Page 1
The Rockbox Manual
for
Archos Ondio 128 FM
rockbox.org
October 20, 2008
Page 2
2
Rockbox
http://www.rockbox.org/
Open Source Jukebox Firmware
Rockbox and this manual is the collaborative effort of the Rockbox team and
its contributors. See the appendix for a complete list of contributors.
c
2003-2008 The Rockbox Team and its contributors,c 2004 Christi Alice
Scarborough,c 2003 Jos´e Maria Garcia-Valdecasas Bernal & Peter Schlenker.
Version r18824:18843M-3.0.1-081020. Built using pdfLATEX.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any
later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of
the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation
License”.
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Contents
1. Introduction 9
1.1. Welcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.2. Getting more help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.3. Naming conventions and marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2. Installation 11
2.1. Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2. Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3. Installing Rockbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.3.1. Automated Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.3.2. Manual Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.3.3. Enabling Speech Support (optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.4. Running Rockbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.5. Updating Rockbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.6. Uninstalling Rockbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.6.1. Automatic Uninstallation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.6.2. Manual Uninstallation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3. Quick Start 16
3.1. Basic Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.1.1. The player’s controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.1.2. Turning the player on and off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.1.3. Putting music on your player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.1.4. The first contact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.1.5. Basic controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.1.6. Basic concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.2. Customising Rockbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4. Browsing and playing 19
4.1. File Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.1.1. File Browser Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.1.2. Context Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.1.3. Virtual Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.2. Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.2.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.2.2. Initializing the Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
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4.2.3. The Database Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.2.4. Using the Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.3. While Playing Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.3.1. WPS Key Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.3.2. Peak Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.3.3. The WPS Context Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.4. Working with Playlists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.4.1. Playlist terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.4.2. Creating playlists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.4.3. Adding music to playlists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.4.4. Modifying playlists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.4.5. Saving playlists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.4.6. Loading saved playlists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.4.7. Helpful Hints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5. The Main Menu 34
5.1. Introducing the Main Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5.2. Navigating the Main Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5.3. Recent Bookmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5.4. Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5.5. Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5.6. Now Playing/Resume Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5.7. Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5.7.1. Sound Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.7.2. General Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.7.3. Manage Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.7.4. Theme Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.7.5. Recording Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.8. Recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.8.1. While Recording Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.9. FM Radio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.10. Playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
5.11. Plugins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.12. System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6. Sound Settings 40
6.1. Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
6.2. Bass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
6.3. Treble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
6.4. Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
6.5. Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
6.6. Stereo Width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
6.7. Loudness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
6.8. Auto Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
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6.9. Super Bass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
6.10. MDB – Micronas Dynamic Bass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
7. General Settings 44
7.1. Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
7.2. Playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
7.3. File View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
7.4. Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
7.5. Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
7.6. System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
7.6.1. Start Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
7.6.2. Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
7.6.3. Idle Poweroff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
7.6.4. Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
7.7. Bookmarking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
7.8. Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
7.9. Voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
8. Theme Settings 54
9. Recording Settings 55
9.1. Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
9.2. Frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
9.3. Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
9.4. Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
9.5. Independent Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
9.6. File Split Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
9.7. Prerecord Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
9.8. Clear Recording Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
9.9. Trigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
10.Plugins 59
10.1. Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
10.1.1. Blackjack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
10.1.2. BrickMania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
10.1.3. Bubbles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
10.1.4. Chessbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
10.1.5. Chopper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
10.1.6. Dice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
10.1.7. Flipit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
10.1.8. Jewels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
10.1.9. MazezaM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
10.1.10.Minesweeper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
10.1.11.Pegbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
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10.1.12.Pong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
10.1.13.Robotfindskitten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
10.1.14.Rockblox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
10.1.15.Rockblox1d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
10.1.16.Sliding Puzzle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
10.1.17.Snake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
10.1.18.Snake 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
10.1.19.Sokoban . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
10.1.20.Solitaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
10.1.21.Spacerocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
10.1.22.Star . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
10.1.23.Sudoku . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
10.1.24.Wormlet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
10.1.25.Xobox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
10.2. Demos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
10.2.1. Bounce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
10.2.2. Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
10.2.3. Cube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
10.2.4. Demystify . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
10.2.5. Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
10.2.6. Logo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
10.2.7. Mandelbrot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
10.2.8. Mosaique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
10.2.9. Oscilloscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
10.2.10.Plasma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
10.2.11.Snow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
10.2.12.Starfield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
10.2.13.VU meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
10.3. Viewers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
10.3.1. Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
10.3.2. Chip-8 Emulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
10.3.3. JPEG viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
10.3.4. Movie Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
10.3.5. Rockbox flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
10.3.6. Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
10.3.7. Sort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
10.3.8. Text Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
10.3.9. VBRfix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
10.3.10.Wavplay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
10.3.11.ZXBox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
10.4. Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
10.4.1. Battery Benchmark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
10.4.2. Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
10.4.3. Chess Clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
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10.4.4. Disk Tidy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
10.4.5. Firmware flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
10.4.6. Keybox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
10.4.7. Random Folder Advance Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
10.4.8. Split Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
10.4.9. Stats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
10.4.10.Stopwatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
10.4.11.Text Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
11.Advanced Topics 103
11.1. Customising the User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
11.1.1. Getting Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
11.1.2. Loading Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
11.1.3. Loading Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
11.2. Configuring the WPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
11.2.1. WPS – General Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
11.2.2. WPS – Build Your Own . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
11.3. Managing Rockbox Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
11.3.1. Introduction to .cfg Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
11.3.2. Specifications for .cfg Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
11.3.3. The MANAGE SET TINGS menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
11.4. Firmware Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
11.4.1. Using ROLO (Rockbox Loader) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
11.5. Rockbox in Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
11.5.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
11.5.2. Terminology and Basic Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
11.5.3. Initial Flashing Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
11.5.4. Updating the Rockbox Image in Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
11.5.5. Restoring the Original Flash ROM Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
A. File formats 112
A.1. Supported file formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
B. WPS Tags 114
B.1. Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
B.2. ID3 Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
B.3. Power Related Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
B.4. File Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
B.5. Playlist/Song Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
B.6. Runtime Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
B.7. Virtual LED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
B.8. Repeat Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
B.9. Playback Mode Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
B.10. Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
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CONTE NTS 8
B.11. Alignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
B.12. Conditional Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
B.13. Other Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
C. Config file options 121
D. User feedback 125
D.1. Bug reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
D.1.1. Rules for submitting new bug reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
D.2. Feature ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
D.2.1. Rules for submitting a new feature idea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
D.2.2. Features we will not implement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
E. Changelog 128
E.1. What is new since v2.5? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
E.1.1. New features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
E.1.2. Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
E.1.3. New codecs supported . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
F. Credits 131
G. Licenses 134
G.1. GNU Free Documentation License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
G.2. The GNU General Public License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
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CHAPT ER 1. INTRO DUC TION 9
1. Introduction
1.1. Welcome
This is the manual for Rockbox. Rockbox is an open source firmware replacement for
a growing number of digital audio players. Rockbox aims to be considerably more
functional and efficient than your device’s stock firmware while remaining easy to use
and customisable. Rockbox is written by users, for users. Not only is it free to use, it
is also released under the GNU General Public License (GPL), which means that it will
always remain free both to use and to change.
Rockbox has been in development since 2001, and receives new features, tweaks and
fixes each day to provide you with the best possible experience on your digital audio
player. A major goal of Rockbox is to be simple and easy to use, yet remain very customisable and configurable. We believe that you should never need to go through a
series of menus for an action you perform frequently. We also believe that you should
be able to configure almost anything about Rockbox you could want, pertaining to
functionality. Another top priority of Rockbox is audio playback quality – Rockbox,
for most models, includes a wider range of sound settings than the device’s original
firmware. A lot of work has been put into making Rockbox sound the best it can, and
improvements are constantly being made. All models have access to a large number
of plugins, including many games, applications, and graphical “demos”. You can load
different configurations quickly for different purposes (e.g. a large font for in your car,
different sound settings for at home). Rockbox features a very wide range of languages,
and all supported models also have the ability to talk to you – menus can be voiced and
filenames spelled out or spoken.
1.2. Getting more help
This manual is intended to be a comprehensive introduction to the Rockbox firmware.
There is, however, more help available. The Rockbox website at http://www.rockbox.org/
contains very extensive documentation and guides written by members of the Rockbox
community and this should be your first port of call when looking for further help.
If you cannot find the information you are searching for on the Rockbox website there
are a number of support channels you should have a look at. You can try the Rockbox
forums located at http://forums.rockbox.org/. Another option are the mailing lists which
can be found at http://www.rockbox.org/mail/. From that page you can subscribe to the
lists and browse the archives. For searching the list archives simply use the search field
that is located on the left side of the website. Also you can ask on IRC. The main channel
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CHAPT ER 1. INTRO DUC TION 10
for Rockbox is #rockbox on irc://irc.freenode.net. A bunch of helpful developers and
users are usually around. Just join and ask – if someone knows the answer you’ll usually get an answer pretty quickly. More information including IRC logs can be found
at http://www.rockbox.org/irc/. We also have a web client for joining the rockbox IRC
channel so there is no need for you to install additional software to your computer.
If you think you have found a bug please make sure it actually is a bug and is still
present in the most recent version of rockbox. You should try to confirm that by using
the above mentioned support channels first. After that you can submit that issue to our
tracker. Refer to section D (page 125) for details on how to use the tracker.
1.3. Naming conventions and marks
We have some conventions especially on naming that are intended to be consistent
throughout this manual.
Manufacturer and product names are formatted in accordance with the standard
rules of English grammar, e.g. “Archos playback is currently unsupported”. Manufacturer and model names are proper nouns, and thus are written beginning with a
capital letter.
This manual has some parts that are marked with icons on the margin to help you
finding important parts or parts you could skip. The following icons are used:
Note: This indicates a note. A note starts always with the text “Note”. For easier finding
b
of notes we have put this an icon in the margin like here. Notes are used to mark information that could help you or indicate a possible “weirdness” in rockbox that would
be explained.
Warning: This is a warning. In contrast to notes mentioned above, a warning should be
!
taken more seriously. While ignoring notes will not cause any serious damage ignoring
warnings could cause serious damage. If you are new to rockbox you should really read
the warnings before doing anything that is warned about.
This icon marks a section that is intended especially for the blind and visually im-
¸
paired. As they cannot read the manual in the same way sighted people do we have
added some additional descriptions. If you are not blind or visually impaired you most
likely can completely skip these blocks. To make this easier, there is an icon shown in
the margin on the right.
Links to the wiki are abbreviated by the name of the wiki page. Those names are still
linked so you can simply follow them like any other link in this manual. If you want
to access a wiki page manually go to Z
http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/ and type the
page name in the “Go” box at the top of the page. Links to wiki pages are also indicated
by the symbol Z in front of the page name.
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CHAPT ER 2. INSTALLATION 11
2. Installation
2.1. Overview
There are two ways of installing Rockbox: automated and manual. While the manual
way is older, more tested and proven to work correctly, the automated installation is
based on a nice graphical application that does almost everything for you. It is still
important that you have an overview of the installation process to be able to select the
correct installation options.
Rockbox itself comes as a single package. There is no need to install additional software for running Rockbox.
Apart from the required parts there are some addons you might be interested in installing.
Fonts. Rockbox can load custom fonts. The fonts are distributed as a separate package
and thus need to be installed separately. They are not required to run Rockbox
itself but a lot of themes require the fonts package to be installed.
Themes. The view of Rockbox can be customized by themes. Depending on your taste
you might want to install additional themes to change the look of Rockbox.
2.2. Prerequisites
Before installing Rockbox you should make sure you meet the prerequisites. You may
need some additional tools for installation. In most cases these will already be available
on your computer, but if not, installing some additional software might be necessary.
