Rockbox Development > New Ports

Rockbox Player - Project to design and build a Free/Open hardware audio player

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AlexP:

--- Quote from: spark on April 28, 2008, 02:42:59 AM ---How about multichannel (e.g. 5ch) audio output? Rockbox does support AC3 (Dolby Digital). Is analog or digital out preferred for multichannel audio?

--- End quote ---

For analog, would you not have to have three jacks and decode on-board?  If such a feature were available, digital would seem the obvious choice.  However, were a digital output available, would this be a software thing, patching rockbox to just output the stream over digital?


--- Quote from: ZincAlloy on April 27, 2008, 02:44:24 PM ---interesting. what are you using it for?

--- End quote ---

To have a high quality connection to my amp (and speakers) which is of better quality than the one in the H100


--- Quote from: casainho on April 27, 2008, 03:40:37 PM ---
--- Quote from: Llorean on April 27, 2008, 05:47:14 AM ---(note: $ refers to USD)
Basically, *most* needs of Rockbox users can be met by existing players on the marked. ... You can get a c200 or e200 for <$50 - $60, sometimes less than $20 and they feature radio, recording, internal mic, and MicroSDHC.

--- End quote ---
Thats not a precise information, actual selling Sansas are V2 models and Rockbox do not work with them.

--- End quote ---

They are still available, be it new from a few stores, refurbs, on ebay etc.  What Llorean said was perfectly true, although yes, you must watch out for v2.  However, it is perfectly possible (and I would have thought in the long term probable) that Rockbox will run on them.

Llorean:
Digital(optical) for multichannel, almost absolutely I would think.

Honestly, if I were to list every feature I want in a player for it to qualify as an "upgrade" from things I've got already:
PERSONAL WISHLIST TIME
-Software USB w/ USB host potential
-Full size SD slot
-FM Radio
-320x240 16-bit screen (or better, portrait acceptable instead it's the number of pixels that counts)
-Tactile input as buttons. No sticks, knobs, or touch sensitive bits. Just real, physical buttons: Play, Power, Vol+, Vol-, Left, Right, Up, Down, Menu, Select as a minimum selection of buttons.
-Potential for a remote (I can't begin to speak about how much I like the iRiver LCD remotes)
-Disk based storage (you can replace it with flash more easily than you can replace soldered flash with a disk, and this also means if the storage fails this part of the player is easy to replace)
-Digital line In and Out
-Analog line out (not just the headphone out)
-Analog line in
-A processor equal or greater in speed than the Gigabeat F (300mhz ARM of some sort). This may seem like overkill, but I guarantee Rockbox is going to offer more and more CPU intensive DSP ops over time, as well as expanding the video codecs supported so a fast, general purpose CPU gives the player room to become more as Rockbox becomes more. I'd rather pay more for something that gives Rockbox room to grow, since I can already have players that do everything Rockbox can currently do.
-USB charging
-LiPoly/LiIon battery that's easy to replace

Really nice extras:
-Remote actually made to go with it.
-Bluetooth 2.0 (wireless headphones and limited file transfer, it's a portable device so WiFi seems a little wrong to me)
-Video out potential (again that whole room for improvement thing)
-Hardware hold switch
-Some form of integrated screen protector or an easy to replace "screen" over the LCD itself
-Real time clock
-integrated mic

While I believe I can get each of the first list of feature from at least one of my players, the ideal would basically be to have a player that has hardware for all the existing Rockbox functionality, while offering enough processing power to allow the software to expand. Hardware mostly abstracts into "input" and "output" and there's just not TOO many variants on that theme, it's what you accept in, and what you put out, that allows the uniqueness I think.

You may also notice I've not mentioned "small size" or "light weight." I'm probably in the minority on this one, but I find anything that comes out around the size of a Archos Jukebox Recorder V1 or smaller acceptable. And weight is irrelevant as long as it doesn't win against my belt.

spark:
Thanks Llorean, that was a very comprehensive list of features. I've copied it to a file for easy reference  :)

Having all these features makes larger size and weight inevitable. But we don't want to build just another player that does just the same thing what others do.

One suggestion. instead of having so much packed into a single unit. does it make sense to split some of them into accessories? e.g. assuming we have a USB host port on board, things like bluetooth, Digital in/out, SD/flash card could be accessories over USB. This solves dual purpose, ur belt is lighter, and at the same time you have all features when you need them.

Llorean:
Personally, I would accept digital in/out, video out (and in?), analog in, line out (separate from headphone out) all as part of a single connector like the iPod dock connector, with an adapter or adapters for accessing those features. It's not ideal but it does mean that you don't have a dozen ports on the side. The actual USB jack needs to be standard though (you should never need to depend on a single specialty cable, it's frustrating to have a player disabled if you damage the cable and most people have a half dozen spare USB cables). I think SD would be preferable internally more or less because it's nice to be able to carry a card around in your player and be able to easily exchange a few files or songs with a friend, without having to pocket dongles. Bluetooth is pretty much "internal or none" anyway, since wireless headphones aren't much good if you've got this odd wired bluetooth dongle flopping around out there. Maybe make sure it's SDIO capable? That covers, possibly, WiFi or bluetooth from a second angle anyway, and makes them more or less internal.

spark:
Yes. Dock connector is neat.

Connector list
* 1 Headphones/line out
* SD slot
* Dock connector (line in, line out, digital in/out, remote control, USB, maybe video out also)
* mini USB connector

We can keep the connector somewhat compatible with Ipod so that accessories like amp-speakers can be used.

http://ipodlinux.org/Dock_Connector

Does rockbox firmware support any bluetooth peripheral yet?

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