Rockbox

[davidw89]

What are the planned feature comings to Cowon D2 if Rockbox is successful? Will we still be able to keep the user interface or a better one will be made?

[CrowdAds]

[dfkt]

Rockbox is the same on all supported players - so the feature set will be the same on the D2 as on all others. Just read http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/WhyRockbox to find out more about the implemented features.

I'm 100% sure the interface will be quite a bit worse, at least in the initial releases of Rockbox for the D2. Rockbox doesn't support touch screens as of now - the last I heard was that they plan to divide the screen in segments, for up/down/left/right/enter touch areas, analog to a standard button layout.

[dfkt]

Rockbox on the Cowon iAudio D2... that's basically all there is to see, as of 2008/05/30.

<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4iTyYrlUweE"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4iTyYrlUweE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object>

[Xenodius]

Now I just wish I could get a % battery indicator on the original firmware... and the hellish fire thing.

[The DarkSide]

I'll stay with my Cowon fw and, if it ever gets refined enough on the D2, try out RockBox. Don't see a reason to really switch over now that they came out w/a really good fw.

[dfkt]

Well, you can dual boot both firmwares, nothing to lose. Installation is completely hassle-free, takes about 30 seconds, and no data loss, formatting, or anything.

Having Rockbox on the D2 would have the great advantage of WAV recording for me (instead of that WMA crap). Then the D2 could replace my X5 entirely.

The other things I really like about Rockbox are gapless playback, last.fm scrobbling, MPC and Speex support. But yeah, it couldn't replace the original firmware for me since it doesn't support MPEG4 playback, BBE enhancements, or embedded album art. At least at the moment...

[SansaRulez83]

I would actually prefer 320 Kb/s mp3 to WAV. WAV eats up memory. I second the awesomeness of gapless playback! I miss that on my cds!

[dfkt]

You can record to MP3 with Rockbox as well.

I would prefer a lossless uncompressed format because I record the jams and practice sessions of my band with the X5... I can always compress the stuff later, but having it as good as it gets is kinda important for me.

[SansaRulez83]

Ah I C

[dfkt]

We have sound!

http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?...7857#msg127857

[The DarkSide]

Originally Posted by dfkt

We have sound!

http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?...7857#msg127857

Cool - good work by shotofadds!!!

OOPS,........ forgot: I give 5 instead of 3!!!

[gregzx]

It still seems like a loooong long way until rockbox gets fully ported...
I hope its worth waiting though!

[davidw89]

WOOT AWESOME

But the current D2 firmware released by Cowon does everything fine for me..can't ask for more can i..

[The DarkSide]

Originally Posted by davidw89

WOOT AWESOME

But the current D2 firmware released by Cowon does everything fine for me..can't ask for more can i..

I agree but ya' gotta' give credit for the hard work these people are putting in - Heart AND Soul!!!

[gregzx]

There will be some new functions, like gapless playback and the ability to record in mp3 format for example. So it actually might have a lot of use. The cool thing is that rockbox can be installed as an aditional firmware, so you will boot whichever firmware you will actually need in the moment.

[dfkt]

I just listened to Pink Floyd's DSOTM for the first time on Rockbox on the D2... It's so beautiful listening to it without gaps, I almost cried. There are certainly no excuses for gaps.

[Xenodius]

Might be worth using it as a dual boot-- but I would only do it if you can setup[dual boot so that the default firmware boots normally, and rockbox while menu is held.

[SansaRulez83]

I'd like to try it but I don't really understand the instructions on the web site. Yadda yadda bootload yadda yadda.

I think it would interesting to check out some of the possibilities of having a dual boot. Heck I could live just with a build to just play albums like DSOTM. It's my impression that the D2 has many of the features that benefit other players via Rockbox. The only we don't have is crApple codexs...

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by Xenodius

Might be worth using it as a dual boot-- but I would only do it if you can setup[dual boot so that the default firmware boots normally, and rockbox while menu is held.

Originally Posted by SansaRulez83

I'd like to try it but I don't really understand the instructions on the web site. Yadda yadda bootload yadda yadda.

Get a dual bootloader for your firmware from here: ftp://rockbox:rockbox@andiators.homeip.net/

Get a current Rockbox release from here: http://build.rockbox.org/dist/build-cowond2/rockbox.zip

Install the bootloader (doesn't hurt your current firmware, nothing will be lost), extract the Rockbox archive to the root.

Easy as pie.

Originally Posted by SansaRulez83

I think it would interesting to check out some of the possibilities of having a dual boot. Heck I could live just with a build to just play albums like DSOTM. It's my impression that the D2 has many of the features that benefit other players via Rockbox. The only we don't have is crApple codexs...

Indeed, the D2 is way less crippled than most other players on the market, and it doesn't "need" Rockbox to be a good player. But no need rehashing the same points over and over again (this isn't specifically targeted at you, SansaRulez, but at the general vibe in this thread). You can dual-boot Rockbox, and you don't lose the original firmware functions.

In case you don't know, you already have AAC/M4A support in the Cowon firmware, but very basic. But you will gain CUE sheet support, MPC, Speex, Shorten, and so on. Not to mention a "real" parametric EQ, last.fm support via MSC, WAV and MP3 recording, etc... it's great having Rockbox as an alternative on the D2.

[Xenodius]

Hmm, Rockbox is definitely nice as a dual boot (Boots 2 seconds faster than base firmware @ 5s) but the control system is seriously screwed up on mine.

Using the touchscreen though, I can navigate so fast compared to the root firmware! It can be overly sensitive, but its actually kind of fun. I need to spend some time actually using it for music, though... haven't figured out pause/play yet, I get an 'Error accessing playlist control file' on attempted resume.

I seriously see Rockbox as a great alternative and stand-by for all hardcore D2 users. Doom3 ftw ;-)

I bet it plays Mario at a better FPS than the Sansa...