USB connection. To transfer Rockbox to your player you need to connect it to your
computer. For manual installation/uninstallation, or should autodetection fail
during automatic installation, you need to know where to access the player. On
Windows this means you need to figure out the drive letter associated with the
player. On Linux you need to know the mount point of your player.
For manual installation and customization additional software is required.
ZIP utility. Rockbox is distributed as a compressed archive using the .zip format.
Your computer will normally already have a means of handling such archive
files. Windows XP has built-in support for .zip files and presents them to you
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CHAPT ER 2. INSTALLATION 12
as directories unless you have installed a third party program that handles compressed files. For other operating systems this may vary. If the .zip file format is not recognised on your computer you can find a program to handle them
at http://www.info-zip.org/ or http://sevenzip.sf.net/, both of which can be down-
loaded and used free of charge.
Text editor. As you will see in the following chapters, Rockbox is highly configurable.
In addition to saving configurations, Rockbox also allows you to create customised
configuration files. If you would like to edit custom configuration files on your
computer, you will need a text editor like Windows’ “Wordpad”.
2.3. Installing Rockbox
2.3.1. Automated Installation
To automatically install Rockbox, download the official installer and housekeeping tool
ROCKB OX UTILITY. It allows you to:
• Automatically install all needed components for using Rockbox (“Small Installa-
tion”)
• Automatically install all suggested components (“Full Installation”)
• Selectively install optional components
• Install additional themes
• Install voice files and generate talk clips
• Uninstall all components you installed using Rockbox Utility
Prebuilt binaries for Windows, Linux and MacOS X are available at the ZRockboxUtility
wiki page.
Warning: When first starting ROCKB OX UTI LIT Y run “Autodetect”, found in the con-
!
figuration dialog (File → Configure). Autodetection can detect most player types. If
autodetection fails or is unable to detect the mountpoint, make sure to enter the correct
values. The mountpoint indicates the location of the player in your filesystem. On Windows, this is the drive letter the player gets assigned, on other systems this is a path in
the filesystem.
Note: Rockbox Utility currently lacks some guiding messages. Please have a look at the
b
manual installation instructions if you are stuck during installation.
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CHAPT ER 2. INSTALLATION 13
2.3.2. Manual Installation
Choosing a Rockbox version
There are three different types of firmware binaries available from the Rockbox website:
Release version, current build and daily build. You need to decide which one you want
to install and get the appropriate version for your player.
Release. The release version is the latest stable release, free of known critical bugs. The
current stable release of Rockbox, version 3.0, is available at http://www.rockbox.
org/download/.
Current Build. The current build is built at each source code change to the Rockbox
SVN repository and represents the current state of Rockbox development. This
means that the build could contain bugs but most of the time is safe to use. You
can download the current build from http://build.rockbox.org/.
Archived Build. In addition to the release version and the current build, there is also
an archive of daily builds available for download. These are built once a day from
the latest source code in the SVN repository. You can download archived builds
from http://www.rockbox.org/daily.shtml.
Warning: Because current builds and daily builds are development versions which
!
change frequently, they may behave differently than described in this manual, or they
may introduce new (and maybe annoying) bugs. If you do not want to get undefined
behaviour from your player, you should stick to the current stable release if there is
one for your player. If you want to help with project development, you can try development builds and help by reporting bugs. Just be aware that these are development
builds that are highly functional but not perfect!
Installing the firmware
1. Download your chosen version of Rockbox from the links in the previous section.
2. Connect your player to the computer via USB as described in the manual that
came with your player.
3. Take the .zip file that you downloaded and use the “Extract all” command of
your unzip program to extract the files onto your player.
Note: The entire contents of the .zip file should be extracted directly to the root
b
of your player’s drive. Do not try to create a separate directory on your player
for the Rockbox files! The .zip file already contains the internal structure that
Rockbox needs.
Note: If the contents of the .zip file are extracted correctly, you will have a file called
b
ajbrec.ajz in the main directory of your player’s drive, and also a directory called
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CHAPT ER 2. INSTALLATION 14
.rockbox, which contains a number of other directories and system files needed by
Rockbox. If you receive a “-1” error when you start Rockbox, you have not extracted
the contents of the .zip file to the proper location.
Installing the fonts package
Rockbox has a fonts package that is available at http://www.rockbox.org/daily.shtml or
from the extras link in the menu on the Rockbox website. While the current builds and
daily builds change frequently, the fonts package rarely changes and is therefore not
included in these builds. When installing Rockbox for the first time, you should install
the fonts package. The release version, on the other hand, does not change, so fonts are
included with it.
1. Download the fonts package from the link above.
2. Take the file that you downloaded above, and use the “Extract all” command of
your unzip program to extract the files in the .zip file onto your player. As
with the firmware installation, the entire contents of the fonts .zip should be
extracted directly to the root of your player’s drive. Do not try to create a separate
directory on your player for the fonts! The .zip already contains the correct
internal structure.
2.3.3. Enabling Speech Support (optional)
If you wish to use speech support you will also need a voice file, English ones are
available from http://www.rockbox.org/daily.shtml. Download the “voice” package for
your player and unzip it directly to the root of your player. You should now find an
english.voice in the /.rockbox/langs directory on your player. Voice menus
are enabled by default and will come into effect after a reboot. See section 7.9 (page 52)
for details on voice settings.
2.4. Running Rockbox
Remove your player from the computer ’s USB port. Unplug any connected power
supply and turn the unit off. When you next turn the unit on, Rockbox should load.
When you see the Rockbox splash screen, Rockbox is loaded and ready for use.
2.5. Updating Rockbox
Updating Rockbox is easy even if you do not use the Rockbox Utility. Download a
Rockbox build. (The latest release of the Rockbox software will always be available
from http://www.rockbox.org/download/). Unzip the build to the root directory of your
player like you did in the installation stage. If your unzip program asks you whether
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CHAPT ER 2. INSTALLATION 15
to overwrite files, choose the “Yes to all” option. The new build will be installed over
your current build.
Note: If you use Rockbox Utility be aware that it cannot detect manually installed com-
b
ponents.
2.6. Uninstalling Rockbox
2.6.1. Automatic Uninstallation
You can uninstall Rockbox automatically by using Rockbox Utility. If you installed
Rockbox manually you can still use Rockbox Utility for uninstallation but will not be
able to do this selectively.
2.6.2. Manual Uninstallation
If you would like to go back to using the original Archos software, connect the player
to your computer, and delete the ajbrec.ajz file.
If you wish to clean up your disk, you may also wish to delete the .rockbox directory and its contents. Turn the Archos off. Turn the player back on and the original
Archos software will load.
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CHAPT ER 3. QUICK START 16
3. Quick Start
3.1. Basic Overview
3.1.1. The player’s controls
Throughout this manual, the buttons on the player are labelled according to the picture above. Whenever a button name is prefixed by “Long”, a long press of approximately one second should be performed on that button. The buttons are described in
detail in the following paragraph.
Additional information for blind users is available on the Rockbox website at Z
BlindFAQ.
¸
The main characteristic of the Ondio case is the dent on its lower right side which is
the MMC slot. Holding the player with this slot in the described position you’ll find
the following:
On the curved top it has the headphone jack to the left, the On/Off button is in the
middle and the line in jack to the right. Apart from the already mentioned MMC slot
you will find the USB connector on the player’s right side. Placed on the upper side
of the device right below the flat display there is the main button pad of the player. A
strong deepening marks the center of it and helps to operate the directional keys from
there. Left and Right form some sort of a strip and divide Up and Down. The raised
button positioned in the lower left of this round crosspad is labelled Mode.
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CHAPT ER 3. QUICK START 17
3.1.2. Turning the player on and off
To turn on and off your Rockbox enabled player use the following keys:
Key Action
On/Off Start Rockbox
Long On/Off Shutdown Rockbox
On shutdown, Rockbox automatically saves its settings.
In the unlikely event of a software failure, hardware poweroff or reset can be performed by holding down On/Off until the player shuts off or reboots.
3.1.3. Putting music on your player
With the player connected to the computer as an MSC/UMS device (like a USB Drive),
music files can be put on the player via any standard file transfer method that you
would use to copy files between drives (e.g. Drag ’n’ Drop). The default directory
structure that is assumed by some parts of Rockbox (album art searching, WPS missingtag fallback) is: /ArtistName/AlbumName/*.ext. See section ?? (page ??) for a list of
supported audio formats.
3.1.4. The first contact
After you have first started the player you’ll be presented by the MAIN ME NU. From
this menu you can reach every function of Rockbox, for more information (see section 5.1 (page 34)). To browse the files on you player select FILES (see section 4.1
(page 19)), and to browse in a view that is based on the meta-data
1
of your audio files,
select DATABA SE (see section
4.2 (page 22)).
3.1.5. Basic controls
When browsing files and moving through menus you usually get a list view presented.
The navigation in these lists are usually the same and should be pretty intuitive. In the
tree view use Down and Up to move around the selection. Use Right to select an item.
When browsing the file system selecting an audio file plays it. The view switches to the
“While playing screen”, usually abbreviated as “WPS” (see section
4.3 (page 25). The
dynamic playlist gets replaced with the contents of the current directory. This way you
can easily treat directories as playlists. The created dynamic playlist can be extended
or modified while playing. This is also known as “on-the-fly playlist”. To go back to
the FI LE BROW SER stop the playback with the Long On/Off button or return to the file
browser while keeping playback running using Mode. In list views you can go back
one step with Left.
1
ID3 Tags, Vorbis comments, etc.
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CHAPT ER 3. QUICK START 18
3.1.6. Basic concepts
Playlists
Rockbox is playlist oriented. This means that every time you play an audio file, a socalled “dynamic playlist” is generated, unless you play a saved playlist. You can modify the dynamic playlist while playing and also save it to a file. If you do not want to
use playlists you can simply play your files directory based. Playlists are covered in
detail in section 4.4 (page 29).
Menu
From the menu you can customise Rockbox. Rockbox itself is very customisable. Also
there are some special menus for quick access to frequently used functions.
Context Menu
Some views, especially the file browser and the WPS have a context menu. From the
file browser this can be accessed with Long Right. The contents of the context menu
vary, depending on the situation it gets called. The context menu itself presents you
with some operations you can perform with the currently highlighted file. In the file
browser this is the file (or directory) that is highlighted by the cursor. From the WPS this
is the currently playing file. Also there are some actions that do not apply to the current
file but refer to the screen from which the context menu gets called. One example is the
playback menu, which can be called using the context menu from within the WPS.
3.2. Customising Rockbox
Rockbox’ User Interface can be customised using “Themes”. Themes usually only affect
the visual appearance, but an advanced user can create a theme that also changes various other settings like file view, LCD settings and all other settings that can be modified
using .cfg files. This topic is discussed in more detail in section 11.3 (page 107). The
Rockbox distribution comes with some themes that should look nice on your player.
Note: Some of the themes shipped with Rockbox need additional fonts from the fonts
b
package, so make sure you installed them. Also, if you downloaded additional themes
from the Internet make sure you have the needed fonts installed as otherwise the theme
may get displayed garbled.
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CHAPT ER 4. BROWS ING AN D P LAYING 19
4. Browsing and playing
4.1. File Browser
Figure 4.1.: The file browser
Rockbox lets you browse your music in either of two ways. The FIL E BROWSE R lets
you navigate through the files and directories on your player, entering directories and
executing the default action on each file. To help differentiate files, each file format is
displayed with an icon.
The DATAB ASE BR OWS ER, on the other hand, allows you to navigate through the
music on your player using categories like album, artist, genre, etc.
You can select whether to browse using the FI LE BROWSER or the DATAB ASE BRO WSE R
by selecting either FILES or DATABA SE in the MAIN MEN U. If you choose the FILE
BROWS ER, the SHOW FI LES setting lets you select what types of files you wish to view.
