Samsung YP-R0

Samsung released 10 firmware revisions,[5] from v1.03 to the latest one, v1.25, released on May 11, 2011.[6] The firmware was only released to fix bugs but not to add or improve features. Indeed, only the UCI (User Created Interface: main menu customization) and premium fonts (in Korea only) support have been added via a new firmware. The YP-R0 is infamous for its many bugs, especially one involving it's library update process: when adding new files into the internal memory of the player, it automatically updates the media library after disconnecting the device from the computer. It sometimes occurs that due to some specific audio files, the updating process hangs up, leading to brick the R0. It is then no longer recognized by the computer and can no longer start up. Samsung released several firmware updates to fix this bug but never managed to find all root causes. As a result, the issue may occur even with the latest firmware v1.25. A preventive solution is to install a modded firmware or Rockbox (see below). Otherwise the user has to send his device back to the after-sales service center or use the leaked recovery tool.[7]

Unlike the older Samsung players which had a specific firmware for every region, on R0 the region code can be changed independently from the firmware (meaning that the firmware is the same worldwide). Each region code (KR, EU, FR, RU, US etc...) has it owns specificities like RDS support, lyrics support, MSC only or MSC/MTP setting etc...[8]

On July 7, 2011 the first modded firmware v2.00 based on the official firmware v1.25 was released by an Italian developer.[9] Modded firmware releases v2.10 and v2.20 came out later. Compared to the official firmware v1.25, they add a "Safe Mode" (the device can be connected to the computer even when bricked), a DRK (Device Rescue Kit) to unbrick the device, a CPU downclocking tool to save battery life and the possibility to customize the resources (pictures, sounds, fonts, language) of the firmware.

Since 2011 the alternative free and open-source firmware Rockbox can be installed on the YP-R0. Unlike most usual Rockbox targets, the YP-R0 port is not a native port. It runs as an application based on the original Linux kernel used by Samsung in the official firmware.[1] That makes the development easier but on the downside, Rockbox boots up slower as on the other usual targets. As of December 2013, the YP-R0 is an unstable port according to the official Rockbox classification.[10] In fact, it runs well enough for a daily use but cannot be installed via Rockbox Utility yet. The user has to compile the Rockbox bootloader himself or to use a pre-built modded firmware including the Rockbox bootloader such as modded firmware v2.51 (dualboot) or lightROM 4.6 (Rockbox only).[11] Contrary to the Samsung firmware, Rockbox merges the internal memory and the microSD card into the same tags library, supports more audio codecs and gapless playback among other things.