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Guide - How to Put a Background on an Ipod - 5g

Discussion in 'iPod discussion' started by Kulith, Apr 11, 2007.

  1. Kulith

    Kulith Guest

    We all realize that iPods are top-shelf in uncustomizable merchandise, hopefully after reading this guide you will know how to make the boring thing look more interesting. This guide is only for the 5g, maybe for the 5.5g I dont know, and it also works for the 2g nano, but you will have to check ipodwizard.net for different instructions. I have a black 30gig 5g with the latest firmware from Apple (1.2.1) and will walk you through whats its like for a 5g. Special thanks to InvaderZim at ipodwizard.net for making this hack possible.

    Disclaimer
    I take no responsibility for whatever you do to your ipod yada yada yada. If you do screw up your ipod I think restoring will take care of everything. The only problem would be if somehow you cause your ipod to not be recognized anymore by your comp, but unless you mess with the strings this wont happen.

    To Begin
    If you are not yet familiarized with iPodWizard, I suggest your stop reading right now and either go to Lethal_B's guide on ipodwizard or visit ipodwizard.net and get to know the program a bit. However, this guide is a very simple step by step process with pictures, a caveman could do it.

    Important Note: This hack combines many cut up images and sets them as the iPod's background. After you have followed these instructions, it is not simply selecting the picture you want and putting it in the background. You must cut the picture up into the right dimensions and load many pictures into the firmware. Thankfully we do not have to do this by hand, there is an program that cuts up the image for us, and, ofcourse, I will show you how to do this.

    Important Note #2: This hack has a few minor bugs. Its still totally worth doing this hack if you ask me. Scroll down to the end of the guide for the bugs. (Make sure you take a look at the bugs before you start, just to make sure they arent unnaceptable.)

    What you need to download:
    iPodWizard 1.2d http://www.ipodwizard.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=14115&d=1172611299
    This zip file: http://www.ipodwizard.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=14517&d=1174806638
    ImageSlicer: http://www.ipodwizard.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=14869&d=1175549706
    1.2 to 1.2.1 converter: http://www.ipodwizard.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=12780&d=1164454959

    Step#1: Extract the contents of the zip file (This zip file) into a folder on your desktop. The contents of the zip file are files like view10371.rsrc.

    Step#2: Open iPodWizard. Under Edit Mode select iPod, then click Load iPod Firmware.
    [​IMG]

    Step#3: Go to the Layout tab. Under Resource type select Scheme Layout. The important textbox is the one on the left. Ignore the one on the right and ignore the bottom one.
    [​IMG]

    Step#4 Open the folder on your desktop where you extraced the zip file to. What we need to do now is replace the files in the iPod firmware with these files. We can see the ones currently in the iPod inside the "important" textbox.

    To replace them, search for the one you want to replace. Type the number (view10371.rsrc) in the top box and click Find. Now you click Load Resource and browse to the file that you have on your desktop (with the same number).

    For example, the file view10371.rsrc is one of the files we want to replace. Type in 10371 and click Find. Once it is highlighted, click on Load Resource and we browse to view10371.rsrc on our desktop folder and click open. Picture:
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Step#5 Do this for all the files that you extracted into that desktop folder.

    Step#6 Write !!! If you forget to write it to the firmware nothing is going to change.
    [​IMG]

    If you disconect your ipod now (Remember to Write!!! And make sure you Load Ipod Firmware again when you reconnect it), it will look like this:
    [​IMG]
    As I said before, this hack is a jumble of cut up pictures turned into a background. Now I show you how to put the background you want on your ipod.

    Step#6 The resolution on video iPods is 320 x 240, and thats what our picture size needs to be***. You can do this however you want, but im not going to go in much detail here. The way I really recommend to do this is to right click on the image you want as the background on your ipod, click on Open With and select Microsoft Office Picture Manager. This program lets you easily resize the picture and crop it to perfection. It also tells you the dimensions before and after you resize it. Go to Edit Pictures and from there you can select resize or crop.

