[bana]

cmarti,
 
After reformatting a number of times with AOMEI windows is finally seeing the drive. I'm moving files when I get home and will let you know tomorrow.

 

[bana]

Cmarti,
 
Success, success success, but not after spending half the night awake.
 
When I reformatted the drive I of course removed parts of Rockbox, so I had to start over the installation again.
I was able to load just about 2,000 files before calling it a night, and will load the rest tonight, then see how it performs.
 
Thanks to you and all that help, I could not have done it without you.
 
Cheers,

 

[cmarti]

  Cmarti,
 
Success, success success, but not after spending half the night awake.
 
When I reformatted the drive I of course removed parts of Rockbox, so I had to start over the installation again.
I was able to load just about 2,000 files before calling it a night, and will load the rest tonight, then see how it performs.
 
Thanks to you and all that help, I could not have done it without you.
 
Cheers,

Glad you got it working! I know how good you must be feeling right now.

 

[bana]

I was beginning to think it would never work for me, but my music collection is so large that I had no other choice but to keep trying.
 
When I started twelve years plus years ago I was encoding at 256k and as the drives got bigger I keep increasing the rate, as I am an audiophile.
Now, I'm going to go back and redo all them 256k MP3, then load all my CDs that I could not due to memory limit.
 
I'm as happy as a monkey in a monkey tree.

 

[originalsnuffy]

Personally I rip to lossless (FLAC).  Apple also has its own lossless codec, but I prefer FLAC. 
 
The 5.5g with Rockbox sounds phenomenal.  I think the Wolfson has a very sweet sound and Rockbox brings it to life.   I am amazed how much better Rockbox sounds than stock IOS.  I am something of a music playback skeptic; but in this case I do not think the difference is subtle.

 

[Sea Monkey]

Another update.  My y-cable will arrive tomorrow, but I've been slowly transferring my collection to my iPod 10GB at a time, and it seems that heat is what causes shutdown/corruption rather than battery life because the battery doesn't really seem to drain much at all with each transfer.  I just have to give it a few minutes to cool down between each one.  I have had a handful of files that didn't transfer correctly, but I'm using Teracopy which makes it easy enough to identify and retransfer problem files. When it happens it claims something about the contents of the file being changed even though that's not the case.
 
*edit* Y-cable was *supposed* to arrive today but didn't.  Last night I ended up not leaving enough time for recharge/cooldown between transfers and ended up having to start over again today. 10GB transfer, 10 minute rest minimum.  Also last night, I tried to make a spacer like DMinor's but it didn't quite work out, so I ended up running a piece of 22ga floral wire through the rubber strip that was attached to the original plastic drive spacer and melting it around the wire. I haven't had a chance to really stress test it much since it's just been sitting on my desk, but I'll post a picture next time I've got the iPod open.
 
*edit 2* I want to bang my head on my desk.  Was doing 10GB then 10 minute rest. Got about 240GB transferred before it crapped out on me again. Going to do 200GB the same way and then give it a four hour charge on AC.

 

[Sea Monkey]

Great. When I connect with the y-cable Rockbox Media Player device shows up, but does not populate a drive letter.  Windows unsuccessfully searches for a separate USB driver for the Samsung EVO 1TB.
 

 
 
*edit* Ended up doing yet another iTunes restore.  Installed the Rockbox firmware and patch. Now copying over all of my music in disk mode with the y-cable *before* rebooting into Rockbox. 33.5GB so far so good.

 

[originalsnuffy]

Could somebody help answer some questions on audio resolution on the 5.5 .

What is the bit rate limit on stock 1.3 firmware, and with rock box? I was under the impression that both limits were 16 bits and 48 kHz. However I have also heard 24 bit.


What are the similar limits with current iPhones such as the 6 or 6 plus. !

Thanks

 

[webstaa]

Could somebody help answer some questions on audio resolution on the 5.5 .

What is the bit rate limit on stock 1.3 firmware, and with rock box? I was under the impression that both limits were 16 bits and 48 kHz. However I have also heard 24 bit.


What are the similar limits with current iPhones such as the 6 or 6 plus. !

Thanks

5.5g iPod (80gig) is : AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3 and 4), Apple Lossless, WAV, AIFF  Link is to Apple support page.
 
The DAC can do 24bits in the 5.5g AFAIK.  In fact, Rockbox on the iPod video supports 32bit .aiff/.snd/.wav.  As found here - the Rockbox iPod video manual.  Rockbox used to downsample everything - as the iRiver H1x0/H3x0 couldn't support anything higher than 16/44.1KHz 
 
iPhone 6/6+ is : Audio formats supported: AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), HE-AAC, MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, 4, Audible Enhanced Audio, AAX, and AAX+), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV  Link is to Apple support page.

