Recent Posts
21
Rockbox General Discussion / Re: An Ode to rockbox...
« Last post by Multiplex on June 23, 2025, 08:29:14 AM »Really should have thought of searching the whole site not just the forums :-( sorry
EDIT - I forgot to say that I'm really impressed that the project is still progressing - well done current team :-)
Folk like my nephew, who can't have phones in their workplace, have a way of having their own music...
EDIT - I forgot to say that I'm really impressed that the project is still progressing - well done current team :-)
Folk like my nephew, who can't have phones in their workplace, have a way of having their own music...
22
Theming and Appearance Customization / Classical music tags handled badly by almost all themes
« Last post by ceratophyllum on June 23, 2025, 08:21:47 AM »Classical music tags are nuts. They're super long, contain nasty punctuation characters and spaces, and no one agrees on the best way to tag a large classical collection. Everyone knows Beethoven's 5th was composed by Beethoven, so it is pointless to put this info in the "Album" and "Artist" tags . If you have more than one version what sets them apart is who is playing, the conductor, maybe even the recording label. Generally, rather than faff around with wacky tags like "Conductor" and "Composer" (which many players do not display) I think what is typically done is the information is all jammed into the "Album" tag.
So is the best solution really a scrolling marquee? I mean, in the best case, with tiny fonts on a large screen iPod like the Video 5.5, you get non-stop, huge lines of scrolling text doing the cha-cha. It's almost tolerable if you slow down the scrolling speed, but there has to be some way to wrap long lines...hasn't there?
Btw, I don't mean to pick on RockBox: most players can't handle classical music tags very well at all. I 've tried Sony NW-AXX series, some of the cheaper Hiby players, and a tiny piece of crap by Hidisz. At least RockBox gives people the tools to try to fix this mess. Has someone already done it? A theme made to wrap super long tags with small fonts and no images wasting space on the screen?
So is the best solution really a scrolling marquee? I mean, in the best case, with tiny fonts on a large screen iPod like the Video 5.5, you get non-stop, huge lines of scrolling text doing the cha-cha. It's almost tolerable if you slow down the scrolling speed, but there has to be some way to wrap long lines...hasn't there?
Btw, I don't mean to pick on RockBox: most players can't handle classical music tags very well at all. I 've tried Sony NW-AXX series, some of the cheaper Hiby players, and a tiny piece of crap by Hidisz. At least RockBox gives people the tools to try to fix this mess. Has someone already done it? A theme made to wrap super long tags with small fonts and no images wasting space on the screen?
23
Hardware / Re: Inline Support for controlling playback with earbuds
« Last post by rockbox_dev123 on June 23, 2025, 04:56:20 AM »You can buy an iPod radio remote (A1187) and use that for controlling playback. They work on the classics for playback control. They only work on the videos for radio.
24
Rockbox General Discussion / Re: Rockbox on HiFi Walker H2
« Last post by dconrad on June 22, 2025, 11:11:13 PM »So, I had a think about it, and I suspect that what has happened is your player is a HifiWalker v1.8 (hw3) unit, but it has ended up with Eros Q v1.8 (hw1) firmware on it.
The rest of this post is entirely conjecture based on the above assumption. So here goes:
I suspect that some results of this due to the way that the firmware sets up the processor's output pins are the following:
Usually, the way that the Hosted port relies on the original firmware to run the hardware for it is a benefit, but in this case the original firmware is misconfiguring things.
So, I think that the correct course of action here is to get HifiWalker v1.8 (hw3) firmware back on your device. But... if the firmware turns off the SD card, of course that's not going to work real well.
Also, normally the fact that the update files do not install the bootloader is an issue for us, but in this case it works out for us.
Based on that, I have a long-shot way to do this - I'm not actually sure if it works exactly the way that I think it does, but it's quick enough to try so might as well. Normally, if you do a firmware update, you go Bootloader --> Firmware --> Updater. If the firmware screws up the hardware configuration, then the updater isn't going to be able to find the SD card. But if you hold Volume Up while booting the device, I think it goes directly from Bootloader --> Updater.
That's all a long-winded way to say that I would like to try the following:
If that does not work, the only other way I can think to do it is to use jztool to directly write the flash, which is quite a bit more involved (and fiddly).
The rest of this post is entirely conjecture based on the above assumption. So here goes:
I suspect that some results of this due to the way that the firmware sets up the processor's output pins are the following:
- No SD card access (powered off, probably)
- Re-initializing the display after unlocking the device is wrong (inverted colors and mirrored display)
- Loss of USB connectivity?
Usually, the way that the Hosted port relies on the original firmware to run the hardware for it is a benefit, but in this case the original firmware is misconfiguring things.
So, I think that the correct course of action here is to get HifiWalker v1.8 (hw3) firmware back on your device. But... if the firmware turns off the SD card, of course that's not going to work real well.