    ***You might have noticed that this hack leaves the title bar in place. Thus the image would have to be 320 x 216 pixels instead of 320 x 240. However, imageslicer is a really bitchy program. I was having no luck using the imageslicer with any image that is smaller than 320x240. Make sure the image is at least 320 x 240 pixels.

    Step#7 Now that we have our image, 320x240 pixels, we need to slice it up. If you havent allready, download the imageslicer and extract it to your desktop. Open up the folder iTheme, then open up the folder BGSlicer and double click on iThemeBGSlicer.exe.

    If you are getting this error dont panic. Open up the folder called iTheme, you will notice there is a file called PICCLP32.OCX in there. Drag this file into C:\windows\system and it will work.
    [​IMG]

    Step#8 Now that we have iTheme Image Slicer up and running, browse to the file that holds the image (with 320x240 pixels)(1). Select the image from the list at the bottom (2). Click Load (3). Type in the name you want for the folder it will save in (4). Finally click Slice (5).
    [​IMG]

    We get a succesffull message, and the sliced up images are saved in the iTheme folder, under BGSlicer/SlicedBGs/(whatever you named your file).
    [​IMG]
    There should be 9 pictures in this folder!!! If there are less than 9 pictures, ImageSlicer is acting queer. Try making your original picture larger before slicing it up with imageslicer.

    Step#9 If and only if you have firmware 1.2.1 on your ipod, you need to perform this step. If for some reason you have 1.2, you can skip this step (but make sure your images are in bmp format). But if you have the latest updated firmware from Apple on your iPod, which is 1.2.1, the images arent ready to be written onto the iPod yet. If your not sure, go into iTunes (iTunes 7 only), click on your ipod, and it says what firmware you got right above your serial number. OR disconnect your ipod and go to Settings then go to About and scroll down to Version.

    If you havent already, download 1.2 to 1.2.1 converter from the link above, extract it into the iTheme folder. I recommend you always keep this file in this folder, as I use it very often. Copy and Paste it into the folder where you saved your sliced up images in, Desktop\iTheme\BGSlicer\SlicedBGs\(whatever you named your folder, in my case Underworld). Double click on the converter, you should see this:
    [​IMG]
    ITS NOT FINISHED YET. If you program in Java like I do you might have assumed that "press any key to continue" meant the program was finished doing what it was supposed to. Do not exit, just press a key. It will start converting the images. When its done it will tell you to press any key to continue again, this time the program exits :).

    Now we have a new folder: Desktop\iTheme\BGSlicer\SlicedBGs\(whatever you named your folder)\new-pics. This folder (new-pics) hold our beloved background sliced up images in the right format.

    Step#10 We are almost done! Make sure your iPod is connected. Open up iPodWizard again. Under Edit Mode select iPod and click Load iPod Firmware exactly as shown in Step#2. This time, dont go into the layouts tab, but stay in the pictures tab (default). Click the Load All button.
    [​IMG]

    Browse to the new-pics folder where your sliced up images are. Desktop\iTheme\BGSlicer\SlicedBGs\(ThemeName)\new-pics. Click OK.
    [​IMG]

    Check image index number 156 or 157 to see if your images loaded succesfully:
    [​IMG]

    Step#11 Write!!!
    [​IMG]

    Your done!! Now you can exit iPodWizard and safely disconnect your iPod, and after rebooting you should be greeted by a lovely background :).

    [​IMG]

    Bugs With this Hack
    [​IMG]
    1.) The greatest bug by far. In the "Now Playing" screen the bottom third of the screen will be white, there is nothing to be done about this, unfortunately.
    2.) This is one of the problems with the imageslicer. It is just a little off with this picture, I assume this will be fixed in later versions of imageslicer. But for now you can fix it manually, just by editing the right picture the right way. Follow these instructions.
    3.) This is not a bug. This is part of the theme I loaded onto my ipod. For a guide on how to get a theme on your ipod, visit Lethal_B's Guide.. But Lethal_B's guide is a little old. I would not suggest using the updater anymore to edit the firmware, just do it directly to the ipod as shown in step#2 above. Go to ipodwizard.net to download different themes. (find the right firmware, or download a converter for different firmwares)
    4.) Another issue with imageslicer...if you look closely you will see that the image is slightly off. This can be fixed by editing the image manually in paint, if you care much about it.
    5.) After doing this hack you will no longer get text in your title bar. What I did was I edited my title bar image in paint, making it look as if it where part of the background. The index number of the title bar is 266 if you want to do this. Click save as and when you are done editing click load bitmap and load it.

