Change boot screen JVC / Kenwood head unit.

Modify the startup screen on a JVC KW-V940BW.
In a (fat32) USB drive, at the root level place 2 files.
Files
OpeningCustomize.txt
Opening Customize
[FILE]image1.bmp
[VERSION]9876
~END
image1.bmp
800 x 480 pixels
16 bit color (R, G, B)
Use GIMP (free open source image editor) or equivalent www.gimp.org/
• Open the image you want to use, make sure it’s the correct size (800 x 480 pixels)
• Click File then Export As and select a save location click export
• Choose Advanced Options then under 16 bits choose R5 G6 B5 and click export
Ensure your image file is labeled “image1.bmp”
Copy the .txt and .bmp files you created to your USB drive and continue from there on the head unit.
Insert USB into head unit, go to AV OFF
1. Double tap top left of touch screen
2. Then double tap bottom left of touch screen
3. Then single tap top left of touch screen
4. Then single tap bottom left of touch screen. This gets you customize menu
5. Hit opening customize. Make sure USB drive with files plugged into unit
6. Hit ok
7. Should say ok when done. Will say ng if the image file is no good.
8. Hit back
9. Reboot and unplug USB drive
This vid provides directions to change the screen that flashes when your JVC or Kenwood head unit ( radio ) boots up.
A JVC KW-V940BW was used for this video but the same instructions apply to JVC in the same family as well as Kenwood units.
Kenwood will differ slightly regarding which icon you click to put the unit in service mode.

[@toxicity4818]

Liked once i saw the updated splash screen, lol. Thanks for the vid, some other guy I watched didn't include the AV OFF part so I couldn't get the screen to come up on my KW-V850BT.

[@wdgaylord]

So glad I could help you.

[@gabe9464]

The make america great again made me laugh 😂, thanks for the info my brethren

[@wdgaylord]

I expected some neg comments from it but thankfully, none.

[@keithc728]

You sir are a God. Ty now I can buy that JVC off crutchfield

[@wdgaylord]

Were you successful?

[@keithc728]

@@wdgaylord I purchased a Kenwood and it's not able to do this

[@jayp6262]

while I don't agree with your political views, this has been a very informative video and very straight forward. Thank you

[@wdgaylord]

Appreciate the kind comment.

[@jayp6262]

@@wdgaylord driving my Chevy now getting breakfast with my custom Chevy boot screen. Thank you again my brother have a wonderful day

[@wturner777]

Hi. I just purchased the KW-M750BT and got it all hooked up in my car. I want to change the boot screen some day. When I accessed the "secret menu", the customize options are grayed out. Does that mean I don't have the flash drive plugged in? If that's the case I have nothing to worry about, I hope. UPDATE: I just answered my own question, but I may have to redo my image as it's a bit screwy. UPDATE #2: The process went very smoothly. Thank you so much for your help. 😃

[@wdgaylord]

That makes sense but I don’t know for certain as I’ve not tried that. You will have to update us later when you change your boot screen.

[@wturner777]

@@wdgaylord Will do. I'm about to attempt it right now.

[@lobbyrobby]

Best part of this video was the make America great again. Best damn President we ever had. P.S. the election was stolen

[@knumbtummy]

True

[@wdgaylord]

Thanks brother.

[@xreviews3304]

Let's go Brandon!

[@RobnMeeksOfficial]

Never mind, I got it. Thanks Dan.

[@Twitch412]

Anyway to get rid of that stupid warning screen !?

[@wdgaylord]

I have not found a way. You can blame our litigious society and the fleet of bottom feeders for that.

[@samirul-]

thanx man, it work for KW-M540BT

[@wdgaylord]

Thanks for sharing so others will know.

[@deckstephen]

thanks for the vid, any idea of how to get Rid of the warning screen every time it boots?!?! Thanks

[@wdgaylord]

Afraid not. Mine still splashes at boot but I didn't find it such an inconvenience to drive me find a way to be rid of it.

[@stolte1544]

Legend

[@cobra5088]

If you weren't concerned with having a custom splash screen you could have just hit the "initialize factory default" button it would have erased the iowa state logo and reset your stereo to the new out of box settings.

[@wdgaylord]

True, true. But then we wouldn't know how to install such a spectacular splash screen.

[@montyallen8265]

Ya had me, till the end.

[@wdgaylord]

The finally is always the best part.

[@RobnMeeksOfficial]

Where do you get, or how do you create thevtxt file? Everything I've done doesn't give me one. ????

[@glennmarowski504]

This worked on my KW-M885BW unit as well, thanks for the video. Any idea what the Wallpaper Customize and Parameter Customize menu options do?

