iPod/Rockbox Usability & Best Practices - Database vs. Files

[Stringrazor]

Not sure if this is the best thread for my post but here goes...

The mailman delivered my ebay'd iPod 5th Gen 80GB today. I've successfully installed RB and am trying to see what's the best way to use it. From what I've seen so far, RB Database-driven performance on the iPod isn't great. I've used RB on an Archos JBR 20 for almost 10 years without the DB, so I'm leaning toward using a simple file structure and ditching the DB completely.  Is this what most iPod owners do with RB? Does anyone use playlists drawing from both DB and non-iPod/iTunes file structure? Any hints for a new iPod owner?

[AlexP]

I'm a file system man all the way - most ipod owners are forced into the database as they use itunes, but if you don't need that then it is all down to personal preference.

Database performance (not sure what you mean by that - speed, flexibility, ...) should be fine on the ipod as far as I know.

[torne]

Also, if your database performance is poor you perhaps haven't enabled loading the database to ram? If the DB is in ram then it should be basically instant.

I have my FS arranged as Music/artist/album/01 trackname.mp3, but I also use the database to select random albums

[seani]

My answer is "depends"

For music on my F40, database everytime. Never seen it slow down, and far more flexible than filesystem for my uses.

For podcasts on my C240, filesystem. The podcasts I listen to are incomplete / inconsistent in their application of tags. Keeping one podcast per directory and eyeballing the filenames for date / episode number is the quickest way for me.

Never had database performance problem myself.

[froggyman]

I also use an iPod video 30GB fairly often, and have never had any problems with the database, as long as it is set to ram. If it isn't in ram, it will be very slooooooooooow and a pain to use.