Rockbox Technical Forums
Rockbox General => Rockbox General Discussion => Topic started by: jeremysee on March 14, 2008, 04:31:46 PM
-
I'm thinking of switching to a rockbox'd iPod Video 80gb from my beloved Rio Karma (20 gigs = not enough!). I see that battery life has been vastly improved since the last time I checked. However, I have two questions:
-I've seen people complain on this forum about sluggish performance of rockbox on the iPod. Is this still true? Is Rockbox significantly slower than the Apple firmware?
-I know that as of yet you can't control the iPod through the dock connector, but could you use something like this: http://www.amazon.com/SiK-iPod-charger-line-out-audio/dp/B0006ZNC9K (it's a usb car charger/line out)
Thanks.
-
Second things first - yes that adapter should work just fine.
Is Rockbox on the iPod 5th (5.5th) generation more sluggish than Apple firmware? Yes.
Is this hard to quantify? Yes - usage styles between the two firmwares are different.
Do I, personally, have any serious problems due to this? No.
Might you? Yes.
The sluggish behavior is mostly seen in long lists. The longer the list and the smaller the font the worse the problem.
Let me clarify (post IRC discussion) not only is this a problem (you might experience) of feel not functionality, it is something which will likely get fixed.
-
In my opinion it is braindead to use the original firmware (save the battery issue). iPods were mediocre DAPs (considering their price) and became decent with Rockbox.
Ok it might be a little bit more sluggish in long lists, but it has so many settings on how to navigate long lists that there is no reason to put you off from "upgrading" to Rockbox.
To summarize, Rockbox gives you so many choices, that it is a pity not using it just because there is a small delay, when scrolling very long lists and listening to music.
Battery is an issue for some and I understand it, but these days it seems to me that the difference is small.
Do yourself a favor and give it another go. You will find out ,that most of the times you will be using various Rockbox features (that the OF lacks) and not just scrolling long lists. :)
-
Thanks for the quick responses. I like that the sluggishness will probably be fixed. Sounds like once I get the money together I'll be buying an iPod.
And just to clarify, I'm not even considering using iPod's OF; it's clunky and don't even get me started on iTunes. It's just a question of upgrading to iPod + rockbox vs staying with my wonderful but small Karma.
-
I'm having fun with Rockbox. An 80GB .ogg device doesn't fall out of the trees everyday but Rockbox makes it possible. Making my own WPS is just icing. Kind of thrilling to see what comes up next.
As far a sluggishness goes there's room for discussion and improvement but I find the build in the archives from 2/28/08 strikes a good balance between the latest Rockbox features and navigation speed. Not perfect -- but pretty good.
-
Personally I've been having quite a lot of playback problems with the 30gb ipod running rockbox lately, but it seems like some people are effected and others not, so it might work fine for you.
I'm also going to give the build from 2/28 a try as TexasRockbox suggested and see if that helps.
Even with these problems though, I'm still not going back to the ipod firmware. The biggest reason for me, is because of how it stores the files on the ipod. Changing the filenames and directory structure to random letters is an absurd way to manage the music in my opinion.
With rockbox I can just drag the files on and keep the file structure I want.
-
Try the build Version r16441-080228 and see what you think. I've been sticking with it and thus far seems pretty good for my simple but quick navigation needs. From my config file:
max files in playlist: 32000
max files in dir: 16000
dircache: on
Note the non-standard issue for max files in dir: 16000 as opposted to the Rockbox interrface max of 10000. For whatever reasons, it seems to help. Auto-change directory is probably left "off" even with this build as it seems to lose its way.
Just my two-cents and testing. Good luck with what you find!
-
Thanks TexasRockbox :)
I just installed it, so I'll see how it goes and post back the results.
-
Well I have been using build r16441 for a couple of days now, and I must say it DOES seem to have a much faster response when skipping tracks. I still sometimes have the problem where after skipping a few tracks it will get stuck on 0.00 and not start playing the track though. But still, it is an improvement.
I could not enable the dircache setting on my ipod though for some reason. Everytime I change it to Yes, and then reboot the player it has defaulted back to No....
-
Please do not double post. If nobody has responded, please make use of the "modify" button.
How are you rebooting your player?
