RockBox vs. Iriver Firmware? + questions ROOKIE Need help

[CalleLewander]

Hi, just bought a h320 secondhand and I love it! To bad the battery did just one day.... maybe I didn´t charge it completly.... Anyway The reason I made this new post was because I have this question in my head going like this: Do I dare to make my lovechild (mp3) into a Rockbox.mp3? I´ve read a little about the system and kind of like it. Things like, longer batterylife sounds really good in my ears and on top on the cake; game-compatible, WHAT! Gameboy-emulator on a mp3! COOOOOOL.

But I have some more questions for ya all IRiver-headz...

0.What does Rockbox have that the IRiver frimware doesn´t?!

1. Can I watch Video in the Rockboxsystem?

2. Can I Listen and Record from the radio?

3. Can the insallation of Rockbox harm my mp3s hdd?

4. Does this bluepring of a homemade Batterypack really work or would it harm my mp3: http://home.pchome.com.tw/hot/jon001...tery/index.htm

5. How long lifetime does the Hdd have? reason I wounder is because the first owner hade it for 2 years.

6. Where can I buy Hdd´s för my mp3?

Thanks for your answers!

[badbrain88]

ok, im a relative noob, so ill give it to you in "noob speak", so to say.

0 + 1) you can pretty much do all you can on the stock iriver firmware EXCEPT listen to wma files (Rockbox is for basically EVERYthing else) and watch videos. BUT, you can still load up into the iriver firmware whilst rockbox is ALSO on your h320. you just press on (play) and hold the rec button at the same time and.............voil a voila youre in irver firmware. turn it off as usual and turn it back on by JUST pressin the on (play) button and...........hey presto! youre in rockbox firmware.

2) you can still listen to and record radio and you now have 32 presets. but you record in wav format, which is bigger than mp3. if you want, you can still use the iriver firmware (as above) and record and listen with that.

3)not too sure of this "technically" BUT nobody has EVER reported a damaged hdd as caused by Rockbox yet.<----i too worried about this quite a bit, but i took the plunge and im not goin back. especially with the improved battery times now.

4) dunno---anyone??

5)not too sure on this either. it would depend on how the hdd was used, i.e knocked about, used all day, luck.

6)check ebay or other forums on this site. there are many links to help you. just try reading/browsing this site for a good couple of hours and youll soon find it all falling into place.

enjoy!

oh yeah, i forgot about 5 band equalizer, many games and what not, DOOM, better audio quality, very customizable When Playing Screens. shite, dude take a look 'round this site and use the search function at the top of the screen and you'll find out all you need.

[D-Sub]

Originally Posted by CalleLewander

6. Where can I buy Hdd´s för my mp3?

yes, I know, bitchy and nitpicky, but..

its not an MP3. MP3 is an audio compression algorithm. the sounds you play might be MP3s

the player is an MP3 player, or as people here prefer "DAP" (Digital Audio Player"

calling it an MP3 is like calling a Kenwood "my CD"

[Febs]

Originally Posted by CalleLewander

0.What does Rockbox have that the IRiver frimware doesn´t?!

1. Can I watch Video in the Rockboxsystem?

2. Can I Listen and Record from the radio?

3. Can the insallation of Rockbox harm my mp3s hdd?

0. http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/vie...tureComparison

1. No.

2. Yes.

3. No.

[Indecisive Dragon]

0. This has been answered.

1. Short answer: no.
Long answer: It's still possible to boot into the original firmware to watch videos

2. Short answer: yes.
Long answer: Rockbox records in .wav Iriver fw uses .mp3. So you might want to use the original firmware if space is an option

3. Rockbox is completely safe.

4. The specs on the battery controller (http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/pub/Mai...ets/lx2201.pdf) allow for up to a 15v input. (If I'm reading them right, any EE majors wanna check my work?)
Anyways, the battery pack will only output 6v, so it should be perfectly safe. If you're really paranoid about the voltage then you could nock it down to around 5v by throwing a 1 ohm resistor in the works.
(This assumes a draw of around ~700mA by the Iriver. Numbers taken from this thread http://www.misticriver.net/showthread.php?p=289496. Once again, I'm not a EE, so take these calculations with a grain of salt.)

