iPod 5g iFlash Dual SD Skipping and Audio Artifacts

[les_garten]

I have a 5G


Decided I would upgrade and play it around with it, haven't really done anything with it for years.

So I upgraded the RB from 3.7.1 to 3.13 and it was doing fine.

I ordered a SD Dual from iFlash.

Restored iPod and installed RB 3.13 and have had Skipping music and song issues since.  At first I thought it was my card.

so I went through 3 cards all with the same results

Transcend class 10 32GB
Transcend class 10 64GB
Sandisk calss 10 64GB

all identical issues.

Large Flacs just start playing a few seconds and then going to the next song and the next song and the next song...

Smaller FLACs play longer but still skip or stop the player

320KBS MP3's play for a while and then make a screech and play on or skip to the next song.

165KBS MP3's will usually play through but every so often you get a music stumble like part of the song is missing and skipped but no clcik or screech and no skip to the next song.

The larger the file, the bigger the problem.

So I placed these MP3's in iTunes and sync'ed and made the same songs in ALAC format and listened to them in the APPLE side and no issues at all.

I sent an email to the iFlash folks thinking their interface is bad, but now after playing 100% clean on the Apple side and 100% problematic on the RB side, I think it is a RB thing.

Any suggestions where to go from here?

[saratoga]

A lot of those flash adapters don't work well or at all with rockbox's ata driver. You could try a newer build, or see if there is one specifically hacked to work with that adapter. Otherwise use the apple firmware.

[Frankenpod]

I think there's a significant chance a later build would give better results.  Also, it might be errors during the sync, and syncing with the apple firmware might work better, if just resyncing with a later version of rockbox doesn't do the trick.
Also, when you synched them using iTunes, did you then try and play them via the Rockbox database (assuming the tags were filled in)?

[les_garten]

A lot of those flash adapters don't work well or at all with rockbox's ata driver. You could try a newer build, or see if there is one specifically hacked to work with that adapter. Otherwise use the apple firmware.

I tried 3.13 and 3.14 and went back to 3.7.1 and they all behaved the same

I also installed the development version with the RB utility and it was the same.

Would the iFlash SATA adapter work any better?

[les_garten]

I think there's a significant chance a later build would give better results.  Also, it might be errors during the sync, and syncing with the apple firmware might work better, if just resyncing with a later version of rockbox doesn't do the trick.
Also, when you synched them using iTunes, did you then try and play them via the Rockbox database (assuming the tags were filled in)?

I had not done anything with the Database.

The way I moved music to RB is make a Music folder and drag and drop files into it.  Was that wrong of me...  I thought that's how it was supposed to work.  The reason I liked RB was that my music was in folders.

So I deleted all the files there and transferred some back via itunes and updated and initialized the db and even the Flacs that were converted to ALAC played properly "so far".  I haven't listened a lot yet so don't know for sure.

[Frankenpod]

But did you drag-and-drop with the ipod in rockbox mode or in the original firmware disk mode?

If it works when you sync with iTunes, that would seem to suggest it, logically, should also work if you drag-and-drop while in 'iTunes' (i.e. original firmware) disk mode (without running iTunes itself).  Thus allowing you to keep your music in folders (that's what I do with a similar set up, though I also find the later versions of Rockbox seem to transfer OK, just slower than the original firmware).

I am also not clear if you are saying you did the complete drag-and-drop with the later rockbox version or just tried to play the previously transferred (and possibly already corrupt) files.  It sounds that its the transfer rather than the playing that is where the problem occurs.

[les_garten]

But did you drag-and-drop with the ipod in rockbox mode or in the original firmware disk mode?

If it works when you sync with iTunes, that would seem to suggest it, logically, should also work if you drag-and-drop while in 'iTunes' (i.e. original firmware) disk mode (without running iTunes itself).  Thus allowing you to keep your music in folders (that's what I do with a similar set up, though I also find the later versions of Rockbox seem to transfer OK, just slower than the original firmware).

I am also not clear if you are saying you did the complete drag-and-drop with the later rockbox version or just tried to play the previously transferred (and possibly already corrupt) files.  It sounds that its the transfer rather than the playing that is where the problem occurs.

Hmm, I always dragged and dropped in RB mode.

I was going thru numerous cards, so I was starting from scratch each time for a "lot" of the transfers.

I'll try the drag and drop in iTunes mode, hadn't thought of that.

I am transferring and transcoding thru Foobar into Apple IOS now mainly, but I would just like to drag and drop which is why I originally went RB.  If I had to deal with itunes only I wouldn't have an Apple!  I also don't want to transcode everything, although Foobar is lightening fast at the tx and  transcode.

I'll try the drag and drop in IOS now and see what happens.  Large files before would always be bad, so this should test pretty quick.

[les_garten]

But did you drag-and-drop with the ipod in rockbox mode or in the original firmware disk mode?

That's where the issue was!

Played some huge FLACs from some SACDs, around 150mb each and worked perfectly, all of them.  These were songs that wouldn't play but around a second before skipping.

Also, you are right, the transfer rate is much better in the Apple disk mode, I had not been using it so had not noticed it.

The songs sound better as well.  I'm thinking even the ones that would play a bit were hashed in the transfer.

Wish I didn't have to boot into Apple mode, but it's working.

Much thanx for the Logic you used here.

Hopefully this will help someone else as well.

This helps a lot because I was wanting to put two 512GB SD cards in this adapter!

[mauzzz]

I'm new to Rockbox and came here for the same problem with skipping. Have an iPod Video, added a quad-flash card from iflash.xyz and a 200 Gb sandisk microsd. After I copied files (drag-n-drop) under the original firmware, playback under Rockbox was fine again. Thanks for this solution.

[HumanityPlague]

I've run into this problem now, after just setting up the SD Dual card.  I did try putting my iPod into Disk Mode and it didn't fix the problem.  I still get skipping mp3 files, either big or small.  Any updated help or other tricks to try would be greatly appreciated.

[Big Archie]

I'm having similar problems with the iFlash adaptor - but mine is the quad.

Having gone through the instal process for the adaptor, restored itunes then Rockbox I dragged and dropped my music and discovered many of the tracks skipped - even skipping from one track to another.

After a lot of messing around I found that the skip was consistent - if a track skipped it did so consistently, at the same place each time I played it. I tried playing is on my laptop using the iPod as a storage device and it still skipped in the same place. I them copied the track back from the iPod to my laptop and it still skipped so the act of copying the files to the ipod drag and drop is corrupting them.

I deleted and recopied the tracks several times - corruption occurs in different places though some tracks are OK.

I find that copying individual tracks produces better results but obviously makes the task much more tedious.

Hope this info is of some use somewhere.

[Racasselle]

Hi.
Just wanted to say thanks to les_garten and Frankenpod for the solution specified here. It saved me hours of experimentation and frustration.
I have an iPod Video 5g 30gb and just installed an iFlash Quad and Rockbox.
I loaded music in FLAC format using drag-and-drop and had the same problem on playback - tracks played for a short while then just skipped on to the next. Disappointing!
Booting into the original Apple firmware and loading the same files cured the problem.

Thanks again, folks.