Why Rockbox?

[HotStuff2]

I followed Rockbox back when it was still being developed, but haven't checked in for quite some time. It looks to me like Rockbox is still lacking in many things, though I'm not complaining about it. My question is, can someone tell me a compelling reason to use Rockbox instead of the stock iRiver OS on my iHP-120 (aka H120)? Does it offer anything that iRiver doesn't, or will I lose any functionality? The stock firmware works fine for me, and while I like the prospect of an open-source firmware for the H120, it doesn't look to me like it does anything more than the normal firmware, does it?

Both my sons have the H10 20gb, and I understand Rockbox adds video playback, but there are several features not implemented yet that they use, so Rockbox isn't an option for them yet, either.

Just trying to get a quick rundown on what ROckbox offers that is better than the iRiver firmware, and what (if anything) it doesn't do, that the iRiver firmware does.

[jewman]

-otf playlists
-games (bejeweled, asteroids, solitaire, chess, pong, pacman)
-faster boot time
-customizable wps's (while playing screens)
-more options
-more recording features
-gameboy emulator
-doom
-equalizer

...and many many more. Click here for a more comprehensive list.

[jimdearras]

You can have both. You can dual -boot, and select the OS you want to use when you start.

You do lose some with RockBox. There are some WMA (and MP3, I seem to recall) formats it will not play that the stock code will. And some recording format differences, though RockBox is usually far superior, here.

Anyway, there's no harm in loading RockBox, and lots to gain.

YBIC,
Jim

[Llorean]

On the H120 the ONLY thing missing from Rockbox as compared to the stock firmware is WMA playback. That's it. Some people also consider their equalizer better because we give you a full parametric equalizer while iRiver just gives you presets, but presets are often considered easier to use (despite being vastly more restrictive). We also don't have SRS WOW, because that's a proprietary technology.

Meanwhile you get a variety of new playback formats, better battery life, more recording formats, and a whole host of miscellaneous other features that may or may not interest you.

[Mus]

Originally Posted by Llorean

On the H120 the ONLY thing missing from Rockbox as compared to the stock firmware is WMA playback.

And one-button A-B functionality. I use that one a lot.

The last time I used the Rockbox recording functionality the machine froze when I pressed stop and lost the entire thing. I'm reserving judgement on that too.

[Llorean]

Well, yes, the A-B functionality is two-button on Rockbox. I wouldn't call that a missing feature, as the function itself is still there, the interface for it has just changed.

If you want to go that route, we're also missing the ability to change EQ presets at a single button press (you have to load them from a list), we have entirely different buttons to invoke a variety of other things too.

[Mus]

Originally Posted by Llorean

Well, yes, the A-B functionality is two-button on Rockbox.

Well it's really annoying that such a tiny feature should mean that I can't use RB exclusively. I use it quite a bit in the car, so wouldn't like to try it two-handed at 70mph, so to speak!

[spingle]

It's much more usable, but these features alone do it for me:

1. Much faster boot
2. Nice WPSs (like mine) and selectable fonts, showing much more, much more readably
3. Crossfeed playback. This puts a little of the right speaker in the left and vice-versa, tweaked such that it sounds like you're listening to speakers. Much more relaxing to listen to.

There are various other minor things; it's just much more feature rich, while also very usable. Mostly, I don't care about equalizers or games etc., I just listen to music - however, the wealth of features mean you can use the ones you like, and ignore the rest.

[HorstIriver]

Hi Hans,

the Iriver OS takes more than a minute to boot on my 140, Rockbox a few seconds. Rockbox has realtime recording level controls, Iriver doesn't have any, recording is trial and error. Rockbox = gapless playing, Iriver = gappy, gapfull, gapping playing, whatever you like

Tschö!
Horst

[Packgrog]

Oh man, Rockbox is infinitely better than the iRiver firmware. There's so much to offer. It provides vastly greater customizability, faster boot-time (5 seconds instead of 20+), on-the-fly playlist creation, GAPLESS PLAYBACK with Ogg and LAME-encoded MP3s (a huge benefit when listening to Pink Floyd albums), ReplayGain support (evens out the volume levels of the files, so that the volume of a track from a newer CD won't be so jarring after listening to an older album with much lower recording levels), plugins galore, recording of radio, etc. Rockbox is a dream come true. It can take a little bit of effort to get started with it, but it's so completely worth it. Oh yeah, and did I forget to mention that it's updated DAILY, so improvements are constantly ongoing. When was the last time a new iriver firmware came out? Heheh.

I've had some issues with sound distortion when using the crossfeed function, but this is on a June 5th build, and may well have been fixed since then. Hell, they even have some AAC files working in realtime now on the H1xx!

