Some Questions - Please Help!

[SuperTom85]

Hi folks,

I recently added the rockbox software to my H10 20GB (2.51 Firmware) but i'm having a few small problems with it:

1. Is it possible to create playlists on my PC in the form of m3u files? I could do this before but Rockbox doesnt seem to like it! And do I need to use EasyH10 to make them work?

2. Whats the best way to encode videos to play on there smoothly? I'm using the GUIEncoder I downloaded from somewhere, but when i play the converted file (Scrubs ) on my H10 the audio plays fine, but the video lags. I convert it at the lowest possible settings!

3. My H10 occasionally crashes and now its getting frustrating! Its also starting to slow down when i switch it on....in the sense that scrolling is slow and songs skip a lot. Also, when I try to play a m3u playlist the file doesnt load. Then I cant play ANY music file, so i have to reboot it.

4. When I record something using the H10 mic, the file will not playback. I save it as an mp3 file. Whats the dilly-oh?

5. And Rockbox does not support WMA's ?? This is a fairly big problem for me as a lot of my music is in this format (6GB)! What can I do about this?

6. Oh, and pictures sometimes don't load in the viewer. Too large?

Please help a Rockboxer in need!
Thanks.

[TrueJournals]

1. EasyH10 is not for rockbox. At all. EasyH10 is for the original firmware and has nothing to do with rockbox. That being said, M3U files should be compatible with rockbox... Can you be more specific?

2. I would say my GUIEncoder program is the best way. The reason audio and video are off is because mpegplayer has no audo-video syncronization method. They each play at their own rate. Make sure that you have mpegplayer set to skip frames (Press |<< while playing a video, go to skip frames > Yes, also make sure Limit Framerate is off...) Also, make sure you're using a build that includes the Kernel on Coprocessor patch. I would reccomend Angryman's build.

3. Hmm... this sounds weird. Are you using the build from rockbox.org? As above, I would try Angryman's build.

4. I'm not sure MP3 recording is really implemented yet. Try using PCM Wave for the format.

5. No, rockbox does not support WMAs. There are programs out there that should convert your music (unless you have DRM on them of course...), but someone else will have to tell you one...

6. I believe there is a limit on the file size/pixel size of pictures in the jpeg viewer... sorry :-\

Hope this helps!

[SuperTom85]

Awesome! Thanks man, much appreciated.

1. Well I create a playlist using WMP and save it as an m3u. I place it in the "Playlists" folder on my H10 (using the UMS mode). I then go to play it on my iRiver, and it says file not found I think. Or something like that. Any ideas?

2. Excellent, I'll try that.

3. Yep, the latest downloaded from the official site. Ohwell.

4. Ok.

5. Yeh I have a converter I can use (ImToo) but its just a pain to convert everything! I thought there might have been a way around it.

6. Alrighty, no problem. Any idea what the limit is?

[Jonno12345]

1) Afraid I can't help, have never tried using playlists

2) Already answered

3) Change your WPS. The default Rockbox WPS includes Peak Meters, which cause a major instability. Try going to the main menu, browse themes and use iCatcher instead (Will require you to have the additional fonts, or it displays strangely). Also, get the build by AngryMan, contains the KoCOP patch which increases performance.

4) MP3 recording IS implemented, but all recording is buggy. After recording something, you will notice that NO playback functions. You need to turn off your H10 and turn on again, this will allow you to playback. Please note that if you DO get AngryMans build, the KoCOP patch currently breaks recording, so if you need recording, don't go for it, just change your WPS as stated before

5) Try using the latest version of Winamp with the transcoder plugin. Allows you to queue up songs to encode into MP3, so you can just walk off (As stated, aslong as DRM isn't on it).

6) Unsure on the limit, sorry.

[blackthunder]

Are you making the playlists from the files on your hard drive or the files on you h10? If making them from your hard drive the path my be different from the path on your h10 resulting in the file not found error

[SuperTom85]

3. Alrighty, I'll change that, but the one i'm using doesn't seem to complicated.

@blackthunder: Yeh i'm using my pc hard drive to create it. I might give that a go.

[Jonno12345]

The default WPS has Peak Meters, which use up a lot of processing power it seems.

[SuperTom85]

Thanks for all your help folks, I got pretty much all sorted

1. I never found an easy way to make playlists on my PC (that will work on my iRiver), so i'm just creating a playlist using the player.

2. Yeah'p, found the problem to this...the skip frame thingy (thankos muchos TrueJournals).

3. This is no longer a problem. Smooth as some very smooth butter.

4. Well, I realized that I don't actually need the record option, so installed Angryman's build.

5. I just converted all my WMA's to MP3's

6. Can't really find a solution to this, some pics work, some don't...*shrugs*.

[Llorean]

For

1) When creating the playlists, make sure that you point them at the songs on the player, not on your PC. Try using Winamp or Foobar2k to make the playlists.

6) Do you get an error message? Progressive jpegs won't work at all. Larger jpegs than a certain buffer size will require stopping music playback so that it can take use of the rest of the RAM.

[BiGRED84]

1) the easiest way to make a playlist on your computer is to view your h20 music folder in windows explorer and drag the music folders you want in the playlist to the wmp window thing, then save the playlist in the playlist folder in your h10, that what i do, works everytime

[SuperTom85]

Originally Posted by Llorean

For.

6) Do you get an error message? Progressive jpegs won't work at all. Larger jpegs than a certain buffer size will require stopping music playback so that it can take use of the rest of the RAM.

I sometimes get an error message, but I can't remember exactly what it says, I'll have to get back to you on that. I'm sure its something to do with the size of the image.

And thanks BigRed84, but that will just take too long for me, I want a playlist that contains over 1000 songs, hehe.

[BiGRED84]

lmao, that will take a while, i usually only have 600 songs in a playlist takes me about 10 minuts or less

[druidfire217]

Another problem that I have run into (just the way Rockbox was written) is that the playlists created on my computer put the drive letter in there (aka. F;/Music/Artist...). Rockbox didnt have an F: drive, so it couldnt find it. Rename them to /Music/Artist... and it works.

[Llorean]

Rockbox should ignore the drive letter in playlists.

[druidfire217]

This was about a couple of months ago, when it was still getting better optimized. It might have changed since (and I will defer to your knowledge) as I havent made a playlist recently. I just know deleting the drive letters solved my problem in the past.

[Llorean]

It should've never been a problem, Rockbox was supposed to be dropping drive letters long before the H10 port.

If you could test again, it would be helpful to know if maybe this behaviour is broken, and nobody has realized that it's supposed to work.

[druidfire217]

Sure, I will throw together a playlist in a couple of days, and see.

Would it matter if I pointed to files on an external HD, as long as the file structure was mirrored on the H10?

[Llorean]

As long as the file structure was *exactly* identical it should be fine.

For example, if the external HD has

G:\Music\Genre\Album \Artist\Track.mp3

and the H10 is

H:\Music\Genre\Album \Artist\Track.mp3

It *should* be okay.

[druidfire217]

yeah, that is where I copied them from, so it should be identical.