5 ms·

I just bought a cheap mp3 player. If I'd known about rockbox, I'd probably bought something on their HW list. As the mp3 player I got has user-hating firmwar

I just bought a cheap mp3 player. If I'd known about rockbox, I'd probably bought something on their HW list. As the mp3 player I got has user-hating firmware, I really wonder what's wrong with the HW vendors. Rockbox does better on less powered HW. If some cheapo chinese clone would just stick it on some half decent hardware, they'd kill their whole market segment. All of this points to companies not loving money as much as they love playing power games with end user control. For some reason, they will rather write their own software and lock down everything, than just use good free existing software.

raffraffraff 4y ago
I bought a Shanling Q1 years ago and hated the stock firmware so much I never used the device. A while back someone added support for it to Rockbox, and it's finally usable.
illwrks 4y ago
If you can live with iTunes, you really can't beat iPods. I've got a classic that's still rock solid and gets regular use at home and in the car. I did have to swap out the battery last year though.
fallat 4y ago
There are basically no mp3s still made supported by rockbox. I tried the same. What one did you buy? I bought the Agptek A02 and nhere are only breadcrumbs when it comes to finding it's official SDK.
- hyperman1 4y ago
  I got this: https://www.bol.com/be/nl/p/transnect-hifi-audio-mp3-speler-met-8gb-geheugen-micro-sd-kaart-en-hifi-oordoorpjes-fm-radio-multifuncitonaal-geheugen-uitbreidbaar/9300000043880637/ https://www.bol.com/be/nl/p/transnect-hifi-audio-mp3-speler-... I wanted something that allows my young son in the car to listen to the same 30 songs('kapitein winokio') over and over without driving my wife and me bonkers. As he gets sick when looking too long at a screen in a car, we wanted the minimum number of features outside playing music. Even so, a screen good enough to select the album was required, and it must be cheap enough that I don't care too much if it gets damaged or lost It claims to support video playback and ebook reading, but both features seem basically useless on the tiny screen, which is great for my use case. Unfortunately, it doesn't believe in alphabetic order when showing a list of files, uses left/right for scrolling up/down, uses 'menu' as OK button and mostly but not always ignores the OK button. Playlists seems too brain damaged to be of any use, so we ignore the mp3 menu and use the file browser as mp3 player. The usb micro connector dropped off the usb cable within 10 minutes of plugging it in, but I drown in replacements so who cares. The player itself and the headphone are actually sturdier than I expected. The firmware identifies itself as v1.1 but has no device or vendor information. So basically, same rock bottom quality as all other cheap players. We got the price and quality we expected and can't complain, but 15 minutes with the source code and turning the keyboard 90 degrees would solve oh so much tiny frictions. As I own it for a bit more than a day, there might be some hidden bonuses or traps I haven't seen. Don't ask me if this is a positive or negative review.

raffraffraff 4y ago

I bought a Shanling Q1 years ago and hated the stock firmware so much I never used the device. A while back someone added support for it to Rockbox, and it's finally usable.

illwrks 4y ago

If you can live with iTunes, you really can't beat iPods. I've got a classic that's still rock solid and gets regular use at home and in the car. I did have to swap out the battery last year though.

fallat 4y ago

There are basically no mp3s still made supported by rockbox. I tried the same. What one did you buy? I bought the Agptek A02 and nhere are only breadcrumbs when it comes to finding it's official SDK.

hyperman1 4y ago
I got this: https://www.bol.com/be/nl/p/transnect-hifi-audio-mp3-speler-met-8gb-geheugen-micro-sd-kaart-en-hifi-oordoorpjes-fm-radio-multifuncitonaal-geheugen-uitbreidbaar/9300000043880637/ https://www.bol.com/be/nl/p/transnect-hifi-audio-mp3-speler-... I wanted something that allows my young son in the car to listen to the same 30 songs('kapitein winokio') over and over without driving my wife and me bonkers. As he gets sick when looking too long at a screen in a car, we wanted the minimum number of features outside playing music. Even so, a screen good enough to select the album was required, and it must be cheap enough that I don't care too much if it gets damaged or lost It claims to support video playback and ebook reading, but both features seem basically useless on the tiny screen, which is great for my use case. Unfortunately, it doesn't believe in alphabetic order when showing a list of files, uses left/right for scrolling up/down, uses 'menu' as OK button and mostly but not always ignores the OK button. Playlists seems too brain damaged to be of any use, so we ignore the mp3 menu and use the file browser as mp3 player. The usb micro connector dropped off the usb cable within 10 minutes of plugging it in, but I drown in replacements so who cares. The player itself and the headphone are actually sturdier than I expected. The firmware identifies itself as v1.1 but has no device or vendor information. So basically, same rock bottom quality as all other cheap players. We got the price and quality we expected and can't complain, but 15 minutes with the source code and turning the keyboard 90 degrees would solve oh so much tiny frictions. As I own it for a bit more than a day, there might be some hidden bonuses or traps I haven't seen. Don't ask me if this is a positive or negative review.