Should I update Ipod's software?

[Frank]

I cannot seem to find a specific answer to this question. I have not updated my Ipod’s software in a couple years and I am wondering if it would be an advantage (increased battery life, faster processing) or a disadvantage (compatibility problems with Rockbox) to do so before installing Rockbox?

My second rookie question is, once I start once I start placing music in the ipod through Rockbox, all of Apple’s music structure will no longer apply. So if I boot Apple's firmware on the ipod how will it know how to structure the music folder or any folder?

Thanks in advanced for any help.

[froggyman]

It really doesnt matter if you update Apple's OF. You can if you want, it will only really help if you plan on using it. Once you get a custom to Rockbox, you probably wont even find a use for the OF.

So if I boot Apple's firmware on the ipod how will it know how to structure the music folder or any folder?

If you don't sync you iPod through iTunes, it won't be able to play any songs with the OF (original firmware). You can still sync your music through iTunes and then just use the Database feature in rockbox (see the manual)

With rockbox, you can place the music anywhere, whereas with the iPod it needs to synced through its specific file and folder names (like: /ipod_control/F00 , the OF makes the iPod_control folder hidden.

Hope that helped

[Frank]

Thanks a lot, I was planning on using the OF for playing videos, but I don’t really want to have itunes on my computer. So I guess I will just have to go all the way with Rockbox and convert my videos to something Rockbox can handle.

[froggyman]

What model of iPod do you have? If its a 5th/5.5 G iPod, the videos wont play very well/fast (low frame rate) due to the fact that rockbox doesnt know how to use the video decoder chip.

Just about all of the other supported iPods play the videos fine.

[Frank]

I have a 30 gig 5g, so what do you recommend? I had read that people were having problems playing videos which is why I wanted to just boot the OF whenever I wanted to watch something.

[torne]

If you want to watch video on the iPod Video the most reasonable option, unfortunately, is to install iTunes and sync them to the iPod that way, and watch them in the OF. The hardware video decoder is always going to be far, far more powerful than anything we can implement in software in Rockbox.

An alternative would be to use a different program that knows how to synchronise with iPods, but I'm not sure if anything else supports video. For this purpose, also, you may want to *not* update the OF, as it's possible that some ipod sync programs only support certain OF versions.