Wilco - Ashes of American Flags
06 - Ashes of American Flags.flac
#EXTINF:189,Wilco - Heavy Metal Drummer
07 - Heavy Metal Drummer.flac
#EXTINF:236,Wilco - I'm the Man Who Loves You
08 - I'm the Man Who Loves You.flac
#EXTINF:241,Wilco - Pot Kettle Black
09 - Pot Kettle Black.flac
#EXTINF:318,Wilco - Poor Places
10 - Poor Places.flac
#EXTINF:443,Wilco - Reservations
11 - Reservations.flac
 
That is the m3u file.
 
On the player I get the following:
 
02 - Kamera.flac
06 - Ashes of American Flags.flac
03 - Radio Cure.flac
05 - Jesus, Etc..flac
04 - War on War.flac
01 - I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.flac
08 - I'm the Man Who Loves You.flac
07 - Heavy Metal Drummer.flac
09 - Pot Kettle Black.flac
11 - Reservations.flac
10 - Poor Places.flac
 
 
2. In library mode, I only can access the playlist that have been created on the player. I know this is the implementation, but I would expect there all my playlists. 
For example, if a user is more oriented to use the browser mode, to access the playlist created on the player, has to navigate to the library mode, this goes as well for the library mode user oriented, if the user wants to access a playlist created on the computer, has to exit the library mode, go to browser mode and then search for the playlist. For the later is even worse, because an user with two cards, probably won't remember where the folder with that playlist is.
 
I will keep testing, but in resume, first impression, not good, not promising.

Tried playing with the new playlist feature. A few observations so far...

1. Seems like you have to be playing a song to add it to a playlist - similar to the Favorites feature

2. None of the songs I played and tried to add to a playlist were actually added to the playlist - playlist was empty

3. Playlist deletion is not intuitive and requires pushing too many different buttons

4. It does support multiple playlists

5. Not sure if m3u files are supported or just X5 playlists - personally don't use m3u so don't have any to test

I'll try playing more and see if in can get it to work, but my first impressions are that the UI needs some help to make it more intuitive.

reihead: How did you add files to an X5-created playlist in the first place. I browsed to a track in Library mode, clicked upper left button, clicked +, and indicated that I wanted to add to a playlist for a couple songs. Went to the playlist later but the playlist was empty. Baffled!

nmatheis said:

@reihead: How did you add files to an X5-created playlist in the first place. I browsed to a track in Library mode, clicked upper left button, clicked +, and indicated that I wanted to add to a playlist for a couple songs. Went to the playlist later but the playlist was empty. Baffled!

Click to expand...

 
Same process worked for me. Refresh your library and try again

It's working but needs some polishing:

Can only add songs when they are playing.
Can't delete any songs from the playlist

To me these two make it almost difficult to use.

I think it can be implemented, once listing songs the left upper button does not work so they could use it to add songs to playlists. The same goes for when browsing inside of a playlist, the left upper button can bring a menu to delete or even add to the playlist.

How to add folder to playlist?
How to delete song from playlist?
How to delete some playlist?
How to move songs in created playlist?

Can't add folders to playlists
Can't move songs from playlist
Can't delete single song from a playlist.
But you can delete a complete playlist by clicking on the upper left button when displaying playlists.

musicheaven said:

Can't add folders to playlists
Can't move songs from playlist
Can't delete single song from a playlist.
But you can delete a complete playlist by clicking on the upper left button when displaying playlists.

Click to expand...

It's just multiple favourites, not dynamic-playlist =(

Man 2.02 has the best sound I've ever heard so far.  I hope it doesn't change with 2.03 because I really want that playlist.  I CAN TELL using my jh16's, but I left'em at work.

Not sure if its worth to continue testing, too many inconsistencies.

Adding a song comimg from the library indded adds the song at the end of the playlist. Doing the same but coming from browser mode adds the song but NOT at the end of the playlist.

This won't cut it Fiio. Not only needs work, needs to be more powerful.