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-   -   DIY: Enable video playback on Renault's ICE (Kwid / Lodgy / Duster) (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/car-entertainment/177125-diy-enable-video-playback-renaults-ice-kwid-lodgy-duster.html)

Dear Bhpians, I want to share this tweak with all Renault owners who have the LG MediaNav installed on their cars. I enabled this tweak a few days after I got my car (Kwid), but being the amazing procrastinator that I am, I hesitated posting about it until now. lol:

Anyway, As soon as I got my Kwid, I began to research about the LG unit online. I found out that it is running a heavily skinned version of Windows CE (Not surprising as most OEM's do that anyway). So, I thought that maybe, it might be possible to install a sort of video player to enable video playback on the device, after all the CPU looked more than capable to run 360p or 480p videos. But the problem was, how to access Windows CE that was hidden underneath the OEM and install it.

I found out about Menavrus one day, which is essentially a paid app to enable extra functionality on the MediaNavs but it too was expensive for me, plus I don't have a credit card.

Browsing through many Russian sites and other languages which I have no clue of (thank God for Google Translate), I found out about another software. Medi@Skin, which installs CorePlayer (The Video Player) and a few other softwares. And best of all, it was free, unlike Menavrus. A word of caution: There are a few sites that try to sell Medi@Skin but I think those are false as even Menavrus lists Medi@Skin as Freeware.

Anyway, enough backstory, on with the installation. Requirements for Install -

1. LG MediaNav (Running 4.0.3) - Else you need to downgrade
2. The Medi@Skin Software
3. A Laptop or Desktop to download the file
4. 8GB USB 3.0 Pen Drive or even USB 2.0 will do
5. A little Patience

You will need to visit the Medi@Skin website to download the software. I am providing it here - Medi@Skin Download.

Now, before we proceed any further, you need to check your firmware version, the 1st batch of Kwids came with 4.0.3 firmware, however, the newer ones come with 4.0.4, 4.0.5, and so on. Medi@Skin only works with 4.0.3 firmware.

To people who have firmware versions 4.0.4 and up, you will need to downgrade. For that, you will need this file, which I have uploaded to my G. Drive account (I found this after scouring the net for weeks) - Firmware Downgrade 4.0.3.

Extract the downloaded file. Then, copy it onto a freshly formatted Pen drive, use FAT32, not NTFS or exFAT. Then, insert the pen drive into your MediaNav and boot it up. After a while, the upgrade screen will appear and ask you whether you want to upgrade to 4.0.3 [It says upgrade instead of downgrade, wonder why]. Anyway, accept the prompts and after the downgrade has finished, check your firmware version, you should be on 4.0.3 now.

Now, back to the file we downloaded earlier from Medi@Skin website. You will see two folders. Both of them are essentially the same, however, one of them is for hardcoding the new firmware permanently into the device, while the other is for installing the firmware onto a Pendrive instead. I'm going to be showing you how to install it onto the USB drive instead so that we don't void the warranty on our devices, and the firmware will be installed on the USB drive only.

In Medi@skin_v2_Clé_USB folder, you'll get two sub-folders.

Copy upgrade_root.lgu, CorePlayer, Igo8, Logicel etc. to the rootof your pen drive. Remember, the Pen Drive must be formatted again to FAT32 for this to work.

After this take the pen drive and insert in MediaNav. Turn MediaNav on, after some time an upgrade screen will appear, install the upgrade. After this, the device will reboot and MediaSkin is now installed on your MediaNav.

After that, all you need to do is just convert the videos you want to watch on your Kwid, or Duster or Lodgy and store them on the videos folder on the Pen Drive. Do keep in mind that the processor is ancient (running @ 533MHz if I remember correctly) and the measly 256 MB RAM (again, IIRC) does little to help playing HD videos smoothly.

I've tested it in various resolutions, upto 1080p (a bit too much but wanted to see how much the system could take), and the best one I found is MP4 at 480p with a 2100 bitrate and audio in an Mp3 container, at 128KBps. However, feel free to experiment. I got tired of converting videos in a while and just stopped.

One thing to note, before starting Medi@Skin, remember to play the IAmuet.mp3 file on the Pen Drive in the stock music app so that videos will have sound in Coreplayer. Otherwise, the radio sound will keep on playing in background.

I haven't uploaded any pictures because I feel that installing Medi@Skin is relatively simple. However, I will be more than happy if requested to do so.

Thank you for reading my 1st guide on Team-BHP. I know it's a bit messy but I will keep updating and clean up my post.

Very well said, friend.
This is a tweak that will surely help out a lot of people.

Just for my understanding:
a. Does this operate regardless of vehicle speed?
b. 480p should be a good resolution given the screen size - an image of the same would help others
c. How does one play the audio file you've mentioned while the video plays? Does this system support multi-tasking?

I'm just curious, so asked. I don't have a Renault vehicle with the setup.

Very cool of you to take the pain of sharing this.

Cheers,
Sam

Hi there, thank you so much for taking the time to read through my guide buddy. Answering your questions as follows:

a. This tweak enables the video to keep on playing regardless of vehicle speed.

b. The screen size on our MediaNav is roughly 800x648 pixels (I'm out of station at the moment so can't confirm, roughly estimating), thus while playing 480p videos, we can see black bars on the top, bottom and sides of the display. 640p also is good and removes the black bars to an extent but then the video becomes choppy as the ancient processor is unable to render properly and frame rates drop.

