What is the most powerful supported player for ROCKBOX?

[cpnfantstk]

Noticed on the device list that CPU is listed in the specs. I have a Gigabeat F  (ARM9 296 mhz)  CPU. I noticed other units having different ARM mhz values and some are dual.  Not being a techie , I want to know which player tops the list in regards to being the most capable in running ROCKBOX with the least effort while taking full advantage of all of what ROCKBOX has to offer?

[JdGordon]

the gigabeat beats the pants off any of the other targets... it can play ful screen mpgs at full speed apparently...

[bluebrother]

I'd say the h100 series -- they are not the most powerful by cpu power but have much hardware features other players lack (especially optical input / output).

[Mad Cow]

The gigabeat has the most powerful CPU by far, it's almost twice as powerful as everything else.

[GodEater]

The gigabeat has the most powerful CPU by far, it's almost twice as powerful as everything else.

It doesn't have the hardware to take full advantage of Rockbox however, as Bluebrother points out. It lacks a radio, or any capability for recording (optical or otherwise).

[Walrus]

The Gigabeat also has a wimpy-ass hard drive.  

I can't believe Apple, the maker of all things marginal and idiot-proof (at least with mp3 players), is the only company bothering to make a high capacity 80 gig mp3 player.  As is, I was kind of forced into buying an ipod since no one else makes anything larger than 60 gigs...it's kind of sad, really.  Someone could make a bunch of money making an mp3 player to the same kind of music nerds who spend hundreds of dollars on Sennheiser headphones and whatnot.

[Chronon]

It seems that you can upgrade your hard drive.  So that's likely not a big issue.  The biggest one to me is the lack of ADC/line-in on the Gigabeat.  Other than that I'm extremely pleased with it.

If I were to expand my DAP collection at this point I would probably go for an H1xx series like bluebrother recommended -- though it seems they are in short supply these days.

[Llorean]

Seriously, when the Gigabeat was being sold, 80gb drives didn't exist yet. Try to apply a little logic.

The iPods and the Gigabeats actually use the exact same brand of drives, with and in many cases, identical drives. You can upgrade a 60gb Gigabeat (or a lesser one) to 80gb without a problem. Saying they use "wimpy-ass" drives suggests a pretty solid lack of research.


In the end:

If you want sheer processing power that will be almost entirely wasted, but the ability to view movies, get a Gigabeat F series and upgrade the drive to the capacity desired. Don't purchase a 20 or smaller unless you want to replace the case for larger (dual platter) drives as they have a thinner case.

If you want flexibility of audio functionality (radio, optical input and output, strong recording functions, a built in voice mic, and even an LCD remote), choose the H100 series and put the appropriate disk size in it. Again, same thing applies to the 20gb or smaller devices.

[Yotto]

Actually, though I'm fairly happy with my ipod, what would one recommend if you don't care about recording, fm radio (I bought an mp3 player to get away from that garbage) and a remote?  What if my desire is for a portable mp3/ogg/flac/etc player?  What's the "best" one then?  I suppose the important stuff there would be battery life, audio quality, size, interface (Not rockbox interface of course, button placement and the like), and drive size.

[Christine Tham]

For what it's worth, I'm not really that keen on extra hardware features. My previous MP3 player (non Rockboxed) had FM, recording, USB OTG, and I never used any of those features.

Those who are interested in field recording may want to check out prosumer recorders (that are roughly the same size as MP3 players) such as M-Audio MicroTrack, Roland R-09, etc. They offer much better recording quality for those that care. Those that don't can use the audio recording feature built into most modern phones and PDAs.

On the other hand, a fast CPU is useful for the primary use case of Rockbox - that is, listening to audio. I listen to high resolution audio (96kHz 24-bit FLAC compressed) ripped from DVD-Audios on my Gigabeat, and even the fast Gigabeat CPU is heavily taxed doing 96/24 lossless decoding in real time (key response times are quite slow) ...

Of course, I am biased. I own both a Gigabeat F40 and X60 (both running Rockbox), plus a MicroTrack for field recording, plus a PDA phone ... And they all fit into my handbag at the same time :-)

PS - Elephant's Dream runs pretty smoothly in full screen mode on the Gigabeat using recent builds. Very impressive!

[Walrus]

Seriously, when the Gigabeat was being sold, 80gb drives didn't exist yet. Try to apply a little logic.

