Rockbox for me? Some questions

[irish guy]

Hello everyone.
I have been searching for a new mp3 player recently. I have a 30gb ipod video that I gave my wife and went out to search for my own mp3 player. In my searches, I came across a number of interesting tid bits as well as finding out about rockbox.

I was hoping to get some suggestions/feedback.
Originally, I was looking at a meizu m6 mini player. I have been listening to .ogg files for some time now and wanted to make sure my next DAP could play .ogg files. After looking at a few, that is where I started to lean towards the M6. However, i've read some good and decent reviews, but was a little cautious as well in regards to some firmware issues I read on another board.

In my research, I also came across new file formats that I really like. Specifically, .flac, .ape, .mpc and .ofr (OptimFrog). I do like to listen to clean music. I get annoyed with highs that start to crack.

For my next player, I wanted to support at least, .ogg and .flac. At the same time though, I know those take up more space and can grow quickly, which made me start to look for a bigger capacity DAP, or one that was expandable.

So, to make a long story short, I came across rockbox and am very intrigued with it. I really like what I have read and looks like their is work to possibly incorporate music formats such as .ape, which is great.

Throwing that into the mix, I am now looking at a SanDisk e280, 8gb MP3 player. I like it because I believe I can add a expansion card for more space (correct me if I am wrong).

Getting down to business. With rockbox, can I put it on say a SanDisk e280 and if something goes wrong (which I don't see happening), go back to the manufactures OS for the device?

I found the SanDisk e280 for $130 on NewEgg, 8gb model.
How is the sandisk coupled with Rockbox? Good combo? Caveats?

But a very important thing for me is to be able to support file formats like .flac, .ogg etc.

Wow...I really rambled here.

I appreciate the feedback.

EDIT:
One other thing is that I listen to a lot of podcasts.

Oh ya, what about management software? Does rockbox use something specific?
Recommendations for a management software?

[Llorean]

1) please read our posting guidelines, consider this your warning that they are enforced
2) Don't expect a response immediately, if nobody who knows an answer, nobody will respond. It happens.

[irish guy]

1) please read our posting guidelines, consider this your warning that they are enforced
2) Don't expect a response immediately, if nobody who knows an answer, nobody will respond. It happens.

My mistake.
I thought this would be the correct place to post some general questions. Since I was wavering between a couple MP3 players, I didn't think it would appropriate to post in that specific section.

I was just trying to collect as much information as possible to see if the SanDisk e280 would be a good fit for me with the combination of rockbox. Was not quite sure how the whole process worked.

Thanks.

[AlexP]

The issue was not where you posted, it was that you double posted instead of modifying your original post, and that you then bumped the thread.

I don't have a Sansa, so can't answer your original questions on what it is like with rockbox.

[Llorean]

In fact, the guidelines clearly say to post in General Discussion if you're unsure, implying at least that we won't get angry for you picking it as the wrong place.

[Bagder]

With rockbox, can I put it on say a SanDisk e280 and if something goes wrong (which I don't see happening), go back to the manufactures OS for the device?

Yes

[scharkalvin]

I have a sansa e260 with rockbox and (so far) I'm very happy with it.
You won't lose the use of the original firmware, and can dual boot so you can
run either.  You actually NEED to run the OF to charge the battery (rockbox charges, but at a slower rate), and to download music files to the device.  OTHO, rockbox will allow you to use microSDHC cards over 2gb in size which the OF will NOT support.  You will have to use a USB card reader/writer to copy files to these cards from your computer, then plug them into the sansa to play with rockbox (until full usb support is available in rockbox).

[irish guy]

I have a sansa e260 with rockbox and (so far) I'm very happy with it.
You won't lose the use of the original firmware, and can dual boot so you can
run either.  You actually NEED to run the OF to charge the battery (rockbox charges, but at a slower rate), and to download music files to the device.  OTHO, rockbox will allow you to use microSDHC cards over 2gb in size which the OF will NOT support.  You will have to use a USB card reader/writer to copy files to these cards from your computer, then plug them into the sansa to play with rockbox (until full usb support is available in rockbox).

Thanks for the info. I was looking at the e280.8gb to start with. Has the option for expansion card correct? Since I wanted to use .ogg and .flac files (which can be rather large), I wanted the option of expanding if I need to.

Any caveats or problems at all?
Rockbox allows the use of SDHC cards over 2gb and th OF does not? Interesting. Had no idea. That is a selling point for me.
What software do you use to sync music to the mp3 player? That was something else I was looking at.

Thanks.

[grossaffe]

i personally just use WMP to sync my music over to my sansa.

while i love my sansa e200 and love rockbox, i must warn you that right now the battery life while running rockbox on the sansa is terrible.  in the original firmware, you can expect between 16-20 hours of playback, in rockbox you can expect about 4.

[yapper]

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/UsefulTools has a list of ... Useful Tools!

I use Juice (for Podcasts), and Jukebox Synchronizer (to sync between my player and my mp3 library).

One neat feature of Rockbox is the ability to delete Podcasts from the player, and Jukebox Synchronizer is able to sync both ways (it will delete the podcast from your library if you've deleted it from the player, as well as adding new podcasts from the library to the player).

As a side note, do the "Read the Guidelines" posts have to be done to the forum? It would make the forums less cluttered if the "beatings" were done via PMs .

[Rincewind]

i personally just use WMP to sync my music over to my sansa.

while i love my sansa e200 and love rockbox, i must warn you that right now the battery life while running rockbox on the sansa is terrible.  in the original firmware, you can expect between 16-20 hours of playback, in rockbox you can expect about 4.

It says 4 hours estimated runtime, but that's just because the estimate isn't calibrated yet. I recently bought a sansa e280 and got 14 hours runtime on my first charge using rockbox.

The microSD expansion is nice, if you plug a card in it shows up in the file browser while rockbox is running (e.g. it is hot-swapable). Rockbox on the Sansa is quite stable now and easy to use. The only problem is the lacking of USB support at the moment (you have to boot into the Original Firmware to connect to computer), but that is being worked on.

You don't need a special media management program. I just use the file browser to copy my music.

If you want to find out more about the features rockbox has on the sansa, you can find the manual online: http://www.rockbox.org/manual.shtml

[vegaman]

Why not borrow the ipod back from your wife and try rockbox on it?

[scharkalvin]

Running ANY of the games while listening to music (or doing anything that keeps the lcd back light on) will shorten the run time by QUITE a bit.  If you just start it playing and leave it running in the dark a full charge on the battery should last 8 hours or longer.
I've set my back light on time to 15 seconds and the led wheel light to off.

Also need to charge in the OF.  Just turn the unit off, plug in the usb cord to a charger (NOT your computer) while holding down the left arrow button.  After the OF boots hold the power button to turn the unit off.  It will NOT turn off, but rather show a full size charging icon.  After the battery is fully charged it will turn itself off and you can disconnect the usb cord.

[irish guy]

Why not borrow the ipod back from your wife and try rockbox on it?

That is suicide.  ;D 
Never touch a pregnant woman's iPod.

I just ordered a SanDisk e280 and will rockbox that!

I'll be back here. Look forward to it.

[grossaffe]

Running ANY of the games while listening to music (or doing anything that keeps the lcd back light on) will shorten the run time by QUITE a bit.  If you just start it playing and leave it running in the dark a full charge on the battery should last 8 hours or longer.
I've set my back light on time to 15 seconds and the led wheel light to off.

i should have thought of that... i feel kinda stupid.