Advantages of Using Rockbox over iAudio X5L default firmware?

[johnnybravo]

I'll preface this with that I have RTFM (mostly)....

I'm in the market for a DLP, and I think I have decided on the iAudio X5L 30GB.  The default firmware allows for OGG and FLAC playback, so I have the following questions about Rockbox on the iAudio X5L:

1)  What does Rockbox give me that the iAudio default firmware doesn't?  A quick overview of the advantages would be nice.
2)  Are these enhanced features worth the sacrifice in battery life?
3)  What are the disadvantages of using Rockbox over the default firmware?

Thanks in advance!

[Llorean]

1) http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/WhyRockbox

2) Many would say absolutely, especially with the assumption that improvements will eventually lead to Rockbox having the better battery life under fair conditions, as it does on older targets.

3) It's a work in progress, and still has bugs here 'n there.

[johnnybravo]

I appreciate your quick reply, but that j ust gives a summary of Rockbox's features.  It doesn't tell me what Rockbox does that the iAudio X5L default firmware does not.

It seems like the comparison chart (on another page) doesn't list iAudio in comparing to the default firmware.  Can you explain, or point me to another section of the documentation so I can find out for myself?

Thanks!

[Llorean]

I'm sure there are plenty of places that you can find the X5's features, so isn't it more reasonable that we offer forth what Rockbox can do on X5?

Rockbox doesn't cost you anything, so why not look at its features, and think "Do I want a DAP that can do that?" Comparing it with the X5's features won't affect your purchasing decision of an X5 will it? If the X5 itself were enough on its own without Rockbox, you wouldn't be here asking about what Rockbox offers, would you?

Have you read the manual yet, as it covers most of the features and tells you how to use them... I'm not sure exactly what you want, because you say you want a list of Rockbox's features to compare, but the summary is not good enough, and the manual is not good enough (you said you RTFM'ed already) and yet the manual does cover all of our (currently documented) features...

[johnnybravo]

Ok, I can see where your frustration is coming from.  My post made it sound like I'm asking you to do all my research for me, and that bugs me too when people do that to me.

The basic thing is this: I don't trust manufacturers specs.  Most of the specs are overstated and performance in the real world is overrated.  Sometimes manufacturers advertise things that don't work all that well.

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/FeatureComparison  Shows the actual user results for three manufacturers.  I was just curious if anything like this exists for the iAudio.  Thanks again!

[Llorean]

It hasn't yet been done for the iAudio. Our wiki is created by users mostly, so it depends on primarily an X5 user updating that chart.

The main disadvantage of using Rockbox on the X5 to my understanding (I don't own one, but I'm fairly familiar with the problems people report concerning it) is actually that there's some question as to whether we've implemented the radio properly, as people are reporting that we get poorer reception than the original firmware.

Our battery life is less than the original firmware, but people are still reaching 20+ hours on the X5L, and I don't think anyone's done a fair comparison yet (following our guidelines for a comparison battery benchmark to make sure that settings are equivalent) on battery benchmarks, as there are many settings people like to use in Rockbox that drain more power (more CPU intensive) that will of course reduce battery life, but people use them on benchmarks anyway.

There is also no *official* way by which you can boot into the manufacturer's firmware while running Rockbox, though there's an unofficial way that, while not supported, seems reliable.