Also, normally the fact that the update files do not install the bootloader is an issue for us, but in this case it works out for us.
Based on that, I have a long-shot way to do this - I'm not actually sure if it works exactly the way that I think it does, but it's quick enough to try so might as well. Normally, if you do a firmware update, you go Bootloader --> Firmware --> Updater. If the firmware screws up the hardware configuration, then the updater isn't going to be able to find the SD card. But if you hold Volume Up while booting the device, I think it goes directly from Bootloader --> Updater.
That's all a long-winded way to say that I would like to try the following:
- Put https://download.rockbox.org/bootloader/hifiwalker/H2-v18-patched.upt on the SD card and name it "update.upt"
- With the card in the device, power it on while holding Volume Up (keep holding Volume Up until you get to the updater screen)
- Hopefully the updater can actually find the file and do the update!
If that does not work, the only other way I can think to do it is to use jztool to directly write the flash, which is quite a bit more involved (and fiddly).
25
Hardware / Re: Inline Support for controlling playback with earbuds
« Last post by speachy on June 22, 2025, 08:55:38 PM »The 6.5 & 7th gen classics support it on the stock os, so why can't rocketbox support it aswell?
The simple answer is that nobody has figured out how this works (ie at the hardware level)
It would make things much more convenient so i dont have to always have the brick out to pause or change volume.
The desirability or "convenience" of a feature rarely has any bearing on the level of work necessary to implement it.
26
Hardware / Inline Support for controlling playback with earbuds
« Last post by A on June 22, 2025, 08:18:51 PM »is there Support for Controlling Volume & playback using earbuds? (aka inline)
The 6.5 & 7th gen classics support it on the stock os, so why can't rocketbox support it aswell?
It would make things much more convenient so i dont have to always have the brick out to pause or change volume.
The 6.5 & 7th gen classics support it on the stock os, so why can't rocketbox support it aswell?
It would make things much more convenient so i dont have to always have the brick out to pause or change volume.
27
Rockbox General Discussion / Re: Rockbox on HiFi Walker H2
« Last post by dconrad on June 22, 2025, 10:48:07 AM »Wait, just so that I am clear, after you select Hiby Player, it displays the EROS logo? On my hifi walker units, after selecting Hiby Player, it displays the Hifi Walker logo.
Which, specifically, update file did you install onto the player?
And, what of my second two questions - about the screen mirroring behavior and the ability to read/play a file in the original firmware?
Which, specifically, update file did you install onto the player?
And, what of my second two questions - about the screen mirroring behavior and the ability to read/play a file in the original firmware?
28
Audio Playback, Database and Playlists / Re: Adding search keys to the Database Search sub menu
« Last post by bahus on June 22, 2025, 09:40:33 AM »If I remember correctly, rockbox doesn't parse discs count tag at all. If you see Disc Number "1/2" - it comes right from metadata and displayed as is.
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Audio Playback, Database and Playlists / Re: Adding search keys to the Database Search sub menu
« Last post by iPodVT on June 22, 2025, 09:06:20 AM »Use something like 'exiftool' to dump the tags of those files. That will be informative.
Thanks for that suggestion.
In the meantime I have done a brute force visual survey of Show Track Info screens for dozens and dozens and dozens of tracks, and what I have observed so far has been 100% consistent.
With MP3s and AIFFs:
"[Tracknum] x/n" is always displayed.
"[Discnum] x/n" is always displayed if Disc Number and Disc Total are present in the track's ID3 tags.
With AACs and ALACs:
"[Tracknum] x/n" is never displayed - it's always "[Tracknum] x".
"[Discnum] x/n" is never displayed. If Disc Number and Disc Total are present in the track's ID3 tags, only "[Discnum] x" is displayed.
I don't think I have any WAVs or FLACs in my music library, but that raises the question: Does Rockbox recognize additional ID3 Tag search keys beyond those that are specified on the Tagcache Database Format page? In my first post I was looking for something for Disc Total. Now I'm also looking for something for File Format. I know that I could search file names for ".wav" or ".m4a", but ".m4a" is used for both AAC and ALAC (which leads me to believe that Rockbox is getting and caching a File Type tag from the track file and not just using the file's extension).
Again, thanks.
30
Audio Playback, Database and Playlists / Re: Adding search keys to the Database Search sub menu
« Last post by speachy on June 22, 2025, 08:08:11 AM »Initial observations are indicating that the tracks whose Disk Total tags are getting displayed are all mp3s that were encoded with early versions of iTunes (v2.0.4 and v4.7.1), and the tracks whose Disk Total tags are not getting displayed are all AACs that were encoded with later versions of iTunes (v12.8.3.1).
Use something like 'exiftool' to dump the tags of those files. That will be informative.