[@wdgaylord]

I do not. I went down this rabbit trail because I bought a reman which had sports logo on the splash screen. I didn't dig any deeper that what it took to fix that problem and finding that info did not come easy.

[@glennmarowski504]

@@wdgaylord Well I appreciate your effort. Maybe someday I'll investigate the other features in that menu. Thanks.

[@zrios]

Hi bro, I have the jvc kw-m56bt head unit, and I've been trying a lot of times but I wasn't able to make double tap in the bottom of the screen, when I touch the zone that you touched in your screen, the menu icon is clicked, also I tried making double tap just above the thin white line but it doesn't work. Do you know if is possible to do this "hack" in my head unit?? TIA!

[@wdgaylord]

Sorry my friend. I'm not a KVC dealer. I dug through the internet for the info for my receiver but don't know anything about the model you are using.

[@zrios]

Dee Gaylord don’t worry, thank you so much

[@RyanGamingHD12]

I just bought this unit and it doesn't work for me either so I think they updated it for 2020 we just gotta wait until they release a new video

[@Tatteddogmama]

Very stupid question do you have a cable that’s dangling underneath the glove box that is obviously able to receive USB so you can upload stuff my question is is that in the back of the radio or is that a special cable adapter that you gotta buy in order to plug that into your radio to upload files or is that one that’s existing that I didn’t notice?

[@wdgaylord]

The back of the radio has two female USB connections stubbed out. One is for Android. The other is for iPhone. Mine came with extension cables ( male on one end, female on the other ). Those extensions can be routed to hide in the ashtray, hang below the dash, or into the glove box. It is one of them that I plugged into. I used the one dedicated for Android.

[@robertprice9052]

OK, so I formatted the jump drive, I saved the image in Gimp with the parameters detailed, and I saved the txt file in notepad. Where do I put the text file?

[@wdgaylord]

Robert, Go back to the video and expand my text under the video. I typed out the step-by-step there. The text file goes in the root directory of your USB drive which you are going to plug into the radio. Make certain the USB is formatted FAT32 else the radio will not read it.

[@ClaytonMobileHome]

Can you change the wallpaper in the same manner? Boot screen is nice but I would like to change the wallpaper Thanks in advance!

[@wdgaylord]

You can load an image from a connected USB stick and set the wallpaper image. Load several images on a USB stick and plug it in. Touch "User1 Select" on the wallpaper customize screen and select the image you want to load.

[@cartersmith4644]

How do you create the text file? I keep getting the NG. Page

[@wdgaylord]

If you are getting NG, you probably have an error in creating the image file. To create the text file, use Note Pad or another plain text editor. Copy the text I provided and save using the file name I listed followed by .txt. Put the complete file name in quotes if the program changes the file extension from txt.

[@cartersmith4644]

Dee Gaylord awesome thanks very much!

[@djviolett8344]

No matter what I do I can't get this to work with the JVC KW M560BT. I always get the NG blue screen. I've followed the directions exactly but it doesn't seem to work.

[@sc3ku]

I can’t get the secret menu to open without hitting the grid button in the bottom left. did you do his button procedure the same?

[@gijsvandersandt3721]

i got in the menu by using the upper right part of the screen, so top left 2x top right 2x top left 1x top right 1x. That's as far as i got so far. I can't get the image to load. please let me know if you get the image to load if u get in the menu @@sc3ku

[@hinoki01]

Dee, I've got a KW-V850BT. I've got the two files on a FAT32 formatted USB. I can open the secret menu, but the Opening Customize is greyed out, as is everything on the left-hand side of the screen. OpeningCustomize.txt : Opening Customize [FILE]image1.bmp [VERSION]9876 ~END image1.bmp created with GIMP as you'd suggested, using the advanced settings for 16 bit. Any ideas what might be causing it? Thanks! -Hinoki

[@wdgaylord]

This is a guess. My unit has two USB dongles. One was Android specific and the other iPhone specific. If you have two USB ports you might try the other.

[@hinoki01]

@@wdgaylord Sadly, only one USB port on this head unit; the unit itself auto-detects what's plugged in. In my case, Android Auto. I'll keep plinking away at this, and post if I come up with anything. But for this device, it appears they locked down the menu for some damned reason. Thanks again, Sir! -Hinoki

[@wdgaylord]

@@hinoki01 Best of luck my friend.

[@arunvishnum.e3156]

Hi, my system not booting up, any solution for the problem. I noticed that system does get powered on because the volume button lights up.

[@wdgaylord]

When the file size is too big or the pic isn't the correct size, it might cause the receiver to hang on boot.

[@m0401239]

Any idea of this works on model JVC KW-M745DBT iv tried and I cannot get the secret menu to appear.

[@wdgaylord]

I'm not an expert on the JVC receivers. I just had a need, dug until I uncovered an answer and put it out to help others with a similar issue. A specialty stereo shop might know how to get to the secret menu.