5. Impossible to say. Too many factors to count.

6. Ebay.
iPod HDDs will fit in your player. While it is possible to fit a dual platter drive(40GB or 60GB usually) into an H320(which is single platter) it is a tight fit and often requires removing some protective padding so you're player will be more susceptible to HDD damage from drops.

[aproyouknow]

I just made the switch and I am very glad I did.

Here are the reasons I switched to RockBox.
With the New build it has improved Batt life!

In the past RockBox had batt issues. So I did not use it. I installed it and found for my needs it would not work because I need all the Batt life I can get, BUT once they fixed this problem it was time to leave the old Firware alone.

With Roxbox you can create an On the Fly Playlist. This is really why I wanted RockBox in the first place!. I have 30 Gigs of music so I need to be able to create a playlist on the fly, with my player. Why, dude I am on a computer most of the time for Biz and I just did not want to use Money time for creating play lists. Folks like my self at the end of the day are like if I look at one more computer!

Next RockBox is better then the Iriver Firmware! Due to the fact that if you have major software issues with your players Hard Drive, you will be able to boot the Player before the OS loads. With the Iriver firware it gets the info from the hard drive (If you dont know what that means ask your IT guy) To say it another way. You NEED to have a Player (computer) to have a CMOS program {More IT Guy asking ("What is a CMOS") or you can Google it if you would like} to load before you get to a hard drive in order to repair it (if it has a software issue like a corrupted file system) Other wise you are toast due to the fact that it is trying to boot to a corrupted drive.

I hope that was not too Techie

[Febs]

Originally Posted by Indecisive Dragon

4. The specs on the battery controller (http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/pub/Mai...ets/lx2201.pdf) allow for up to a 15v input.

15 volts will fry your player instantly.

[Mad_Big_Sausage]

Originally Posted by Febs

15 volts will fry your player instantly.

As will (and has) 12V and 9V. The general consensus is +/-1V isn't too bad. But if you can (and it's recommended!) just get the 5V, 1A the player likes to munch on.

From AA batteries, 3 non-rechargable get you to 4.5V and 4 rechargable will add up to 4.8V. If you go Lithium Portable Power Supplies do great battery packs and if you want to replace the internal battery you'll want a 1st/2nd generation iPod battery.

[Indecisive Dragon]

Originally Posted by Febs

15 volts will fry your player instantly.

Originally Posted by Mad_Big_Sausage

As will (and has) 12V and 9V. The general consensus is +/-1V isn't too bad. But if you can (and it's recommended!) just get the 5V, 1A the player likes to munch on.

Good to know. Not that I would ever plug anything more than 6v into my charger port.

Btw, if you are thinking of making a battery case, you could go one step further and also include components for a usb-otg power box.

[CalleLewander]

Thanks for the answers mates!!

Btw, i´ve tried to convert avi videos with PocketDivXEncoder_0. 3.60.exe but it says, "not supporting" on my H320...whats wrong??

[Indecisive Dragon]

You must not have formatted them correctly, but this isn't really the forum to discuss this issue.

[Greenie]

Originally Posted by CalleLewander

Thanks for the answers mates!!

Btw, i´ve tried to convert avi videos with PocketDivXEncoder_0. 3.60.exe but it says, "not supporting" on my H320...whats wrong??

yeah, its not really the place, but iriverter is the program to do video conversions for H3xx with

[txdude3013]

so ya know, alot of people here like to call whats more commonly known as mp3 players, daps (digital audio player). this is because many players have the ability to play other forms of music files, such as wma.

0 - with rockbox, you can play many other types of audio files, you can customise the look and change many audio playing options. you can also play games such as tetris and even 3d games like rockdoom (doom). the only things you cant do in rockbox but can in iriver is view movies and play wma files. oh yeah, cant forget faster boot times

1 - not yet. you can always just press two buttons and boot the iriver firmware.

2 - yes

3 - its possible during instalation but only if you have an iq of 20

4 - i would not trust anything homemade, try one off ebay or a psp one will work

5 - depends, i wouldnt worry much about it. you are more likely to break or lose your player before this happens

6 - many places! ebay, electronics stores, broken ipods...

also, rockbox now has the advantage in battery time

use iriverter

give it a try, youll probably like it. i remember only one person who didnt.... but he was an idiot