Two RB questions: replay gain, and equalizer

[ComfortablyNumb]

I've had my Clip+ for about a month, and I'm very happy with it (except for battery life, but oh well). The OF is fine, except for two issues. Any feedback from RB users would be most welcome.

1) The big kahuna is replay gain. As far as I can tell from the Sandisk forum (which has been down for about a week), NOBODY has been able to get replay gain to work with the OF as advertised. How well does replay gain work on RB?

2) How is the RB equalizer? The OF equalizer is better than nothing, but not by much.


Tanks!

[CrowdAds]

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by ComfortablyNumb

I've had my Clip+ for about a month, and I'm very happy with it (except for battery life, but oh well). The OF is fine, except for two issues. Any feedback from RB users would be most welcome.

1) The big kahuna is replay gain. As far as I can tell from the Sandisk forum (which has been down for about a week), NOBODY has been able to get replay gain to work with the OF as advertised. How well does replay gain work on RB?

2) How is the RB equalizer? The OF equalizer is better than nothing, but not by much.


Tanks!

The replay gain worked OK on the OF for me....But it works just fine on rockbox, and the rockbox EQ is a world-beater, once you learn how to use it.....there is a learning curve though.

[dfkt]

Replaygain in the original firmware has some issues with negative dB numbers (at least for Vorbis files), Replaygain in Rockbox works perfectly.

Rockbox EQ is basically the best EQ available on any portable player. It's a true parametric EQ that doesn't mess up the sound, but actually really handles and sounds like a professional studio EQ.

Furthermore, Rockbox gives better battery life for the Clip+ than the stock firmware. I'm getting over 17 hours out of it.

[ComfortablyNumb]

Tanks, sounds like a no-brainer! One last question: Are there any actual reports of a clip+ getting bricked by RB?

[dfkt]

None that I know of.

[ComfortablyNumb]

OK, thanks fellas. I took the plunge, my clip+ is now Rockboxed and running. Now to figure out how it works...

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by ComfortablyNumb

... Now to figure out how it works...

This should help here.

[ComfortablyNumb]

Looks like I'm gonna wait for a stable build. Short version: Buggy, and way too busy. Uninstalled, then tried to install just the basic files, but the installer wouldn't let me. Looks great, but I'll let the techies work out the bugs before I try it again.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by ComfortablyNumb

Looks like I'm gonna wait for a stable build. Short version: Buggy, and way too busy. Uninstalled, then tried to install just the basic files, but the installer wouldn't let me. Looks great, but I'll let the techies work out the bugs before I try it again.

What do you mean by "Just the basic files"?

[multi-user]

Originally Posted by ComfortablyNumb

Looks like I'm gonna wait for a stable build. Short version: Buggy, and way too busy. Uninstalled, then tried to install just the basic files, but the installer wouldn't let me. Looks great, but I'll let the techies work out the bugs before I try it again.

I guess everyone wants something different in a player. Until I discovered Rockbox, all of my Sansas were collecting dust in the bottom of my sock drawer. With Rockbox, all of them get daily use and are a pleasure to use again.

I'm no techie, but easily installed RB on a Fuze V1, Clip V2, Clip+ and today, a Fuze V2. I found no major problems at all and am enjoying my Sansas again....but, granted RB isn't for everybody, I guess.

And just for the record, I didn't even bother with the installer, just used the manual method and it went perfectly.

[ComfortablyNumb]

Originally Posted by Marvin the Martian

What do you mean by "Just the basic files"?

Rockbox utility has an option called "minimal installation" -- just the bootloader and the current build of RB. Won't work. I'll probably fool around with manual installation, see if I can get a bare-bones RB up and running.

But talk about a bug that bugs -- rockbox would power-on to the slotradio commercial! If I wanted pointless noise, I'd turn on the TV.

[saratoga]

Originally Posted by ComfortablyNumb

Rockbox utility has an option called "minimal installation" -- just the bootloader and the current build of RB.

The difference between them is that the full install has some extra font files and maybe the doom levels. Other then that they're pretty much the same thing. Theres not much reason to use minimal unless you're on dialup and don't want to wait for the download.

Originally Posted by ComfortablyNumb

Won't work. I'll probably fool around with manual installation, see if I can get a bare-bones RB up and running.

What do you mean "won't work"?

Originally Posted by ComfortablyNumb

But talk about a bug that bugs -- rockbox would power-on to the slotradio commercial! If I wanted pointless noise, I'd turn on the TV.

I'm guessing you have a slot radio commercial in the root of your mp3 player. I don't think this is a bug. If you don't want commercials, don't download them onto your mp3 player!

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by ComfortablyNumb

Rockbox utility has an option called "minimal installation" -- just the bootloader and the current build of RB. Won't work. I'll probably fool around with manual installation, see if I can get a bare-bones RB up and running.

But talk about a bug that bugs -- rockbox would power-on to the slotradio commercial! If I wanted pointless noise, I'd turn on the TV.

The slotradio commercial was snuck into the last firmware update SanDisk released....if you had opened the folder, you would see this......(click to enlarge)Capture.JPG
the .bin file is the only one that needs to go on your player, the .dat is the slotradio commercial. Maybe if you weren't aware of this, then you should wait until the whole RB thing is "stable" before you try it out.

[skip252]

You don't seem to have installed the bootloader. The slotradio screen is part of the OF. The players I've Rockboxed have gone to the Rockbox splash screen immediately on the first boot. If you rebooted at all it definitely goes to Rockbox.

If you're truly interested you'll need to give more info than "won't work". If not the original firmware isn't that bad. Kind of tough to say whether or not Rockbox is buggy from there though.

BTW I don't think I'd be trying to get some type of bare-bones install going. Rockbox is a firmware replacement not a program that runs on top of the OF. The firmware installation is where if somethings going to really wrong that's when it happens. I don't think you'll brick your player as the wrong firmware shouldn't even start to install. But I'll bet if you screw around enough you can find a way.

[lestatar]

Originally Posted by Marvin the Martian

The slotradio commercial was snuck into the last firmware update SanDisk released....if you had opened the folder, you would see this......(click to enlarge)Attachment 9423
the .bin file is the only one that needs to go on your player, the .dat is the slotradio commercial. Maybe if you weren't aware of this, then you should wait until the whole RB thing is "stable" before you try it out.

Dang Marv, you really are a Sandisk guru!

[ComfortablyNumb]

Thanks again for the suggestion. Yes, I'll try RB again, just not right now, too many other fish to fry. You guys have been great, I appreciate all the feedback. And I'm glad to know how to get the slotradio commercial off my clip -- BOY that thing's annoying!

And the reason I didn't post the bug details, was that I had decided not to spend any more time fussing with it. But, RB really did power-on to the slotradio ad.

In addition to the RB advice, I've picked up another valuable piece from the ABI forum: battery life, for some incomprehensible reason, is much longer on the OF if you leave the equalizer on "normal." Now why the heck is that?

[Mikerman]

Originally Posted by ComfortablyNumb

In addition to the RB advice, I've picked up another valuable piece from the ABI forum: battery life, for some incomprehensible reason, is much longer on the OF if you leave the equalizer on "normal." Now why the heck is that?

Presumably, because power isn't being applied to change the music's tone?

[TANJENT]

Thats what I would think too.