Gigabeat Keymap Change

[Llorean]

I honestly expect the majority will like this change, and think that even the people who don't think they will now will find it a bit more useful in time.

[sammage]

Took me a few presses of the A button to get used to it, but now I really like the change, reminds me of Rockbox on my old H120.  

[mannequin]

trying to adjust to the change i found out there's no way to return to the wps using just the cross once you left it.

maybe it would make sensce to set it up this way: while in wps, "select" takes you to the files view. then, "left" takes you further up, to the folders view; pressing "select" again" plays the chosen file and pressing "right" (it performs the same "select" as of now) takes you back to the wps.

what do you think?

[AlexP]

Left to main menu, select currently playing.

[Llorean]

As BigBambi pointed out, just press left until you reach the main menu and select the now playing option. If there wasn't some way to enter the menu system, I wouldn't have said it allows nearly the full functionality with just the cross.

I've long felt that if "select" and "right" are going to do different functions, one should start a new playlist (what it does now) and the other should 'insert' or 'queue', but that's another topic for another place as it concerns all players.

[mannequin]

yes, at least different functions for "select" and "right" would've been nice.

it just seemed like a logical solution to use "right" to return to the wps on gigabeat after 5 minutes with the new keymap.

[Llorean]

If anything, "Right" seems to logically be a navigation button. If "Left" goes out of a folder, "Right" obviously needs to at least go into folders.

Another option would've been "On a file, Right and Select do the same thing, on a folder Right enters, while Select plays that folder" which I think is a sort of nice balance between the two.

[Wrathernaut]

I still have issues with the lack of tactile feedback from the Gigabeat F series, myself and other who use it tend to hit the center of the cross. Long presses aren't triggered falsely, but skipping tracks ends up pausing far too often.

Since rolling my own became possible, I set the A to pause in the WPS and the center of the cross doesn't do anything. Much less fat-fingering now.

[gorman]

What I find strange is keeping up and down for volume control on a platform that has hard buttons dedicated to exactly the same task.

Maybe mimicking the Rio Karma interface would make sense? Up->Pause/Play, Down->Stop.

Has there ever been discussion about letting users choose which commands to assign to which buttons? Maybe with a .cfg external file or something.

[AlexP]

Has there ever been discussion about letting users choose which commands to assign to which buttons? Maybe with a .cfg external file or something.

Yes, and it isn't going to happen.  For reasons, search the forums, there are plenty of threads on it.

[gorman]

Has there ever been discussion about letting users choose which commands to assign to which buttons? Maybe with a .cfg external file or something.

Yes, and it isn't going to happen.  For reasons, search the forums, there are plenty of threads on it.

To do that (changing key configuration) one has to compile its own version then, right?

[scharkalvin]

Just looked at the on line manual for the gigabeat.  Doesn't look like it was updated yet?  Also I note that the volume keys don't control the volume?  (Do the volume keys do anything?)

I'm watching some auctions for gigabeat players on ebay, maybe I'll end up checking this out first hand.  BTW since I've never actually seen a gigabeat in person, how
big and heavy are they compared with ipods?

[LambdaCalculus]

BTW since I've never actually seen a gigabeat in person, how
big and heavy are they compared with ipods?

They're actually quite light and slender. Since markun's visiting here in New York and brought his, I finally got a good idea of what it's like to carry it around and use it. His F40 is about as thick as my 30GB iPod video, if not perhaps a wee bit thicker, and is about the same size vertically. The weight, to me, feels a little bit lighter than the iPod video. Perhaps it's because the Gigabeats don't have that metal backing like the iPods do.

[GodEater]

Wonder what sort of Gigabeat markun has then - mine's SOLID metal...

[LambdaCalculus]

His is metal. But it's metal that doesn't weigh like metal.

But regardless, I like the feel of the Gigabeat. Nice, light, solid as hell. I might get one to at least help out with improving the port.