Best platform for Rockbox?

[scharkalvin]

I'm wondering what people here think is the best player to buy for the purpose of running Rockbox.  This would be a balance of available features on a given player with cost and availability.  Since most hardware seems to become discontinued before a given port is completed we are aiming at a moving target!  A search on ebay shows that there are plenty of ipods available (though the most desirable ones would be the 4g color/photo and the 5g video ones).  A dark horse in this race might be the gigabeat players, but there aren't as many available on ebay and the prices tend to be higher.
Anybody out there with some opinions on this?

[bluebrother]

This completely depends on what you want to get -- do you want recording, optical output, color display, fm radio, etc.? Not all features are available combined. Check http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/BuyersGuide -- and if you want advice you'd better state what functionality you want to get first.

[scharkalvin]

Thanks for the link, I'll look at it.
I agree one needs to know what one wants out of the player.
I am interested in hearing about availability of the various supported players and
how well they actually work.  Thanks!

Mostly I'd like the ability to play most digital music formats (mp3, ogg, flac, wav, etc) and it seems rockbox can do that on ANY platform.   I'd prefer a color LCD screen so that most of the game plug ins would work, along with being able to display video clips.
Not all players with color LCD's are readable with the backlight off.  (The Sansa is guilty of this, I think the gigabeat IS readable with the light out).

BTW is it possible to import youtube videos into rockbox?  I assume a workable flv to mpeg converter would be required.  What works for this under linux?  Or would it be possible to write a rockbox plug in that would play flv's natively?

[LambdaCalculus]

Not all players with color LCD's are readable with the backlight off.  (The Sansa is guilty of this, I think the gigabeat IS readable with the light out).

According to the Gigabeat owners on these forums, the Gigabeat's screen is completely black with the backlight off. The only DAPs you can still sort of read the LCD on with the backlight off are the iPod line (video, nano, and Color).

[GodEater]

That's the colour LCDs you mean.

I have no problem reading any of the greyscale LCD screens with or without backlight.

[LambdaCalculus]

Yes, that's correct.

Of all of the platforms with color screens, it seems that the iPods are the only ones you can still see with the backlight off.

The greyscale targets are perfectly viewable with or without the backlight.

[bluebrother]

Mostly I'd like the ability to play most digital music formats (mp3, ogg, flac, wav, etc) and it seems rockbox can do that on ANY platform.

This works on all SWCODEC players, i.e. all players except the archos line (which uses a special chip for decoding the audio).

BTW is it possible to import youtube videos into rockbox?  I assume a workable flv to mpeg converter would be required.  What works for this under linux?

mplayer can play flv, so I assume mencoder can convert those too.

[saratoga]

The gigabeat is unreadable even under intense direct light.  I actually don't know why we don't just power down the LCD altogether like on the Sansa.

[LambdaCalculus]

But getting back to the original poster's question... might I suggest the iriver H300 series, perhaps? They offer nearly every feature in the book: color LCD, games, video, recording, FM radio, software decoding, easy expansion, and cross-platform support.

You also can't go wrong with the iAUDIO X5, although they're quite hard to come by, now that Cowon has discontinued them. (And on that note, I'd love to get my hands on the X5 for myself as well, and eBay's no help.)

[nls]

the iriver h300 and iaudio x5 are not very good for video though, the iriver has 220x176 display but only manages ~10fps the x5 display is smaller so it gets a few more fps but the display isn't very good.

[scharkalvin]

The gigabeat is unreadable even under intense direct light.  I actually don't know why we don't just power down the LCD altogether like on the Sansa.

With the OF my Sansa E270 screen can "almost" be read under a tensor lamp.
Might be able to see it outside in bright sunlight.  Come to think of it, my wife's Nokia cellphone with a color LCD is totally unreadable without the backlight on.  Boy does THAT piss her off.  Nokia should light the backlight when the phone rings.

[bascule]

I'd prefer a color LCD screen so that most of the game plug ins would work, along with being able to display video clips.

Both these things work on (all?) the grayscale units.

[scorche]

I'd prefer a color LCD screen so that most of the game plug ins would work, along with being able to display video clips.

Both these things work on (all?) the grayscale units.

Well, where the plugins are supported.  The Archos devices (obviously) cant run the more taxing plugins.

[scharkalvin]

some of the game plugins don't work on the grayscale.
Ie: pacbox isn't listed for the ipod, maybe the emulator needs color?
Also doom must look bad in grayscale, I'll have to try it.

How do you read gameboy roms into files? (my kids have some
gameboy cards lying around).

I'm thinking of putting a 16gb cflash card into my ipod mini 2G when the battery
finally dies (self discharge times are getting shorter now).   I already bought a
cflash from newegg that was reviewed as working with the 2G mini.  I'll
rockbox the mini then.  I also have a Sansa E270 that will get the rockbox treatment.

Checked on ebay and there are lots of cheap iriver h10's in 5-20gb sizes.  The h100's
and H300's are rare and more expensive than a 4g ipod color/photo!  There are several F series gigabeats available for $100 or less in 10-40gb sizes.

Finally, being a software engineer with a good knowledge of computer hw, I'd
love to design my own player.  I work for Niles Audio, the company makes high end
custom multi room home audio / video equipment.  Niles has several high end remote control units that use Arm7 controllers with color lcd touch screens.  Just the kind
of parts I'd put into a nice player.  Just a pipe dream at the moment, but
I'm thinking of an ipod touch clone with a color touch screen LCD (think it's a 2"x3" screen with 1/4 to 1/2 VGA resolution) and 16-32gb of flash (use a cflash module anyway for expansion).

[scorche]

How do you read gameboy roms into files? (my kids have some
gameboy cards lying around).

This requires a special adapter and there are many online stores that will sell them.  Google is your best bet for finding them.

Finally, being a software engineer with a good knowledge of computer hw, I'd
love to design my own player.  I work for Niles Audio, the company makes high end
custom multi room home audio / video equipment.  Niles has several high end remote control units that use Arm7 controllers with color lcd touch screens.  Just the kind
of parts I'd put into a nice player.  Just a pipe dream at the moment, but
I'm thinking of an ipod touch clone with a color touch screen LCD (think it's a 2"x3" screen with 1/4 to 1/2 VGA resolution) and 16-32gb of flash (use a cflash module anyway for expansion).

This sounds great.  an open hardware device has been a much talked about item, and you will likely find more about other people talking about such a thing (although it has been just talk) on a thread in the New Ports forum.