New Rockbox User With Questions:

[klepto]

Hello,

I'm a brand new Rockbox user as I got tired of trying to add videos/songs
in Linux to no avail. Thanks to all the rockbox guru(s) for answering my questions:

1.) As far as the 5.5gen iPod does the video out to TV still work
and what resolution should I make the Mpeg2 video. The old apple way was 640x4??.

2.) Do think that Rockbox will ever work with mplayer so that it can play xvid/divx/mkv/etc?

3.) Is the video support good enough that I won't ever need to return to the old firmware?

Thanks for all the help!

[AlexP]

1)  TV out is not implemented

2)  Rockbox is not based on linux.  A port of mplayer would be difficult and a waste of time.  Porting individual different codecs would be better if you so wanted (keeping in mind no floating point, very limited processors and memory etc.)

3)  The ipod video is by far the worst target for video in Rockbox.  It has a big screen and a slow processor, the combination of which does not equal video happiness.

[scharkalvin]

  The ipod video is by far the worst target for video in Rockbox.  It has a big screen and a slow processor, the combination of which does not equal video happiness.

With that in mind the Gigabeat S will be the best port for video as it has the fastest cpu.  The Gigabeat F is almost as fast (looking at the codec performance with Monkey's Audio).

[Llorean]

The codec performance for the Gigabeat S is misleading right now. Codecs aren't optimized for the unique advantages the CPU has, and the CPU is not being run at full speed. Please, be careful with repeating information about early ports.

As far as video goes, though, the Gigabeat F will run basically any video you're likely to throw at it that Rockbox supports at full speed, extra CPU speed beyond that doesn't gain you too much except, in some cases, battery life.