Clip+ = Good!

[Mikerman]

Originally Posted by lestatar

funman: I stand corrected! So very sorry - in any event, no doubt official stable releases for all RB will be imminent. :-)

That would be nice. But also, recall that development on the original Clip port has been going on avidly for over a year-and-a-half, now ...

[CrowdAds]

[FreeZ5]

Originally Posted by WalkGood

Still sounds like someone suffers from the "lestatar syndrome" or should we now call it the "Martian syndrome"

You can call it the "cpfan syndrome" if you want. My definition..."Everybody should own at least one Clip/Clip+/Fuze, and rockbox isn't important".

Steve

[WalkGood]

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and level of risk they perceive, but making claims about “not being important” without ever trying something is not a valid opinion. If you compare what the OF offers to this and give dual booting a try you would understand. Personally the players I’ve installed rockbox on don’t ever boot to the OF again

[Mikerman]

I have Rockbox as my firmware-of-choice on my iRiver iHP-160 player, and like it. (Am still waiting for a more finished and stable version for my Clips.) But I also can see that the OF on the Clips may be just fine for many or even most people.

[Confuseling]

Originally Posted by Marvin the Martian

...
Am I a little curious, about what else it might do? Sure....but on the other hand, if you were to ask me is there anything I wish the Clip+ could do, that it doesn't already, I'm not sure what I would come up with.

...

I am most intrigued, at this point, by the improved battery life people are reporting. So at some point down the road, I'll probably give it a shot....but I'm in no hurry.

Fair enough... But it isn't necessarily what it does, but how it does it.

Core functionality is basically the same, sure, and if you don't want to play games, or tweak your sound horrifically, it might seem somewhat pointless. But I'd suggest that even the core functionality is enhanced by Rockbox - it's simply a nicer and more configurable interface. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with the Clip+'s interface (unless you count slotradio ;-), but there's nothing intrinsically wrong with a Ford Fiesta either, and you'd still probably have more fun in a Bentley.

One random plus for me that I haven't seen mentioned is that the Clip+ plays an animation constantly whilst charging on a computer, wearing out the distinctly ephemeral OLED screen; Rockbox has the good sense to blank it.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by Confuseling

Fair enough... But it isn't necessarily what it does, but how it does it.

Core functionality is basically the same, sure, and if you don't want to play games, or tweak your sound horrifically, it might seem somewhat pointless. But I'd suggest that even the core functionality is enhanced by Rockbox - it's simply a nicer and more configurable interface. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with the Clip+'s interface (unless you count slotradio ;-), but there's nothing intrinsically wrong with a Ford Fiesta either, and you'd still probably have more fun in a Bentley.

One random plus for me that I haven't seen mentioned is that the Clip+ plays an animation constantly whilst charging on a computer, wearing out the distinctly ephemeral OLED screen; Rockbox has the good sense to blank it.

That is a great point....and the reason I charge with a wall charger.

[lestatar]

Originally Posted by Confuseling

...SNIPPED...but there's nothing intrinsically wrong with a Ford Fiesta either, and you'd still probably have more fun in a Bentley....

Love this analogy...!

[Confuseling]

Also worthy of note is the avoidance of the automatic database refresh on boot. And if you use podcasts it's nice to be able to set the left and right directional buttons to skip a fixed distance rather than a whole track, for easy review of bits you've missed.

They're little things, sure, but they soon add up... For the princely sum of six megabytes I say you can't go wrong.

ETA - lestatar: thanks

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by Confuseling

Also worthy of note is the avoidance of the automatic database refresh on boot. And if you use podcasts it's nice to be able to set the left and right directional buttons to skip a fixed distance rather than a whole track, for easy review of bits you've missed.

They're little things, sure, but they soon add up... For the princely sum of six megabytes I say you can't go wrong.

ETA - lestatar: thanks

If you just hold the button, it scrolls through the track, gradually going faster....as opposed to skipping to the end or the beginning.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by Confuseling

Also worthy of note is the avoidance of the automatic database refresh on boot.

The refresh only happens if you change your contents, not if you just charge....and lestatar tells me that is the same with rockbox.

[Confuseling]

Originally Posted by Marvin the Martian

If you just hold the button, it scrolls through the track, gradually going faster....as opposed to skipping to the end or the beginning.

I know that

Having the option of a single button press works better for me though when I'm waging pitched battle with the washing up.

It's pretty subjective - but I guess therein lies the point. A configurable interface, if designed properly, can always be made a better match for your quirks...

ETA:

Originally Posted by Marvin the Martian

The refresh only happens if you change your contents, not if you just charge....and lestatar tells me that is the same with rockbox.

This being a good example; you can disable that.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by Confuseling

I know that

Having the option of a single button press works better for me though when I'm waging pitched battle with the washing up.

It's pretty subjective - but I guess therein lies the point. A configurable interface, if designed properly, can always be made a better match for your quirks...

ETA:



This being a good example; you can disable that.

I'm sure he would be all ears, if you wanted to explain that.

[saratoga]

You can't disable the database refresh as far as I know. At least no one has figured out a way yet.

[Confuseling]

Settings -> General settings -> Database -> Auto update -> No

Unless I'm very much mistaken - which I might be, because I don't really use the database...

http://download.rockbox.org/daily/ma...-buildch4.html [Gah! Sorry, link seems to be behaving oddly - go to section 4.2.]

ETA-

Originally Posted by saratoga

You can't disable the database refresh as far as I know. At least no one has figured out a way yet.

In Rockbox or the OF? Maybe I am just going crazy then...

[lestatar]

Ah I think I understand the confusion here...

The refresh delay Marv was referring to is what happens when you change a single byte of data on [in my case] the Fuze [and I would assume might hold true for the Clip/+]. This is an unavoidable function of the Sandisk FW AFAIK.

Confuseling, unless I am mistaken, that setting you mention is re: rb's own database refresh.

I believe saratoga is referring to the Sandisk OF refresh which seemingly cannot be bypassed under any circumstances at present.

CAVEAT: Of course, I am all of 36 hours into my RB experience so I am probably, completely wrong... LOL

-lestatar

[Confuseling]

That makes sense. It's never bothered me on the original firmware, truth be told, but then I don't at present have enough data to really slow it down, or a micro SD card (which I've heard can make it pretty painful - especially if a poor/dirty connection makes it refresh at random).

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by lestatar

CAVEAT: Of course, I am all of 36 hours into my RB experience so I am probably, completely wrong... LOL

-lestatar

And not for the first time....

[lestatar]

Confuseling: Ohbrother, it is WAAAAY annoying!

I have 8GB Fuze+16GB microSDHC, packed to the gills. If I change 1 single byte anywhere, then disconnect, I gotta wait like 5-10 long minutes while the OF "Refreshes The Media"...worse part is the screen stays on during this process so battery life takes a massive hit...

I hope and pray the geniuses at rb can figure out a way around this somehow, someday...

[Marvin the Martian]

Just over 5 minutes for me, usually.

[Confuseling]

I guess once they've sorted the USB interface it won't be an issue.

In the meantime couldn't you use a card reader, and load the files onto the card in your computer, skipping the OF entirely? You still need to refresh the RB database, but you can do that a) at leisure, b) in the background, and c) with the screen off.

[again, wish to stress, this might all be total rubbish - not a database user, and pretty new to MP3 players...]