iPod Video: which custom build to you use and why? [was: Curiousity]

[melancholydm]

Im just curious~ to those using custom builds, which one do you guys use and why? specifically for ipod 5/5.5g

[Febs]

I've renamed your thread.  In the future, please use descriptive thread titles as required by our posting guidelines.

[melancholydm]

aahhh im sorry thanks~

[soap]

Almost without exception, choosing to use an unsupported build is choosing to trade newbie help and the latest and greatest core features for eye candy.
Most of the unsupported builds are updated infrequently (at least compared to Rockbox itself), and many change some aspect of the user interface ("right" vs "select" to play tracks / "menu" vs no "menu" to boot into disk mode).  Both of these things make support near impossible and can slow your groking of Rockbox.

That being said - most people would do well to pick the WPS they like - and choose an unsupported build based upon the WPS's needs.  Album Art (with or without BMP resize) and Scrolling Margins are the two patches which will open up 95% (made up number) of WPSs to you.  The last 5% need Multifont or one of P.I.Julius's patches.

[tdtooke]

Once you've become more familiar with rockbox and newbie help isn't so much of an issue for you you can just make your own custom build so you can have the latest core features and the eye candy.  For most unsupported build users for the iPod it usually comes down to your WPS needs like soap said.  Basic album art functionality and scrolling-margins are included in Senab's build.  If you're a "Pimp-my-iPod" kinda guy like me and like the Julius' themes you'll be wanting an EvilG build.

[melancholydm]

aaahhh never really thought of the custom builds to be more along the lines of eye candy~ my initial thoughts were that they were more of using unsupported features and just experimented about. As for eye candy I dont really care much outside of icons and backdrop since Im very happy with only using Kelps (perfection in simplicity I say). Since im pretty new to rockbox im still trying to explore the player itself maybe later on ill mess with making my own wps or even a build but was just curious as to why ppl go with custom builds.

[tdtooke]

To say custom builds are mostly eye candy is a bit of an overstatement.  For example, take the EvilG build.  One of it's patches is the one-click insert patch for adding a song to a playlist.  If you use playlists alot that's a very useful thing.  Then there's the LCD brightness patch which many people like because quite honestly the iPod is a tad on the overly bright side backlightwise.  Actually there are quite a few functional non-eyecandy changes on that build that alotta people make good use of.  

[melancholydm]

aaaahhh good point makes me wonder why such features arent implemented on the core builds especially the playlist patch since its one of the most requested things.

[tdtooke]

Here and there patches like that make it in.  Sometimes getting them fully flushed out so that they do what they're supposed to do without introducing a bug can be a long process, and sometimes the devs are cooking up something that will address whatever a particular patch does in a different way.  I remember hearing something about view ports or something or another which will make scrolling-margins not needed.  That and they usually have bigger fish to fry than some of these features, though many of them are useful and valid things, just not as important as playback, etc..  

[GodEater]

aaaahhh good point makes me wonder why such features arent implemented on the core builds especially the playlist patch since its one of the most requested things.

What are you basing your statement that it's one of the most requested things on?

We have around 11,000 registered forum users. There are other users who only subscribe to the mailing lists, and still more who've never made their presence known at all.

To my mind, the only people who request this feature are the ones who participate in the unsupported builds threads that feature it - which is an incredibly small percentage of rockbox users.

[melancholydm]

well i am only reading threads involve in ipod development and its not unusual to see that kind of request~ either way dont take it so personaly and its not like its one of those unique feature request.

[Febs]

well i am only reading threads involve in ipod development and its not unusual to see that kind of request~ either way dont take it so personaly and its not like its one of those unique feature request.

I hardly think that GodEater is taking your post personally.  He is simply asking you to provide factual support to backup a statement that you made that appears to be inaccurate.

[GodEater]

well i am only reading threads involve in ipod development and its not unusual to see that kind of request~ either way dont take it so personaly and its not like its one of those unique feature request.

Definitely didn't take it personally - I was just curious to hear where all these requests were