See section
7.3 (page 47) for more information on the SH OW FILE S setting.
Note: The FILE BROWSER allows you to manipulate your files in ways that are not
b
available within the D ATABAS E BRO WSE R. Read more about DATABASE in section 4.2
(page 22). The remainder of this section deals with the FI LE BROW SER.
Unlike the Archos Firmware, Rockbox provides multivolume support for the MultiMediaCard, this means the player can access both data volumes (internal memory and
the MMC), thus being able to for instance, build playlists with files from both volumes.
In the FILE BROWSER a new directory will appear as soon as the device has read the
content after inserting the card. This new directory’s name is generated as <MMC1>,
and will behave exactly as any other directory on the player.
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4.1.1. File Browser Controls
Key Action
Up/Down Go to previous/next item in list. If you
are on the first/last entry, the cursor will
wrap to the last/first entry.
Left Go to the parent directory.
Right Executes the default action on the se-
lected file or enters a directory.
Mode If there is an audio file playing, returns
to the WHILE PLAYIN G SCR E EN (WPS)
without stopping playback.
On/Off Stops audio playback.
Long Right Enter the CONTEXT ME NU
Long Mode Enter the MAIN MENU
4.1.2. Context Menu
Figure 4.2.: The Context Menu
The CONT EXT MENU allows you to perform certain operations on files or directories.
To access the CONTEXT MEN U, position the selector over a file or directory and access
the context menu with Long Right.
Note: The CO NTE XT MEN U is a context sensitive menu. If the CONTEXT ME NU is in-
b
voked on a file, it will display options available for files. If the CON TEX T MENU is
invoked on a directory, it will display options for directories.
The CONTE XT ME N U contains the following options (unless otherwise noted, each
option pertains both to files and directories):
Playlist. Enters the PLAYL I ST SUBM ENU (see section 4.4.3 (page 31)).
Playlist Catalog. Enters the PLAYLIS T CATALO G SU BME NU (see section 4.4.2 (page 30)).
Rename. This function lets the user modify the name of a file or directory.
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Cut. Copies the name of the currently selected file or directory to the clipboard and
marks it to be ‘cut’.
Copy. Copies the name of the currently selected file or directory to the clipboard and
marks it to be ‘copied’.
Paste. Only visible if a file or directory name is on the clipboard. When selected it will
move or copy the clipboard to the current directory.
Delete. Deletes the currently selected file. This option applies only to files, and not to
directories. Rockbox will ask for confirmation before deleting a file. Press Right
to confirm deletion or any other key to cancel.
Delete Directory. Deletes the currently selected directory and all of the files and subdi-
rectories it may contain. Deleted directories cannot be recovered. Use this feature
with caution!
Open with. Runs a viewer plugin on the file. Normally, when a file is selected in Rock-
box, Rockbox automatically detects the file type and runs the appropriate plugin.
The OPE N WI TH function can be used to override the default action and select a
viewer by hand. For example, this function can be used to view a text file even if
the file has a non-standard extension (i.e., the file has an extension of something
other than .txt). See section 10.3 (page 84) for more details on viewers.
Create Directory. Create a new directory in the current directory on the disk.
Properties. Shows properties such as size and the time and date of the last modifica-
tion for the selected file. If used on a directory, the number of files and subdirectories will be shown, as well as the total size.
Set As Recording Directory. Save recordings in the selected directory.
Add to Shortcuts. Adds a link to the selected item in the shortcuts.link file. If
the file does not already exist it will be created in the root directory. Note that if
you create a shortcut to a file, Rockbox will not open it upon selecting, but simply
bring you to it’s location in the FILE BR OW S ER.
4.1.3. Virtual Keyboard
Figure 4.3.: The virtual keyboard
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This is the virtual keyboard that is used when entering text in Rockbox, for example
when renaming a file or creating a new directory. The virtual keyboard can be easily
changed by making a text file with the required layout. More information on how to
achieve this can be found on the Rockbox website at ZLoadableKeyboardLayouts.
Key Action
Up/Down/Left/RightMove about the virtual keyboard (moves
the solid cursor). If you move out of the
picker area with Up/Down, you get to
the line edit mode.
Mode Selects the letter underneath the cursor.
Long Mode Accepts the change and returns to the
File Browser.
On/Off Quit the virtual keyboard without saving
the changes.
Table 4.1.: Picker area
Key Action
Left/Right Move left and right
Mode Deletes the letter to the left of the cursor
Long Mode Accepts the deletion
Up/Down Returns to the picker area
Table 4.2.: Line edit mode
4.2. Database
4.2.1. Introduction
This chapter describes the Rockbox music database system. Using the information contained in the tags (ID3v1, ID3v2) in your audio files, Rockbox builds and maintains a
database of the music files on your player and allows you to browse them by Artist,
Album, Genre, Song Name, etc. The criteria the database uses to sort the songs can be
completely customised. More information on how to achieve this can be found on the
Rockbox website at ZDataBase.
4.2.2. Initializing the Database
The first time you use the database, Rockbox will scan your disk for audio files. This can
take quite a while depending on the number of files on your player. This scan happens
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in the background, so you can choose to return to the Main Menu and continue to listen
to music. If you shut down your player, the scan will continue next time you turn it on.
After the scan is finished you may be prompted to restart your player before you can
use the database.
Ignoring Directories During Database Initialization
You may have directories on your player whose contents should not be added to the
database. Placing a file named database.ignore in a directory will exclude the files
in that directory and all its subdirectories from scanning their tags and adding them to
the database. This will speed up the database initialization.
If a subdirectory of an ’ignored’ directory should still be scanned, place a file named
database.unignore in it. The files in that directory and its subdirectories will be
scanned and added to the database.
4.2.3. The Database Menu
Auto Update If AUTO UPD ATE is set to ON, each time the player boots, the database
will automatically be updated. AUTO UPDATE does not detect deleted files. To
remove deleted files from the database you need to run UP DATE NOW.
Initialize Now You can force Rockbox to rescan your disk for tagged files by using the
INITI ALI ZE NOW function in the DATABAS E MENU.
Warning: IN I TIALIZE NOW removes all database files (removing runtimedb data
!
also) and rebuilds the database from scratch.
Update Now UPDATE NO W causes the database to detect new and deleted files Unlike
INITI ALI ZE NOW, the UPD ATE NOW function does not remove runtime database
information.
Gather Runtime Data When enabled, rockbox will record how often and how long a
track is being played, when it was last played and its rating. This information
can be displayed in the WPS and is used in the database browser to, for example,
show the most played, unplayed and most recently played tracks.
Export Modifications This allows for the runtime data to be exported to the file
/.rockbox/database changelog.txt, which backs up the runtime data in
ASCII format. This is needed when database structures change, because new code
cannot read old database code. But, all modifications exported to ASCII format
should be readable by all database versions.
Import Modifications. Allows the /.rockbox/database changelog.txt backup
to be conveniently loaded into the database. If AUTO UPDATE is enabled this is
performed automatically when the database is initialized.
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4.2.4. Using the Database
Once the database has been initialized, you can browse your music by Artist, Album,
Genre, Song Name, etc. To use the database, go to the MAIN MEN U and select DATABASE.
Note: You may need to increase the value of the MAX FILE S IN DIR BRO WSER setting
b
(SET TIN GS → GENERAL SETT INGS → SYS TEM → LIM ITS) in order to view long lists of
tracks in the ID3 database browser.
There is no option to turn off database completely. If you do not want to use it just
do not do the initial build of the database and do not load it to RAM.
Tag Type Origin
filename string system
album string id tag
albumartist string id tag
artist string id tag
comment string id tag
composer string id tag
genre string id tag
grouping string id tag
title string id tag
bitrate numeric id tag
discnum numeric id tag
year numeric id tag
tracknum numeric id tag/filename
autoscore numeric runtime db
lastplayed numeric runtime db
playcount numeric runtime db
Pm (play time min)
numeric runtime db
Ps (play time - sec) numeric runtime db
rating numeric runtime db
commitid numeric system
entryage numeric system
length numeric system
Lm (track len min)
numeric system
Ls (track len - sec) numeric system
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4.3. While Playing Screen
The While Playing Screen (WPS) displays various pieces of information about the currently playing audio file. The appearance of the WPS can be configured using WPS
configuration files. The items shown depend on your configuration – all item can be
turned on or off independently. Refer to section B (page 114) for details on how to
change the display of the WPS.
• Status bar: The Status bar shows Battery level, USB power mode, key lock status,
memory access indicator. In contrast to all other items, the status bar is always at
the top of the screen.
• (Scrolling) path and filename of the current song.
• The ID3 track name.
• The ID3 album name.
• The ID3 artist name.
• Bit rate. VBR files display average bitrate and “(avg)”
• Elapsed and total time.
• A slidebar progress meter representing where in the song you are.
• Peak meter.
Note:
b
• The number of lines shown depends on the size of the font used.
• The peak meter is only visible if you turn off the status bar or if using a small font
that gives 8 or more display lines.
See section
11.2 (page 103) for details of customising your WPS (While Playing Screen).
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4.3.1. WPS Key Controls
Key Action
Up / Down Volume up/down.
Left Go to beginning of track, or if pressed
while in the first seconds of a track, go
to previous track.
Long Left Rewind in track.
Right Go to next track.
Long Right Fast forward in track.
On/Off Toggle play/pause.
Long On/Off Stop playback.
Mode Return to the FILE BROW SER.
Long Mode Enter WPS CONT EXT MENU.
Long Mode twice Enter M A IN ME NU via the WPS CON -
TEXT MEN U.
Long
Mode+Down
Key lock on/off.
Short Right +
Long Right
Skip to the next directory.
Short Left + Long
Left
Skip to the previous directory.
4.3.2. Peak Meter
The peak meter can be displayed on the While Playing Screen and consists of several
indicators. For a picture of the peak meter, please see the While Recording Screen in
section 5.8.1 (page 36).
The bar: This is the wide horizontal bar. It represents the current volume value.
The peak indicator: This is a little vertical line at the right end of the bar. It indicates
the peak volume value that occurred recently.
The clip indicator: This is a little black block that is displayed at the very right of
the scale when an overflow occurs. It usually does not show up during normal
playback unless you play an audio file that is distorted heavily. If you encounter
clipping while recording, your recording will sound distorted. You should lower
the gain.
Note: Note that the clip detection is not very precise. Clipping might occur with-
b
out being indicated.
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The scale: Between the indicators of the right and left channel there are little dots.
These dots represent important volume values. In linear mode each dot is a 10%
mark. In dbfs mode the dots represent the following values (from right to left):
0db, -3db, -6db, -9db, -12db, -18db, -24db, -30db, -40db, -50db, -60db.
4.3.3. The WPS Context Menu
Like the context menu for the FILE BRO WSE R, the WPS CONT EXT MENU allows you
quick access to some often used functions:
Playlist
The PLAYLI ST submenu allows you to view, save, search and reshuffle the current
playlist. To change settings for the PLAYLIS T VIEWER press Long Mode while viewing the playlist to bring up the PLAYLIST VIEW ER MENU.
Playlist Viewer Menu
Show Icons. This toggles display of the icon for the currently selected playlist entry
and the icon for moving a playlist entry
Show Indicies. This toggles display of the line numbering for the playlist
Track Display. This toggles between filename only and full path for playlist entries
Save Current Playlist. Allows the current playlist to be saved as a .m3u playlist file
Playlist catalog
View catalog. This lists all playlists that are part of the Playlist catalog. You can load
a new playlist directly from this list.
Add to playlist. Adds the currently playing file to a playlist. Select the playlist you
want the file to be added to and it will get appended to that playlist.
