[Polpolion]

I've finally started the search for an mp3 player that is befitting for my headphones. The process has been long and dreary. Fortunately, I've narrowed it down to two different ones. The iriver H10 (the 20gb version) and the Sansa e270. The H10 is a butt load more expensive, or at least from what I can see, and has really ****ty firmware. To counteract the firmware, I'd figure I'd get rockbox, which seems cool. The Sansa e270 has IIRC only 6gb of storage, but that is perfectly acceptable for my current  music library. Any thoughts?

And about rockbox: Is it really as cool as the feature list on its website make it seem? Does it work well with either of those mp3 players?



Thanks!

[Nuke]

well ive been using rockbox on my ipod for almost a year now. some stuff like the ability to play doom makes up for it lacking in other areas. i dont have the option for embedded album art which the apple firmware used to have by default. you can get it to work, it requires all you art be converted to bmp and a certain resolution, and that they be named right and be in the proper folder. and it only works with special themes.  of course drive letter access makes up for it as well.

[Polpolion]

Ok, thanks .

[perihelion]

I've been using Rockbox on my iRiver H120 for several years now and have no complaints.  It was a major improvement of the original firmware in terms of boot-up speed and the ability to use Replay Gain.  As far as I know, there are no players out there at all that support Replay Gain out of the box, and that is a crying shame.  I cannot think of any other feature (other than codec support) that has greater potential to improve user listening experience.

Unfortunately, I would advise to stay away from the H10 series.  My future sister-in-law has (or at least had one of those and it crashed all the time.  I do not know how much of that was due to lousy firmware and how much was due to lousy hardware.  I couldn't get them to let me load Rockbox to make the comparison.  Sheesh.  People get so prickly when you start saying things like "will void the warranty..."   Cowards.   

[Fineus]

I've got a Sansa 280 and I have to say it's a great little device. It holds its charge, is easy to use and is very very small.

Highly recommended, if you can cope with the storage capacity

[colecampbell666]

My sister just got a 270, and it's pretty cool. The screen is big, it records, and it plays lots of stuff. The menus can be confusing , though.

[haloboy100]

Does rockbox support FLAC, MP3, OGG, and video formats such as Xvid?

Because i'm still trying to figure out if i should get an iPod with rockbox, or a Cowon A2/A3 instead. I'm not even going to listen to my FLAC music if it's converted to mp3.

[Nuke]

i know it supports mp3 and ogg, im not sure about flac but its possible. as for video im not sure. i did get an ipod nano to play video in mpeg i think. 5th gen ipods are supposidly the most stable ipods to run rockbox. i have one of those and it works better than the original firmware. you might be able to get a used 5th gen for hella cheap. you might have to buy a diy battery replacement kit, order it from china and you will save $40-$60 bucks.

[perihelion]

Yes, FLAC is supported.  I'm not as sure about the video formats.  Check out www.rockbox.org and look at the status of your specific port.  Most of the ports are still getting periodic tweaks, even the really mature ones like the iRiver H1XX port.