The H320 and lag with rockbox.

[thasp]

I am not sure if this is better fit for another forum, but since I have the flashing, and installation for this model down pat and merely have questions regarding the usability of rockbox, I figured this would be the right place.

I tried out rockbox for the first time about seven months ago.

I like it, but there are a couple of questions I have. I am not sure if I am doing something wrong, but..

a) sometimes when I hit the navi button while a song is playing, it will take so long to go to the folder I am in, that the backlight turns off before it does. That means it's taking at least five seconds sometimes to load up the folder I am in, after hitting navi.

Is it supposed to be this slow, and is there a way around it?

Let's say I'm playing Sixx AM - Van Nuys.ogg. I hit Navi, and to get to the /portablemusic/Sixx AM - The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack/ folder, it will take five to eight seconds.

b) Sometimes when I hit navi, instead of it going to the folder I am in, it goes to the root folder. This is problematic, because then I have to find my way back to the folder I am in.

So if I am playing Sixx AM - Van Nuys.ogg which is in the /portablemusic/Sixx Am - The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack folder, I will wind up at /, instead of /portablemusic/Sixx Am - The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack

This is problematic because as I mentioned, the player lags. Now I have to wait half a second to 8 seconds to get into the portablemusic folder, then wait to scroll down to Sixx AM's folder, then wait half a second to 8 seconds to get into that one, scroll down to the new song, instead of just hitting navi, hitting down twice, and hitting navi again to play the new song.

c) When I hit next track a couple of times, there's a lag for sometimes a couple of seconds, and other times like ten seconds, before it loads the track. On a Rio Karma, if I hit next five times, I will know I have went from track 2 to track 7 without taking the thing out of my pocket. With the H320 and rockbox, even when I am looking at it I often have no idea if the click "went through." Sometimes It takes me to the next or previous album. Sometimes it just stops loading and I have to turn it off and restart it. Sometimes it leaves me looking on the ground for little pieces of bark that fit into the reset jack so I can restart it when I am unable to turn it off.

d) Sometimes going into a new folder gives a half a second, to full second lag, opposed to just showing up.

All this combined makes it a real pain in the ass trying to load a new song, or find a new song quickly. It's like I'm trying to watch a video off the same drive I am defragmenting while at the same time unraring a backup to. It's consistently sluggish, and a seven month period of using the player and resetting it, or turning it off when it seems permanently hung, I know it's not a one time occurance.

I just want to know if I am doing something wrong. A lot of these symptoms don't exist in the stock firmware. I can't use the stock firmware because it doesn't get "Faster" while scrolling down a list of folders. If I have 200 folders, it will go 2 or 3 a second.. and even if I keep the down button pressed, won't go 5 folders a second, then 10 folders a second, etc.. which makes it take forever to find something as well. The lack of other codec support is also a kind of pain in the ass, as is the toys'r'us GUI.

Maybe I'm just spoiled by players like the more modern ipods or the rio karma that are very fast, that don't have this inherent lag in every action. Or maybe I'm doing something severely wrong. You tell me? I know waiting like this sounds like I'm being impatient, but it's just a feel thing. It makes it frustrating to use the player, and I don't notice it in the stock firmware.

Thanks,

Thasp

[Febs]

(a) Turn on the directory cache. 

(b) Read about the "Follow playlist" setting in the manual.

(d) Turn on the directory cache.

[Llorean]

If it's really taking 5-8 seconds though, it sounds like your disk may be experiencing real problems. I'd suggest a scandisk at the least, and possibly check how fragmented it is to see if for some reason it's extremely so.

Without directory cache enabled, you have to wait for the disk to spin. Normal spinup is 1-2 seconds, but it sounds like yours is taking abnormally long. Dircache will provide some improvement to browsing, but skipping to songs beyond the 32MB buffer will always be slow, and if your disk is experiencing problems it may become worse with time.