Player Recommendations

[kaboosh]

Seeing as almost no "factory" MP3 players support OGG I was thinking of buying one for the sole purpose of "RockBoxing" it.  Can someone recommend to me which MP3 player provides the BEST RockBox experience in terms of maximizing the usage of RockBox's features?  For example I don't want to buy a player with limited buttons such that RockBox functions have been "squeezed" into a limited interface - I want the full comfy RockBox experience     

[Llorean]

If you don't need recording, the Gigabeat S is pretty solid in terms of being able to support a wide range of the Rockbox features. There's a page on the wiki called Buyer's Guide that gives you a lot of information about different players.

[AlexP]

Except the S has a couple of random issues - if you get unlucky the Toshiba bootloader has a fetish for reformatting your drive.  I've never hit this, and the beast is great but some unlucky people have.

Also, battery life is a bit poor, and for some people the single boot doesn't work, but this isn't too bad as then dual-boot does (and it is just a bit slower).

[TexasRockbox]

I enjoy the iPod Video 5.5G (not the iPod Classic).  Good sound, runs Rockbox well, decent battery life, lots of themes, repair/modification parts are plentiful, accessories are plentiful.

[Llorean]

The iPod Video is one of those players with few buttons so that Rockbox functions are "squeezed" onto them. As well, it performs poorly for video, is one of the slower processors Rockbox runs on (with a large screen, so more of the processor time is spent just updating it) and it doesn't have FM. It really doesn't progress well as being a candidate for "BEST" in terms of "maximizing the usage of Rockbox's features."

[Lope]

fuze?

[Chronon]

The Gigabeat F does have good battery life, plenty of buttons and even has a bootloader that can be flashed to ROM, providing very fast boot times.  It remains my favorite player overall.  I do like my Sansas and even the MR-100 for certain situations but they don't really fit the condition of having enough buttons.

As with the Gigabeat S, it doesn't have recording capability and further lacks an FM radio (which the S model does have). 

[Lope]

Chronon: About your comment regarding quick boot time on Gigabeat.
My Clip+ boots Rockbox in 2 seconds.
Kaboosh: The Clip+ also plays OGG on OF.

[Chronon]

Yes, my Clip v1 boots quickly as well, but suffers from a deficit of buttons.