 

[Sea Monkey]

Figured I'd write a guide based on my experience and what I've learned in the threads here. This is with a 1TB EVO and a 5.5. There are definitely options that present fewer difficulties, but this is for anyone who is using the same.
 
Tools needed:
5.5gen 80GB iPod Video
Samsung EVO 1TB mSATA
mSATA to ZIF adapter
mSATA to SATA adapter
Spudger
USB+Firewire Y-cable
iPod Firewire Adapter
A bit of stiff wire or similar to dislodge the battery latch
ice packs
 
Software needed:
iTunes
Rockbox
beyondwind's mSATA patch for Rockbox
 
1. Fully charge your iPod
2. Insert mSATA drive into mSATA to ZIF adapter
3. Use spudger to open iPod
4. Use a bit of wire to dislodge the battery connector. Be careful not to break it or you'll have to buy a new logic board!
5. Use spudger to lift the securing latch connecting the ZIF cable to the hard drive.
6. Remove the hard drive.
7. Connect the ZIF cable to the mSATA to ZIF adapter
8. Secure the latch.
9. Reinsert the battery cable and push the securing latch down with the spudger.
10. Close up the iPod
11. Connect the USB/Firewire y-cable to your iPod
12. Plug the Firewire end into the Firewire charger (with the charger plugged into an outlet).
13. Plug the USB end into your PC.
14. Run the iPod restore process in iTunes. Do not do anything until the iPod resets and iTunes displays 'Welcome to your new iPod'. This can take a while.
15. Close out iTunes.
16. Place an ice pack underneath the iPod.
17. Begin copying your music in 100GB sets with 15 minute waits in between. Replace the ice pack as necessary to keep the iPod cool.
18. Run the Rockbox utility and install the Rockbox firmware. DO NOT RESET THE IPOD!
19. Copy the .rockbox folder from beyondwind's mSATA patch over the existing folder on your iPod.
20. Safely eject the iPod and wait for it to reboot into Rockbox.
21. If you get the 'Dir buffer is full' error when you go into your music directory in Rockbox, increase the 'Max Entries in File Browser' setting under 'General Settings'. This requires a reboot to take effect.
22. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND disabling inactivity shutoff in Rockbox altogether and just making sure you charge frequently. Not doing this resulted in the iPod booting to 'Connect your iPod to iTunes to Restore...' after a few shutdowns.
 
The mSATA to SATA adapter is for when you inevitably screw up or let the battery drain too far and you end up with the 'sad face' on your iPod telling you to contact Apple support. When that happens,
 
1. Plug the mSATA drive into the adapter.
2. Connect the adapter to your motherboard.
3. Boot up a Linux live disc. (I use Mint)
4. Open terminal
5. Run 'sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1024K count=1024' replacing sdX with the actual drive ID in Linux.
 
This will clear the MBR and allow the iPod to see the drive in disk mode again.

 

[ThinWalls]

That's a comprehensive guide!
 
For your final step, would using windows AOMEI and 'rebuild mbr' option achieve the same thing?  (I've been using a linux PC and gparted and reformatting the whole ssd and starting again - I've found whenever corruption occurs the ssd always changes itself to a 21mb+40gb (unformatted)+the rest unallocated, arrangement of partitions - I really don't understand why.  My sdxc pod does the same thing. 
 
And, most baffling of all, I seem to find that when this happens, even my hard drive based ipod then sometimes goes wonky if I sync it (goes to the perpetual apple icon reboot loop) and needs restoring - its like its an infectious disease, or some sort of ipod hysteria! (though my current theory is its due to a bad usb cable)
 
The other thing is, I'm struggling to figure out what I need to use to install rockbox on a 7th gen with msata.  Beyondwind's directory of downloads includes several files and I can't work out what relates to what I need.
 
 
 
I've previously successfully installed rockbox on a hard-drive based 7th gen.  I get that I need emcore first, then rockbox itself.
 
But where does the msata patch come in?  Is it a patch for emcore or for rockbox?  And do I install the latest rockbox from rockbox's site and _then_ add the patch, or do I have to use a pre-patched rockbox from beyondwind's site (in which case it would probably be an older release?)
 
And beyondwind's site includes an ipod5g msata patch, and a rockbox ipod6g file, and a plain 'rockbox' file, which is linked to as being for msata with 5g.  This is confusing the heck out of me.
 
 
Mainly thinking of switching entirely to rockbox due to the ludicrous number of bugs in iTunes (at least in version 12).  It seems to be an unstable crock of manure, constantly crashing, freezing up, corrupting the art database, losing podcasts, corrupting ipods and, above all, giving idiotic 'out of memory' errors.  It very clearly has a major memory leak problem for one thing, and has trouble coping with large libraries.

 

[davidcotton]

  That's a comprehensive guide!
 
