Cowon S9 and Rockbox

[tilldo]

Is there already an working rockboxversion for the S9?

[dfkt]

Nobody is working on a Rockbox port for the S9, to the best of my knowledge.

[bernado]

Claw's Wallpaper UI is your best bet until then

[tilldo]

i know claws ui but i wanted some improvement in the eq...

[dfkt]

Seems it will be a long time until Rockbox is able to deal properly with touch screens and modern video formats in general... I wouldn't hold my breath for anything 100% usable (or rather, a 100% replacement for the stock firmware) for the foreseeable future, judging by the state of the D2 Rockbox port.

Personally, I like the S9's BBE enhancements and the pseudo-parametric EQ. Of course the fully parametric Rockbox EQ is in a class of its own, the best there is on portable players - but Cowon's EQ does the job for me quite nicely as well. And the BBE/Mach3Bass algorithms simply sound great, in my opinion. But yeah, a real parametric EQ would be nice - even if it would be a software EQ, contrary to the S9's Wolfson hardware EQ.

[curiouswonderer]

I don't think they will start Rockbox on the S9 until at least the D2 port is completely stable and official.

Even then, I doubt that they will port Rockbox to S9 just because of the amount of features the S9 already have. It might become a little redundant.

But I guess if you really want the Rockbox EQ really badly, you could buy a Sansa Clip for $20 and Rockbox that...

[cloudscapes]

as far as I recall, Rockbox's philosophy is to first consider players who's firmware is lacking quite a bit. the S9's, though still needing work, is pretty solid if you ask me!

also, the S9's flash UI is still very very customizable, sources available and all. all thigns considered, the RB team might be thinking it's unneccisary to spend so much time developping to replace a firmware that's 95% there.

[aaron424]

If that's the case, then there should have been rockbox for the sansa view quite some time ago.

[cloudscapes]

Originally Posted by aaron424

If that's the case, then there should have been rockbox for the sansa view quite some time ago.

not necissarily. if its harder to reverse engineer than the others, or there isn't enough demand to justify it.

[jayteee]

While the S9's eq is not fully parametric, it's pretty damn close. You can choose the frequency of the bands, although you are limited to Cowon's preset choices. And you do have control over the width of each band, although again, you are limited to their preset choices. Coming from the fully parametric Rio Karma, I am very pleased with the eq on the S9. And, of course, the S9 has a full suite of BBE enhancements available and they are stackable with custom eq settings, which is really excellent.

Regarding the EQ, I don't think there is a reason why Cowon couldn't make it fully parametric as I believe the hardware supports it. I think Cowon tried to simplify the interface. Maybe someone could request that they unlock it's full potential along with delivering crossfade!

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by jayteee

Regarding the EQ, I don't think there is a reason why Cowon couldn't make it fully parametric as I believe the hardware supports it. I think Cowon tried to simplify the interface. Maybe someone could request that they unlock it's full potential along with delivering crossfade!

The hardware doesn't support it, it would have to be emulated in software. Here's more info: http://anythingbutipod.com/forum/sho...&postcount=178

[cloudscapes]

Originally Posted by jayteee

Regarding the EQ, I don't think there is a reason why Cowon couldn't make it fully parametric as I believe the hardware supports it. I think Cowon tried to simplify the interface. Maybe someone could request that they unlock it's full potential along with delivering crossfade!

The reason is that the EQ is "hardwired" into one of the chips. It's not exactly programmable and is not something that can be changed with just a firmware update. That chip (which I'm assuming is the DAC) only has those preset values under the hood, so the main processor (the one that IS firmware programmable) can control it only within the range the other one supports.

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by cloudscapes

The reason is that the EQ is "hardwired" into one of the chips. It's not exactly programmable and is not something that can be changed with just a firmware update. That chip (which I'm assuming is the DAC) only has those preset values under the hood, so the main processor (the one that IS firmware programmable) can control it only within the range the other one supports.

Exactly, as seen in the datasheet of the Wolfson CODEC, page 82-85: http://www.wolfsonmicro.com/uploads/...986_Rev4.1.pdf

[jayteee]

well that's bad news as I didn't know what the hw was limited to and this dashes all hopes of a fully parametric eq in a future update. I doubt they'll go outside of the hardware eq as I don't think this thing has enough spare computing power to pull off a software eq.