Add to new playlist. Similar to the previous entry this will add the currently playing
track to a playlist. You need to enter a name for the new playlist first.
Sound Settings
This is a shortcut to the SOU ND SETT INGS MENU, where you can configure volume,
bass, treble, and other settings affecting the sound of your music. See section 6 (page 40)
for more information.
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Playback Settings
This is a shortcut to the PLAYBACK SET TIN GS MENU, where you can configure shuffle, repeat, party mode, study mode and other settings affecting the playback of your
music.
Rating
The menu entry is only shown if GATHER RUNTI ME INFO RMATIO N is enabled. It allows
the asignment of a personal rating value (0 – 10) to a track which can be displayed in
the WPS and used in the Database browser. Press Right to increment the value. The
value wraps at 10.
Bookmarks
This allows you to create a bookmark in the currently-playing track.
Show Track Info
Figure 4.4.: The track info viewer
This screen is accessible from the WPS screen, and provides a detailed view of all the
identity information about the current track. This info is known as meta data and is
stored in audio file formats to keep information on artist, album etc. To access this
screen, press Long Mode to access the WPS CONTEXT MEN U and select SHOW TRAC K
INFO. Use Left and Right to move through the information.
Open With...
This OPEN WITH function is the same as the OPEN WITH function in the file browser’s
CONTE XT MENU.
Delete
Delete the currently playing file.
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Pitch
The PITCH SCREEN allows you to change the pitch and (at the same time) the playback
speed of your player. The pitch value can be adjusted between 50% and 200%. 50%
means half the normal playback speed and the pitch that is an octave lower than the
normal pitch. 200% means double playback speed and the pitch that is an octave higher
than the normal pitch. It is not possible to change the pitch without changing the playback speed and vice versa. Changing the pitch can be done in two modes: procentual
and semitone. Initially (after the player is switched on), procentual mode is active.
Key Action
Long Mode Toggle pitch changing mode
Up / Down Increase / Decrease pitch by 0.1% (in pro-
centual mode) or a semitone (in semitone
mode)
Long Up / Long
Down
Increase / Decrease pitch by 1% (in pro-
centual mode) or a semitone (in semitone
mode)
Right / Left Temporarily increase / decrease pitch by
2.0%
Mode Reset pitch to 100%
On/Off Leave the Pitch Screen
Warning: Changing the pitch can cause audible ’Artifacts’ or ’Dropouts’.
!
4.4. Working with Playlists
4.4.1. Playlist terminology
Some common terms that are used in Rockbox when referring to playlists:
Directory. A playlist! One of the keys to getting the most out of Rockbox is under-
standing that Rockbox always considers the song that it is playing to be part of a
playlist, and in some situations, Rockbox will create a playlist automatically. For
example, if you are playing the contents of a directory, Rockbox will automatically
create a playlist containing all songs in it. This means that just about anything that
is described in this chapter with respect to playlists also applies to directories.
Dynamic playlist. A dynamic playlist is a playlist that is created “On the fly.” Any
time you insert or queue tracks using the PLAYLIS T S UBM ENU (see section 4.4.3
(page 31)), you are creating (or adding to) a dynamic playlist.
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Insert. In Rockbox, to INSERT an item into a playlist means putting an item into a
playlist and leaving it there, even after it is played. As you will see later in this
chapter, Rockbox can INSERT into a playlist in several places.
Queue. In Rockbox, to QUE UE a song means to put the song into a playlist and then
to remove the song from the playlist once it has been played. The only difference
between INSE RT and QUE UE is that the QUEUE option removes the song from the
playlist once it has been played, and the INS ERT option does not.
4.4.2. Creating playlists
Rockbox can create playlists in four different ways.
By selecting (“playing”) a song from the File Browser
Whenever a song is selected from the FIL E BROW SER with Right, Rockbox will automatically create a playlist containing all of the songs in that directory and start playback
with the selected song.
Note: If you already have created a dynamic playlist, playing a new song will erase the
b
current dynamic playlist and create a new one. If you want to add a song to the current
playlist rather than erasing the current playlist, see the section below on how to add
music to a playlist.
By using Insert and Queue functions
If playback is stopped, the INSE RT and QUEU E functions can be used as described in
4.4.3 to create a new playlist instead of adding to an existing one. This will erase any
dynamic playlist.
By using the Playlist catalog
The PL AYLIST CATALOG makes it possible to modify and create playlists that are not
currently playing. To do this select PLAYLI ST C ATALOG in the CONTEXT MENU. There
you will have two choices, ADD TO PLAYL IST adds the selected track or directory to
an existing playlist and ADD TO A NEW PLAYLI ST creates a new playlist containing the
selected track or directory.
Note: All playlists in the PLAYLIST C ATAL OG are stored by default in the /Playlists
b
directory in the root of your player’s disk and playlists stored in other locations are
not included in the catalog. It is however possible to move existing playlists there (see
section 4.1.2 (page 20)).
By using the Main Menu
To create a playlist containing all music on your player, you can use the CREATE PLAYLIST
command in the PLAYLIS T OP TIO NS menu found in the MAIN MEN U. The created
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playlist will be named root.m3u and saved in the root of your player’s disk.
4.4.3. Adding music to playlists
Adding music to a dynamic playlist
Figure 4.5.: The Playlist Submenu
The PL AYLIST SUBMENU is a submenu in the CONTEXT MENU (see section 4.1.2 (page 20)),
it allows you to put tracks into a “dynamic playlist”. If there is no music currently playing, Rockbox will create a new dynamic playlist and put the selected track(s) into it. If
there is music currently playing, Rockbox will put the selected track(s) into the current playlist. The place in which the newly selected tracks are added to the playlist is
determined by the following options:
Insert. Add track(s) immediately after any tracks added via the most recent I N SERT
operation. If no tracks have yet been added via an INSERT, new tracks will be
added immediately after the current playing track. If playback is stopped a new
dynamic playlist will get created with the selected tracks.
Insert Next. Add track(s) immediately after current playing track, no matter what else
has been inserted.
Insert Last. Add track(s) to end of playlist.
Insert Shuffled. Add track(s) to the playlist in a random order.
Queue. Queue is the same as Insert except queued tracks are deleted immediately from
the playlist after they have been played. Also, queued tracks are not saved to the
playlist file (see section 5.10 (page 38)).
Queue Next. Queue track(s) immediately after current playing track.
Queue Last. Queue track(s) at end of playlist.
Queue Shuffled. Queue track(s) in a random order.
Play Next. Replaces all but the current playing track with track(s). Current playing
track is queued.
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The PLAYL IST SUBM ENU can be used to add either single tracks or entire directories
to a playlist. If the PLAYLI ST SUBMENU is invoked on a single track, it will put only that
track into the playlist. On the other hand, if the PLAYL IST SUB MEN U is invoked on a
directory, Rockbox adds all of the tracks in that directory to the playlist.
Note: You can control whether or not Rockbox includes the contents of subdirectories
b
when adding an entire directory to a playlists. Set the SETTI NGS → GENE RAL SETTING S
→ PLAYL IST → RECU RSI VELY INS ERT DIR EC TORI ES setting to YES if you would like
Rockbox to include tracks in subdirectories as well as tracks in the currently-selected
directory.
Dynamic playlists are saved so resume will restore them exactly as they were before
shutdown.
Note: To view, save or reshuffle the current dynamic playlist use the PLAYLIST sub
b
menu in the WPS context menu or in the MA IN MENU.
4.4.4. Modifying playlists
Reshuffling
Reshuffeling the current playlist is easily done from the PLAYLIS T sub menu in the WPS,
just select RESHUFFLE.
Moving and removing tracks
To move or remove a track from the current playlist enter the PLAYLI ST VIE WER by
selecting VIEW CU RRENT PL AYLIST in the PLAYL IST submenu in the WPS context menu
or the MA IN M E NU. Once in the PLAYL IST VIEWE R open the context menu on the track
you want to move or remove. If you want to move the track, select MOVE in the context
menu and then move the blinking cursor to the place where you want the track to be
moved and confirm with Right. To remove a track, simply select REMOVE in the context
menu.
4.4.5. Saving playlists
To save the current playlist either enter the PLAYL IST submenu in the WPS CONTEXT
MENU (see section 4.3.3 (page 27)) and select SAVE CURRENT PLAYLIST or enter the
PLAYLI S T OPTIO NS menu in the MAI N M E NU and select SAVE CURR ENT PLAYL IST.
Either method will bring you to the VIRTUAL KE YBOARD (see section 4.1.3 (page 21)),
enter a filename for your playlist and accept it and you are done.
4.4.6. Loading saved playlists
Through the FI LE BROWS ER
Playlist files, like regular music tracks, can be selected through the FIL E BR OWS ER.
When loading a playlist from disk it will replace the current dynamic playlist.
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Through the PL AYLIST CATALO G
The PLAYLIS T CATAL OG offers a shortcut to all playlists in your player’s specified
playlist directory. It can be used like the FILE BR OWSER.
4.4.7. Helpful Hints
Including subdirectories in playlists
You can control whether or not Rockbox includes the contents of subdirectories when
adding an entire directory to a playlists. Set the MAIN MENU → SETTINGS → PLAYLIS T
→ RECURS IVE LY INSERT DIRECTORIES setting to YES if you would like to include tracks
in subdirectories as well as tracks in the currently selected directory.
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5. The Main Menu
5.1. Introducing the Main Menu
Figure 5.1.: The main menu
The MAI N MEN U is the screen from which all of the Rockbox functions can be accessed.
This is the first screen you will see when starting Rockbox. To return to the MAIN
MENU, hold the Mode button.
All settings are stored on the unit. However, Rockbox does not spin up the disk solely
for the purpose of saving settings. Instead, Rockbox will save settings when it spins up
the disk the next time, for example when refilling the MP3 buffer or navigating through
the FILE BROWSER. Changes to settings may therefore not be saved unless the player is
shut down safely (see section
3.1.2 (page 17)).
5.2. Navigating the Main Menu
Key Action
Up Moves up in the menu.
Inside a setting, increases the value or
chooses next option
Down Moves down in the menu.
Inside a setting, decreases the value or
chooses previous option
Right Selects option
Left Exits menu, setting or moves to parent
menu
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5.3. Recent Bookmarks
Figure 5.2.: The list bookmarks screen
If the SAVE A LIS T OF RECEN TLY CR EATE D B OOK MARKS option is enabled then you can
view a list of several recent bookmarks here and select one to jump straight to that track.
See section 7.7 (page 51) for more details on configuring bookmarking in Rockbox.
Note: This entry is not shown in the MAI N MEN U when the option is off and the option
b
is off by default.
5.4. Files
Browse the files on your player (see section 4.1 (page 19)).
5.5. Database
Browse by the meta-data in your audio files (see section 4.2 (page 22)).
5.6. Now Playing/Resume Playback
Go to the WHILE PL AYING SC REE N and resume if music playback is stopped or paused
and there is something to resume (see section 4.3 (page 25)).
5.7. Settings
The SET TINGS menu allows to set or adjust many parameters that affect the way your
player works. There are many submenus for different parameter areas. Every time
you are setting a value of a parameter, and that value is selected from a list of some
predefined available values, you can press Long Right, and the selection cursor will
jump to the default value for the parameter. You can then confirm or cancel the value.
This is useful if you have changed the value of the parameter from the default to some
other value and would like to restore the default value.
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5.7.1. Sound Settings
The SOU ND SETTINGS menu offers a selection of sound properties you may change to
customise your listening experience. The details of this menu are covered in section 6
(page 40).
5.7.2. General Settings
The GEN ER A L SET TINGS menu allows you to customise the way Rockbox looks and the
way it plays music. The details of this menu are covered in section
7 (page 44).