[@Walker124]

Mine are grayed out

[@mafrudloainiah8136]

Not working for my jvc v320bt :(

[@m.p.3460]

Thank You

[@wdgaylord]

Your welcome

[@AntoineFinch]

my pictur is cut off on head unit are all Kenwood's 800 x 480 i havE a DDX394

[@wdgaylord]

I don't know the answer to your question. You might try some smaller for sizes to see if it will resolve your issue.

[@kriyaoodhrajh6750]

Is there a way to put a video and audio file in the boot animation

[@wdgaylord]

Afraid not. This system only had the capability of a simple graphic image.

[@CollinsCreativeImages]

Idk exactly what I'm doing wrong. I have followed everything step by step and still keep getting a NG. Can you post a video that shows exactly how to place everything on the flashdrive??

[@wdgaylord]

Travis, The files are just copied into the root directory. Your flash drive may be formatted in the wrong structure. Try reformatting into a FAT structure.

[@djviolett8344]

you figure this out travis? i got the same issue

[@legitcustomz4096]

Can you use a iPhone to load image or does it have to be a usb

[@wdgaylord]

The device loads the files on boot so no, you can’t load from a phone.

[@sullie35]

Will this work for the Kenwood DMX47S?

[@wdgaylord]

That is a different family of units so my guess is no. Try it and comment back so others will know.

[@mhamm7653]

Hey so i did this and i feel like the start up screen lasts longer. Do you know how to undo this or even factory reset it?

[@mhamm7653]

I forgot to mention i have the kwv640bt

[@wdgaylord]

I’m sorry I didn’t notice your comment earlier. You should be able to make another pic that is a blank page. Your file size is probably too large.

[@dannygalaviz7893]

The secret Settings did not appear on my JVC Kv-w120bt. Couldn’t even try to see if my picture upload worked.

[@dannygalaviz7893]

*kw-v120bt

[@wdgaylord]

That’s too bad. This option may not be available for your unit.

[@miskyanwar7443]

Can i change the jvc kw v11 boot logo?

[@wdgaylord]

I am not familiar with the KW-V11 but it looks like a pretty nice head unit. I don't believe it is in the same family as my unit. I took a look at the specs of the KW-V11; the specs indicate the GUI is customizable so I'd take a look at the owner's manual for a jumping off place.

[@sirknightkip]

Does this work on the JVC 750BT as well?

[@wdgaylord]

I don't know but there is a good chance it will. Give it a try and post the results for others.

[@RobnMeeksOfficial]

Yes. I have the M740BT, and I can get in.

[@815grows4]

How do I change the language to english

[@wdgaylord]

Press the icon that is nine dots. Press the gear in the lower right corner to take you in the settings. Choose user interface. Then scroll down to language.

[@santonathanael2780]

How to Kenwood ddx718bt,please..

[@wdgaylord]

Sorry. I'm not an expert these head units. Perhaps you can adapt from what worked for mine.

[@MyBlackandRedCZ]

I hope this works with the KW-V850BT.

[@wdgaylord]

Another reported it worked on the KW-M885BW so I hope it worked on yours.

[@MyBlackandRedCZ]

@@wdgaylord I ended up getting the V960BW. I’m sure it’ll still work though.

[@bhavneetsaini7941]

anyone with a JVC kw-m780bt try this. I try to access the secret menu but i cant access it

[@wdgaylord]

Willie Turner reported that it worked on the KW-M750BT and Glenn Marowski reported success on the KW-M885BW. That's on both sides of you so maybe take a break and try again step by step. Expand my comments under the video. The instructions are typed out there.

[@112188Francisco]

Instead of taking me to a secret menu it takes me to the dealer menu

[@wdgaylord]

Well, it was a secret before you tapped. The head unit I did this vid on isn’t a new model anymore so the OEM may have changed up menus but I’d expect that you should be able to get there from a dealer menu.

[@112188Francisco]

@@wdgaylord yeah i tried everything exactly as mentioned in you video but sadly i keep getting the NG error

[@stephen4764]

I just want to eliminate the Warning screen.

[@wdgaylord]

I wish I knew how. It exists because lawyers pander to a crowd looking for a free ride at the expense of all others.

[@stephen4764]

@@wdgaylord I've never noticed in OEM stereos, so it really surprised me the first time that I saw it....Very annoying!

[@wdgaylord]

@@stephen4764 I drive a lot of rental cars for work. It’s more and more common.

[@2310271976]

Very cool Trump 2020

[@wdgaylord]

Thanks. I really expected a lot of comments on it but you are the only one so far.

[@montyallen8265]

😂😅😂

[@Walker124]

Mine are grayed out