Rockbox: Clip+

[ultrauber]

I think the recent builds are unusable. I'm using a really old one, from like 3 weeks ago, and it's perfectly fine.

[CrowdAds]

[Plop]

Originally Posted by funman

Nope he's right, Clipv2 and Clip+ have been demoted "Unusable".
The front page hasn't been updated yet, but I made the change.

See http://twitter.com/rockboxcommits/status/12104596958

And the discussion why it was made on http://www.rockbox.org/irc/log-20100413#15:44:13

Also I think there are too much software problems (locks/crashes) and too much person problems who can't read what's supposed to work or not (too much documentation kills the documentation?)

Will it become stable when you fix those two bugs, or when there is write support?

[funman]

Originally Posted by Plop

Will it become stable when you fix those two bugs, or when there is write support?

Probably when all the conditions are met.

Note one of the bugs is fixed, and the other is easily workarounded, so the big showstopper is write support

[solomonella]

@funman and the rest of the dev't team

you guys made the clip+ even more amazing with rockbox and i really hope the time will come when rb on clip+ is finished...

anyway,i'm using an old build too which i think is just fine since it doesn't crash as often as the later build

you can do it guys..you have our support

[Nuntius]

Originally Posted by funman

The front page hasn't been updated yet, but I made the change.

Yes, that's why I wrote "wrong".

[Timar]

Hi,
I just discovered this thread and was thrilled to see that the Clip+ has already been "rockboxed". After carefully reading though it and the rockbox site I tried the recent build r25665.

+ The sound quality with crossfeed is just amazing
+ Radio sound quality seems to be much(!) better than with OF

Unfortunately, it crashes after about 20 seconds of playback, which justifies the "unusable" status ... I hope that the rockbox developers will keep up their great work and present us with a stable version some day.

So thank you very much, funman!

[ultrauber]

Weird, I've never had playback crash.

[Timar]

I tested it with Lame 3.98 -V2 files with Replaygain only. Hardly got more than 20 seconds of playback out of it before it crashed, sometimes just a few seconds.

Now I'm using r25316 from this thread and it runs just fine, no crashes at all!

Btw. I'm using a 8g Clip+ without SD card.

[Axim]

Just wanted to express my thanks to the developers...I have been using v25348 and love it. Anyone on the fence, it's worth mentioning that sansa has done a pretty good job with features in their firmware for the clip+, but the biggest reasons I enjoy this working version of RB over the OF are:

1) Smaller font to make better use of the high res screen's real estate, great to see more info with less scrolling.
2) No waiting! Having the clip go unusable for 1-3 minutes after making even a one song change is a little frustrating. (I am speaking of the "updating device" or whatever that message is that comes on after transferring files via USB) I don't know what other people's wait times are, but I have the 8gb clip+ and a Class 6 16gb card, and the wait isn't good...too bad sansa can't update the player in the background like final versions of rockbox do...
3) I can't say for sure without ABXing, but even without any EQ adjustments, using RB seems to improve the sound.

Granted the latter may be placebo, but if and when the proposed pitch adjustment solution gets implemented -- I saw there were two solutions for this and I am all for the one that sacrifices 3% or so of battery life for near perfect pitch, FWIW -- then RB will objectively have the better sound. Anyway, sure I'd love to see a final version sooner rather than later because of the great playlisting capabilities and all the rest, but it can't hurt to offer a word of appreciation for all that's been done so far.

Sansas in general and especially now the Clip+ have always been my favorite players...geekheads like me can enjoy the extras that rockbox has to offer while at the same time they are easy to use and feature-rich enough out of the box so I can to gift 'em to tech-challenged relatives.

[Mikerman]

As to font size, you know that you can choose between numerous fonts, right? Perhaps another font will fit you better.

[Axim]

Originally Posted by Mikerman

As to font size, you know that you can choose between numerous fonts, right? Perhaps another font will fit you better.

If that's possible, than it could be better documented...just double-checked the online manual with keywords 'changing' 'choosing' 'font' -- nothing came up, and another quick scan of it didn't show anything either.

The place I would have expected to see it would be in the player's settings menu...under something like 'display' or 'fonts'...the available options are:

>Backlight
>Power Saver
>Sleep
>Language
>Date and Time
>Brightness
>Volume
>Reset Factory Settings
>Info
>USB Mode
>Format
>Press and Hold

So where are the font settings?

[Nikolaus]

Try to search for font-settings in the themes menu.

[Axim]

Originally Posted by Nikolaus

Try to search for font-settings in the themes menu.

The reasons I listed: smaller font/better readability, no refresh wait and possibly better sound are just a few of the reasons I like using the current build of Rockbox over Sansa's firmware.

I already know how to use Rockbox. But if there's a way to adjust the fonts in Sansa's firmware than that's good too -- I haven't seen it though.