5.7.3. Manage Settings
The MA NAG E SETTI NGS option allows the saving and re-loading of user configuration
settings, browsing the hard drive for alternate firmwares, and finally resetting your
player back to initial configuration. This menu also allows the user to load different
versions of the Rockbox firmware. The details of this menu are covered in section 11.3
(page 107).
5.7.4. Theme Settings
The THEME SETT ING S menu contains options that control the visual apperance of Rockbox. The details of this menu are covered in section 8 (page 54).
5.7.5. Recording Settings
The RECO RDING SE T TINGS menu allows you to configure settings related to recording.
The details of this menu are covered in detail in section 9 (page 55).
5.8. Recording
5.8.1. While Recording Screen
Figure 5.3.: The while recording screen
Entering the REC O RDING option in the MA IN MENU brings up a screen in which you
can choose to enter the RECO RDI NG SCRE EN or the RECORDI NG SETT ING S (see section 9
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(page 55)). The RECORDING SCRE EN shows the time elapsed and the size of the file
being recorded. A peak meter is present to allow you set gain correctly. There is also
a volume setting, this will only affect the output level of the player and does not affect
the recorded sound. If enabled in the peak meter settings, a counter in front of the peak
meters shows the number of times the clip indicator was activated during recording.
The counter is reset to zero when starting a new recording. The frequency, channels
and quality settings are shown on the last line.
The controls for this screen are:
Key Action
Up / Down Select setting.
Left / Right Adjust selected setting.
Mode Start recording.
While recording: pause recording (press
again to continue).
On/Off Exit RECOR DIN G SCREEN.
While recording: Stop recording.
Long Mode Open RECO RDING SET TINGS (see sec-
tion 9 (page 55)).
5.9. FM Radio
Figure 5.4.: The FM radio screen
This menu option switches to the radio screen. The FM radio has the ability to record
and to remember station frequency settings (presets).
Note: The radio will shorten battery life, because the MAS-chip is set to record mode
b
for instant recordings.
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Key Action
Left, Right Change frequency in SCAN mode or
jump to next/previous station in PRESET mode
Long Left, Right Seek to next station or preset in SCAN
mode.
Up, Down Change volume.
On/Off Leave the radio screen with the radio
playing.
Long On/Off Stops the radio and returns to MAIN
MENU.
Long Mode Displays the FM radio settings menu.
Saving a preset: Up to 64 of your favourite stations can be saved as presets. Long
Mode to go to the menu, then select ADD PRES ET. Enter the name (maximum
number of characters is 32). Press Long Mode to save.
Note: See this page for pre-made FM radio presets from all around the world.
b
ZFmPresets
Selecting a preset: Long Mode to open the menu, select PR ESET to go to the presets
list. Use Up and Down to move the cursor and then press Right to select. Use
Left to leave the preset without selecting anything.
Removing a preset: Long Mode to open the menu, select PRES ET to go to the presets
list. Use Up and Down to move the cursor and then press Long Right on the
preset that you wish to remove, then select REMOVE PRES ET.
Recording: Double press Mode to start recording the currently playing station. Press
On/Off to stop recording. The settings for the recording can be changed in the re-
spective menu reached through the FM radio settings menu (Long Mode) before
starting the recording. See section 9 (page 55) for details of recording settings.
Note: The radio will turn off when starting playback of an audio file.
b
5.10. Playlist
This menu allows you to work with playlists. Playlists can be created in three ways.
Playing a file in a directory causes all the files in it to be placed in a playlist. Playlists can
be created manually by either using the CONTEX T MENU (see section 4.1.2 (page 20))
or using the PLAYLI ST menu. Both automatically and manually created playlists can be
edited using this menu.
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Create Playlist: Rockbox will create a playlist with all tracks in the current directory
and all sub-directories. The playlist will be created one directory level “up” from
where you currently are.
View Current Playlist: Displays the contents of the playlist currently stored in mem-
ory.
Save Current Playlist: Saves the current dynamic playlist, excluding queued tracks,
to the specified file. If no path is provided then playlist is saved to the current
directory.
Playlist Catalog: The PLAYL IST CATALOG provides a simple interface to maintain sev-
eral playlists (see section 4.4 (page 29)).
5.11. Plugins
With this option you can load and run various plugins that have been written for Rockbox. There are a wide variety of these supplied with Rockbox, including several games,
some impressive demos and a number of utilities. A detailed description of the different plugins is to be found in section 10 (page 59).
5.12. System
This option shows RAM buffer size, battery voltage level and estimated time remaining, disk total space and disk free space.
Rockbox Info: Displays some basic system information. This is, from top to bottom,
the amount of memory Rockbox has available for storing music (the buffer). The
battery status. Memory size and amount of free space on the two data volumes,
this info is given seperately for internal memory (Int) and for a plugged in memory card (MMC) .
Version: Software version and credits display.
Sleep Timer: The SLEEP TIMER powers off your player after playing for a given time.
It can be set from OFF to 5 hours in 5 minute steps. The SLEEP TIM ER is reset on
boot.
Debug (Keep Out!): This sub menu is intended to be used only by Rockbox develop-
ers. It shows hardware, disk, battery status and other technical information.
Warning: It is not recommended that users access this menu unless instructed
!
to do so in the course of fixing a problem with Rockbox. If you think you have
messed up your settings by use of this menu please try to reset all settings before
asking for help.
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CHAPT ER 6. SOUND SE TTI NGS 40
6. Sound Settings
Figure 6.1.: The sound settings screen
The sound settings menu offers a selection of sound settings you may change to customise your listening experience.
6.1. Volume
This setting adjusts the volume of your music. Like most professional audio gear and
many consumer audio products, Rockbox uses a decibel scale where 0 dB is a reference that indicates the maximum volume that the player can produce without possible
distortion (clipping). All values lower than this reference will be negative and yield a
progressively softer volume. Values higher than 0 dB are available and can be used
to raise the volume more than would otherwise be possible. These volume levels will
ordinarily lead to distorted sound, but might work nicely for music that has an otherwise low volume level. The volume can be adjusted from a minimum of -100 dB to a
maximum of +12 dB.
6.2. Bass
This setting emphasises or suppresses the lower (bass) frequencies in the sound. A
value of 0 dB means that bass sounds are unaltered (flat response). The minimum
setting is -12 dB and the maximum is 12 dB.
6.3. Treble
This setting emphasises or suppresses the higher (treble) frequencies in the sound. A
value of 0 dB means that treble sounds are unaltered (flat response). The minimum
setting is -12 dB and the maximum is 12 dB.
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6.4. Balance
This setting controls the balance between the left and right channels. The default, 0,
means that the left and right outputs are equal in volume. Negative numbers increase
the volume of the left channel relative to the right, positive numbers increase the volume of the right channel relative to the left.
6.5. Channels
A stereo audio signal consists of two channels, left and right. The CHANNE LS setting
determines if these channels are to be combined in any way, and if so, in what manner
they will be combined. Available options are:
Setting Description
Stereo Leave the audio signal unmodified.
Mono Combine both channels and send the resulting signal to both stereo
channels, resulting in a monophonic output.
Custom Allows you to manually specify a stereo width with the STER EO
WIDTH setting described later in this chapter.
Mono Left Plays the left channel in both stereo channels.
Mono Right Plays the right channel in both stereo channels.
Karaoke Removes all sound that is common to both channels. Since most music
is recorded with vocals being equally present in both channels to make
the singer sound centrally placed, this often (but not always) has the
effect of removing the voice track from a song. This setting also very
often has other undesirable effects on the sound.
6.6. Stereo Width
Stereo width allows you to manually specify the effect that is applied when the CH AN-
NELS setting is set to “custom”. All values below 100% will progressively mix the con-
tents of one channel into the other. This has the effect of gradually centering the stereo
image, until you have monophonic sound at 0%. Values above 100% will progressively
remove components in one channel that is also present in the other. This has the effect
of widening the stereo field. A value of 100% will leave the stereo field unaltered.
6.7. Loudness
When listening at low volumes, the ear will tend to make bass and treble frequencies
sound quieter than they really are. To compensate for this, LOUDN ESS is an effect which
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CHAPT ER 6. SOUND SE TTI NGS 42
emphasises bass and treble in a fashion suited to the human ear. Frequencies in the
vocal range are unaffected, since the human ear picks these up very easily at any sound
level. It is of course also possible to use this effect at higher volumes for enhanced bass
and treble.
6.8. Auto Volume
Auto volume is a feature that automatically lowers the volume on loud parts, and then
slowly restores the volume to the previous level over a time interval. This setting allows
this time interval to be configured. Short values like 20ms are useful for ensuring a
constant volume for in-car use and other applications where background noise makes
a constant loudness desirable. A longer timeout means that the change in volume back
to the previous level will be smoother, so there will be fewer sharp changes in volume
level.
6.9. Super Bass
This setting changes the threshold at which bass frequencies are affected by the LO UD-
NESS setting, making the sound of drums and bass guitar louder in comparison to the
rest of the sound. This setting only has an effect if LOU DNE SS is set to a value larger
than 0dB.
6.10. MDB – Micronas Dynamic Bass
The rest of the parameters in this menu relate to the Micronas Dynamic Bass (MDB)
function. MDB is designed to enable the user to hear bass notes that the headphones
and/or speakers are not capable of reproducing. Every tone has a fundamental frequency (the “main tone”) and also several harmonics, which are related to that tone.
The human brain has a mechanism whereby it can actually infer the presence of bass
notes from the higher harmonics that they would generate.
The practical upshot of this is that MDB produces a more authentic sounding bass by
tricking the brain into believing it is hearing tones that the headphones or speakers are
not capable of reproducing.
The MDB parameters are as follows:
MDB enable: This turns the MDB feature on or off. For many users this will be the only
setting they need, since Rockbox picks sensible defaults for the other parameters.
MDB is turned off by default.
MDB strength: How loud the harmonics generated by MDB will be.
MDB Harmonics: The percentage of the low notes that is converted into harmonics. If
low notes are causing speaker distortion, this can be set to 100% to eliminate the
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fundamental completely and only produce harmonics in the signal. If set to 0%
this is the same as turning the MDB feature off.
MDB Centre Frequency: The cutoff frequency of your headphones or speakers. This
is usually given in the specification for the headphones/speakers.
MDB shape: It is recommended that this parameter be set to 1.5 times the centre fre-
quency.
This is the frequency up to which harmonics are generated. Some of the lower
fundamentals near the cut-off range will have their lower harmonics cut, since
they will be below the range of the speakers. Fundamentals between the cutoff frequency and the lower frequency will have their harmonics proportionally
boosted to compensate and restore the ‘loudness’ of these notes.
For most users, the defaults should provide an improvement in sound quality
and can be safely left as they are. For reference, the defaults Rockbox uses are:
Setting Value
MDB Strength 50dB
MDB Harmonics 48%
MDB Centre Frequency 60Hz
MDB Shape 90Hz
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CHAPT ER 7. GENER AL SE T TINGS 44
7. General Settings
Figure 7.1.: The general settings screen
7.1. Playback
The PLAYBACK sub menu allows you to configure settings related to audio playback.
Shuffle Turning shuffle on will cause Rockbox to randomly re-order the playlist. Thus,
to shuffle all of the audio files on the player, you first need to create a playlist containing all of them. For more information on creating playlists refer to section 4.4
(page 29).
Options: YES/NO.
Repeat Configures settings related to repeating of directories or playlists.
Options: OFF / ALL / ONE / SHU FFLE / A-B:
Off The current playlist will not repeat when it is finished.
Note: If you have the AUTO-CHANG E DIR ECTORY option set to YE S, Rock-
b
box will move on to the next directory on your hard drive. If the AUTOCHANG E DIRECTORY option is set to NO, playback will stop when the current directory or playlist is finished.
