Recent Posts
21
Hardware / Re: New cheap portable player in the market
« Last post by pmp4 on March 29, 2023, 07:24:58 AM »thank you for trying pmp4! i have bookmarked this thread, ill keep my eye on it if you guys find a good player to rockbox! that would be super kewl! any idea how long each of these no brand players are manufactured then discontinued? if they only make them for 1 year then its almost like none of these would make good players to rockbox! thanks
In Spreadtrum players you can see the date of the firmware if you dump the flash (see the posts of this thread, in the file kern.bin), and my players firmwares were not more old than 1 year from the firmware date until the buy date.
Anyway, it's a good news if it appears new and cheapers players.
A 2.4 inch touchscreen player for $12 was unthinkable just a few years ago.
do you think it means we are getting closer to having a cheap player that would make a great rockbox device? sooner or later it will become powerful enough with enough ram that its a perfect device for rockbox?
I dont know it yet, I dont know the processor/ram specs of this 2.4 inch player.
But screen is great, and sound is ok (Spreadtrum DAC is crappy, the DAC of the 1.77 inch player of the start of this thread).
A couple of years ago and still today, a Ruizu player of this features of 2.4inch touchscreen had a price of 30 - 50 USD. Like the Ruizu M17 http://www.ruizutek.com/m17_81236.html
This 2.4 inch player cost is $12 and it does almost the same things, so that is good news.
I think price is important to make mp3 players popular again, if you can't achieve a good player for less than $50, then people always will choose a second cheap smartphone as mp3 player instead a mp3 player.
22
Audio Playback, Database and Playlists / Re: Curious Playlist Behavior
« Last post by amachronic on March 29, 2023, 03:40:37 AM »Today I installed the current dev build of Rockbox - a2e5d9563f-230325 - on a new (to me) iPod, and inadvertently/unknowingly put a folder containing the tracks from a particular CD at the root level of my iPod's HD instead of one level removed from the root where an .m3u8 playlist file expected it to be. Despite that, the playlist played all of its tracks without problem. But when I tried to Show Track Info for that playlist by long clicking on various tracks in the Playlist Browser and then short clicking on Show Track Info in the resulting context menu, there was a bit of a pause and then the screen went straight back to the track list in the Playlist Browser. However, if I tried to access Show Track Info from the WPS for any tracks played from that same playlist, the Track Info screen was displayed. It was only through trying to figure out what was going on that I discovered that I had put that one music folder in the wrong place.
I'm surprised that the playlist was able to successfully play its tracks, and also that Show Track Info worked from the WPS. I'm guessing that whatever Rockbox did to get the tracks to play, it also did the same thing to make Show Track Info work from the WPS. Maybe it tries finding the tracks via the database if they're not found via the pathnames in the .m3u8 file?
What you're seeing is due to this check which is supposed to be a workaround for buggy playlist creation tools. It strips directories from the beginning of the path until it finds an existing file. That's why it ignored the subfolder the tracks were supposed to be in, and found them in the root instead.
But this fixup doesn't get applied in all cases, depending on how the code accesses the playlist; eg. it works for playback but it doesn't work in other cases. I guess the track info screen is one of them.
23
New Ports / Re: AIGO EROS Q / AIGO EROS K / IRULU Surfans F20 / AGPTek H3 / HIFI WALKER H2
« Last post by amachronic on March 29, 2023, 03:20:59 AM »This wiki section: https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/JztoolInstall#Removing_Rockbox lacks of a dump of AIGO Eros Q.By all means do! I can add it to the wiki for you.
I could share my dump if it's useful for other users. My dump is from HiFi Walker H2 with Official Firmware 1.5. Maybe if yet it isn't known if the official firmware version is relevant for the restore of the backup, the wiki editors could add my dump for OF 1.5 as base firmware version (that it's better than nothing)
24
New Ports / Re: AIGO EROS Q / AIGO EROS K / IRULU Surfans F20 / AGPTek H3 / HIFI WALKER H2
« Last post by user1975 on March 29, 2023, 02:33:18 AM »This wiki section: https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/JztoolInstall#Removing_Rockbox lacks of a dump of AIGO Eros Q.
I could share my dump if it's useful for other users. My dump is from HiFi Walker H2 with Official Firmware 1.5. Maybe if yet it isn't known if the official firmware version is relevant for the restore of the backup, the wiki editors could add my dump for OF 1.5 as base firmware version (that it's better than nothing)
I could share my dump if it's useful for other users. My dump is from HiFi Walker H2 with Official Firmware 1.5. Maybe if yet it isn't known if the official firmware version is relevant for the restore of the backup, the wiki editors could add my dump for OF 1.5 as base firmware version (that it's better than nothing)
25
Hardware / Re: New cheap portable player in the market
« Last post by saucell on March 28, 2023, 10:37:59 PM »thank you for trying pmp4! i have bookmarked this thread, ill keep my eye on it if you guys find a good player to rockbox! that would be super kewl! any idea how long each of these no brand players are manufactured then discontinued? if they only make them for 1 year then its almost like none of these would make good players to rockbox! thanks
They're usually "discontinued" as soon as the initial production run is complete. Or they exhaust the supply of cheap parts, whichever comes first.
how long does it take for you guys to port rockbox to a new player? if it takes 6 months and the mp3 player is only available for 2 years is it still worth it for you guys?
