Rockbox: The Open Source Jukebox (Review)

Do you ever find your self saying, “I don't like the looks of my MP3 Players UI (User Interface)?” Or, “I wish that my Player had more features, and was more customizable?” Well here is the answer to all of those questions. Yes and no.

Before I get into any details, Rockbox runs well on these players, has a complete manual and is supported by the installer:

*Apple: 1st through 5.5th generation iPod, iPod Mini and 1st generation iPod Nano
(not the Shuffle, 2nd/3rd/4th gen Nano, Classic or Touch)
*Archos: Jukebox 5000, 6000, Studio, Recorder, FM Recorder, Recorder V2 and Ondio
*Cowon: iAudio X5, X5V, X5L, M5, M5L, M3 and M3L
*iriver: iHP100 series, H100 series, H300 series and H10 series
*Olympus: M:Robe 100
*SanDisk: Sansa c200 series, e200 series and e200R series (not the v2/AMS models)
*Toshiba: Gigabeat X and F series (not the S series)

Unstable ports

Rockbox runs on these players, but is incomplete, less usable or has problems that limit it to advanced users:

*Cowon: D2
*Olympus: M:Robe 500
*Samsung: YH-920 and YH-925
*SanDisk: Sansa e200 v2 (AMS) and Sansa Fuze V1

Unusable ports

Work has begun on porting Rockbox to these players, but much remains before they are usable:

*Toshiba Gigabeat S, Cowon iAudio 7, Creative ZVM, Logik Dax, Meizu M6, Samsung YH820
Philips GoGear HDD1600, HDD1800, HDD6300 and SA9200, Onda VX747 and VX767,
Tatung Elio, Apple iPod Nano 2G, Sandisk Sansa m200, c100, Clip v1 and c200v2

What is it, and Why use it?

“ 'Rockbox is an open source firmware replacement for a growing number of digital audio players. It has been in development since 2001 and receives new features, tweaks and fixes every day to provide you with the best possible music listening experience. Rockbox aims to be considerably more functional and efficient than your device's stock firmware while remaining easy to use and customizable. It is a goal to not only offer a wide range of functionality, but where possible make sure that this functionality is presented in a consistent manner that is easy to learn and use. It is written by users, for users. ' ” A Quote Directly from Rockbox.org/wiki/whyrockbox

Positives:

Rockbox is full of many things that add a plus to the player that they are on.

-Rockbox allows for you to make, install, or get other's themes and install them onto your player.

(Themes can be downloaded from: http://themes.rockbox.org/ )

Example of a Theme menu:

(This example is the theme titled: Wide cabbie
Submitter:
Jonas Häggqvist
Description:
This is a mod of Cabbie 2.0 by Marc Guay and Johannes Voggenthaler, with a number of changes. Mainly a far larger font, but also 168x84 album art, which I create by merging album art with an artist picture from last.fm. You could also use it to show front and back cover. It looks fine with square album art as well.)

-It allows the ability to play Gameboy and Gameboy Color ROMs ( a ROM is a digital copy of the game see this article for further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_image )

-Plugins such as a calculator, Movie Viewer (MPEG-1, MPEG-2), Text Viewer/editor, Rock Paint, Calender, Stopwatch, and many more. (For Complete list visit: http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/WhyRockbox)

-Once you have Rockbox installed on your MP3 Player you can still switch back and forth from Rockbox and the Original Firmware.

-File View

-Is Constantly being updated, and has great user support.

-Very Customizable


Negatives:


-It could void your warranty

-You need to know what you are doing before you install, or bad things could happen (Very low probability)


Overall Rockbox is the best alternative to your Original firmware if you are looking for a Customizable, great looking, easy to use, free, and feature packed open source firmware, Rockbox is for you. Check out Rockbox.org for even more info on rockbox and its many features. (A how to install Rockbox Tutorial will be posted very soon)