Rockboxed Fuze v1

[zickZackMann]

Okay, thats not the solution I hoped for xD. Will you be able to change them in the release firmware more easily?

[saratoga]

No the release version will have essentially the same features as the current version (plus whatever new features are added to rockbox between now and whenever the fuze port is considered stable enough to release). Keymaps have been set in the same way for many years now, and thats unlikely change soon, if ever.

[zickZackMann]

Hmm, alright - thanx for clearing this up!

[epithetless]

zickZackMann, you can easily have the center button take you to the folder of the currently playing track (from the WPS) via the "Follow Playlist" option under "Settings" --> "General Settings" --> "File View."

[zickZackMann]

Oh OK, thats awesome - thanks for the hint man! Guess I will have to get used to the button mapping, as Rockbox just rocks too much to get back to the SanDisk FW .

[Short_Fuze]

i have a question and thought i'd ask here. since it is a RB thread

what does it mean exactly to "break" DRM on the Fuze. i keep hearing RB breaks DRM

i'm pretty sure it means no files protected by digital rights management software will be compatible....but even after googling i'm not too clear what exactly DRM is? it seems people have there own sometimes, or there might be different kinds?

my understanding is its a WMA issue or feature. and when you rip a cd to your computer with WMP if its DRM protected, you then have a WMA file as such. but if you use a different program you get a regular unprotected mp3? at least thats how i always understood it

and finally is removing or avoiding DRM protection for your own convenience (putting a previously DRM protected file on a RB'd Sansa, for instance) easy to do? is it simply how the music is ripped?

i don't have any issues atm because none of my music is protected, apparently. but it may not always be the case, i suppose

[zickZackMann]

WMA files are not generally DRM protected - but I don't know if WMP automatically applies DRM. I would suggest just using a different program, like EAC. Gives you a whole bunch of more flexibility too.

Getting rid of DRM in music files is illegal. As far as I know the only legal possibility is to burn the files on CD (or create a virtual CD) and (re-)rip them. Of course there are tools out there, that just convert the files into non DRMed ones, but as I said, this ain't legal.

[Short_Fuze]

oic. thanks for that explanation

i guess i don't really expect to have any problems with it. but its good to know more

so for as the legality of removing it or w/e...thats a bit precious to me. i know why they don't want you to remove it....but i think its reasonable to say "i have an mp3 player which won't play these files because of DRM. it will play ALL other files. i removed it for my own personal use"

of course some would disagree. seems that music we buy isn't really ours, we just pay to listen to it how we are allowed to

just seems weird that to play music i bought on MY mp3 player, i have to technically break the law :/

[saratoga]

If you buy DRMed music you're really just renting it to play on a certain subset of devices that are approved by the seller. If you don't like that you probably shouldn't buy from that seller. Regardless, since Rockbox has no DRM support at all, its not really related to this thread. If you want to use DRM you need to stay with the Fuze OF.

[skip252]

Originally Posted by Short_Fuze

just seems weird that to play music i bought on MY mp3 player, i have to technically break the law :/

Actually there is usually nothing at all illegal about burning a purchased DRM protected file to an audio CD. It depends on the terms of the license agreement that accompanies the file. I don't know about iTunes but some companies encouraged you to do just that. How you use that song after you burn it is what may be illegal.

I received a gift card good for 10 WalMart song downloads a few years ago. When I checked the properties in of the downloaded songs WMP it told me I had an unlimited number of plays and could burn the the tune 10 times.
After I downloaded a few tunes I needed to reinstall Windows. I backed up the license the way the agreement said I should and reinstalled Windows. When I tried to play the tunes using the backed up license they would not play. Even after downloading the tunes again per the agreement they wouldn't play.

I contacted WalMart support and was given detailed instructions on how to download the license again and given a friendly reminder that the best way to backup the tunes was to burn them to an audio CD. In essence what they wanted me to do was burn the 88 cent tunes to a disc and stop tying up their bandwidth and customer support.

When Walmart discontinued their DRM download service I received another email telling me what date the licenses would expire and reminding me to burn the tunes to an audio CD if I wanted to keep using them. All perfectly legal as per the original agreement.

I believe what you are thinking when you read that Rockbox breaks DRM on the Fuze is that it can now decode DRMed files. No Way.

What I read it to mean is that a Rockboxed Fuze will lose the ability to play DRM protected files even if you uninstall Rockbox and reinstall the original firmware.

If you check the "NoDo" listing the top item is that Rockbox will have no part in trying to decode DRM files. Besides the stated reasons the common sense reason is that a great weight would come swooping down from a tremendous height on every asset that might in any way connected to Rockbox.

Those billionaire record companies are extremely protective of their cash cow.

[epithetless]

Pardon the change of subject, but I just uploaded a theme to the Rockbox site that might be of interest to other Rockbox Fuzers. It's based on James Denman's slick XL theme, which I modified to match the Fuze's blue LED ring and made a few other adjustments/additions to. I present to you...XL Fuzed.

[Spy king]

nice theme!!
Is there anyway I could increase the size of the album art, and have a traditional bar/graph for the volume?

[epithetless]

Originally Posted by Spy king

nice theme!!
Is there anyway I could increase the size of the album art, and have a traditional bar/graph for the volume?

Not without some major changes to the code/images. If you're going that far, you're probably better off either starting from scratch or choosing another H3xx/iPod Photo theme that's closer to what you'd like (and then making modifications to that one, if you prefer to).

[mannequin]

great theme, epithetless!

[epithetless]

Originally Posted by mannequin

great theme, epithetless!

Thanks. In all fairness, though, a great majority of the credit should go to James Denman for providing such a fantastic foundation to work with.

[sansaguy]

geeez....this theme just might push me over the edge to installing Rockbox on my Fuze. I've been chomping at the bit here for so long....

[mankind]

Nice theme

[spartacus5380]

Originally Posted by sansaguy

geeez....this theme just might push me over the edge to installing Rockbox on my Fuze. I've been chomping at the bit here for so long....

Mmmm, same. I'm very close, but I'd feel so much better if it was an 'official' RB release for some reason.

edit: I'm a little confused. The link is for a theme in the "iriver H3xx" section. Which themes work directly with the Fuze?

[saratoga]

Any with the same screen resolution, H300 included.

[Short_Fuze]

ok i have uninstalled the "test" version of RB for the Fuze

it worked well except for a couple of issues which i know are being worked out for the final version (Voice Recorder and battery life gauge)

the problem i had occurred 2 or 3 times since install which is too much for me

after adding content (audiobooks) last night it was fine for a minute, then froze and wouldn't unfreeze when trying to change tracks. when it finally did unfreeze it would start up, do the "initialize database" thing or w/e, and then the screen would fill with some sort of rolling text until i got an error message that said something like...

*Error*

Dir 14 could not be found or is in a different place then #2

etc...

well it was something like that? the text was awful small and i didn't have my glasses at the time. then the player would just shut down. it also changed my theme back to default

so...that is enough for me to wait a little. i can live w/o the voice recorder for now...but the crashing and freezing and finally having to uninstall and reformat the player is too much fuss for me atm if its to continue

so, just a little report