[gloco]

I have a H140 and have been reading how great rockbox is for it, but for some reason i haven't tried it yet. How the heck does this thing work and how different does the menu system look? Just curious about any rockbox users opinions on it...thanks!

 

[RotAtoR]

If you have a h140, you must try Rockbox! It's superior to the original firmware in almost every way. There are install instructions here:
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/vie.../IriverInstall

Basically, you patch the original firmware to include a bootloader thats loads the rockbox software from disk. The bonus is that the original firmware remains and you can run it at any time.

The menus themselves are rather spartan, only text, but they're easy to use once you've gotten used to them.

Features:
-Support for many formats: mp1/2/3, ogg vorbis, mpc, ac3, aac (still not quite done), wav, flac, alac, wavpack, and shorten.
-Supports gapless playback, cross fade, replaygain.
-Powerful on-the-fly playlists.
-Many, many customizable options, including the "while playing screen". (http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/WpsGallery)
-More features for recording. (still being worked on)
-Many plugins and games. (including a gameboy emulator)
-And much more...

The only things you might miss are:
-Remote support is only partially done, but should be done soon.
-No wma support.

And if you do miss these, you can always boot back into the original firmware.

I've been using rockbox on my h140 since June and have had no problems with it at all.

 

[micaela]

Yeah I agree. I've been using it for several months & its amazing. So many customizable options. Its very stable now - "just do it" - you won't look back.

 

[hekoman]

I swtched over to rockbox when i found the first build that acctully ran on my h120. I want to say it was either june or july. The first time i heard an album gapless on my h120 I was hooked. I honestly think I have only started the original firmware on my player once since I loaded rockbox on.

With all of the features that rockbox adds to the iHP-1xx players, the karma is the only player that even come close to matching how awesome thses players become.

 

[Kirosia]

I used rockbox for awhile, but it was real problematic with my IHP. Songs would sometimes take forever to load up, and it drove me nuts. I'll wait til they finish it and iron out the bugs.

 

[agile_one]

I love RockBox. Been using on my iH120 since 8/26. Currently using the build from 11/9. As others have said, "just do it". There is really nothing to lose, you can boot back to iRiver firmware at will. If your iRiver isn't latest (v 1.65?), you should probably upgrade the iRiver firmware itself before installing RockBox.

Good luck, and keep us informed if you decide to try it.

 

[Sweet Spot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kirosia I used rockbox for awhile, but it was real problematic with my IHP. Songs would sometimes take forever to load up, and it drove me nuts. I'll wait til they finish it and iron out the bugs.

Most definitely due to a buggy build I'm sure. This is NOT a problem, and even navigating from folder to folder is blazing fast, instantaneous, because of the dir. cache it uses. You turn on the cache , reboot, and it scans everything one time only, and after that, it's all wonderful.

ROCKbox is amazing man. seriously. You owe it to yourself to try it. You can also get more info about it and how to do stuff etc at MisticRiver There's a section dedicated to ROCKbox, and lots of helpful people should you get confused. Also, see my signature here, or on MR for very easy instructions on how to get started with ROCKbox.

 

[Super King]

I was hesitant to try Rockbox too, but it's well worth it. The interface is very customizable, so you can mess around with it 'till you get it close enough to your liking (custom fonts, playback screen, etc). I wrote this article on Rockbox a while ago, it might give you some insight.

http://www.dapreview.net/content.php?review.221

 

[SiBurning]

On my H120D the remote sometimes gets out of sync with the DAP and i can't see what I'm actually navigating. Usually this happens when those silly navigation controls land me in the settings. I don't know if the problem is rockbox or iRiver, because iRiver's navigation systems are just hokey. And then sometimes rockbox panics. I wouldn't use this on my computer, but for a DAP, it's nice.

 

[gloco]

you guys rock, i'm gonna update my firmware (its only at 1.33 lol) and get rockbox installed. I'll report back soon with impressions, thanks guys!

edit: i can't get my iriver to upgrade its firmware. I download 1.60 from iriver's site, created a ROOT folder and dropped the .hex file in there....i've followed the instructions on irivers site to no avail.

 

[davidd]

don't create a folder, copy it to the drive and don't place it in a folder

 

[gloco]

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidd don't create a folder, copy it to the drive and don't place it in a folder

sob! Ok, i'll try it again

edit: success! Thanks dude!

 

[Bittergourd]

I've been thinking about picking up another HDD based DAP,
and I have heard heaps of good things about the Rockbox...
but I'm just wondering,
how does the sound of iHP120 compare to the Karma which I absolutely loved?

(I have experience with Karma, iPod 3G & Photo, and iAudio X5,
so feel free to use these as references!

)

 

[adam917]

Where can I get an iRiver H140 that's either new or bately used? I would like to try out RockBox, but have no units that support it. Is another (different) unit better to get to RockBox a go, as I knoew iRiver discontinued every pre-2005 devie they made? If so, what's best to get?

 

[davidd]

the H100's and some old Archos players are the only ones with useable versions of rockbox right now. they are working on H300's and iPod versions right now.

I would probably go for the H100 myself, but I don't know of anyplace that sells new H140;'s anymore