For your final step, would using windows AOMEI and 'rebuild mbr' option achieve the same thing?  (I've been using a linux PC and gparted and reformatting the whole ssd and starting again - I've found whenever corruption occurs the ssd always changes itself to a 21mb+40gb (unformatted)+the rest unallocated, arrangement of partitions - I really don't understand why.  My sdxc pod does the same thing. 
 
And, most baffling of all, I seem to find that when this happens, even my hard drive based ipod then sometimes goes wonky if I sync it (goes to the perpetual apple icon reboot loop) and needs restoring - its like its an infectious disease, or some sort of ipod hysteria! (though my current theory is its due to a bad usb cable)
 
The other thing is, I'm struggling to figure out what I need to use to install rockbox on a 7th gen with msata.  Beyondwind's directory of downloads includes several files and I can't work out what relates to what I need.
 
 
 
I've previously successfully installed rockbox on a hard-drive based 7th gen.  I get that I need emcore first, then rockbox itself.
 
But where does the msata patch come in?  Is it a patch for emcore or for rockbox?  And do I install the latest rockbox from rockbox's site and _then_ add the patch, or do I have to use a pre-patched rockbox from beyondwind's site (in which case it would probably be an older release?)
 
And beyondwind's site includes an ipod5g msata patch, and a rockbox ipod6g file, and a plain 'rockbox' file, which is linked to as being for msata with 5g.  This is confusing the heck out of me.
 
 
Mainly thinking of switching entirely to rockbox due to the ludicrous number of bugs in iTunes (at least in version 12).  It seems to be an unstable crock of manure, constantly crashing, freezing up, corrupting the art database, losing podcasts, corrupting ipods and, above all, giving idiotic 'out of memory' errors.  It very clearly has a major memory leak problem for one thing, and has trouble coping with large libraries.

Each gen needs it's own patch for the msata to work.  A 6th gen patch would be no good for a 5th gen ipod. 
 
Basically you install rockbox as normal, and then copy the appropriate msata gen patch.rockbox folder over the original .rockbox folder.   Without that patch rockbox would not work with msata based ipods.  Not too sure what the situation is with emcore however.   Ask in the main modding thread, you may get more answers there.

 

[ThinWalls]

Thanks!
 
To be honest, its not going all that well - both the sdxc pod and the ssd one constantly corrupt themselves. 
 
With the ssd one it tends to happen when syncing (maybe heat?) and the symptom is corrupted artwork or just an immediate red-cross upon ejecting.  On one occasion I actually watched, (while playing after disconnecting) the artwork, which had been there perfectly OK, progressively erase itself before my eyes, while browsing cover-flow mode.  That was very odd.  And when the art is corrupted it means a reboot or an attempt to synch will lead to the red cross of doom.
 
The sdxc one either redcrosses on ejecting, or it syncs and seems fine and then suddenly produces the apple icon after playing for a while.
 
As I say though, the weirdest thing is it seems to have spread to my hard-drive ipod as well, which has also needed restoring a couple of times since I started this business, again with disappearing artwork being the warning sign.  And itunes is not helping, as it very clearly has a massive memory leak issue (on windows at least).  So possibly part of it is iTunes itself struggling with a large library?
 
So am now planning to try rockbox.
 
But just can't figure out which of the files on beyondwind's site I need - not clear if the '6g' one is for msata or not, or whether the lone 'patch' file can be applied to the 6/7g as well as the 5.
 
 
Edit - OK, using the 6g one it seems to have worked, though had to use a workaround to install all the themes as the rockbox utility doesn't like the SSD.
 
But now the question is - can I safely remove the ssd and put it in the external enclosure in order to copy all the music to it, so as to avoid the slow and unreliable rockbox usb interface?  Anyone out there know?
 
Edit again - seems the answer is 'no'.  When I try it immediately corrupts itself.  Sigh.  What is it about SSDs that they become corrupt at the drop of a hat?

 

[webstaa]

 
Edit again - seems the answer is 'no'.  When I try it immediately corrupts itself.  Sigh.  What is it about SSDs that they become corrupt at the drop of a hat?

This article is a year old, but explains some of the issues.

 

[ThinWalls]

  This article is a year old, but explains some of the issues.

It seems much worse than that article implies - in that the ssd corrupts itself if I remove it when the ipod is in sleep mode and not doing anything.
 
Unfortunately both the ssd and the sdxc card seem to be unusable in any of my 7.5 gen ipods. Its just constant corruption problems with both.  Just one problem, for example, is that if one ever stops a large sync before completion (via the little cross button on itunes), iTunes will freeze, and its memory consumption in task manager will proceed to increase without bound till it crashes.  Then on restarting it will verify the ipod and 90% of the tracks you just synced will have disappeared.