To Rockbox or not to...

[c_martini]

I have had my H140 for about 1.5 years now. I have been updating the iriver firmware as it has been released and have had no problems at all with the player. The features on my wish list for my player are flac support, the ability to change the screen font size and type, support for more characters in the path and file name for db, and proper random shuffle playback.

I recently discovered that there is a port of Rockbox firmware for this player, but i'm not sure if it would be of benefit to me or not. I have derived from reading this forum that many people have switched to using this Rockbox firmware.
May I ask why people are switching to this firmware in droves? I would like to hear what advantages people think this firmware has over the normal iriver version.

• I know that the Rockbox firmware supports flac
• I use the SRS WOW user settings feature on my iriver quite alot and I also know the Rockbox firmware does not have this feature. Is there an alternative feature on the Rockbox firmware that would be of interest besides the eq?

Thanks!

[musichound]

Welcome to Mistic River.

Is gapless support important to you? How about a parametric equilizer? How about OTF playlists? This is just a short list of features that Rockbox supports. I suggest to look in the Wiki manual to look at its complete set. Here is the link:
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/vie...Menu#Crossfeed

And by the way: You can always boot back into iRiver firmware if you need to after Rockbox is installed.

[c_martini]

Firstly, thanks for the welcome...

Originally Posted by musichound

Is gapless support important to you?

yes very important.

Originally Posted by musichound

How about a parametric equilizer?

While it is a nice feature to have (especially for tuning bass performance) it is not the same as SRS, although this 'crossfeed' feature looks interesting and it may serve a similar benefit I was gaining from the SRS in the original firmware.

Originally Posted by musichound

How about OTF playlists?

Not sure what this is but would I be correct in assuming this means 'on the fly' playlists? Anyhow I must read the wiki for more info.

Thanks for the info. Anymore comments on benefits of this firmware are welcomed...

Chris

[Febs]

Short answer: Rockbox has all of the additional features you're looking for.

You will probably find this wiki page helpful. It compares Rockbox's features to those of the iriver firmware.

[DD]

Yup, on-the-fly playlists (OTG, OTF, whatever you want to call them ).

To expand on Feb's short answer- Rockbox has all of the additional features you're looking for and if its functionality you want, you are likely never to look back.

[musichound]

Originally Posted by Febs

Short answer: Rockbox has all of the additional features you're looking for.

You will probably find this wiki page helpful. It compares Rockbox's features to those of the iriver firmware.

That's the page I wanted to indicate also. Unfortunately, I'm too productive at work to look harder.

[tine]

Originally Posted by c_martini

The only two features on my wish list for my player are flac support, the ability to change the screen font size and type, support for more characters in the path and file name for db, and proper random shuffle playback.

Thanks!

Actually 4!!!

Well,

C M Welcome!


Is it correct you are using the Database function?

I have had my 120 for over 2 years now too- So old school!

Some people here may be surprised - but I just last night flashed to Rockbox for the first time. I already love it. I am simple, and completely inept and it has already proved it's worth to me. Finally, OTF playlists. They make tine happy.

Like MH said, you can also boot into normal firmware, and very worst case scenario, you can remove the RB FW completely from your player, no harm done. Best case scenario, you can do all the above [some other EQ experts will have to confirm this for me ], and it is nice to be able to change the font/appearance of the while playing screen.

[c_martini]

Thanks Musichound, Febs, Drippydonut and tine.

Some good replies. Looks reason enough to try out the Rockbox firmware!

[c_martini]

Whoa! Just loaded the Rockbox Firmware to my player. Then loaded a flac encoded version of an HDCD... The sound is stunning! The ability to play my cd's that have been encoded to the flac lossless codec is reason enough for having the firmware, not to mention the cool themes and too many other features to list!

Its almost like having a completely new player!

me=happy )

[jbroad572]

I'll be getting my player pretty soon and was wondering the same thing. Does Rockbox sync with itunes? I am coming from an ipod, which I enjoyed, but wantt he recording capabilities of the h120. It is so easy if it syncs with itunes since all my playlists and cd's are already organized the way I like.

[TedJ]

Originally Posted by jbroad572

I'll be getting my player pretty soon and was wondering the same thing. Does Rockbox sync with itunes? I am coming from an ipod, which I enjoyed, but wantt he recording capabilities of the h120. It is so easy if it syncs with itunes since all my playlists and cd's are already organized the way I like.

No, rockbox doesn't sync with itunes, at least not without a little help from iTunes Agent. The only gotcha I can see is if you've encoded all your music in itunes as aac files. At this stage, rockbox on the H100 series doesn't play aac files back in realtime.

If you've thought ahead and have encoded to mp3, then you should be fine.

[jewman]

It depends on how well tagged your music is. Here's the current way to use a tag database: TagDatabase.
If this is an important feature for you, you might want to consider waiting for the tag cache to be fully functional. This would allow the database to update without the need to redo the entire database.

[jbroad572]

Originally Posted by TedJ

No, rockbox doesn't sync with itunes, at least not without a little help from iTunes Agent. The only gotcha I can see is if you've encoded all your music in itunes as aac files. At this stage, rockbox on the H100 series doesn't play aac files back in realtime.

If you've thought ahead and have encoded to mp3, then you should be fine.

Yea, all my files are in in mp3. Just want a way to be able to update and my library and playlists automatically. Thanks for the replies.

[jewman]

Keep in mind, the developers are working on that tag cache, which would work much like the iRiver firmware DB Scan. You would change Rockbox over to ID3 Database view, probably press update, and then Rockbox would scan for musci and organize it by tag. The tag has already been partially impemented, however I don't know ho wlong it will take for it to work well enough to use. Hope this helps!

[TedJ]

I believe that TagCache is already in CVS over at rockbox.org, and in the newer experimental builds by paulheu. I can't comment on it's stability as yet, since I prefer using filetree myself. It is one of the features to be finalised for the 3.0 release in May.