Rockbox Technical Forums
Rockbox General => Rockbox General Discussion => Topic started by: zeratul on June 27, 2006, 05:15:18 PM
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Hello all, i am thinking of buying an ipod nano , yet i'm concerned about battery life. Having read about rockbox, i am now more eager than ever to buy it. The advertised battery life is 14 hours, yet there are a lot of people on the internet cursing about how they get 7-8 hours tops, some even claim they get at most 3-4 hours. It might be that they didn't "warm up" the li-ion battery by running complete discarge/recharge cycles or something, but that assumption yields no relief. Moreover, there are no articles which provide real life results of battery tests under various conditions.
First and foremost, how much battery life do you get out of your nano with the stock firmware? Does browsing through and changing songs make that much of a difference, or is it the backlight that sucks all the power? During daytime, are the menus, etc. legible with the backlight turned off? The thing is, i don't care if i have to turn the backlight off (as long as it's still easy to see what's going on), but i want to be able to browse though and change songs and listen to them at a high volume with 30 something ohm headphones (namely sennheiser px100), without having to worry about the battery draining dry.
What about rockbox? I realize that power consumption is higher with rockbox than with the original firmware. How many hours can it last without any fancy features and the backlight? Does listening to flac make a significant difference?
I would really appreciate it if you post how many hours you get with your nano. I'm hesitant about buying it merely for this reason, and i think i'll go nuts and eat my bulky md player if i can't get my hands on a decent mp3 player. Seriously, if my worries are unfounded, then i'm just wasting my time not buying the nano right away... I desperately need confirmation that the nano has at least 10+ hours of battery life. Links to professional reviews and tests would be even more appreciated. Thanks in advance.
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Hello all, i am thinking of buying an ipod nano , yet i'm concerned about battery life. Having read about rockbox, i am now more eager than ever to buy it. The advertised battery life is 14 hours, yet there are a lot of people on the internet cursing about how they get 7-8 hours tops, some even claim they get at most 3-4 hours. It might be that they didn't "warm up" the li-ion battery by running complete discarge/recharge cycles or something, but that assumption yields no relief. Moreover, there are no articles which provide real life results of battery tests under various conditions.
First and foremost, how much battery life do you get out of your nano with the stock firmware? Does browsing through and changing songs make that much of a difference, or is it the backlight that sucks all the power? During daytime, are the menus, etc. legible with the backlight turned off? The thing is, i don't care if i have to turn the backlight off (as long as it's still easy to see what's going on), but i want to be able to browse though and change songs and listen to them at a high volume with 30 something ohm headphones (namely sennheiser px100), without having to worry about the battery draining dry.
What about rockbox? I realize that power consumption is higher with rockbox than with the original firmware. How many hours can it last without any fancy features and the backlight? Does listening to flac make a significant difference?
I would really appreciate it if you post how many hours you get with your nano. I'm hesitant about buying it merely for this reason, and i think i'll go nuts and eat my bulky md player if i can't get my hands on a decent mp3 player. Seriously, if my worries are unfounded, then i'm just wasting my time not buying the nano right away... I desperately need confirmation that the nano has at least 10+ hours of battery life. Links to professional reviews and tests would be even more appreciated. Thanks in advance.
My Nano lasts around 10-12 hours with the apple firmware.
Browsing through and changing songs don't make much difference, it is the backlight that switches on that makes the difference.
The menus are not very visible when backlight is turned off, you might have to adjust the angle to view it properly. But seriously, battery is not a problem so you don't have to turn it off.
Yes, rockbox does weaken battery life FOR THE MOMENT. I haven't tested exactly how much so some other user can answer that for you. Listening to flac will make a difference.
And you need to throw that MD player away. I hated my Sony MD. 499 bucks for a piece of shit and my nano costed way lesser.
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Also, take a look at this page for documented runtime results: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/IpodRuntime. My personal experience with Ogg Q6 on my Nano is very close to those tests. I've never used the Apple firmware to play music, so can't give you any feedback there. Battery life with Rockbox will likely improve at some point in the future once things are optimized (the Nano port is in the very early stages of development). In regards to your backlight question - I personally find the screen to be suprisingly legible with the backlight dimmed in Rockbox. Not great, but at least readable.
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My main concern is not with the lower stamina of rockbox. I'm sure it will improve drastically, i have high hopes of open source. Actually 8 hours with ogg is not bad at all, for a piece of software at the early stages of development.
My Nano lasts around 10-12 hours with the apple firmware.
Browsing through and changing songs don't make much difference, it is the backlight that switches on that makes the difference.
Are there others who can attest to this?
L do you get 10-12 hours with the backlight switched off, do you listen to it at a high volume setting? If it's not asking too much, could you conduct a battery test and tell me the results? And btw i'm going to sell that md player, don't you worry =)
I personally find the screen to be suprisingly legible with the backlight dimmed in Rockbox. Not great, but at least readable.
I bet it would be even more legible with such a theme:
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/WpsIpodNano#IPN_TWD_00
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My main concern is not with the lower stamina of rockbox. I'm sure it will improve drastically, i have high hopes of open source. Actually 8 hours with ogg is not bad at all, for a piece of software at the early stages of development.
My Nano lasts around 10-12 hours with the apple firmware.
Browsing through and changing songs don't make much difference, it is the backlight that switches on that makes the difference.
Are there others who can attest to this?
L do you get 10-12 hours with the backlight switched off, do you listen to it at a high volume setting? If it's not asking too much, could you conduct a battery test and tell me the results? And btw i'm going to sell that md player, don't you worry =)
I personally find the screen to be suprisingly legible with the backlight dimmed in Rockbox. Not great, but at least readable.