Unless the device is really similar to an existing one, often a very long time. Very common that devices have been discontinued for a while by the time there is a working port. As for what is worth it, usually people pick a device they like to work on.
if it takes a very long time then now im losing hope LULZ!
26
Audio Playback, Database and Playlists / Curious Playlist Behavior
« Last post by iPodVT on March 28, 2023, 10:34:17 PM »Today I installed the current dev build of Rockbox - a2e5d9563f-230325 - on a new (to me) iPod, and inadvertently/unknowingly put a folder containing the tracks from a particular CD at the root level of my iPod's HD instead of one level removed from the root where an .m3u8 playlist file expected it to be. Despite that, the playlist played all of its tracks without problem. But when I tried to Show Track Info for that playlist by long clicking on various tracks in the Playlist Browser and then short clicking on Show Track Info in the resulting context menu, there was a bit of a pause and then the screen went straight back to the track list in the Playlist Browser. However, if I tried to access Show Track Info from the WPS for any tracks played from that same playlist, the Track Info screen was displayed. It was only through trying to figure out what was going on that I discovered that I had put that one music folder in the wrong place.
I'm surprised that the playlist was able to successfully play its tracks, and also that Show Track Info worked from the WPS. I'm guessing that whatever Rockbox did to get the tracks to play, it also did the same thing to make Show Track Info work from the WPS. Maybe it tries finding the tracks via the database if they're not found via the pathnames in the .m3u8 file?
I'm surprised that the playlist was able to successfully play its tracks, and also that Show Track Info worked from the WPS. I'm guessing that whatever Rockbox did to get the tracks to play, it also did the same thing to make Show Track Info work from the WPS. Maybe it tries finding the tracks via the database if they're not found via the pathnames in the .m3u8 file?
27
Hardware / Re: New cheap portable player in the market
« Last post by saratoga on March 28, 2023, 10:17:49 PM »thank you for trying pmp4! i have bookmarked this thread, ill keep my eye on it if you guys find a good player to rockbox! that would be super kewl! any idea how long each of these no brand players are manufactured then discontinued? if they only make them for 1 year then its almost like none of these would make good players to rockbox! thanks
They're usually "discontinued" as soon as the initial production run is complete. Or they exhaust the supply of cheap parts, whichever comes first.
how long does it take for you guys to port rockbox to a new player? if it takes 6 months and the mp3 player is only available for 2 years is it still worth it for you guys?
Unless the device is really similar to an existing one, often a very long time. Very common that devices have been discontinued for a while by the time there is a working port. As for what is worth it, usually people pick a device they like to work on.
28
Hardware / Re: New cheap portable player in the market
« Last post by saucell on March 28, 2023, 05:46:37 PM »thank you for trying pmp4! i have bookmarked this thread, ill keep my eye on it if you guys find a good player to rockbox! that would be super kewl! any idea how long each of these no brand players are manufactured then discontinued? if they only make them for 1 year then its almost like none of these would make good players to rockbox! thanks
They're usually "discontinued" as soon as the initial production run is complete. Or they exhaust the supply of cheap parts, whichever comes first.
how long does it take for you guys to port rockbox to a new player? if it takes 6 months and the mp3 player is only available for 2 years is it still worth it for you guys?
29
Hardware / Re: New cheap portable player in the market
« Last post by saucell on March 28, 2023, 05:45:35 PM »thank you for trying pmp4! i have bookmarked this thread, ill keep my eye on it if you guys find a good player to rockbox! that would be super kewl! any idea how long each of these no brand players are manufactured then discontinued? if they only make them for 1 year then its almost like none of these would make good players to rockbox! thanks
In Spreadtrum players you can see the date of the firmware if you dump the flash (see the posts of this thread, in the file kern.bin), and my players firmwares were not more old than 1 year from the firmware date until the buy date.
Anyway, it's a good news if it appears new and cheapers players.
A 2.4 inch touchscreen player for $12 was unthinkable just a few years ago.
do you think it means we are getting closer to having a cheap player that would make a great rockbox device? sooner or later it will become powerful enough with enough ram that its a perfect device for rockbox?
30
Hardware / Re: New cheap portable player in the market
« Last post by pmp4 on March 28, 2023, 02:07:21 PM »thank you for trying pmp4! i have bookmarked this thread, ill keep my eye on it if you guys find a good player to rockbox! that would be super kewl! any idea how long each of these no brand players are manufactured then discontinued? if they only make them for 1 year then its almost like none of these would make good players to rockbox! thanks
They're usually "discontinued" as soon as the initial production run is complete. Or they exhaust the supply of cheap parts, whichever comes first.
I think the case of the spreadtrum players is a little special.
These mp3 players of 1.77" inch it seems to be the only that use that SoC from Spreadtrum manufacturer.
But there are a endless amount of brands of cheap feature phones that use a similar SoC (but with GSM comm).
The common in brandless mp3 players is Actions Semiconductors as SoC manufacturer, and now this other company, that it's similar and I dont know the exact name, it seems a little clone from Actions, but it's another different.
And a lot of models from Ruizu/BenJie/AgpTek I think it use also Actions Semiconductors SoC.