Rockbox future strategy

[tdb]

Why does Rockbox need saving? It is just code and as long there are devices capable of running it we can use it.. or not..

Still see a lot of commits on http://gerrit.rockbox.org

My clips, e200's and c200 are all working great and recently updated some to a recently released official 3.14 version.
I have an OpenPandora and N900 phone and it is my favorite player on those as well.
Rockbox is being ported to AGPTEK Rocker, I don't really need it but it is nice to see developments on a more recent player.
 
In the future I do hope to see hardware like raspberry pi more power efficient and smaller so it will indeed be usable as a portable rockbox player. For now I agree with saratoga that it isn't ideal for portable use yet. More power to you if a current rpi is already what you need. 

The only thing that seems to be an issue is that it is not able to use it on more recent Android releases. Too bad, but I can understand devs don't want to spend the time needed to fix it.

I don't think rockbox was ever intended for mass adoption anyway. Just enjoy what we have, it is still the best around for the usergroup that is willing to spend some time learning to use such a versatile piece of software.
I am using it daily and probably continue to use it for the next years to come.

 

[saratoga]

But portability isn't always needed.  I use my 10" tablet to play music through my hi-fi when at home and I could see me using Rockbox with all its versatility for that in preference to any of the usual apps.

Running rockbox on the Pi is relatively simple, although the infinite number of displays and buttons makes it complex to have a simple solution (people need to customize resolution and keymap). I think if people are interested in having a stationary device, the Pi is a reasonable choice.

[ljones]

Well I hope rockbox can carry on making at least some progress. Reason I said about the rasberry pi though is because just recently my sansa fuze+'s headphone socket gave up the host. Hoping to remove and replace the headphone socket -- other than that the device works and has been happily been running rockbox for at least a couple of years.

A pity the ben nanonote never really truly made it and isn't around anymore. The hardware in theroy could have worked for some sort of rockbox device (even better if it had a full usb host chip and fm radio ..... which it didn't). No chance of finding one of these any more though!

The broken headphone socket I mentioned it though really brought it all home about trying to find a rockbox-capable device (and one that is new and has a sane price tag!). I did look into phones but the mobile phone really does not seem to be a very good device to date for rockbox.

For example I managed to try an old HTC Desire HD with the android port of rockbox. It worked but there is no FM radio let alone recording because from what I can gather with mobile phones FM radio almost seems to be like some sort of 'extra', there is nothing 'standardised' there and so it is very hit and miss. I did find an android program to use the FM radio, but it cannot record (it did not work due to the way the phone works). And there's another nightmare potentially even for rockbox on phones with recording FM radio -- it appears some phones wire up the FM radio chip inside the phone in an unusual way so you can't record it at all.  The HTC Desire HD does exactly this!

Just glad I have a couple of ancient sansa e200s though only one works (the other powers on but gets no further).

So unless I'm wrong the amount of new devices you can really run rockbox on without it being a minefield (mobile phone) or things not working is  well......zero - for now.

ljones

[tdb]

Just glad I have a couple of ancient sansa e200s though only one works (the other powers on but gets no further).

So unless I'm wrong the amount of new devices you can really run rockbox on without it being a minefield (mobile phone) or things not working is  well......zero - for now.

Hardware capable of running rockbox is still being sold today. I have stacked up a nice collection of sansa devices and bought most of them in the last two years after 3 clips died on me.
There is a local (dutch) virtual marketplace similar to ebay that I used to visit regularly and was able to buy several clips/e200s for prices ranging from 10 - 25 Euro. Now I have enough spares to keep me using rockbox for the foreseeable future.  Just checked on ebay and if you select worldwide search there are still some clips available. Nothing wrong buying old hardware.

Would be nice to see a successful port to the AGPTEK Rocker though. That seems to be our only hope for a more recent rockbox player.

BTW - already tried a post topic on this forum, anythingbutipod forum or forums.sandisk.com to explain your issue with the e200? Maybe someone can help you fix it. 

[edit] noticed you already posted something on this forum, hope you will be able to fix it.
   

[duo8]

Would be nice to see a successful port to the AGPTEK Rocker though. That seems to be our only hope for a more recent rockbox player.

   

We have tons of chinese devices with rockbox capable hardware, and they've been around for years too. Rocker isn't anything special, X1000-based players are already sold months before it. And JZ4760 devices, years.
So it's far from the only device rockbox can be ported to on the market. It's great that these chinese DAPs always use the same 3-4 SoCs, once there's a port for one, it shouldn't be too much work to port to others.

[unprinted]

But could a rasberry pi plus a small screen be a possible answer to a "new device that [might possibly one day] run rockbox"?

The output on the audio jack on all the ones I've had (original 256k RAM B to a Pi 3) has not been good, even after the original crackle bug was fixed. It's driven by a 12bit DAC, from memory.

So you'd either need an audio shield or get your sound from the HDMI port.

[dkone]

I heard about ROCKbox around 3 years ago, can't really remember where.  I had just replaced my Sansa Clip with the Clip + (listening to an audiobook on it as I type this).  After  reading about RB, the first thing I did was install RB on the Clip +.  I only really only listen to audiobooks and the stock firmware on the Clip was fine, but holy shit, RB really showed me what a MP3's players OS should be.  Fast forward 3 years and my only regret is that I didn't buy 3 or 4 more Clip +'s to keep in spare.  I am not sure how to say this because I am afraid I will sound ungrateful or entitled, but I will try.  First off, RB is awesome and I have nothing but respect for the people that saw the need for it and ported it to players.  If I had the skill set for this I would help.  I can hack together a website and dabble with SQL, but this is way over my head.

My Clip+ is dying and after seeing that they are discontinued and coming to RB to see what new players are supported, I am sad.  Sad because the list on the RB website is mainly discontinued players.  Sad that the market for MP3 players seems to be backseat to phones (reference to previous posts in this thread to cameras).  Sad that the manufacturers (Sandisk) is going so cheap and contain not enough memory for RB to make a port.  (would it be possible to make a 'lite' version that could run on the new Clip Jam?)

I am holding great hope the AGPtek Rocker that was mentioned previously, but I see no mention of it on the RB radar.  So I am most sad that I am witnessing not the death of RB, but just that it will fade away as all of the devices that we own that currently run RB die and we can no longer replace them.

[saratoga]

would it be possible to make a 'lite' version that could run on the new Clip Jam?

I think you could probably try to write a new operating system that ran on the Jam, although it would be extremely challenging and probably not very good, as the stock firmware makes a lot of compromises to get audio decoding working on almost no memory. 

I am holding great hope the AGPtek Rocker that was mentioned previously, but I see no mention of it on the RB radar.

That device has only been around for a few months, and ports take a very long time.  Unless you're interested in working on the port, you should probably expect to wait a lot longer before there is anything interesting. 

[dkone]

Thanks for the reply, like I said this is all way out of my wheelhouse.  If I helped, I think I would be the 2 steps backwards part of the 1 step forward.  Would any SQL, light HTML, or 3D modeling be of any help?

[zed187]

I prefer a small mp3 player for workout and running. I hate to carry my oversized smartphone to just hear some music. I dont want to distract from while train. The big advantage of a great mp3 player vs smartphone is simple... Size, weight and battery. I know many people in fitness which prefer a great dap.