Rockbox...pros? cons?

[Raphael]

Is there any sort of "standby" option for Rockbox on iPod instead of shutting down? That is a major battery killer

 

[jewman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raphael /img/forum/go_quote.gif Is there any sort of "standby" option for Rockbox on iPod instead of shutting down? That is a major battery killer

Actually, I believe leaving something in "standby" mode kills the battery faster than shutting down, as the device is still running when it's in standby.

 

[Raphael]

Depends entirely upon application. I sometimes come back to my iMod after an hour or two. And standby would be very helpful there.

 

[NelsonVandal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by robm321 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Also, is the sound quality of RB better? Or is that just subjective?

I have an IHP120. I think FLAC and OGG is fine with Rockbox - maybe even better, but mp3 is inferior to iRiver firmware. I like Rockbox but I wish they would implement a better mp3 decoder. I had to re-rip all my albums to OGG.

 

[judas391]

I was too scared to upload different firmware onto my iPod, because I had to return it because of harddrive problems = used up warranty.

 

[elnero]

I recently installed Rockbox and for the most part I'm liking it but there are a few things that bug me and one in particular that may drive me away from it unless I can find a solution/workaround/patch. When my iPod isn't with me on the go it's usually on a dock that is connected to our stereo. Rockbox doesn't just go to sleep or simply charge on the dock, it will shut down and immediately recharge. I know I could turn off the auto shut off but then I'd lose battery life when I'm at work. Also, both my wife and I use it and she has no interest in Rockbox so with these factors in mind I prefer to leave it booted into Apple and use Rockbox when I'm at work or doing more serious headphone listening at home. Problem is if I boot into Apple and leave it on the dock for some mysterious reason my iPod will restart every now and then which means it will automatically boot into Rockbox thus starting the shut down and restarting cycle.

So the biggest beef I have is that when installing the bootloader there is no option to swap the boot sequence and boot Apple first and use the hold button to boot into Rockbox. It seems like this should be a fairly easy implementation and I've read posts from numerous other people who have this same preference so I'm hoping this will be implemented by the team or a patch of some sort offered for those us that like to use Rockbox but prefer to boot Apple first.

If anyone knows of a solution or workaround please let me know.

 

[Laptopia]

PRO: With hardware equalization in Rockbox turned on, I believe that my Rockboxed iPod 5G playing FLAC sounds better than my non-Rockboxed iPod 5G playing Apple Lossless. I have tried blind A/Bs & have been able to ID the Rockboxed unit.

CON: Everytime I update to the latest version of Rockbox (about once every two months), I have to deal with saving the extra fonts & other customs I have accumulated, then moving them to the folders of the updated Rockbox install. It's not hard, but I lose about 10 to 20 mins. Still worth it to me.

 

[Electro Point]

I personally think rockbox is good, not the best. The customizable interface is a plus if you want like a background, theme, etc. But with a background it significantly slows down the speed to browse fast through your songs. Battery life with rockbox is kind of um.. ugh. Also you have to boot up rockbox everytime which I also hate, there is no "resume".
Now for the good of rockbox, Ton of features and being very usable. Gapless playback is a plus and also support for other audio formats.

 

[Eagleboy]

On my 5g iPod, Rockbox didn't read the disc# tags on the tracks. So, I'd be listening to a multi-track album, and track 1 from CD two would play, then track 1 from CD one, then track 2 from CD one, then track 2 from CD two... etc.

It was enough to make me switch back to the original firmware. Battery life wasn't as good as Apple's firmware either, but even then the 5g's battery isn't much to write home about anyway.

 

[compuryan]

yeah I don't like how it doesn't display the names which get displayed in programs like WMP/iTunes/Foobar. Other than that I really like it. Oh it takes some time to get used to the menu controls if you're not used to it.

 

[elnero]

Had an odd thing happen on the weekend, I was booted into Rockbox listening to a song that I'm only so-so familiar with, for some reason it sounded odd so I booted into Apple and low and behold the channels were reversed. I booted back into Rockbox and tried again and it the channels were fine this time round.

 

[ZarakiSan]

Guys, you need to learn a bit more about Rockbox.

I get 15 hours of battery life (used the battery test program) leaving it to play overnight with random folders and software eq turned on with my 80GB iPod.

The font is just as readable as on the stock firmware because I use Nimbus-12 as a font, way more readable.

I use the theme jBlackGlass or something, which looks like WMP and is simply great to look at.

I don't have freezes or slowdowns at all, except for one cover art piece that seems to lag everything up, but I'm too lazy to fix it. I can browse directories and my tagcache instantly because I have them both buffered to RAM.

Maybe I'm lucky, but you guys aren't doing eveyrthing right.

Also, rockbox sounds better during silent-ish passages of music, standard firmware hisses like a maniac!

 

[tman1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Electro Point /img/forum/go_quote.gif I personally think rockbox is good, not the best. The customizable interface is a plus if you want like a background, theme, etc. But with a background it significantly slows down the speed to browse fast through your songs. Battery life with rockbox is kind of um.. ugh. Also you have to boot up rockbox everytime which I also hate, there is no "resume". Now for the good of rockbox, Ton of features and being very usable. Gapless playback is a plus and also support for other audio formats.

so what do you think is the best?

 

[sghound]

the terrible rockbox battery was enough for me to revert back to original firmware.