Are you using Rockbox?

[mnhnhyouh]

A quick poll to find out how many are using Rockbox on their players....

h

 

[mrdantownsend]

I am And I Love It!

Who ever though yoou could play Pokemon, fully functional, on an iPod?!?

I installed it on 3 other people's iPods too, cuz they were too dumb to do it themselves

 

[somegods]

I know I could search the rockbox website, but...

Does rockbox work alongside the Apple firmware or completely replace it? Support for Photos yet?

 

[mrdantownsend]

RockBox Works alongside the Apple Firmware.

Just restart and hold MENU to put it into apple mode

And yes, the Photo tools in the rockbox are very good,m especially on the full resolutions, zoom and navigation tools are very useful

 

[davidd]

I havn't put Rockbox on my nano yet, as I am waiting for it to get a little more developed, but I think I might mess with it and iPodlinux this weekend

 

[mdmania]

Rockbox rocks except it doesn't work with iPod Hi-Fi which isn't an issue anyways.

 

[natrino]

what exactly is rockbox and what does it do??

 

[mnhnhyouh]

Rockbox is an alternate firmware for DAPs. Written from scratch using none of the original firmware. It has one feature some really like, no matter what platform : gapless playback.

It will also convert your iPod to a UMS compliant music player.

Here is a feature list, (first green column)

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/FeatureComparison

status for the iPod port

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/IpodStatus

and FAQs for the iPod port

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/IpodFAQ

There are also tons of plugins, like Doom, Sudoko etc.

h

 

[TheJosher]

Does rockbox work alongside the Apple firmware or completely replace it? Support for Photos yet?

Yes and no.

Both firmwares will be usable, but the trouble is the way Apple and Rockbox browse music. Apple has their own DB, and the music is dispersed through files in random directorys. Rockbox, on the other hand, is directory based.

For example,
Rockbox: K:\Music\Coldplay\Parachutes\03 Spies.mp3
Deafult firmware: K:\iPod_Control\Music\F30\JKZL.mp3

Since Rockbox doesn't yet read the deafult firmware DB, the only way to listen to your music from the deafult firmware is completely random. (As you can see, the directory and file structure above doesn't tell you anything.)

The upside is, Rockbox supports drag and drop. Just drag and drop the music onto the iPod drive, and you can play it. However, this same music WONT be accessible from the deafult firmware.

Eventually, someone will probably program something that'll read the iPod database and let you use both seamlessly, but since thats not out yet.. the only option is to have the music on your iPod twice. Or at least, any music you want to listen too from rockbox.

----
As for the original question,

Yes - I'm using Rockbox on my iPod. The picture viewing is superb, game plugins really nice, and gapless playback and EQ features are great. I recently released my first theme, too.

I have not, however, switched all my music over to the rockbox drag&drop. One, I can't submit tracks played in rockbox to last.fm, two it doesn't display lyrics (or album art, but that is coming really soon. Already a working patch for it.), three no iTunes sync. Any time I update the id3 tags, I'd have to manually update it.

I'd REALLY like an ipod db paser.. so I can use iTunes to manage the music, and access it all from rockbox.


Josh

 

[krmathis]

No, I dont currently use Rockbox. But I've tried it.

Why you might ask?
* No HFS+ support (Mac formatted iPod). This is the major stopper for me!
* No iTunesDB parser. So music I want to play with both Firmwares have to be be stored twice.
* Its a battery eater (will probably be a lot better when they get cpu trottle working).
* Crash if sleeping when the USB is plugged in.
* Hmmm...

But I have faith in the project, and hope they get it "right" some time!

 

[mnhnhyouh]

I am wondering if the easiest way past your second reservation is an app/part of rockbox that creates a iTunes DB file, instead of organising the music differently?

h

 

[TheJosher]

* No HFS+ support (Mac formatted iPod). This is the major stopper for me!

Why don't you just format it Fat32? Then it'd work on both windows and mac. This is covered in http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/iPodInstallationFromMacOSX#Convert_an_iPod_from_HFS_to_FAT3

(click the "Similar topics in this web (if any): IpodInstallationFromMacOSX, ...", as iLounge automatically re-formats iPod if the first letter is in caps and the second isn't. Therefore breaking wiki links.)

And yes, it does eat batterys.. although it isn't too too bad. And as you said, once they impliment the CPU throttling, it'll be a whole lot better.

Just wake it up before plugging the USB in

Josh

 

[krmathis]

Why don't you just format it Fat32? Then it'd work on both windows and mac. This is covered in http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/iPodInstallationFromMacOSX#Convert_an_iPod_from_HFS_to_FAT3

I'm fully aware of this, cause I'm the one who wrote the parts in the Wiki.

Its just that FAT32 dont work as well as HFS+ on Mac OS X. Slower, dont support aliases, disk label always uppercase, etc...
So until Rockbox support Mac formatted iPod's I stay clear!

 

[DCapple]

where can i get a rockbox?

 

[mnhnhyouh]

www.rockbox.org

h

 

[Pull9Gs]

Nope, linux

Leo

 

[LukeA]

Does Rockbox work with Firewire or only USB?

 

[DamageInc3689]

Can rockbox brick your iPod? does it void the warranty?

 

[mnhnhyouh]

I dont think anybody has bricked their player with RB yet.

Does it void your warranty? This is not yet known.

h

 

[DamageInc3689]

I tried it last night, i was dissapointed, i couldn't get to any of my songs