Potential solution to marginal firmware

[DPFroese]

I think Iriver should stick to making hardware. They should make a new player with all the features of the H100 series (maybe without optical, that was overkill) add a colour screen, and they should pay the rockbox developers to make firmware for their players. I think that would be a good solution to their marginal firmware.

[RussellS]

Firstly, the optical out was one of the reasons I bought my iHP120 instead of a lot of other players in the first place (and I do use the optical out often). That was before I realised how good it was in all other respects as well.

Secondly, I don't think it is fair to call the iRiver firmware marginal. I have never once had the original firmware crash or lockup on me whereas, I know that a lot of other manufacturers players do have lockups and crasshes and require regular resets. IMHO the only problem with the Iriver firmware is that they were veeeeeery slow at bringing out updates and they would not add the features that their customers wanted. This does not make the firmware crappy, just lacking features.

I do however agree that if they don't have sufficient resources to develop their own firmware with the required features, then they should commission someone else to do it. Since loading Rockbox for the first time about a month ago, the only time I have booted into the original firmware is to use the radio.

[zezayer]

Originally Posted by DPFroese

They should make a new player with all the features of the H100 series (maybe without optical, that was overkill) add a colour screen

This player has been made and is called the H320/H340 !!!

[Mr Whippy]

Why is a optical output overkill? When at home you can connect to a DAC, increasing sound quality since most Hi-Fi DAC's have superior sound quality.

A colour screen is overkill, for a music player you don't need one and it requires more power.

[nuwan]

i think they are scared of law suits from people who dont read the instructions and dont know what they are doing, as a result they destroy their player and blame iriver......

[Arj]

Well, iRiver could package their players with RockBox already installed rather than depend on their consumers to install it. They could even contribute what development resources they do have to improving RockBox -- maybe provide the FM code or add WMA support. It's all academic, IMHO, anyhow. I doubt iRiver would ever ditch their FW and go with RockBox.

[RedFro]

Yeah, I can't say I could ever really complain about the iRiver firmware. Sure there were some things to complain about (like the lack of gapless playback and the long boot/connect times), but all-in-all it was pretty decent.

Originally Posted by Mr Whippy

Why is a optical output overkill? When at home you can connect to a DAC, increasing sound quality since most Hi-Fi DAC's have superior sound quality.

A colour screen is overkill, for a music player you don't need one and it requires more power.

I couldn't agree with you more. I just started using the optical out, and I love it!

As for the colour screen, I really can't see any practical use for it. Unless you're easily amused by bright colours and don't care about battery life, of course. I really don't see the fascination of being able to view photos on a DAP. You can view them on the camera too...and the screen's probably about the same size, too.

[Bionic-Badger]

The optical is nice in that it isn't affected by the AC power, so you can just pack up your music, bring it over to a player with an optical-in, plug it into the AC-adapter, and not worry about poor analogue output. Sure beats buying a computer to do all that work for your stereo system.

One thing that has prevented me from using Rockbox consistently is the DSP on the iRiver. It just sounds better.

iRiver's firmwares always feel incomplete because they are always releasing new hardware. I don't even see the point of those new H10s when the older comparably priced models with higher capacities are out. They should settle upon a rock-solid design base like Apple does with its iPod and work up from there, adding features and stuff, but not straying too far from the original.

[EBounding]

I've never thought the iRiver firmware was any good. I use my player so much more now that it has RB.

[FlameGrilled]

Wow.. deja vue here..

I can remember, back when the earliest rumblings (back in the old 'iZoo' forum days) were floating around about how it might be better if iRiver/Reigncom stuck to hardware and bought in the assistance of external software devs such as found in the open-source community..

So, to the OP, it's hardly a wow concept... that's gonna shake ground with us old-timers of the game