[erikzen]

I have the Archos Studio 10 that I bought a couple of months ago, and I have read that Rockbox is a better firmware than what comes standard on the player. I understand that Rockbox provides better sound quality, longer battery life and better shuffle play options, among other things. Are there any downsides? The only thing I've read is that installing it can password protect the hard drive accidently.

To be honest with you, I have been using the Archos primarily as an external hard drive and haven't really been using it as a portable player so I don't really have a strong opinion on the sound quality as of yet. I have read threads here that say Archos is crap and Creative is great. Then there are others that disagree.

Can I hear from some of the Archos owners who have upgraded to Rockbox, as to whether or not it has worked well for them? I'd hate to install Rockbox and screw up my player. What are your recommendations?

 

[JaZZ]

Installation of Rockbox is very simple and causes no problem at all – normally. I'd strongly recommend it. The main problem of the Archos firmware with my Studio 20 was occasional skipping at high bitrates during buffer reload. This has totally disappeared since Rockbox.

You can read about all Rockbox features at http://rockbox.haxx.se/download/ or http://rockbox.haxx.se/docs/features.html and many discussions about the Archos players and their problem zones at http://forums.funmp3players.com/foru...asp?forum_id=8

It's fun to work with Rockbox. I've even read that Archos has contacted the Rockbox team in order to make Rockbox the official Archos firmware.

JaZZ

 

[erikzen]

Thanks for that Jazz! I'd already been to the Rockbox site, but I always say if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Being that I haven't really put the Archos through it's paces as a portable player yet, I was reluctant to try and install Rockbox.

I hadn't seen the other forum though. That's a great link!

 

[Textual Intercou]

installing it for me was fairly easy, but I had problems because for some reason the original Archos files wouldn't be deleted through browsing the drive in Windows XP. So I downloaded a copy of directory snoop and went after the files to be deleted, as the FAQ on the RockBoxx site explains.

there was never any danger, tho, and if worse comes to worse you can reformat the drive. it's pretty neat, and a lot better than the original. For some reason it started with equalizations Treble +7 and Bass +4

It was easily fixed.

 

[mc whak]

I'll third that. It's MUCH nicer than what comes with the unit.

 

[erikzen]

OK, I've installed the Rock Box firmware. Since, I didn't really use the player all that much I don't have much to compare it to. It does seem to be a better interface.

However, one thing I miss with Rock Box that I had with the original firmware was the ability to make playlists on the player itself. Am I missing something or is this no longer possible when you switch to Rock Box?

 

[mc whak]

I think that's intended for the next version.