    Also, if you decide to do a dark background the letters may bet a little bit messed up and hard to see. I personally really like the one I used because its half light half dark, and while im scrolling down the words that are in front of the moon are readable. You can always highlight the dark ones to read them.

    Conclusion
    iPodWizard.net is full of threads and guides on what might not be working, or further details on how some hack works. However, iPodWizard.net has the most confusing halfhazard forum ive ever seen in my life. Each guide has links to other guides you need which has more links and so on until you totally lose yourself. And the threads are full of spam (something I noticed on forums that tell how many posts each member has). Also, the guides provided there are usually complicated and basically leave you to figure things out on your own. Please point out any errors or problems with this guide, as I will try to maintain it and keep it up to date. Hopefully this guide is simple and easy to follow.

    Enjoy!
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 13, 2007
  2. Lethal_B

    Lethal_B Moderator Staff Member

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    Very nice.

    And yeah, my guides are all in need of some updating. iPodWizard has advanced, and I'll get around to updating those tuts..

    nice work..
     
  3. Kulith

    Kulith Guest

    Thanks :D

    It was actually your guide that introduced me to iPodWizard, I love you for that :).
     
  4. jazo132

    jazo132 Guest

    Very nice guide. ;-)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 13, 2007
  5. blake123

    blake123 Guest

    nice guide, i was going to make one but thanks for saving me the trouble.


    2.) This is one of the problems with the imageslicer. It is just a little off with this picture, I assume this will be fixed in later versions of imageslicer. But for now you can fix it manually, just by editing the right picture the right way. Follow these instructions.

    invadorzim updated the hack so it fixed that
    http://rs134.rapidshare.com/files/25596162/view25598.rsrc
    install this instead or over the original



    cool other stuff

    *Menu Arrangement by magic.one - http://www.ipodwizard.net/showthread.php?t=21682

    *DJ and Kingstone's BG Hacks - http://www.ipodbg.com using the Mozilla Firefox. cool but harder than invadorzims

    Vertically Lower Menu - Found in a thread by johnnyferr. I took the liberty of zipping up the three resource files included in his thread, as well as making a readme file, included in the zip, containing the directions listed in his post. Download from Rapidshare http://rapidshare.com/files/25540432/LowerMenus.zip

    Menu Arrangement - Here's a zip containing the menu arrangement hack as done by IZ's official assistant, ty3939. I took the liberty of pasting the instructions he wrote in the original into a txt doc, and included it as a readme within the zipped file. NOTE: the zipped file below titled menu24094.zip contains the resource as well as the instructions for shifting your menu to the RIGHT of the screen, as opposed to its original location of the LEFT of the screen. Download from Rapidshare http://rapidshare.com/files/25540431/menu24094.zip
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 14, 2007
  6. kid17

    kid17 Member

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  7. Joe2007

    Joe2007 Member

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    The Zip File Doesn't Exist Anymore!!

     
  8. mastermod

    mastermod Member

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    yeah, tis sux, im like halfway through it and i cant find it now, ca someone put pu another link for the :this zip file: because it dosent exist anymore, also are there any other methods of doing this?? im new to this , ive modded other things but this made my pink matter hurt
     
  9. mastermod

    mastermod Member

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  10. mastermod

    mastermod Member

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    TY SOOOO much, it worked, and everytihng,
    no minor bugs at all except for the stopwatch, and this is just, ... perfect, now all i gotta do is rub it in pls faces dat said i cant do it , and - oh yeah, forum srry, lol i did a little dance when i finished it :D
    [/color]
     

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