[quadomatic]

I was thinking I should pick up a used Gigabeat F40 and put Rockbox on it.

Good choice?

 

[mattcalf]

Rockbox is always a good choice.

 

[faichiu]

good choice but F40 is hard to get now.

 

[PouncePony]

You can find F40s on EBay for a decent price - as low as $100. If you can find a Gigabeat S60, I would recommend it over the F40. RockBox isn't finalized on the S60, but I have being using it with no problems. The big hit is on battery life. I get about 9 hours with the S60. I also have a F40 which gets over 15 hours battery life.

The S60 is smaller, feels sturdier, and has tactile controls. The cross on the F40 is touch sensitive. I MUCH prefer the tactile cross control on the S60.

If you are interested in a F40, send me a PM. Mine is just sitting around.

-Pony

 

[roebeet]

I love my F40, and still using it (I modded it to take a 120GB ZIF drive). As PouncePony mentioned, the S series is getting close to a functional Rockbox port, and the thing I personally dislike the most on my F40 is the cross control.

However, the big advantage of the F series over the S right now is price. I bought my F40 almost a year ago for US $55 incl shipping, on fleaBay (and that was everything - player, dock, remote etc). If you are patient, you can find one for cheap. The S series, on the other hand, is still running over US $100, generally.

 

[quadomatic]

I got my F40 on eBay for $81 w/shipping.

It's almost new, just 2 months old, and comes with everything. I figure i didn't care enough to pay extra for the S series.

How is video playback in rockbox by the way?

 

[roebeet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by quadomatic /img/forum/go_quote.gif I got my F40 on eBay for $81 w/shipping. It's almost new, just 2 months old, and comes with everything. I figure i didn't care enough to pay extra for the S series. How is video playback in rockbox by the way?

Rockbox video is excellent on this player - Full screen 30fps, with no dropouts. The CPU is fast enough that it can handle it. I'd also suggest using the "Simple Build", as it supports things like BMP resizing (for Album Art):

Gigabeat F & S Series Simple Builds

(btw, the F40 can't be only 2 months old - I don't think it's been manufactured in at least 2 years).

EDIT: I think I found the eBay auction you won. They might have bought it somewhere where it was unopened and thus "new", but the box must have still been on someone's shelf for a very long time. I'd also be wary in that they claim the player does video - it does not do video with the OF, only with Rockbox. Hopefully that was just a honest mistake, on their part.

 

[quadomatic]

we'll see

They have pretty good feedback, so hopefully they aren't screwing with me.

 

[roebeet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by quadomatic /img/forum/go_quote.gif we'll see They have pretty good feedback, so hopefully they aren't screwing with me.

I agree - they look pretty legit. I would have purchased from them.

btw, feel free to PM me if you have any questions / issues with Rockbox. One piece of advice: if you don't want to open your player in the future, try to avoid reformatting the drive and forgetting to add the SYSTEM folder back - if that happens and you disconnect the player, you'll need to open it up to fix it. I've made that mistake more than once....

 

[quadomatic]

My gigabeat came today, but it doesn't look like it came with the right USB cable. I don't have the mini-usb cable to connect to the Gigabeat. Is that the one I need?

 

[quadomatic]

Yeah, I did need the mini-usb cord. I found one plugged into an external hard drive so I'm using that for now, till I can get the seller to find it and send it to me.

It does seem like it is in fact only 2 months old, since the files on it don't date back very far. Unfortunately it wasn't very clean when I got it. Lots of smears and packaging junk. I wiped it off though and it was fine.

I got rockbox installed, and it's pretty awesome. I love that I can FINALLY carry all my music with me. Sound quality is pretty good. The interface is pretty nice. The cross touch control is okay. Video playback is pretty good too.

For $81, I really can't say I'm disappointed in the least.

 

[craiglester]

did you get the cradle and the remote?

 

[roebeet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by quadomatic /img/forum/go_quote.gif My gigabeat came today, but it doesn't look like it came with the right USB cable. I don't have the mini-usb cable to connect to the Gigabeat. Is that the one I need?

Mini-A connector, the same that's used by a lot of DAP's - i.e. my Cowon, Sansa Clip and Gigabeat can all use the same USB cable.

EDIT: Didn't see the last posts, silly me. Agreed that the Gigabeat F has a great sound. Btw, the remote should work with the Simple Build, although it gets a little getting used to. The cradle should also work with that same build (I'm assuming that the seller gave you all the accessories).

 

[quadomatic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by roebeet /img/forum/go_quote.gif Mini-A connector, the same that's used by a lot of DAP's - i.e. my Cowon, Sansa Clip and Gigabeat can all use the same USB cable. EDIT: Didn't see the last posts, silly me. Agreed that the Gigabeat F has a great sound. Btw, the remote should work with the Simple Build, although it gets a little getting used to. The cradle should also work with that same build (I'm assuming that the seller gave you all the accessories).

I have the remote, but I don't have the usb cable. But yeah, found one on an external hard drive and used that.

As a side note, I'm very surprised at how quickly videos encode for this thing. It only takes maybe 1 or 2 minutes to encode a 50 minute show to mpg to a very nice file size.