Installation question leading to music question.

[jmsunlinenet]

OK, I installed the firmware as directed, and then found that Rockbox did not start, so looked here for further input.

It seems that I did not turn off the battery as directed in the manual. OK, silly me, though when the manual says "turn off the unit" that does not necessarily  say "turn off the battery" to me, so maybe the manual could be reworded to make this clearer?

However, while finding this out, it occurred to me that if I do go ahead and complete this last step, then maybe all the music and sound files that I already have on the unit with a SAT extension under the Gigabeat software will not play any more, so maybe I should not complete that last step?

Is this correct? It would take many hours, or days to rerip all the music and many other sound recordings and podcasts for which I no longer have backup copies would be lost altogether.

Or is there any merit in using the Toshiba software for the existing sound files, and adding Rockbox as a second operating system  for future use?

[GodEater]

I'm unclear on how the Toshiba PC software works - so if it doesn't leave a copy of the mp3s on your PC in unencrypted format after it's transferred them to the gigabeat AND you're unwilling to invest the time in re-encoding them, then rockbox is definitely not for you - since it will not play .SAT files.

If the Toshiba PC software *does* leave you un-encrypted files on your PC, then you can just delete the .SAT files from your rockbox'ed gigabeat, and replace them with the ones from the PC.

[Nate!]

The easiest way to remedy your situation is to take an extra step before finally loading Rockbox.

Set the Gigabeat in the cradle with original firmware loaded.  Make sure the cradle is plugged in via usb and AC adapter.  Power the Gigabeat on.  **Edit: I forgot to add- Make sure you choose "windows media player" on your Gigabeat.  This enables WMP mode.*** Drag and drop your music files using Windows Explorer from your Gigabeat to your PC.  (You can probably drag them to a folder named GB-Backup or something.)  Doing this transfer will "unencrypt" your .sat files.

Once this lengthy but simple process is complete, then you can fully load Rockbox.  Once Rockbox is installed, simply drag and drop your unencrypted files back to the Gigabeat.

[jmsunlinenet]

Thanks, that sounds like a plan. I will try it tonight.

[jmsunlinenet]

Yes, a trial run did correctly strip off the encryption and SAT extension for one file. Now with 10 megabytes of files, I will leave it for an overnight run and see how that works.

[Nate!]

Hopefully you mean gigabytes, cuz megabytes would be like two maybe three songs.    10Gbs shouldn't take all night, maybe 10 mins or so.

[jmsunlinenet]

Yes, actually it was 8.8 gigabytes and it worked just as you said, stripping off the encryption, which is great, because I have now recovered all my mp3 files that I had abandoned (except for Gigabeat copies) when I had to wipe my hard drive due to malfunctions. (This includes about 70 hours of BBC radio programing and sountracks of several musical movie DVDs that I had made into mp3s.)

But now I realize, of course, that all the non mp3 files, the ones that were ripped from CDs are in WMA format, about 70 hours worth,
which is not played by rockbox, so I would still need to rerip all the CDs. The Rockbox documentation does not address the best way to do this.

It is a pity that the Gigabeat software does not rip to mp3, but no doubt there is a reason for this. Does Windows Media Player rip CDs to mp3?

I know I might get flamed if these questions are seen as off topic regarding installation of Rockbox, but I think they do relate to the question as to whether it is worth installing as an upgrade on a player already in use, as opposed to one that is brand new, and what the consequences might be.

[GodEater]

Windows Media player doesn't offer to rip to MP3 by default - I think you need to download some extra bits and pieces to make it do so.

If you're looking for the least amount of fuss in order to do this, then you could do worse than iTunes.

Now excuse me while *I* put on my flame proof suit and await the torrent of "Nooooo! iTunes is teh sux0r!" flames which are pointed in my direction.

[Llorean]

And if you don't want to infect your computer with iTunes and its services, you can also install something like EAC, or any of a million other programs that can rip MP3s, including Foobar2000.

While iTunes does have one-click, it also likes to try to come with a bunch of other crud that not everyone likes having around.

[jmsunlinenet]

Actually I have now found that Windows Media Player 11 will rip to mp3 once you set it to do so, and that you can set it to automatically rip anything you put in the CD drive. Speed and ease are considerations when you have 70 or so CDs on the Gigabeat, and this task will be spread over a week or two of ripping a few CDs a day.

Thanks to all for the help. Most useful.

[Nate!]

Speed is good, but I use EAC to rip and mp3-tag studio if I need to edit lots of id3 tags.  Both are free and have small footprints.

So to close out, hopefully you have changed over to Rockbox.  Enjoy.  I was amazed.  I've had my Gigabeat F60 since May05.  I loaded Rockbox in Dec of last year.  There is such a renewed newness to the player now because of all the features that are enabled.

And have even more fun creating your own WPS.  

[jmsunlinenet]

Yes, I have it up and running now.

Actually I did give it a quick try yesterday and was a bit daunted by the tiny type of the menu, so decided not to try it out properly until I could figure out how to use a bigger font--which I did. It seems to be working very well, once I managed to change the settings so that it didn't go dark on me after about 3 milliseconds.

Still haven't figured out what car adapter mode means, as it is not covered in the manual. Don't know if I need this when I run it off my Playstation Portable Car Charger (now, there is a hint for anyone who needs a car charger--solder on a #2 tip) when on the road.

Anyhow I am listening as I write...my thanks to all who have given advice here, as without this forum I would not have it running.

BTW I did try that mp3 tag editor, but it was a bit too complex to figure out how it worked  for a non techie like me. I find that mp3_id3_tag_tool.exe (which is free) is very intuitive.

Thx again.