I bet it would be even more legible with such a theme:
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/WpsIpodNano#IPN_TWD_00
Hi, I have the backlight to switch off after a few seconds, i occassionally turn it on to have a look at the time.
Also, I listen at NEAR max volume, about 95% of the meter. I've nearly gotten knocked down a few times *cough*
I'll test it later when I get home, so in a few hours.
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WELL IVE SET MY (sorry caps lock) my backlight to stay on for have a second (500ms)
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I'll test it later when I get home, so in a few hours.
Thanks, i'd really appreciate it. You'll test the original firmware right?
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Don't know what crazy people were reporting 3-4 or 7-8 hour battery life. Sheesh. I haven't done any tests, but I KNOW that I got more than ten (if I had to make an average guess for money, I'd say 12) hours of life with the apple firmware on my nano. Often while using my px100s too.
I don't know about rockbox yet--soon after I put rockbox on my nano, I bought an ipod video, so I haven't been focusing on it as much lately, but I'll do a runtime test tomorrow with it.
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2 GIG NANO
APPLE FIRMWARE - Shuffle mode, non stop playing - 11 to 12 hours ( to work, at work, to home )
ROCKBOX - Shuffle mode - non stop playing - 7 hours
And thats with the occassional look at screen with backlight on
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Thanks kiwidave and ryran, that's a relief. I'd still appreciate more positive testimonials though.
Ryran how powerful is the bass with the px100 using the flat eq setting?
Btw, did you guys have to perform a couple of discharge/recharge cycles to get that many hours, as recommended by apple?
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Uhmmm... I haven't done any blind tests, but from all the casual listening (I've had my nano since October) I don't notice a difference listening to my nano, iaudio m3l, ipod video, or computer. I never use eq settings anywhere.
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WELL IVE SET MY (sorry caps lock) my backlight to stay on for have a second (500ms)
It must be difficult to type on a keyboard with a broken backspace key.
::)
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Uhmmm... I haven't done any blind tests, but from all the casual listening (I've had my nano since October) I don't notice a difference listening to my nano, iaudio m3l, ipod video, or computer. I never use eq settings anywhere.
So is the bass satisfactory? A lot of people complain about ipods' sound being shrill. I'm sure it's because they are used to players that are tuned to boost bass by default. Lots of sources say that eq settings in the original apple firmware distort sound, so while using the original firmware, i'll have to use the flat eq setting (or have it off, which i believe is the same right?) with my px100 or the sennheiser cx300. Px100 delivers mighty bass, does it compensate for the flat bass?
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This isn't really a forum for discussion of the stock firmware and/or its strengths or weaknesses, as well this thread has *nothing* to do with Bass or Equalizers at all.
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Llorean, I love you man, but honestly .. where else is someone going to talk about this? Come on dude--cut the people a little slack. ;)
And in response to zeratul (ohhhh the days of SC... *sigh*):
I really don't know what to tell ya other than what I said. I haven't performed any tests, but I love the sound I get from my ipods just as much as I love the sound I get from my computer and my stereo. If there's a shrillness or lack of bass, I don't notice it. Also, I don't know why there's a flat eq setting (I can confirm there really is) or how it compares to just turning the eq off, since, as I said, I've never used the eq.
In other news, Rockbox on my nano [running battery testing] locked up on an error (and I have no idea when) so uhhh... no runtime data for today. Now I need to figure out if that was reproduceable. Bleh.
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This isn't really a forum for discussion of the stock firmware and/or its strengths or weaknesses, as well this thread has *nothing* to do with Bass or Equalizers at all.
Sorry, i recognize that, but i'm going to buy a dap really soon (probably this weekend), and i haven't been able to get decent feedback on these issues, despite the popularity and ubiquity of ipod nano, there aren't even decent professionals reviews (other than the one at arstechnica, where they basically tossed the thing around). I'd appreciated it if you overlooked the irrelevant bits.
And ryran, sc will live as long as this world revolves around the sun... =)
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Where will people talk about things like this? Well, there's iPodLounge for one.
These forums are for Rockbox on iPod. Questions about the stock firmware are better addressed somewhere else. I notice that he didn't ask about unequalized Rockbox _at all_ let alone the potential of the parametric equalizer to allow him to resolve any problems he has with any shaping of the sound output from hardware flaws. And to further it, he asked about the equalizer on a battery thread. He didn't even start a new thread. So, doubly off topic.
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Questions like this should be asked at the Apple Forums where you are sure to get your self a proper and correct answer quickly.
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I had a quick look at the apple forums, and decided that they couldn't really be much helpful to me. Almost all topics are about frozen, broken, nonfunctional ipods and such. I figured i could get better feedback from these forums, since there are power users around, or at least those who have the guts to install a third party software to operate their ipods. I accept that i've gone a bit off topic, i apologize, but i actually intended to ask about the battery life with both rockbox and the stock firmware, i just didn't want people to comment merely on rockbox's performance, for i'll just stick to the original firmware if the battery life is better with that, if i have to.
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Llorean, I love you man, but honestly .. where else is someone going to talk about this?
One of the 6 million Ipod forums on the internet?
Anyway, the Ipod bass issue has been well documented:
http://phonephile.blogspot.com/2005/06/ipod-bass-fall-off.html
It can be fixed by using higher impedance headphones (Apple ships 32 Ohm stock for a reason) or using a headphone amp.