19 replies to this topic

[norm]

At least get something that can be Rockboxed, it's excellent.

I'm an iriver fanboy personally, I love their players. I don't know if they do one in 40GB or above though.

tbh i think rockbox sucks, it drains an unnecesary about of battery life, yes the extra features are nice but id rather listen to a little more atreyu than play a game that i could play with far better gfx nd gameplay on me 2x. and whats with the "gapless playback" its not gapless

but on a lighter note irivers are are pretty dam rad

I'd stay away from iPods myself, I've had a fair few in the past 2 years.. all with hardware faults

i hear alot about these ipod hardware faults but ive neva had any. ive owned 2 ipod minis, a photo, a video nd a shiffle 2 nd iv had no probs at all - is it just that i update before these problem can occur?

[nickspoon]

tbh i think rockbox sucks, it drains an unnecesary about of battery life, yes the extra features are nice but id rather listen to a little more atreyu than play a game that i could play with far better gfx nd gameplay on me 2x. and whats with the "gapless playback" its not gapless

Actually, on most players Rockbox battery life is fine. On the iAudio X5 it is actually extended, because Rockbox underclocks the CPU when not needed. Only on PortalPlayer targets (iPods, iRiver H10, etc.) does the battery life take a hit, and that's because the power management for PortalPlayer isn't implemented very well - documentation for the chip is difficult to come by, especially since nVidia bought PortalPlayer.

And Rockbox isn't just about games - they're plugins for a reason. It is usually better than the original firmware. For example, on the iAudio X5, the original firmware supports only browsing and playing by folder. Rockbox supports browsing and playing by both folder and ID3 tag. You can create and save playlists on the go, record stuff - including from the radio - fiddle with the massive number of EQ, bass and treble settings, create a log of everything you listen to to submit to last.fm, choose your favourite skin (the WPS format is very flexible, skins can do pretty much anything) and of course play Doom

[ak_]

For example, on the iAudio X5, the original firmware supports only browsing and playing by folder. Rockbox supports browsing and playing by both folder and ID3 tag. You can create and save playlists on the go, record stuff - including from the radio - fiddle with the massive number of EQ, bass and treble settings, create a log of everything you listen to to submit to last.fm, choose your favourite skin (the WPS format is very flexible, skins can do pretty much anything) and of course play Doom

True, and it also removes the freaking case-sensitive folders/files sorting.

[Hanz™]

For example, on the iAudio X5, the original firmware supports only browsing and playing by folder. Rockbox supports browsing and playing by both folder and ID3 tag. You can create and save playlists on the go, record stuff - including from the radio - fiddle with the massive number of EQ, bass and treble settings, create a log of everything you listen to to submit to last.fm, choose your favourite skin (the WPS format is very flexible, skins can do pretty much anything) and of course play Doom

True, and it also removes the freaking case-sensitive folders/files sorting.

I'm getting an X5 sometime next week (if the guy on ebay actually sends it!).
Would everybody suggest I put rockbox on it?

I basically want:
+ long battery life
+ fast intuitive navigation
+ themes (so I can match it to my computer)
+ good sound quality
+ to be able to select a folder and play all of the files in it, in order?

[Javacat]

I'd strongly recommend flashing it with Rockbox. The build I use on mine is available @ http://rockbox.webhop.org/. It contains lots of additional patches that aren't included with the official builds. For the theme I use the silk skin, which I have modified to fix a few problems and made to look better in the menus and for the radio (I'll upload it later for anyone interested).

The best way of improving the battery life is by replacing that battery in it altogether. See this thread for details about how to do it. I've not actually gotten around to doing this yet, but I believe nickspoon might have been looking into doing it on his.