All The current playlist will repeat when it is finished.
One Repeat one track over and over.
Shuffle When the current playlist has finished playing, it will be shuffled and
then repeated.
A-B Repeats between two user defined points within a track, typically used by
musicians when attempting to learn a piece of music. This option is more
complicated to use than the others as the player must first be placed into AB repeat mode and then the start and end points defined.
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CHAPT ER 7. GENER AL SE T TINGS 45
To set the Start Point (A) press Mode. The following press of Mode will set
the End Point (B), and a third successive Mode will reset the markers.
Play Selected First This setting controls what happens when you select a file for play-
back while shuffle mode is on. If the PLAY SEL ECT ED FIR ST setting is YES, the file
you selected will be played first. If this setting is NO , a random file in the directory will be played first.
Fast-Forward/Rewind These settings control the speed and acceleration during fast
forward and rewind. The setting FF/RW MIN STEP controls the initial speed and
FF/RW ACCE L controls the acceleration.
Anti-Skip Buffer This setting allows you to control how much music is stored in the
player’s memory whilst playing a song, acting as a buffer against shock or playback problems. The player transfers the selected amount of the forthcoming song
into its memory at high speed whilst you are playing the song. It keeps a “rolling”
buffer, which keeps feeding more of the forthcoming song into memory as it goes
along. If the player is knocked, shaken or jogged heavily while Rockbox is trying
to read the hard drive, Rockbox might not be able to read the drive. Rockbox will
retry over and over again until it succeeds, but may eventually reach the end of
the memory buffer. When that happens, Rockbox must stop playing and wait for
more data from the disk, which causes your music to skip. The anti-skip setting
tells Rockbox how much extra buffer memory to spare to handle this situation.
This setting therefore allows you to reduce the chances of there being a gap or
pause during playback of songs.
The anti-skip buffer can safely be kept at zero. It will eventually be eliminated.
Note: Having a large anti-skip buffer tends to use more power, and may reduce
b
your battery life. It is recommended to always use the lowest possible setting that
allows correct and continuous playback.
Fade on Stop/Pause Enables and disables a fade effect when you pause or stop play-
ing a song. If the Fade on Stop/Pause option is set to YE S, your music will fade
out when you stop or pause playback, and fade in when you resume playback.
Party Mode Enables unstoppable music playback. When new songs are selected, they
are queued at the end of the current dynamic playlist instead of being played immediately. Pausing and stopping playback is disabled as well as skipping songs
and launching plugins.
Auto-Change Directory Control what Rockbox does when it reaches the end of a di-
rectory. If AUTO-CH ANG E DIRE CTO RY is set to YES, Rockbox will continue to the
next directory. If AUTO -CH ANGE DIR ECTORY is set to NO, playback will stop at
the end of the current playlist. Using the RANDOM feature requires you to first
generate a folder list via the Random Folder Advance Configuration plugin (see
section
10.4.7 (page 97)).
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CHAPT ER 7. GENER AL SE T TINGS 46
Note: You must have the RE PEAT option set to NO for AUTO-CHANG E DIREC-
b
TORY to function properly.
Note: This feature only works when songs have been played from the file browser.
b
Using it with the database may cause unexpected behavior.
Last.fm Log Enables logging of your played tracks for submittal to http://www.last.fm.
This service was formely known as Audioscrobbler. When you enable this option,
you’ll have to reboot to start the logging. The log-file is called .scrobbler-timeless.log,and
is to be found in the root directory of your player.
Note: See ZLastFMLog for a further description, and for tools you can use to
b
submit your Last.fm log.
Cuesheet Support Enables reading of cuesheet files for played tracks. If a cuesheet is
found for a track, track markers are displayed on the progressbar and it is possible
to skip between the tracks within the cuesheet. Also the information found in the
cuesheet file will replace the information from the ID3 tags. When you enable this
option, you’ll have to reboot for it to come into effect.
Skip Length Designed to speed up navigation and prevent unintentional track skip-
ping when listening to long audio tracks, SKIP LEN GTH changes the behavior of
the Left and Right buttons so that they skip by a given number of minutes instead
of skipping to a new track.
Note: To skip tracks with this setting set to a time interval, press Short Left + Long
b
Right to go forward and Short Right + Long Left to go back.
7.2. Playlist
The PLAYLIST sub menu allows you to configure settings related to playlists.
Recursively Insert Directories. If set to ON, then when a directory is inserted or
queued into a dynamic playlist, all subdirectories will also be inserted. If set to
ASK, Rockbox will prompt the user about whether to include sub-directories.
Warn When Erasing Dynamic Playlist. If set to YES, Rockbox will provide a warn-
ing if the user attempts to take an action that will cause Rockbox to erase the
current dynamic playlist.
7.3. File View
The File View menu deals with options relating to how the File Browser displays files.
Sort Case Sensitive: If this option is set to YES, all files that start with upper case
letters will be listed first, followed by all files that begin with lower case letters. If
this option is set to NO, then case will be ignored when sorting files.
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Sort Directories: This option controls how Rockbox sorts directories. The default is
to sort them alphabetically. BY DATE sorts them with the oldest directory first. BY
NEWES T D ATE sorts them with the newest directory first.
Sort Files: This option controls how Rockbox sorts files. All of the options for SORT
DIREC TORIES are available in this option. In addition, there is a BY TYPE option
which sorts files alphabetically by their type (such as .mp3) then alphabetically
within each type.
Show Files: This option controls which files are displayed in the File Browser.
All: The FILE BROWSER displays all files and directories. Extensions are shown.
No files or directories are hidden.
Supported: The FILE BRO WSE R displays all directories and files supported by
Rockbox (see section A.1 (page 113)). Files and directories starting with .
(dot) or with the hidden flag set are hidden.
Music: The FI LE BR OWSER displays only directories, playlists and the supported
audio file formats. Extensions are stripped. Files and directories starting with
. or with the “hidden” flag set are hidden.
Playlists: The FIL E BROWS ER displays only directories and playlists, for simpli-
fied navigation.
Show Filename Extensions: This option controls how file extensions are shown in
the File Browser.
Off: The file extensions are never shown.
On: The file extensions are always shown.
Only unknown types: Only the extensions of unknown filetypes are shown.
Only when viewing all types: Only show file extensions when SHOW FILE S is
set to ALL.
Follow Playlist: This option determines what directory the FILE BR OWSER displays
first. If F O LLOW PL AYLIST is set to YES, when you enter the FI LE BROWSER from
the WPS, you will find yourself in the same directory as the currently playing file.
If FOLLO W PLAYLIST is set to NO, when you enter the FILE BROWSER from the
WPS, you will find yourself in the directory you were in when you last left the
FILE BRO WSER.
Show Path: If this setting is set to F U LL PATH the full path to the current directory will
be displayed on the first line in the FILE BR O WSER. If set to CURREN T DIR ECTORY
ONLY only the name of the current directory will be displayed.
This has a similar effect on the Database browser. If set to CUR REN T DI RECTORY
ONLY or FULL PATH, then the title of each menu will be displayed on the first line
in the DATAB ASE BR OWS ER.
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7.4. Database
This sub menu allows you to configure the database. See section 4.2 (page 22) for more
information about using the database.
7.5. Display
LCD Settings: This sub menu contains settings that relate to the display of the player.
Contrast: Changes the contrast of your LCD display.
Warning: Setting the contrast too dark or too light can make it hard to find
!
this menu option again!
LCD Mode: This setting lets you invert the colours of the display.
Upside Down: Displays the screen so that the top of the display is nearest the
buttons. This is sometimes useful when carrying the player in a pocket for
easy access to the headphone socket.
Scrolling This feature controls how text will scroll in Rockbox. You can configure the
following parameters:
Scroll Speed: Sets how many times per second the automatic horizontal scrolling
text will move a step.
Scroll Start Delay: Controls how many milliseconds Rockbox should wait be-
fore a new text begins automatically scrolling.
Scroll Step Size: Defines the number of pixels the text should move for each
step, as used by the Scroll Speed setting.
Bidirectional Scroll Limit: Rockbox has two different automatic horizontal scrolling
methods: 1) always scrolling the text to the left until the line has ended and
then beginning again at the start, and 2) moving to the left until you can read
the end of the line and then scrolling right until you see the beginning again.
Rockbox chooses which method it should use depending of how much it
has to scroll to the left. This setting lets you tell Rockbox where that limit is,
expressed in percentage of the line length.
Screen Scrolls Out of View: Screens can be manually scrolled horizontally by
pressing Mode+Right/Left . Setting this option to YES will keep the list
entries at their fixed positions and allow them to be scrolled out of view,
whereas NO will only scroll those entries which surpass the right margin.
Screen Scroll Step Size: Defines the number of pixels the horizontal manual
screen scroll should move for each step.
Paged Scrolling: When set to YES scrolling vertically on pages that surpass the
screen size will page up/down instead of simply changing lines. This can be
useful on slow displays.
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Status/Scrollbar: Settings related to on screen status display and the scrollbar.
Scroll Bar: Enables or disables the scroll bar at the left.
Status Bar: Enables or disables the status bar at the upper side.
Volume Display: Controls whether the volume is displayed as a graphic or a
numeric value on the Status Bar. If you select a numeric display, volume
is displayed in decibels. See section 6.1 (page 40) for more on the volume
setting.
Battery Display: Controls whether the battery charge status is displayed as a
graphic or numerical percentage value on the Status Bar.
Peak Meter: The peak meter can be configured with a number of parameters.
Peak Release: This determines how fast the bar shrinks when the music be-
comes softer. Lower values make the peak meter look smoother. Expressed
in scale units per 10ms.
Peak Hold Time: Specifies the time after which the peak indicator will reset. For
example, if you set this value to 5s, the peak indicator displays the loudest
volume value that occurred within the last 5 seconds. Larger values are useful if you want to find the peak level of a song, which might be of interest
when copying music from the player via the analogue output to some other
recording device.
Clip Hold Time: The number of seconds that the clipping indicator will be visible
after clipping is detected.
Clip Counter: Show the number of times the clip indicator went active during
recording in front of the peak meters.
Scale: Select whether the peak meter displays linear or logarithmic values. The
human ear perceives loudness on a logarithmic scale. If the Scale setting is
set to LOGAR ITH MIC (dB) scale, the volume values are scaled logarithmically.
The volume meters of digital audio devices usually are scaled this way. On
the other hand, if you are interested in the power level that is applied to
your headphones you should choose LIN EAR display. This setting cannot
be displayed in units like volts or watts because such units depend on your
headphones.
Minimum and maximum range: These two options define the full value range
that the peak meter displays. Recommended values for the LOGARI THM IC
(dB) setting are -40 dB for minimum and 0 dB for maximum. Recommended
values for LIN EAR display are 0 and 100%. Note that -40 dB is approximately
1% in linear value, but if you change the minimum setting in linear mode
slightly and then change to the dB scale, there will be a large change. You
can use these values for ‘zooming’ into the peak meter.
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Default Codepage: A codepage describes the way extended characters that are not
available within the ASCII character set are encoded. ID3v1 tags do not have
a codepage encoding contained so Rockbox needs to know what encoding has
been used when generating these tags. This should be “ISO-8859-1” but to support languages outside Western Europe most applications use the setting of your
operating system instead. If your operating system uses a different codepage and
you are getting garbled extended characters you should adjust this settings. In
most cases sticking to “ISO-8859-1” would be sufficient.
7.6. System
7.6.1. Start Screen
Set the screen that Rockbox will start in. Selecting RES UME PLAYB ACK will resume
playback where it was when the player was shut off if there is a playlist to resume and
will then end up in the WPS. Selecting PRE VIOUS SCREEN will make Rockbox start in
the screen it was when the player was shut off.
