Iaudio X5... where are you at?

[happyfishman]

Hi,

I recently purchase and X5 and was, in turn, astounded and then disgusted to discover the ridiculous 9,999 file limit (advertised as 20,000 on the retailers web site). Anyway, in an effort to give the device a chance to realise it's true potential I have found myself here. I am, however, having trouble navigating round the Rockbox site (a lot of the links seem to be broken at present) and I just don't understand a lot of the (necessary, I'm sure) technical talk.

What I really want to know is if I install Rockbox what will I currently lose in terms of functionality? I saw somewhere that there were issues with battery life, radio, the remote and probably other issues to be resolved. I have a general idea of the improvements that Rockbox provides (removal of stupid file number limit, gapless, crossfade, tag support).

Here are my main questions on the current state of play:
1. What is the situation with battery life (I also read somewhere that prolonged use of Rockbox may damage the battery. Is this true)?
2. Are all of the encoding formats playable (Ogg, Mp3, WMA WAV etc.). If not what are the current restrictions?
3. Does the remote work with Rockbox?
4. Does the FM radio work with Rockbox?
5. Will video be playable?
6. Are the original audio enhancements lost?
7. Does line in and voice record work as before?
8. Does the USB OTG work?
9. Any other important losses/gains?

Is there a target date for completion of a fully functioning release?

I assume that intalling Rockbox invalidates my warrantee, but unless something disastrous happens I can always reinstall the Cowon firmware without evidence of Rockbox modifications, right?

Sorry if this is a rather long and demanding post, but I have tried to find the answers on this site (and the draft Rockbox manual).

[Bagder]

a lot of the links seem to be broken at present

Yeah, you've come here in the middle of a break-in and we had to take down the wiki parts for maintanance and service. They will come back, but it'll probably take a few more days.

What is the situation with battery life

Rockbox on X5 currently only achieve something like 50-75% of the run-time you get with the original firmware.

Are all of the encoding formats playable (Ogg, Mp3, WMA WAV etc.).

Rockbox doesn't support WMA (yet) but it plays all the other formats fine on the X5.

Does the remote work with Rockbox?

Not yet.

Does the FM radio work with Rockbox?

No, but there's a patch that's said to work.

Will video be playable?

No, Rockbox doesn't support video in any way (yet).

Are the original audio enhancements lost?

Of course. Rockbox is a totaly separate firmware - it uses nothing of the original code. And if they are "enhancements" or not is also debatable...

Does line in and voice record work as before?

As before? Rockbox never worked on the X5 before. Recording is enabled on Rockbox/X5 with a patch.

Does the USB OTG work?

No, and its gonna be a beast to support.

Any other important losses/gains?

Rockbox provides lots of more features, better playback and supports a whole range of more codecs. I'm sure you'll soon find out yourself.

There's not yet any dual-boot feature in the CVS bootloader but that too is available as a patch.

[happyfishman]

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

The battery issue may prevent me from taking the plunge for the moment... that and your mention of 'patches' which sound fiddly.

Is the battery problem just a matter of tweeking or is there a chance it will never be solved?

[Bagder]

Is the battery problem just a matter of tweeking or is there a chance it will never be solved?

It is a matter of work, research and testing. I'm confident we will fix it one day. Currently we're in a feature freeze for 3.0 which isn't for X5 so there's no too much work going on for it atm.

[happyfishman]

I have no real feel for this and hesitate to ask, but... over what kind of time frame would you expect to have a more "idiot friendly" (yep, me!) and reasonably featured version ready for the X5.

I know this is a process of continual development, and questions involving lengths of string may come to mind, but a 'feature freeze' does suggest a process strategy for you development wizards.

[Bagder]

over what kind of time frame would you expect to have a more "idiot friendly" (yep, me!) and reasonably featured version ready for the X5.

We don't know. Seriously.

[RaeNye]

Although it is by no means official or declared stable, I can say that by not using voice-menus I got zero crashes in the last month or so
(and before that it was only because I tried my own patches )

RB has its pros (go frozen bubble!) and cons (go 15-FPS video!) - but by going dual-boot you can enjoy both worlds (except for the warranty world )

Just my 2 cents.