Good player for running rockbox on?

[Elliott]

Sometime I'd like to get a new player, as my gray 4G is showing its age quite a bit.

What I'd like:
- Large colour screen
- Rockbox supporting (obviously)
- Not an iPod - the controls are awkward, it doesn't have any grips, and it lacks radio, recording etc.
- FM radio. This would be very very nice, but it's not NECCACCERY.
- Large hard drive (ergo, 40gb would be fine. 4gb not so.)

Any reccomendations would be great

[soap]

A used iRiver H340

[Elliott]

Wow, I've looked at it a little and it seems PERFECT!

Just a quick question - how good is the battery life with the original firmware vs. rockbox?

[Llorean]

Rockbox gives somewhere between 10% and 20% more than the original firmware, in the average test.

[L]

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/IriverRuntime

The above page might give you more information

[Elliott]

That is IMPRESSIVE!

It shall be mine. Thanks everyone!

[Elliott]

Hmm, does it support video in colour with rockbox?

[Noxneo]

I guess it supports only m2v videos, which means only video, not sound.

Though this feature should come up sooner or later.

[Elliott]

Hmm, cool, but reading its wiki progress page it seems codec etc. work is not done yet? Is it stable enough to equate to, e.g. the iPod build?

[Febs]

That question doesn't make much sense.

Rockbox generally is more stable on the H300 than on iPod platforms.  It is certainly more optimized on the H300, so the battery life is substantially better than on the iPod.

If you're asking about the stability of the mpeg player plug-in, it is in the early stages of development.  I wouldn't consider it "stable" on any platform.

[Noxneo]

Well, you can't consider it stable nor finished, but you can say that it supports m2v basic decoding though.

[Elliott]

I meant in general, not the video plugin.

Thanks, looks like it's time to sell stuff on ebay

[Davide-NYC]

My two cents: get the H320 not the H340.
0.5cm thinner makes a huge difference on a device like this.
You can always upgrade the drive to 30GB or even 40GB later.

I own two H140s and I'm thinking of 'downgrading' to H120s since they are thinner and 40GB Toshiba hardrives are becoming available at the smaller thickness.

[soap]

My two cents: get the H320 not the H340.
0.5cm thinner makes a huge difference on a device like this.
You can always upgrade the drive to 30GB or even 40GB later.

I own two H140s and I'm thinking of 'downgrading' to H120s since they are thinner and 40GB Toshiba hardrives are becoming available at the smaller thickness.

Yes, the H340 is thicker.  Compared to the latest ipods it is very thick.  IMHO, though, there is a lot you get for that extra 1/4".
The H340 is thicker in large part due to the fact it shipped with a dual-platter hard drive.
You can always put a single-platter hard drive in the H340 (40GB drives are/soonwillbe avaliable), or upgrade it to an 80GB dual-platter.  If you opt for a single platter you are able to install a monster of a replacement battery inside the shell.  Most of the high-capacity replacement batteries for the H320 are a very tight fit, some even requiring the removal of the padding around the hard drive.

[pabouk]

When you are talking about the new 40 / 80 GB drives with perpendicular recording...

Do you know whether they are going to be available with the same connector as the old ones or just with the new ZIF (zero insertion force) conector?