Rockbox and Lossless Codecs

[Chuck W]

I just purchased a e280 version R from Costco on this past Black Friday. I did a search on lossless codec support and nothing came up on my preferred choice. I use Monkey's Audio on my home computer and I would like to use it on my new player using a Rockbox build. I went to the Rockbox site and I saw that is was on there but not sure if I interpreted what was being said correctly. So if I use a Rockbox build will I be able to just store my music on my Sansa as an .ape file and have it converted and played properly? I want to be able to keep the most amount of music on my player and any point in time and I figure that a lossless is the way to go so I don't have to go back and forth converting my files to some other codecs just so I can play them on my portable device. I have already converted all my 700 CDs into .ape files and they reside on my HDD and I use Media Center v11 to play them directly.

Also I would like to be able to just drag and drop my music files into the Sansa via Windows Explorer, is that possible with my e280R version?

Thanks!

Chuck W.

BTW: What is the largest Micro SD that this player will support?

[saratoga]

Originally Posted by Chuck W

So if I use a Rockbox build will I be able to just store my music on my Sansa as an .ape file and have it converted and played properly?

Rockbox doesn't convert anything, but it does play ape. That said, I don't think you'll have much luck on the Sansa, the CPU is too slow for most of the APE compression settings, so if you want ape, but a faster DAP.

Originally Posted by Chuck W

Also I would like to be able to just drag and drop my music files into the Sansa via Windows Explorer, is that possible with my e280R version?

Sure.

Originally Posted by Chuck W

BTW: What is the largest Micro SD that this player will support?

As large as they come.

[advcomp2019]

If you put your e280R in Rhapsody mode, you can use Drag and Drop. BTW, what version of the e280R?

BTW again, Welcome to ABi>>, Chuck W.

[roebeet]

If APE is a problem, keep in mind that Rockbox also supports FLAC (this is the lossless format I use, so I can attest to the fact that it works on the E200).

I use FLAC to convert my CD's, as it's open source and pretty widely accepted. Generally, APE = slightly smaller files but more resources, whereas FLAC = slightly larger files but uses less resources. APE is also a problem if you use MacOS or Linux - it's basically locked to Windows.

Brian

[cpchan]

Originally Posted by Chuck W

I use Monkey's Audio on my home computer and I would like to use it on my new player using a Rockbox build.

Monkey audio is supported natively by Rockbox. However, it is still too slow to be useful on PortalPlayer targets. If you really want lossless, your best choice right now is either FLAC or WAV Pack. I think you should just keep your lossless archive and transcode them to a lossy format (such as Vorbis, MP3 or AAC) when needed. IMHO, it doesn't make sense to use a lossless codec on a Flash based DAP due to file size.

Charles

[Nookadum]

Originally Posted by roebeet

APE is also a problem if you use MacOS or Linux - it's basically locked to Windows.

Huh? APE does work well under *nix or MacOS X, the only problem is the licensing.

[roebeet]

Originally Posted by Nookadum

Huh? APE does work well under *nix or MacOS X, the only problem is the licensing.

And therein lies the problem - it's a proprietary format and there's no official package available. I've gotten it to work on Ubuntu via some unofficial hacks or via Wine, but its future on these platforms is questionable. FLAC seems a better fit, at least for me (I can live with the larger file sizes).