April 23, 2006
Tinkering with Rockbox
I just installed Rockbox on my iPod. All I can say is WOW!
For those who don't know, Rockbox is an open source alternative firmware for music players. It originally started for the Archos line of players, but a few months ago, support for the iPod was added. It has many features that the default Apple firmware does not, such as gapless playback and support for additional media formats. More advanced users will love the ability to create custom interface themes, voice navigation alerts, cross-fading, Replay Gain support, and the parametric equalizer. Best of all, the firmware can exist alongside the original Apple firmware. To boot into the original firmware, you just hold down a key during boot up!
Anyway, I've had Rockbox on my 4th generation iPod for about a week now. The interface takes a little bit getting used to, but is nothing you can't learn with a little experimentation. Since most of my music collection is Musepack (because it is the best-sounding lossy codec), it has always been a pain to transfer files to my iPod because I had to transcode them to MP3. With Rockbox, I can just drag and drop to my iPod! And Replay Gain even works so when listening in shuffle mode, everything I listen to sounds the same volume! There are still a few issues with Rockbox and the iPod (mainly the battery level doesn't work), but the additional features make up for this, IMO.
So, if you have been seeking a little bit more out of your MP3 player, I highly recommend you check out Rockbox.
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