[Arainach]

Quote:

Since I have a 3G iPod, any EQ use means I have to upgrade to a 4g or 5g iPod, which means $150-200. But when I Rockbox, I end up potentially losing or handicapping some of my other features.

Other than the ability to play DRMed (i.e. iTunes Store) music, what do you lose?

You gain a LOT - EQ, Crossfeed, Piles of Sound Formats, and piles of other stuff.

 

[spinali]

Quote:

Other than the ability to play DRMed (i.e. iTunes Store) music, what do you lose? You gain a LOT - EQ, Crossfeed, Piles of Sound Formats, and piles of other stuff.

Crossfeed and EQ are really attractive options, I must confess. I've heard the 5g - does SQ improve substantially? What's the effect on battery life? I'm very interested in specifics, since the Rockbox forums mostly concentrate on problems.

 

[guitarman19853]

bah. I just bought a 5g 80 Gb iPod

 

[Febs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spinali /img/forum/go_quote.gif Crossfeed and EQ are really attractive options, I must confess. I've heard the 5g - does SQ improve substantially? What's the effect on battery life? I'm very interested in specifics, since the Rockbox forums mostly concentrate on problems.

Battery life on my 60GB 5G is benchmarked at about 9 hours.

In my tests, I found no improvement in sound quality from the lineout, although Rockbox gives you far, far more flexibility to shape the sound to your liking. Some people have reported that using headphones, background hiss is less with Rockbox that with the original firmware.

 

[bluey_02]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spinali /img/forum/go_quote.gif This sounds very impressive, but I'm torn; not from this great advice, but from a combo of factors: Since I have a 3G iPod, any EQ use means I have to upgrade to a 4g or 5g iPod, which means $150-200. But when I Rockbox, I end up potentially losing or handicapping some of my other features. Suddenly, the Trekstor Vibe 12g looks really attracive - and it works with Mac OS X with no Rockbox intervention. And it has every feature on the book, with top audio. (But if I wait until September, I can get the superlight 30g flash iPod, though EQ is still uncertain on this model). But since I have to spend the same amound either way, why not get the full package that Trekstor provides? I love their products, but Apple's dragging their feet on the one feature that means anything to me.

You mentioned a 30g (gb?) flash-based iPod..

Is there something I'm missing here or did you find out about the next iPod?

 

[zip22]

various analysts have been predicting it for a while. nothing solid, or even rumors really. just people guessing.
http://www.macrumors.com/2007/03/14/...ory-and-apple/

 

[Leland]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Febs /img/forum/go_quote.gif You gain far more features than you lose with Rockbox. Whether that makes Rockbox worth your while, of course, depends on the relative weight that you put on those features. Remember, though, that Rockbox allows you to dual boot, so installing Rockbox does not really remove any features.

How well does dual-booting work? Especially if you go ahead and use drag/drop to load via rockbox. Do you end up w/ two different file systems on your player?

Also, can you comment on how large the battery life impact is with rockbox?

 

[potatotron]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PouncePony /img/forum/go_quote.gif RockBox supports file/directory based and tag based browsing. If you enable tag based browsing, RockBox will find the music placed on your iPod via iTunes. I just tested it out and it works. Using file/directory based browing of your iTunes music isn't feasible since iTunes renames music files placed on an iPod. -Pony

That's not strictly true. If you enable the tag cache, you can browse your iTunes-generated folder maze at the expense of just a little more start-up time.

Also, getting Rockbox strictly for the EQ isn't really worth it. As it stands, Rockbox is still a work-in-progress, so the kinks haven't been worked out and things haven't been optimized - and as a result, you can expect a lot of breaks in your EQ'd music as the processors (including the COP) struggle to catch up with everything.

 

[Febs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leland /img/forum/go_quote.gif How well does dual-booting work? Especially if you go ahead and use drag/drop to load via rockbox. Do you end up w/ two different file systems on your player?

No. Rockbox runs only on the FAT32 file system. If you mean to ask whether you end up with duplicate sets of files, then no, that is not necessary. Rockbox has a database function that can locate supported files wherever they are on the player.

Quote:

Also, can you comment on how large the battery life impact is with rockbox?

It depends on the particular platform you are asking about. On my ipod video, I get about 9 hours, so probably slightly more than half of what the original firmware would provide. On my H120, it's more like 16-17 hours, which is slightly more than what the original firmware would provide.