Definitely get Rockbox on there. If you find that you don't like it (for whatever reason I cannot begin to imagine), you just hold down the record button when you boot up, or delete the .rockbox folder, and you'll boot right back into the iriver firmware. Simple stuff!

[Michael Lewis]

I've only just loaded it (a couple of hours ago) after more than 2 years using the stock interface. A compelling reason for me was that I listen to MP2 from radio recordings which the stock system does not have. It also has bookmarks (essential if you are listening to a very long recording).
I have always disliked the lack of display options on the stock system. There is much more choice on Rockbox. Lastly, on the fly playlists.
A lot better already.
Mick

[markun]

Originally Posted by HotStuff2

It looks to me like Rockbox is still lacking in many things

Rockbox might not be perfect, but to which missing features are you refering exactly?

[Francis H120]

OK I've recently got a 2nd hand H120 and am thinking of going Rockbox. 2 questions:

1. So do I see in this thread (I hadn't noticed this as an added feature on the Rockbox site) that with Rockbox I get the option to choose between auto and manual record levels? This will totally make me load Rockbox if this is the case.

2. One thing that puts me off Rockbox is when I look at the daily build stuff it says something like "fixed the X instability that caused the Y crash". If they're fixing one of these each day that's a little worrying isn't it?

[DD]

Originally Posted by Francis H120

1. So do I see in this thread (I hadn't noticed this as an added feature on the Rockbox site) that with Rockbox I get the option to choose between auto and manual record levels? This will totally make me load Rockbox if this is the case.

The recording on Rockbox is excellent. I'm just assuming that it does what you said- there are many AGC settings as well as loads of things missed out of the recording in the original firmware. I'm not sure if things from the Recording Enhancements patch have been included in CVS yet, but that added yet a lot more of extra things like level meters, etc.

Originally Posted by Francis H120

One thing that puts me off Rockbox is when I look at the daily build stuff it says something like "fixed the X instability that caused the Y crash". If they're fixing one of these each day that's a little worrying isn't it?

Being an ongoing thing is very good. Think of it this way- if there was a bug in the iriver firmware it would be months before another firmware release (or in the case of the H100 series, there are never likely to be any more updates). Yes, at times you might have a particularly "buggy" week, in which case you can just use an older build until things have smoothed out again, but in general all is good .

[sweetspot]

In regards to loading buggy firmware, I personally don't update to latest builds unless I know for sure that they're stable. In general, it's pretty easy to find a stable build I think. Right now, I"m mainly using RB with my iPod vs. my IHP these days, and understand that using the EQ and a very visually oriented theme, may cause playback to be a bit unstable (slight gaps from time to time), but since this is a known issue, there are ways to avoid it, and this is generally known too.

As for the iRiver H series, everything is pretty much optimized for ROCKbox at this point, so there shouldn't be any such issues, and the only bugs you'd see may come from the devs trying experimental things, which if don't work at first, are usually always remedied, or the user can simply go back to the previous stable build.

There's virtually no point IMO in using the stock firmware at this point in time. Except perhaps in ONE case that has been noted above by Hotstuff.

Hotstuff, if you are driving and need the one press A-B feature, so be it. You shouldn't be playing with anything like a phone/PDA/or other electronic device whilst driving anyway, so there's no harm in using the stock firmware if it's just for playing a shuffled playlist or similar. If you're not driving, just boot to the RB firmware, no biggie.

Doug

[Francis H120]

Thanks for your reply. I'm still a little uncertain though:

"I'm just assuming that it does what you said- there are many AGC settings .......... I'm not sure if things from the Recording Enhancements patch have been included in CVS yet, but that added yet a lot more of extra things like level meters, etc."

AGC is what I don't want - simply being able to set the level myself with a control while looking at meters is what I want. You mention meters so I think it likely you can do this. Especially if there's a "Recording Enhancements patch". From what you say this is seperate to loading the main Rockbox software though? I didn't see the seperate bit on their site. Maybe it is in the main firmware now. Maybe someone from Rockbox will come on and clear this one up?

"Yes, at times you might have a particularly "buggy" week"

Not reassured!

....now how did you do those nice quote boxes?........

[Febs]

I think that your question really is, "can you adjust gain on-the-fly with Rockbox," and the answer is YES. This alone makes Rockbox better for recording than the iriver firmware. Rockbox also has features like clipping indicators so that you can tell if your levels are set to high and either reduce them manually or have Rockbox reduce them automatically for you through a "safety" feature.

The "safety" feature is NOT AGC. It simply reduces the gain to avoid clipping and then leaves the gain set at that reduced level. However, Rockbox does also have AGC features.

....now how did you do those nice quote boxes?........

Like this:

[ quote ] Quoted text goes here. [ /quote ]

Remove the spaces from within the brackets and you get:

Quoted text goes here.

[caramelsoul]

Never mind....