P.S. I will upload a proper picture to give you an estimate when I reach back home day after tomorrow.

c. To play the audio file, we must open music app while in OEM Skin, select our Pen Drive from drop down menu, and play the IAmuet.mp3 file. I think the system does support multi tasking in this respect.

To all those having doubts about how their root directory on Pen Drive should look like, I am posting a screenshot of the same to help ease the install process.

Dear BHPians, we can also change our Medi@Skin theme. Copy and Paste any skins you like into, WolfNCU->Skin

[Dear Mods, Please merge with main thread if possible]

Thank you Wilson for this effort, much appreciated.

I've tested this today a lot & everything except GPS seems to work pretty good but that's a known issue. This project is in continuous development so expect stable releases in future. There are some slight procedural changes i had to make to get it working for me. But there got to be more than one way since it worked for Wilson. I'll list what worked for me & how.

One of the first things i did after bringing the Kwid home was map & firmware update. So before getting to know the technicalities of enabling video, i inadvertently upgraded to 4.0.6. Then i went looking for system access for video playback & came across Menavrus & Mediaskin. The former is paid & the latter needs 4.0.3. I had to shelve the plan since i couldn't find the older firmware anywhere then for a re-flash.

Fast forward, this thread happened. And it works. Also, even 4.0.6 is now supporting Mediaskin versions but i downgraded to 4.0.3 already before reading that. It still works, so be it.

What worked for me:
Resolution 400x225 @3000kbps w/ 128 kbps audio
Format MP4 & MP3

How it worked for me:
Downgraded to 4.0.3
Copied USB folders to root.
Copied the lgu file to root.
Plugged in & let it upgrade a 2nd time. Unit Restarted.

Rest of the process is as below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myidBI6WbcE
ONLY THIS EXACT PATTERN worked for me. Otherwise, button taps won't trigger Mediaskin. Might be different for others.

Also, only this skin had access to all options & looked less gawdy. Sadly a better dark skin available has the music option missing.



This is how my drive root looks like.


Anything above 400x225 causes gradual increase in screen tear & stuttering but audio plays smooth. 400x225 gave seamless playback for me & it looks pretty good. The screen is good quality with great field of view from the sides but it's a pity the processor can't handle much.

The performance would be much better if the unit itself is flashed but then there is the warranty thing. Since the video playback is smooth, i'll stick with live disk for now.

Thank you so much for the update SandyX. We should keep updating this thread and share the various methods that Medi@Skin install works. I'm so glad that we have this wonderful forum to share this with and get like minded people together. clap:

Yeah.

And a tip which i missed above. If the MP3 player on Mediaskin is throwing errors(can't find file, can't open location), just go back to standard Renault media player & play a song other than the 1AMuet file for a couple of seconds. Then replay the mute file again. Now go back to Mediaskin & open 'Music' option. Then continue as shown in video above. Wolf sound should initialize fine.

Yes there are some rough edges in between but there are hidden tricks too around it. The mainly French menu shouldn't be scary either, it's very easy to understand. Makes this car all the more VFM feature wise.

True. The software isn't the most stable also but for freeware I ain't complaining. It's great VFM, and I'm helping all the people in my town enable video playback for free lol:

Cheers :)

Thanks for sharing Medi@Skin. I got menavrus (mena.co software) installed on my Duster 85 BHP RXL. I was at Medianav 4.0.6 and was able to install it fine. In addition to Video Player, it enables rear video camera capability (I need to buy the camera separately though), 3G/4G Internet through a 4G Dongle. I like it.


Mod Note: Please avoid quoting the entire post when responding

Is it freeware? Kindly share the link for download.
Since it works with 4.0.6, menavrus would be the obvious option to go with (provided it's free). lol:

Yeah, Menavrus, it's the best aftermarket firmware for our MediaNav's in my opinion. But as I quoted before in my post, it doesn't come cheap, and for a person like me with no credit card and no fixed income, the freeware Medi@Skin is best lol:

I saw the video as well on buying a cable to activate rear view camera in MediaNav but again, no credit card :Frustrati

Menavrus is not free bro. Here is their official website - MenaVrus

When I bought my Duster, the Renault Sales Advisor offered to 'replace' my OEM MediaNav with a Caska Head unit for 40K or so... For me, considering that, spending 50 Euros for Menavrus is not bad. I wish menavrus was free too.

True that agree: It makes terrific value for money considering what you've mentioned, plus we don't need to change our ICE as well. Hopefully, when I graduate and get a job, I can also buy Menavrus for my Kwid. Until then, it's navigating through glitches and unstable software for me lol:

Btw, if you could post a few screenshots here or a video on YouTube showing the Menavrus software in action, I'd love to see it. Thanks

Actually, I did this a while back on my duster AWD and as always too lazy to post a thread (which I was intending to do).
Appreciate wadewilson for going the extra mile. Like everyone has mentioned above, for each person it works a bit differently. I had to do it twice to make it work.

A preview of mine:


One key thing to remember - Keep your cars ignition on (or better your engine on too) to avoid risk of draining your batteries and killing the ICE in mid upgrade - bricking it.
The beauty of it is that it just works and if you unplug the pendrive it is like you never installed anything at all (so warranty stays intact)