Sunday, January 14, 2007

Rockbox open source firmware now ported to the Gigabeat F and X Series!

4 Comments:

Mozhoven said...

Tomas,

I like this line:

"Please be aware that if you attempt to install Rockbox you are on your own. Rockbox.org and users in the forum here will be the only support you can expect."

I think we all know about the support you can expect from Toshiba. (ha, ha)

Seriously, This is awesome news. I've been running Rockbox since day one of the working version. I have to say it is light-years ahead of Trashiba's firmware, in every way.


MY "MINI" REVIEW:
---------------------------
At first, it was rather anti-climatic for me and a little daunting due to the default theme/skin and basic sound settings, as well as all the different features (plug-ins, customization, new key assignments, etc...) But after playing around with it for 30 minutes, I knew I wouldn't go back. No way.

Let's start with the sound. We all remember how terrible the sound was on the original firmware (2.020), and how much better it was with 3.0. Well, at first, when I tried the presets, I wasn't too impressed. Then I messed with the Bass and Treble controls - again, not too impressed.

Then onto the advanced EQ.

It was very confusing at first, so many choices and settings. I decided to simplify my choices by using my WinAmp settings (on my pc) as a starting point. After reading the RockBox manual's definitions of Gain, Q, Frequency Cutoff, etc. I was set. It took an hour or so, but I've got amazing sound! It fills my Sennheiser 555's with an incredible soundstage (as well as the rest of my cans). I might tweak it some more later, but for now I'm very impressed. I suppose the only downside to my results were how much effort it took. Certainly not for the novice or impatient-type. Even if you have EQ experience, it doesn't visually resemble what you might be used to. If you aren't tech-saavy I would stick to the Bass and Treble and preset-EQ's - (just know they don't even come close to what Rockbox is capable of EQ-wise). The coolest thing about the sound is that you can save custom presets as individual files and share them with others. This is especially nice if you have a tuned your preset for a specific headphone set, stereo feed, or music type. It's also espcecially handy for the person who would rather rely on the efforts of others and then reap the benefits...(like myself, thanks Rockbox devs!)

Rockbox also boasts a plethora of customizable features. Everything from Skins, backgrounds, and font type/size, to Disk Cache, Battery Size, and LCD brightness at 50 levels. Of course I'm skipping tons of great features. Let's list some of my favorites:

*On-Fly-Bookmarking
*Playlists
*Font Control
*Dimness/Brightness - 50 levels
*Backlight on/off continuous or for 1sec-90secs
*PLUG-INS Galore (Games, Utilities, clocks, metronome, who knows...)
*Video Playback (just about there...)
*and lots more (seriously)

Really, there's just too much to mention.

Power consumption has been as issue for the first builds, but as of the most recent build, some people are reporting 10hrs plus on battery benchmarks.

Button layout is much easier now without the "sliding finger maneuver". Seriously. I don't care if you've come to like it. It sucks and we all know it. How many times did you not do it right and start your song over?

Of course, the best thing about Rockbox is that it is constantly being improved and updated.....daily. That's every day folks. Do I have to remind anybody of the firmware debacle of '06? The folks over at Rockbox actually listen to the users and make changes out of the goodness of their hearts - everyday.

Now, It's not finished yet, but don't let that scare you away. Even with it's occasional "quirk", it's superior to V3.2 in every way. It's actually very easy to install (much easier in-fact than doing a forced JP install) but not necessarily for the faint-of-heart. If you follow the instructions layed out in the rockbox threads EXACTLY (now more organized thanks to Tomas...) you will be fine. If you take short-cuts or skip steps, you will make life difficult on yourself and your GB. However, that being said, I'm sure there will be a fool-proof installer soon enough. Some of the players ported for Rockbox actually have a Windows installer to automate the process.

So, don't wait. Reclaim your F and X series players. I bought my wife an S30 and drooled and pined for it up until I installed Rockbox. Now she's asking when the S-series will be ported. Ironic, huh?

Sun Jan 14, 08:28:00 PM 2007  

Drew said...

I hope they're working on an S Series port! I'm dejected by the lack of attention from Toshiba and MS, though not surprised by MS since their player came out.

I'd never even heard of Rockbox but now I'll keep my eyes peeled for a version I can use on my S30!

Mon Jan 22, 12:00:00 PM 2007  

Anonymous said...

We're still waiting for the port for Gigabeat S. Based on what I've seen on the rockbox forums, it looks like there has been some development, but I cant tell if it is anything worth mentioning.

I completely despise the firmware on the S30, so I'm hoping it'll come out soon.

Thanks to Rockbox, this is a great project.

Mon Apr 09, 12:37:00 PM 2007  

Frank said...

I totally agree with the original post. I bought a F40 when it first came out. Returned it after a few days, gigaroom and SAT drove me crazy.

Now with rockbox available, I bought an F40 again, for a 1/3 of the price... and it rocks. Even plays MPEG 1/2 movie. Really like it.

Fri Apr 20, 03:53:00 PM 2007  

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