The iPods and the Gigabeats actually use the exact same brand of drives, with and in many cases, identical drives. You can upgrade a 60gb Gigabeat (or a lesser one) to 80gb without a problem. Saying they use "wimpy-ass" drives suggests a pretty solid lack of research.

I shouldn't have to upgrade it myself though.   I upgraded my old Nomad Zen, but I mean...I should be able to walk into a store or go on PriceGrabber and buy an 80 gig or 100 gig player right out of the box.  (and isn't the Gigabeat still sold, just in a newer model that only is sold with a 30 gig drive?)

My frustration is more with the general idea that companies are trying to compete with Apple on a grand scale by offering players with largely insignificant features and in 5 different colors, rather than trying to compete on the audiophile end with larger hard drives and more compatibility.  (obviously Rockbox fixes compatibility issues but it'd be nice if mp3 players did that on their own)

All I'm wanting to see is the portable audio player equivalent of companies like Linn, Grado or Sennheiser who make specialized audio products for the people picky and demanding enough to seek them out, instead of the people who happen to wander into a Best Buy.  

Not trying to argue, just saying I think there's a small but significant market out there that no one is even bothering to cater to with regards to portable audio.

[saratoga]

Seriously, when the Gigabeat was being sold, 80gb drives didn't exist yet. Try to apply a little logic.

The iPods and the Gigabeats actually use the exact same brand of drives, with and in many cases, identical drives. You can upgrade a 60gb Gigabeat (or a lesser one) to 80gb without a problem. Saying they use "wimpy-ass" drives suggests a pretty solid lack of research.

I shouldn't have to upgrade it myself though.   I upgraded my old Nomad Zen, but I mean...I should be able to walk into a store or go on PriceGrabber and buy an 80 gig or 100 gig player right out of the box.  (and isn't the Gigabeat still sold, just in a newer model that only is sold with a 30 gig drive?)

My frustration is more with the general idea that companies are trying to compete with Apple on a grand scale by offering players with largely insignificant features and in 5 different colors, rather than trying to compete on the audiophile end with larger hard drives and more compatibility.  (obviously Rockbox fixes compatibility issues but it'd be nice if mp3 players did that on their own)

All I'm wanting to see is the portable audio player equivalent of companies like Linn, Grado or Sennheiser who make specialized audio products for the people picky and demanding enough to seek them out, instead of the people who happen to wander into a Best Buy.  

Not trying to argue, just saying I think there's a small but significant market out there that no one is even bothering to cater to with regards to portable audio.

Theres very little demand for large hard drive players, which is why almost no one has gone beyond 60GB.  Even Apple mostly sells players with < 10GB, so its not surprising that theres hardly anyone selling very large disks.  

[Walrus]

There's also little demand for high-end headphones or speakers, but there's still companies that make them.


It's just the idea of "we could make an mp3 player that's not particularly different than the ipod, and get crushed in the marketplace by Apple's mediocre product but excellent advertising, or make a smaller-scale product geared towards picky buyers unsatisfied with the current offerings and market them online."  

I guess I'm just not impressed with any of the offerings companies keep making to compete with the ipod...they're not all bad, but none are the kind of impressive leap up from the iPod that I keep hoping for.  

Besides, no one will realize they need a 100 or 120 gig player until they realize they can get one.  

[saratoga]

There's also little demand for high-end headphones or speakers, but there's still companies that make them.

Thats not true, and even if it were, headphones and speakers are not DAPs, so this doesn't even make sense.

It's just the idea of "we could make an mp3 player that's not particularly different than the ipod, and get crushed in the marketplace by Apple's mediocre product but excellent advertising, or make a smaller-scale product geared towards picky buyers unsatisfied with the current offerings and market them online."  

So your idea to differentiate a product from Apple's is to offer the same hard disk sizes apple sells?

[Christine Tham]

I should be able to walk into a store or go on PriceGrabber and buy an 80 gig or 100 gig player right out of the box.  (and isn't the Gigabeat still sold, just in a newer model that only is sold with a 30 gig drive?)

You can get 60GB Gigabeat S.

For what it's worth, Toshiba have announced an 80GB Gigabeat V - only in Japan at this stage though.

I agree with your sentiment about large capacity MP3 players though. I need about 100GB just to store my CD collection in compressed form, and probably about 500GB-1TB for lossless compression of all music (including my own recordings).

So for me, 80GB isn't that much better than 60GB - neither will handle my entire collection. I will be interested if someone releases a 120GB player - that would allow me to store my entire collection lossy, plus a few selected albums lossless.