7.6.2. Battery
Options relating to the batteries in the player.
Battery Capacity: This setting can be used to tell Rockbox what capacity (in mAh)
the battery being used has. The default is 1000mAh, which is the capacity value
for the standard batteries shipped with the player. Rockbox uses this value to
estimate remaining battery life for the info screen and WPS. Changing this setting has no effect whatsoever on actual battery life. This setting only affects the
accuracy of the battery life estimation as shown on screen.
Battery Type: This setting tells Rockbox which type of battery is currently used in the
player. The two supported battery types are “Alkaline” or “NiMH”.
7.6.3. Idle Poweroff
Rockbox can be configured to turn off power after the unit has been idle for a defined
number of minutes. The player is idle when playback is stopped or paused. It is not
idle while the USB or charger is connected , or while recording. Settings are either OFF
or 1 to 10 minutes in 1 minute steps. Then 15,30,45 and 60 minutes are available.
7.6.4. Limits
This sub menu relates to limits in the Rockbox operating system.
Max Entries in File Browser: This setting controls the limit on the number of files
that you can put in any particular directory in the file browser. You can configure
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CHAPT ER 7. GENER AL SE T TINGS 51
the size to be between 50 and 10,000 files in steps of 50. The default is 400. Higher
values will shorten the music buffer, so you should increase this setting only if
you have directories with a large number of files.
Max Playlist Size: This setting controls the maximum size of a playlist. The playlist
size can be between 1,000 and 32,000 files, in steps of 1,000 (default is 10,000).
Higher values will shorten the music buffer, so you should increase this setting
only if you have very large playlists.
7.7. Bookmarking
Bookmarks allow you to save your current position within a track so that you can return
to it at a later time. Bookmarks are saved on a per directory basis (for dynamic playlists)
or for individual (saved) playlists. They are stored next to the directory/playlist they
reference. You can store multiple bookmarks for the same track.
Bookmark on Stop. This option controls whether Rockbox writes a bookmark to the
disk when playback is stopped. Setting this to NO turns automatic bookmarking
completely off. In contrast YES turns automatic bookmarking on while ASK asks
on stopping the track if a bookmark should be created. With the above options
YES and ASK if there is an existing .bmark file the current position information
will be added to the front of the existing list, up to the maximum number of
allowed bookmarks per file (currently 10). If no .bmark file exists, one will be
created with the new bookmark information. Finally, if the MAINTAIN A LIST OF
RECEN TLY USED BOOKMARKS option is enabled, the bookmarking information
will be added to recent bookmarks list.
Yes – Recent Only. Turns on automatic bookmarking – One bookmark only
Ask – Recent Only. Asks if a bookmark should be created when stopping track
– One bookmark only
With the two REC ENT ONLY options, nothing is written to the .bmark file. If
the MAI NTAI N A LIST OF RECENTLY USE D BOOKMAR KS option is enabled, the
bookmarking information will however be added to recent bookmarks list.
Note: The RES UME function remembers your position in the most recently ac-
b
cessed track regardless of how the BOOKMAR K O N STOP option is set.
Load Last Bookmark. When the LOAD LA ST BOOKMAR K option is set to YES, Rock-
box automatically returns to the position of the last bookmark within a file when
that file is played.
When the LOAD LAS T BO OKM ARK option is set to ASK, Rockbox will give the user
the option of starting from the beginning of the track of or from the bookmark.
When the LOA D LAST BOOK MAR K option is set to NO , playback always starts
from the beginning of the track, and the user must play the bookmark or use the
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CHAPT ER 7. GENER AL SE T TINGS 52
LOAD BOOKM ARK function in the Main Menu, while the file is playing, to resume
at the bookmarked location.
Maintain a list of Recently Used Bookmarks. This list of Most Recent Bookmarks
(MRB’s) may be accessed through the RE C ENT BOOKMA RKS option of the BOOK-
MARKS sub menu of the Main Menu. When set to YE S each new bookmark will
be added to the MRB list. Setting this to NO disables the addition of bookmarks
to the MRB list. UNI QUE ONLY behaves like the YES setting but in addition all
older entries for the current (dynamic) playlist will be removed from the MRB
whenever a new entry is added.
Bookmark Actions context menu. When viewing any bookmark list, pressing the stan-
dard context menu key (Long Right) will bring up the Bookmark Actions context
menu.
RESUM E will commence playback of the currently-selected bookmark entry.
DELET E will remove just the currently-selected bookmark entry from the list.
7.8. Language
This setting controls the language of the Rockbox user interface. Selecting a language
will activate it. The language files must be in the /.rockbox/langs/ directory. See
section 11.1.3 (page 103) for further details about languages.
7.9. Voice
Voice Menus. This option controls the voicing of menus/settings as they are selected
by the cursor. In order for this to work, a voice file must be present in the /.rockbox/langs/
directory on the player. Voice files are large and are not shipped with Rockbox by
default. The voice file is the name of the language for which it is made, followed
by the extension .voice. So for English, the file name would be english.voice.
This option is on by default, but will do nothing unless the appropriate voice file
is installed in the correct place on the player. The Voice Menus have several limitations:
• Setting the Sound Option CHAN NEL S to KARA OKE may disable voice menus.
• Plugins do not support voice features.
Voice Directories. This option controls voicing of directory names. A voice file must
be present for this to work. Several options are available.
Spell. Speak the directory name by spelling it out letter by letter. Support is
provided only for the most common letters, numbers and punctuation.
Numbers. Each directory is assigned a number based upon its position in the file
list. They are then announced as “Directory 1”, “Directory 2” etc.
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Off. No attempt will be made to speak directory names.
You can use pre-generated .talk clips to have directory names spoken properly,
but you must enable this explicitly (see below).
Use Directory .talk Clips. This option turns on the use of .talk clips for directories.
On. Use special pre-recorded MP3 files ( dirname.talk) in each directory. These
must be generated in advance, and are typically produced synthetically using a text-to-speech engine on a PC.
Off. No checking is made for directory .talk clips; they are not used even if present.
This can reduce disk activity.
Use of a .talk clip takes precedence over other directory name voicing. Otherwise
(e.g. if a .talk clip is not available), voicing uses the method set under VOICE
DIREC TORIES above.
Voice Filenames. This option controls voicing of filenames. Again, a voice file must
be present for this to work. The options provided are SP ELL, NUM BERS, and OFF
which function the same as for VO ICE DIRE CTO RIE S. You can use pre-generated
.talk clips to have filenames spoken properly, but you must enable this explicitly
(see below).
Use File .talk Clips. This option turns on the use of .talk clips for files.
On. Use special pre-recorded MP3 files for each file. This functions the same as
for directories except that the .talk clip file must have the same name as the
described file with an extra .talk extension (e.g. Punkadiddle.mp3 would
require a file called Punkadiddle.mp3.talk).
Off. No checking is made for file .talk clips; they are not used even if present.
This can reduce disk activity.
Use of a .talk clip takes precedence over other filename voicing. Otherwise (e.g. if
a .talk clip is not available), voicing uses the method set under VOIC E FILENAM ES
above.
Say File Type. This option turns on voicing of file types when VOICE FIL ENA MES is
set to SPE LL or N U MBERS. When VOI CE DI REC TOR IES is set to SPELL, “Directory”
will be voiced after each spelled out directory.
Announce Battery Level. When this option is enabled the battery level is announced
when it falls under 50%, 30% and 15%.
See ZVoiceHowto for more details on configuring speech support in Rockbox.
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CHAPT ER 8. THEME SE TTI NG S 54
8. Theme Settings
The THEM E SETTING S menu offers options that you can change to customize the visual
apperance of Rockbox.
Browse Themes. This option will display all the currently installed themes on the
player, press Right to load the chosen theme and apply it.
A theme is a configuration file, stored in a specific directory, that typically changes
the WPS , font used and on some platforms additional information such as background image and text colours.
There are a number of themes that ship with Rockbox. If none of these suit your
needs, many more can be downloaded from . Some of the downloads from this
website will actually be standalone WPS files, others will be full-blown themes.
Note: Themes do not have to be purely visual. It is quite possible to create a theme
b
that switches between audio configurations for use in the car, with headphones
and when connected to an external amplifier. See section 11.2.2 (page 104) for
more details.
Browse Fonts. Browse the installed fonts on your player. Selecting one will activate
it. See section 11.1.2 (page 103) for further details about fonts.
Browse WPS files. Opens the FILE BROWSE R in the /.rockbox/wps directory and
displays all .wps files. Selecting one will activate it, stop will exit back to the
menu. For further information about the WPS see section 4.3 (page 25). For information about editing a .wps file see section 11.2 (page 103).
Show Icons. Rockbox has the ability to display an icon to the left of the file in the FILE
BROWS ER. For details of these icons, see section
A.1 (page 113). These icons can
also be customised. See the ZIconSets and ZCustomIcons Wiki pages for details.
Line Selector Type. This option allows you to select which type of line selector to use.
Pointer: A small arrow to the left of the menu text.
Bar (inverse): A bar with inverted foreground and background colour.
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9. Recording Settings
Figure 9.1.: The recording settings screen
Note: To change the location where recordings are stored open the CONT EXT MENU
b
(see section 4.1.2 (page 20)) on the directory where you want to store them in the FILE
BROWS ER and select SET AS RECO RDI NG DIRECTORY.
9.1. Quality
Choose the quality here (0 to 7). Default is 5, best quality is 7, smallest file size is 0.
This setting effects how much your sound sample will be compressed. Higher quality
settings result in larger MP3 files.
The quality setting is just a way of selecting an average bit rate, or number of bits per
second, for a recording. When this setting is lowered, recordings are compressed more
(meaning worse sound quality), and the average bitrate changes as follows.
Frequency Bitrate (Kbit/s) – quality 0→7
44100Hz stereo 75, 80, 90, 100, 120, 140, 160, 170
22050Hz stereo 39, 41, 45, 50, 60, 80, 110, 130
44100Hz mono 65, 68, 73, 80, 90, 105, 125, 140
22050Hz mono 35, 38, 40, 45, 50, 60, 75, 90
9.2. Frequency
Choose the recording frequency (sample rate). 48kHz, 44.1kHz, 32kHz, 24kHz, 22.05kHz,
16kHz are available. Higher sample rates use up more disk space, but give better
sound quality. The frequency setting also determines which version of the MPEG
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standard the sound is recorded using:
MPEG v1 for 48, 44.1 and 32
MPEG v2 for 24, 22.05 and 16
9.3. Source
Choose the source of the recording. The options are: MIC, and LINE IN. For recording
from the radio see section 5.9 (page 37).
9.4. Channels
This allows you to select mono or stereo recording. Please note that for mono recording,
only the left channel is recorded. Mono recordings are usually somewhat smaller than
stereo.
9.5. Independent Frames
The independent frames option tells the player to encode with the bit reservoir disabled, so the frames are independent of each other. This makes a file easier to edit.
9.6. File Split Options
This sub menu contains options for file splitting, which can be used to split up long
recordings into manageable pieces. The splits are seamless (frame accurate), no audio
is lost at the split point. The break between recordings is only the time required to stop
and restart the recording, on the order of 2 – 4 seconds.
Split Measure: This option controls wether to split the recording when the SP LIT FILE-
SIZE is reached or when the SPL IT TI M E has elapsed.
What to do when Splitting: This controls what will happend when the splitting con-
dition is fullfilled the two available options here are START A NEW FILE or STOP
RECOR DIN G .
Split Time: Set the time to record between each split, if time is used as SP LIT MEA SUR E.
