Archos 504 or a Rockbox'd 80gb video Ipod?

[patach]

Doing more research on the archos has got me thinking that it's missing a power adapter.  Does the Ipod come with one?

And not to knock on Rockbox, but is there any other way to get mp3s on an ipod without having to deal with itunes?  I'm praying for a simple drag 'n' drop from the explorer, here...

[Llorean]

If you're not interested in Rockbox, your thread is no longer on topic for these forums.

[squidkidd]

not to encourage off topic topics, but if you put the ipod into disk mode, you can drag and drop music onto it, the problem though is that in order for the ipod to actually play the music, it must have come through itunes.

Regards,
Brian

And not to knock on Rockbox, but is there any other way to get mp3s on an ipod without having to deal with itunes?  I'm praying for a simple drag 'n' drop from the explorer, here...

[Febs]

Absolutely false.  

This is the Rockbox Forum.  Rockbox can play music that you have dragged and dropped onto the player.  iTunes is not necessary.

[squidkidd]

I think patach meant is there a way to drag and drop music onto a non-RB'ed ipod.

Regards,
Brian

[patach]

Sorry, if I'm going off topic, I'm making what I feel is kind of a heavy decision just because either way I go is costing me a few hundred.

I've checked the 80 gb hard drives that you linked me, but found that the 80gb model's sporting a $300 price tag on pricewatch.  That's a good $400 all together with a gigabeat, I see.

Well, let me go back to rockbox and the ipod then.  Sure, the video is bad on the rockbox ipod version.  But is it a lot of trouble to quickly reboot to the original firmware?  That way I can listen to my oggs and Flacs and then if I want to watch a video podcast I can easily reset the ipod and boot back into the original firmware?  

Also, if there is a “no usb mode” then how can I drag 'n' drop files onto my ipod and have rockbox arrange them for me?  

I think a good compromise would be having Rockbox take care of my music files and the ipod's original firmware take care of my videos.  I certainly can put up with itunes on some fronts.  

Is this currently possible?  

[mamboman]

Sorry, if I'm going off topic, I'm making what I feel is kind of a heavy decision just because either way I go is costing me a few hundred.

I've checked the 80 gb hard drives that you linked me, but found that the 80gb model's sporting a $300 price tag on pricewatch.  That's a good $400 all together with a gigabeat, I see.

Well, let me go back to rockbox and the ipod then.  Sure, the video is bad on the rockbox ipod version.  But is it a lot of trouble to quickly reboot to the original firmware?  That way I can listen to my oggs and Flacs and then if I want to watch a video podcast I can easily reset the ipod and boot back into the original firmware?  

Also, if there is a “no usb mode” then how can I drag 'n' drop files onto my ipod and have rockbox arrange them for me?  

I think a good compromise would be having Rockbox take care of my music files and the ipod's original firmware take care of my videos.  I certainly can put up with itunes on some fronts.  

Is this currently possible?  

yes, the reboot only takes a few seconds, my only gripe is the slow saving of database in RB and poor battery life, other than that, it's much better than the apple fw

[squidkidd]

Rockbox has no usb mode, but apple's disk mode allows you to drag and drop your files organized how you want them and then you can browse them in Rockbox.  Rockbox itself does not organize your files, it just reads what is already on the harddrive.

I currently use the apple firmware of my RB'ed ipod for videos and Rockbox for everything else.  That setup works wonderfully.

Regards,
Brian

[patach]

How much of a sacrifice is the battery life on a rockbox'd ipod?

[mamboman]

How much of a sacrifice is the battery life on a rockbox'd ipod?

i am getting abt 9-10 hrs compared to 22+ hrs with original apple firmware on my 5.5G 80GB

[patach]

Really?  Is it that bad?  Does Rockbox have certain options that have it suck out the life of an ipod, or is simply running Rockbox in the first place the problem?

[GodEater]

Although this topic has been done to death all over the forums, I'll indulge you and answer it AGAIN here

The problem is the hardware in the ipod is completely undocumented. Everything rockbox and ipodlinux have managed to get working on it is via complete guesswork - but there's a lot we still don't know. And one of the things we don't know is how to shut down bits of the ipod whcih aren't being used. People have measured voltage usage on the ipod when it's running both the Apple firmware and when running rockbox, and there are significant differences. The trouble is we don't know how to change that.

[|2eM!x]

I generally found that my ipod battery life was much less than 9 hours, less than 5 in fact.  Just wanted to give you a heads up.

[Febs]

I generally found that my ipod battery life was much less than 9 hours, less than 5 in fact.  Just wanted to give you a heads up.

Don't you think it would be helpful to say which iPod you have?

[Llorean]

And what the retail firmware gets under identical circumstances.