[jupitreas]

I thought that there was no pitch correction needed for Rockbox since it is a software decoder rather than the hardware one the OF uses?

[Nikolaus]

Originally Posted by Axim

I already know how to use Rockbox. But if there's a way to adjust the fonts in Sansa's firmware than that's good too -- I haven't seen it though.

Nevermind! I just missunderstood your post. I wanted to point you to the rockbox settings. There is no way to ajust the fonts in the original firmware as far as I know.

[Axim]

Originally Posted by jupitreas

I thought that there was no pitch correction needed for Rockbox since it is a software decoder rather than the hardware one the OF uses?

I just spent the last 10 minutes looking for the specific page...no luck at the moment, but if I can find time later I'll look again... it was from the rockbox developers, and they were discussing two ways to deal with the pitch bug. The 1st solution wouldn't fix it as much as the 2nd solution, but would have no effect on battery life. The 2nd solution would make the pitch the most accurate, but would have something like an estimated 3% hit on battery life.

Anyway whether it's rockbox firmware or sansa firmware, firmware IS software, just a very low-level type, that control the essential, basic functions of the hardware. So think of both rockbox and sansa firmwares as software that allows the most basic adjustments to the clip's hardware. There is a basic issue with the hardware that is creating the pitch bug, needless to say the hardware can't be changed. Sansa has publicly said it isn't going to rewrite it's firmware to address the hardware flaw, but the developers at rockbox address the issue in that page I am referring to above.

How far they've gotten I don't know, but I've seen at least one post over at head-fi that says the pitch bug was still there in one of the earlier RB releases.

If they are still debating about trying to implement:

1) a less accurate fix that has no effect on battery life
2) a much more accurate fix that would decrease battery life by about 3%

than I really hope they succeed with #2, because I would much rather have the best sound by sacrificing 18 minutes of battery life or whatever it would turn out to be. Actually Rockbox's codecs are more battery efficient that Sansa's anyway, so you'd still probably wind up with longer battery life overall if they wound up making solution number 2 work, so again I hope that's the one they are working on...

EDIT:

Ok, found it...here's where the rockbox developers are discussing the pitch bug:

http://snipr.com/pitchbug

There's a fair amount to sift through there, but the condensed version is that as of right now, Rockbox is something like 60% more accurate in pitch than Sansa's at the moment. Fixing it further is just one more thing on a long list of things to do, and I would imagine write support is what they are working on most at the moment.

[jupitreas]

Right you are.
I'd also be willing to sacrifice 3% battery time. Its not a big deal

[dfkt]

I still have to test the Clip+, but the newest Sandisk stock firmware for the Clipv1 and v2 improved pitch behavior: http://anythingbutipod.com/forum/sho...3&postcount=14

I'll check the newest Clip+ stock firmware when I find time.

[Mikerman]

Originally Posted by Axim

If that's possible, than it could be better documented...just double-checked the online manual with keywords 'changing' 'choosing' 'font' -- nothing came up, and another quick scan of it didn't show anything either.

The place I would have expected to see it would be in the player's settings menu...under something like 'display' or 'fonts'...the available options are:

>Backlight
>Power Saver
>Sleep
>Language
>Date and Time
>Brightness
>Volume
>Reset Factory Settings
>Info
>USB Mode
>Format
>Press and Hold

So where are the font settings?

Page 119 of the Clip manual (note: I have not tried this, but simply am repeating the manual):

11 Advanced Topics

11.1 Customising the User Interface

11.1.1 Getting Extras

Rockbox supports custom fonts. A collection of fonts is available for download in the font package at

http://www.rockbox.org/daily.shtml.

11.1.2 Loading Fonts

Rockbox can load fonts dynamically. Simply copy the .fnt file to the player and play it in the File Browser. If you want a font to be loaded automatically every time you start up, it must be located in the /.rockbox/fonts directory and the filename must be at most 24 characters long. You can browse the fonts in /.rockbox/fonts under Settings -Theme Settings -Font in the Main Menu.

Note:

Advanced Users Only: Any BDF font file up to 16 pixels high should be usable with Rockbox. To convert from .bdf to .fnt, use the convbdf tool. This tool can be found in the tools directory of the Rockbox source code.

See, also, page 62 of the manual: "Font. Browse the installed fonts on your player. Selecting one will activate it. See section 11.1.2 (page 119) for further details about fonts."

[saratoga]

Originally Posted by Mikerman

Page 119 of the Clip manual (note: I have not tried this, but simply am repeating the manual):

See, also, page 62 of the manual: "Font. Browse the installed fonts on your player. Selecting one will activate it. See section 11.1.2 (page 119) for further details about fonts."

Hes asking about the Sandisk firmware, not rockbox.