-
Well I have been using build r16441 for a couple of days now, and I must say it DOES seem to have a much faster response when skipping tracks. I still sometimes have the problem where after skipping a few tracks it will get stuck on 0.00 and not start playing the track though. But still, it is an improvement.
I could not enable the dircache setting on my ipod though for some reason. Everytime I change it to Yes, and then reboot the player it has defaulted back to No....
I have noticed occasional sticking too. Usually I can get it to respond by just seeking by a very small amount. Though I have never experienced your problem with Dircache . Maybe a totally fresh install will help? I hope it's not a hardware difference.
-
I notice the occasional sticking also with r16441 with very quick navigation. Usually pause/play presses will take care of it.
-
I find You can't set dir cache on a reboot.
The way I do it is to set it to yes, wait afew seconds and the turn the player off.
On next start up you should see the message scanning disk and dir cache will be set
-
In order for settings to be saved you have to shut down the player properly. Do not force a hard reset. Is this what people are describing here?
-
That's kinda why I was asking about it, I was wondering the same thing.
-
Yes that is why doing it that way works
its just that the message sayes to reboot that dosn't work IMHO.
-
Reboot is different from "hard reboot". Holding Menu+Select isn't a simple reboot, it cuts power and restarts, and is not a part of Rockbox at all.
-
Even with these problems though, I'm still not going back to the ipod firmware. The biggest reason for me, is because of how it stores the files on the ipod. Changing the filenames and directory structure to random letters is an absurd way to manage the music in my opinion.
With rockbox I can just drag the files on and keep the file structure I want.
Ah ha! If the folders and files are higgledy piggledy like this, then that means I must have used iTunes on mine to end up with the layout I have at the mo.... how odd...
-
Reboot is different from "hard reboot". Holding Menu+Select isn't a simple reboot,
Holding Menu+Select is not enough to enable dir cache IMHO.
Any way rockbox has no software reboot so i'm not sure what the message "reboot" means
-
It means "boot again", which requires shutting down first since there's no other "proper" way to boot again.
Menu+Select is like pulling the power cable out of the wall on your computer, and then turning it on again. It's not something you should ever do unless there's no other choice.
-
Reboot is different from "hard reboot". Holding Menu+Select isn't a simple reboot, it cuts power and restarts, and is not a part of Rockbox at all.
I didn't realize that. I had always thought that references to "reboot" in Rockbox meant to hard-reboot. Anyway, I could enable dir cache now, thanks :)
I'm also going to try a clean install and see if that helps the playback issues I've been having
-
i really loved using rockbox, my friend tried to use it and hated it.
Yes, RB is a bit slower. the main thing i notice is switching songs tends to take longer, and sometimes you need to "wait" while rockbox loads the next bit if you switch songs a lot (like 8-10 songs at a time)
As for battery, i dont know what everyones complaining about. When i got my stock ipod the battery lasted 10 hours. Now with rockbox and my play style its lasting closer to 12. It depends on a lot of things, your while playing screen, LCD brightness, how often you change songs, etc.
I _really_ liked being able to make my own WPS screen, i used a lot of dark colors so it conserves battery life, and i like my small fonts. As far as other "issues" people have... really i dont notice them. I understand that Rockbox is different. The ipod firmware and rockbox firmware are two different hourses, each with its own pros and cons.
-
I don't know why this is turning into another general "state your opinion of Rockbox" thread, but the great thing about Rockbox is that it's open source, so there will always be people working on it (possibly excepting when brain implants become the norm, when the project will likely be renamed "RockBrain"). This means you can expect almost all issues to eventually disappear, which is more than can be said for .. oh... _every single retail firmware_.
-
Well I did a clean install of Rockbox with the build from 2/28 and I am happy to report that the performance is much improved! :D
I can now skip forward and back (previously I had a lot of trouble skipping back especially), and the tracks seem to load fairly quickly. Occasionally there is a couple seconds delay, but that is acceptable for me. The issue of tracks getting stuck seems to have been pretty much fixed too.
Something must have gotten messed up with my previous install somehow. I'm trying to gradually load themes, and change settings one at a time to see if any of them are the culprit.
In any case, my Rockbox works nicely again now, so I'm happy :)