Rockbox Technical Forums

Rockbox General => Rockbox General Discussion => Topic started by: Ray M on February 12, 2019, 09:14:56 AM

Title: Ask And Ye Shall Receive A Cheap Rockbox Player?
Post by: Ray M on February 12, 2019, 09:14:56 AM
It seems we are waiting for compatible devices, rather than asking Sandisk and Chinese producers to make one.

What is the ideal combination of inexpensive components for a Rockbox player, which could be suggested to manufacturers?
Title: Re: Ask And Ye Shall Receive A Cheap Rockbox Player?
Post by: Bilgus on February 12, 2019, 11:20:27 AM
See: http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,51071.0.html
Title: Re: Ask And Ye Shall Receive A Cheap Rockbox Player?
Post by: Ray M on February 12, 2019, 03:00:25 PM
I have posted the following question to various suppliers/manufacturers via Amazon UK:

Can Ruizu produce a Rockbox compatible player please? Requirements/spec: http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,51071.msg235795.html#msg235795
Title: Re: Ask And Ye Shall Receive A Cheap Rockbox Player?
Post by: Milardo on February 13, 2019, 01:03:21 AM
Is it possible to make a "lite" version of rockbox, meaning just fm radio (if it has it) and audio file playback and all the sound/playback settings? For me, at least all the themes, plugins, etc. are great, but I use rockbox for music file playback and definitely need the sound settings to get clean powerful sound with lots of bass.

If this is possible, is it possible to port it to players that have less memory, cheaper components, like the agptek A02 or the ruizu X02?

Also, whatever the agptek rocker uses for hardware, manufacturers should use the hardware as  a starting point maybe, but use a cheaper case like the agptek A02, omit bluetooth, but have fm radio, can it be done? Also, somehow get that great battery life of the agptek A02? Or would having rockbox installed reduce that?
Title: Re: Ask And Ye Shall Receive A Cheap Rockbox Player?
Post by: Ray M on February 13, 2019, 05:00:01 AM
Apparently, Amazon UK did not like me repeatedly asking the same question of suppliers/manufacturers.
They deleted all of my questions, including 1 on Amazon US.

Others could ask a similar question once or twice:

Can Vorstik produce a Rockbox compatible player please? requirements/spec: http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,51071.msg235795.html#msg235795

Good budget players to ask the above question of:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=mp3+player&rh=p_72%3A2661618011&s=price-asc-rank&dc&qid=1550010458&rnid=2661617011&ref=sr_st_price-asc-rank

Milardo makes excellent suggestions also.
Title: Re: Ask And Ye Shall Receive A Cheap Rockbox Player?
Post by: Ray M on February 14, 2019, 06:55:59 AM
"Rockbox Lite" seems like a great idea: Rockbox has many features that most people never or rarely use, and manufacturers are making very few players suitable for "Rockbox Original".

An "ideal" "Rockbox Lite" player (100 hours playback):

https://www.amazon.com/RUIZU-X06-Bluetooth-Playback-Expandable/dp/B07GD5W5S1/
Title: Re: Ask And Ye Shall Receive A Cheap Rockbox Player?
Post by: Ray M on March 05, 2019, 11:32:17 AM
I sent the the following email, or similar, to a few producers and suppliers:

Hello,

I am very impressed by the general specifications of your players,
but they seem to lack key features such as bookmarking.

Could you ask your suppliers to produce or find a Rockbox compatible
player please? There is a great demand for this.

Rockbox requirements/spec:

http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,51071.msg235795.html#msg235795

Many thanks,
Ray.

Responses:

Dear Ray,
 
Thank you for contacting SanDisk Customer Care.
 
We thank you for your request to have a Rockbox compatible MP3 player made.
I would be more than happy to forward your request to the MP3 product team.
 
If you have any further questions or suggestions feel free to message us.
 
Thank you for your cooperation and for allowing us to be of service to you!

Best regards,

Jack V.
SanDiskĀ® Global Customer Care

Hi Ray,

Sorry about this - Of course we can, will email them now to get
some information for you

Thanks

Ross - Evodigitals

http://www.evodigitals.co.uk/

Hi Ray,

Thanks for your message, I will ask the supplier for resolve this issue quickly,
please wait a while again. If I have received the supplier reply, I will inform
you immediately. Thanks. If you have any other questions, Please you feel free
contact us, we would solve this problem immediately.

Best greetings,
daisoug9 (eBay UK)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1X-80-Hours-play-1-8-MP3-Player-8GB-Memory-Capacity-Music-Player-Black-H9P5/232980310742
Title: Re: Ask And Ye Shall Receive A Cheap Rockbox Player?
Post by: progmars on March 12, 2019, 04:39:39 AM
Good idea, I'll try to send a few messages myself.

However, I wouldn't get my hopes high. I'm afraid that most of these responses come from employees who are just "middle men" and have no any impact on the final decision. So, the messages might not get very far and not reach the people who have power over the decision to start producing Rockbox compatible devices.

It's a tricky situation. On one hand, we might have better luck with smaller companies but they might have not enough resources to achieve reasonable prices. On the other hand, large companies have resources but their management & marketing teams usually have strong opinions on how things should be done and might be difficult to convince to adjust to some open-source software project which they cannot control. Unfortunately, Rockbox doesn't have a marketing team to promote it to manufacturers. That's a problem with many open-source projects. We need people who not only write code and share it for free but also people who are enthusiastic about delivering this code to others.
Title: Re: Ask And Ye Shall Receive A Cheap Rockbox Player?
Post by: tekron on April 01, 2019, 05:38:50 PM
At least Sandisk is acknowledging that their players are capable of being rockboxed