Cowon J3 vs ipod Classic with Rockbox? Advice demanded!

[dawningistheday]

Now that I feel like I've gotten over the initial learning curve of Rockbox (on my Clip+) and have grown fond of using it and making use of some of its practically endless options, I think I could see myself being weaned off of my Cowon J3. So my question is:

Should I sell my J3 and put the funds toward a 240GB 7th gen ipod (available on ebay) and rockbox it via freemyipod.org?

Has anyone here tried rockboxing an ipod classic? Is it easy to do for a relative computer novice? I once had a rockboxed ipod video (5.5-gen) and its performance with Rockbox was pretty darn slow. Anybody know if the ipod classic models have any better performance, speed-wise? How is the battery life?

I love my J3 and it would be hard for me to sell it, but I think the extra storage capacity would be awesome, plus, while I would be giving up BBE (which I really enjoy), I would be acquiring tons of additional options with Rockbox.

Please don't bother replying with posts like, "Gee, that's your decision, man...Follow your heart!" I am asking so I want your opinion. What would you do in my situation?

[CrowdAds]

[The DarkSide]

If you luv Rockbox I say sell the J3. The only saving grace is BBE sound enhancements, and I personally hate BBE. But, before flipping the switch, check out the head-fi thread on the subject to decide if your truly ready: http://www.head-fi.org/t/532426/ipod...-its-happening

Be forewarned, it's a damn long read. You should have no questions after tackling it.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by The DarkSide

If you luv Rockbox I say sell the J3. The only saving grace is BBE sound enhancements, and I personally hate BBE. But, before flipping the switch, check out the head-fi thread on the subject to decide if your truly ready: http://www.head-fi.org/t/532426/ipod...-its-happening

Be forewarned, it's a damn long read. You should have no questions after tackling it.

I gave it a quick whirl and chickened out....lol. One of the instructions is to disable your anti-virus while you are installing it, and I said,"screw all that!"

[dawningistheday]

Thanks for the replies...
I'm not sure about it. I did read several pages of the head-fi thread (about 10%), and honestly, I'm not any closer to a decision. I think I'll need to study up on it some more first.
Has anybody on this forum Rockboxed a classic?
Possible deal-breakers for me (if these turn out to be true of a Rockboxed ipod classic--they were true of my Rockboxed ipod 5.5g):
1.) Slow, clunky response (especially Database refresh, which I am pretty sure is a requirement of using the shuffle all tracks feature).
2.) Pretty lousy battery life (not as big of a problem, but coming from a J3 would be pretty hard to get used to).

[The DarkSide]

I didn't Rockbox my classic, but I couldn't stand how slow it was on the 5.5G video. For me, I'll never bother. The classic is good enough as is for my needs. But, ymmv, so it's up to you in the end.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by dawningistheday

they were true of my Rockboxed ipod 5.5g):
1.) Slow, clunky response (especially Database refresh, which I am pretty sure is a requirement of using the shuffle all tracks feature).

The db refresh really does take forever, no question....but that's my only complaint with it response-wise.

Originally Posted by dawningistheday

2.) Pretty lousy battery life (not as big of a problem, but coming from a J3 would be pretty hard to get used to).

Compared to a J3, I can see why you'd think the battery life was lousy. But the rated playback when the player was new was 20 hours, after all, so with Rockbox for it to still get around the same is pretty good.

I'm just glad you guys moved on from it so that I could have it....

[The DarkSide]

Originally Posted by Marvin the Martian

I'm just glad you guys moved on from it so that I could have it....

You, sir, are one EEVL BEOUCH!!!

[dawningistheday]

Originally Posted by Marvin the Martian

I'm just glad you guys moved on from it so that I could have it....

I thought you ended up with it! EEVL BEOUCH or not, I'm glad it's got a good home.
So Marv, when you selling it back to me???

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by The DarkSide

You, sir, are one EEVL BEOUCH!!!

It worked out for everybody, I think...

Originally Posted by dawningistheday

I thought you ended up with it! EEVL BEOUCH or not, I'm glad it's got a good home.
So Marv, when you selling it back to me???

I'm not sure I could do that....I think it is my best sounding player, at least through the line-out.

Unless you wanted to trade me the J3 for it....

[dawningistheday]

Originally Posted by Marvin the Martian

Unless you wanted to trade me the J3 for it....

Probably won't happen...

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by dawningistheday

Probably won't happen...

I was joking anyways....I have a Cowon coming my way already.
Just wanted to see what your reaction would be...

[dawningistheday]

Welp, I made the plunge by ordering a 7th gen ipod. I didn't sell my J3 though. I will attempt the rockbox installation and keep you informed (except if I break it--I'll never come back if that happens!).
Wish me luck!

[dawningistheday]

Okay, emCORE + Rockbox installation successful! It did take a few tries, and I'm not sure what was the problem, but it seems to have been a USB drive detection kind of error. I'm no computer whiz (by any means), but I did eventually get it to take. Now I am dumping some music on board. I'm exited to try this puppy out!

[Marvin the Martian]

Congrats! I tried to do it and got stuck and couldn't finish it, and chickened out before trying anything else.

[The DarkSide]

I ain't messing with it without an easy-nOOb-installer. Congrats,...you've got more guts than me!!!

[dawningistheday]

Please let me reiterate: I am NOT skilled in the computer-fiddlin' arts. It's not a very difficult process though, honestly. I think both of you could manage it, if you wanted to.
So far everything is working very well. I added about 30GB of tunes, installed a few iPod Video themes, adjusted the EQ, settings, etc. I played around and listened to a few songs and now I'm adding another ~30GB of songs to it. It seems faster response-wise than the 5.5 gen I had, but I have yet to touch the dreaded database feature, and of course I don't have one here to compare it to.
So far I'm very happy.

[The DarkSide]

Oh, we could both do it. I root (I had to assemble a whole damn FOLDER to root my Motorola Atrix,...), manual Rockbox, unbrick players, etc. I just think I'm getting to the point where it's possible to do these things with a one-click process. Even jailbreaking has gone one-click,...and it used to be wayyyy more annoying.

No, you did better than you think. Me, I'm just not patient enough.

[dawningistheday]

Database build from scratch (~12,000 songs) took about 5m30s. This is way faster than it was on my ipod 5.5gen. Not bad, I say. Of course, I have no idea if the hard drive was fully-functional in that one, so maybe that's all it was, though I have heard elsewhere that the 5/5.5 gens with rockbox were quite slow.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by dawningistheday

Database build from scratch (~12,000 songs) took about 5m30s. This is way faster than it was on my ipod 5.5gen. Not bad, I say. Of course, I have no idea if the hard drive was fully-functional in that one, so maybe that's all it was, though I have heard elsewhere that the 5/5.5 gens with rockbox were quite slow.

Well, I have your former 5.5G, and as near as I can tell the HDD is functioning just fine. I've never timed how long it takes to initialize the database, but it seems like an eternity compared to my rockboxed Sansas, even taking into account the double capacity. When I add stuff to it, I disconnect from the PC, then I plug it into a wall charger before initializing the database...since all that HD activity eats up some battery charge (I did it this morning, with ~8,600 songs).

That's a definite advantage of the newer 7G Classic, the much greater battery life(at least running the Apple OS....don't know if that is true of Rockbox).