Options (hours:minutes between splits): Off, 00:05, 00:10, 00:15, 00:30, 1:00, 1:14
(74 minute CD), 1:20 (80 minute CD), 2:00, 4:00, 8:00, 10:00, 12:00, 18:00, 24:00.
Split Filesize: Set the filesize to record between each split, if filesize is used as SPLIT
MEASU RE.
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9.7. Prerecord Time
This setting buffers a small amount of audio so that when the record button is pressed,
the recording will begin from that number of seconds earlier. This is useful for ensuring
that a recording begins before a cue that is being waited for.
9.8. Clear Recording Directory
Resets the location where the recorded files are saved to the root of your player’s drive.
9.9. Trigger
When you record a source you often are only interested in the sound and not the silence
in between. The recording trigger provides you with a tool to automatically distinguish
between sound and silence and record the sound only. Unfortunately it is not very easy
to make this distinction between silence and sound because you hardly ever encounter
real silence. There always are background noises. What is considered as background
noise depends on the situation. For example during a lecture the very low noise of
rustling paper might be considered as background noise. During a rock concert the
murmur of the audience might be concidered background noise which is much louder
compared to rustling paper. Also the duration of the signal matters. When you record
speech you want to record every syllable. When you record live music you may not be
interested in that chord the guitarist strokes for two minutes before the show to verify
his amp is turned on. The trigger features numerous parameters to adapt its behaviour
to the desired situation.
Trigger This parameter specifies the trigger mode. When set to OFF the recording must
be started manually and apart from the Prerecord time no other parameter has
any effect. ONC E will have the trigger start one recording only; after the recording
has finished the input signal will not start another recording. REPEAT will have
the trigger start multiple recordings.
Trigtype Add description of Trigtype Options: STO P, PAUS E, NEW FILE.
Prerecord Time This specifies the time that is included into the recording before the
trigger event occurs. This is very useful if you record a signal that fades in. Usually you want to set the prerecord time ¿= start duration. That ensures that you
record the entire sound. Strictly speaking the prerecord time is not a special parameter of the trigger. It is available during normal recordings too.
Start Above The start threshold defines the minimal volume a sound must have to
start the recording. It is displayed numerically in the line ”Start Above”. Note that
the unit of the threshold depends on the settings of the peak meter. (i.e. When the
peak meter displays db you can adjust the level in db and when the peak meter
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is set to linear the threshold is displayed as percentage.) In the peak meter at the
bottom of the screen the start threshold is displayed graphically by a little triangle
pointing to the right. There are two special values. The value OFF turns the start
condition off. With this setting you have to start the recording manually and the
trigger only stops the recording according to the stop condition. The setting -I NF
sets the trigger to the absolute minimum. This setting only makes sense when
you record via a digital input as even the noise of the device itself would exceed
this threshold immediately.
for at least The start duration defines the minimal duration that a signal must exceed
the start threshold to start the recording. Depending on your situation you may
want to set this setting to 0 (e.g. when copying a song from a commercial medium)
or to quite big values. Because sound is not continuous by nature (think of percussion) neglectable dropouts are tolerated during this start duration.
Stop Below When the sound level drops below the stop threshold the recording is
stopped. It is displayed numerically in the line ”Stop Below”. Just like the start
threshold the unit of the stop threshold depends on the settings of the peak meter.
There’s also a small triangular marker in the peak meter at the bottom of the
screen. In contrast to the start threshold marker it points to the left. The value
OFF turns the stop condition off. With this setting you have to stop the recording
manually.
for at least This time specifies the duration the signal must drop below the stop thresh-
old to stop the recording. By selecting high values you can ensure that, for example, trailing fade-outs are recorded entirely.
Presplit Gap When the signal drops below the stop threshold for the time specified by
the presplit gap a new recording may be started when the signal raises above the
start threshold. Thus the value of the presplit gap should be smaller than the stop
hold time. Otherwise the recording would stop anyway and the presplit gap has
no effect. For most uses I recommend to set this parameter equal to the stop hold
time. Sometimes you may encounter a sound source (e.g. a CD) where the songs
have fade outs and hardly any gaps between the tracks. Here you can set the stop
hold time to long values to ensure that all fade outs are recorded completely. By
specifying a short presplit gap you still can split the recording into seperate tracks
whenever the trigger start condition is met.
More information can be found at ZVolumeTriggeredRecording.
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10. Plugins
Plugins are programs that Rockbox can load and run. Only one plugin can be loaded at
a time. Plugins have exclusive control over the user interface. This means you cannot
switch back and forth between a plugin and Rockbox. When a plugin is loaded, you
need to exit it to return to the Rockbox interface. Most plugins will not interfere with
music playback but some of them will stop playback while running. Plugins have the
file extension .rock. Most of them can be started from BROW SE PLU GINS in the MAIN
MENU.
Viewer plugins get started automatically by opening an associated file (i.e. text files,
chip8 games), or from the OPEN WITH option on the CO NTEXT MENU.
10.1. Games
See also the Chip-8 emulator in section 10.3.2 (page 86) .
10.1.1. Blackjack
Figure 10.1.: Blackjack
Blackjack, a game played in casinos around the world, is now available in the palm of
your hand! The rules are simple: try to get as close to 21 without going over or simply
beat out the dealer for the best hand. Although this may not seem difficult, blackjack
is a game renowned for the strategy involved. This version includes the ability to split,
buy insurance, and double down.
For the full set of rules to the game, and other facinating information visit
http://www.blackjackinfo.com/blackjack-rules.php
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Key Action
In menu
Mode Start new game
Down Resume saved game
Up Show high scores
On/Off Quit
In game
Left / Right /
Up / Down Enter betting amount
Left Hit (Draw new card)
Right Stay (End hand)
Up Double down
Down Save game
On/Off Return to menu or cancel
10.1.2. BrickMania
Figure 10.2.: BrickMania
BrickMania is a clone of the classic game Breakout. The aim of the game is to destroy
all the bricks by hitting them with the ball once or more. Sometimes a special item falls
down when you destroy a brick. For a special item to take effect, you must catch it with
the paddle. Look out for the bad ones.
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Special items
Displayed Name Description
N Normal Returns paddle to normal.
D Die Ball dies; lose a life.
L Life Gain a life.
F Fire Allows you to shoot bricks with pad-
dle.
G Glue Ball sticks to paddle each time it hits.
B Ball Immediately fires another ball.
FL Flip Flip left / right movement.
Key Action
Left / Right Moves the paddle
Mode / Up Release the ball / Fire
On/Off Open menu / Quit
10.1.3. Bubbles
Figure 10.3.: Bubbles
The goal of the game is to beat each level as quickly as possible by clearing the board of
all bubbles. Bubbles are removed from the board when a cluster of three of more of the
same type is formed. The game is over when any bubbles on the board extend below
the bottom line. To make things more difficult, the entire board is shifted down every
time a certain number of shots have been fired. Points are awarded depending on how
quickly the level was completed.
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Key Action
In menu
Mode Start new game
Down Resume saved game
Up Show high scores
Left+Right Select starting level
On/Off Quit
In game
Mode Pause game
Left / Right Aim the bubble
Up Fire bubble
Down Save game
On/Off Exit to menu
10.1.4. Chessbox
Figure 10.4.: Chessbox
Chessbox is a one-person chess game with computer artificial intelligence. The chess
engine is a port of GNU Chess 2 by John Stanback.
It also works as a PGN file viewer. Instead of executing the game from the plugin
menu, look for any file with .pgn extension in the file browser and execute it. Chessbox
will show the list of matches included in the file and allow you to select the one you
want to watch. After that, you can scroll back and forth through the moves of the game.
If the menu is invoked while in the viewer, the user is allowed to select a new match
from the same file or quit the game.
“Force play” while the computer is thinking will cause it to make its move immediately. If done while it’s your turn, the computer will move for you and flip the board
so that you are playing from the other side. If you want, you can force play an entire
game and watch the artificial intelligence fight against itself.
When you quit the game the current state will be saved and restored when you resume the game. The menu also allows the user to reload the last game saved, save the
current position and start a new game without having to quit the game.
Note: This plugin will stop playback.
b
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Keys
Key Action
Direction keys Move the cursor
Mode Pick up / Drop piece
Mode+On/Off Change level
Long Mode Force play
On/Off Show the menu
10.1.5. Chopper
Navigate a cavernous maze without banging into walls, the ceiling, or the floor. How
long can you fly your chopper?
Key Action
Up / Mode Make chopper fly
On/Off Enter menu
10.1.6. Dice
Dice is a simple dice rolling simulator. Select number and type of dice to roll in a menu
and start by choosing “Roll Dice”. The result is shown as individual numbers as well
as the total of the rolled dice.
Key Action
Mode Roll dice again
On/Off Quit
10.1.7. Flipit
Figure 10.5.: Flipit
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Flipping the colour of the token under the cursor also flips the tokens above, below, left
and right of the cursor. The aim is to end up with a screen containing tokens of only
one colour.
Key Action
Up / Down / Left
/ Right
Move the cursor
Mode Flip
Mode+Left Shuffle
Mode+Up Solve
Mode+Right Solve step by step
On/Off Quit the game
10.1.8. Jewels
Figure 10.6.: Jewels
Jewels is a simple yet addicting game which involves swapping pairs of jewels in order
to form connected segments of three or more of the same type.
The goal of the game is to score as many points as possible before running out of
available moves. Higher points are awarded to larger combos. The game advances to
the next level after every one hundred points and randomly clears several jewels.
Key Action
Left/Right/
Up/Down Move the cursor around the jewels
Mode Select a jewel
Long Mode Show the in-game menu
On/Off Exit
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10.1.9. MazezaM
Figure 10.7.: MazezaM
The goal of this puzzle game is to escape a dungeon consisting of ten “mazezams”.
These are rooms containing rows of blocks which can be shifted left or right. You can
move the rows only by pushing them and if you move the rows carelessly, you will get
stuck. You can have another go by selecting “retry level” from the menu, but this will
cost you a life. You start the game with three lives. Luckily, there are checkpoints at
levels four and eight.
Key Action
Up, Down, Left,
Right
Move Character
On/Off Menu
10.1.10. Minesweeper
Figure 10.8.: Minesweeper plugin
The classic game of minesweeper. Use the Up and Down keys to select the required
percentage of mines to set the difficulty then press the Mode key to begin.
The aim of the game is to uncover all of the squares on the board. If a mine is uncovered then the game is over. If a mine is not uncovered, then the number of mines
adjacent to the current square is revealed. The aim is to use the information you are
given to work out where the mines are and avoid them. When the player is certain that
they know the location of a mine, it can be tagged to avoid accidentally “stepping” on
it.
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Key Action
Up / Down / Left
/ Right
Move the cursor across the minefield
Mode Toggle flag on / off
Long Mode Reveal the contents of the current square
Long
Mode+On/Off
Display the current game status
On/Off Exit the game
10.1.11. Pegbox
Figure 10.9.: pegbox
To beat each level, you must destroy all of the pegs. If two like pegs are pushed into
each other they disappear except for triangles which form a solid block and crosses
which allow you to choose a replacement block.
Key Action
In game
Up, Down,
Left, Right
to move around
On/Off to select/save
Mode+ Right to restart level
Mode+ Up to go up a level
Mode+ Down to go down a level
Mode+ On/Off to quit
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10.1.12. Pong
Figure 10.10.: Pong
Pong is a simple two player “tennis game”. Whenever a player misses the ball the other
scores.
Key Action
Left Left player up
Mode Left player down
Up Right player up
Down Right player down
On/Off Quit
10.1.13. Robotfindskitten
Figure 10.11.: Robotfindskitten
In this game, you are robot (#). Your job is to find kitten. This task is complicated by the
existence of various things which are not kitten. Robot must touch items to determine
if they are kitten or not. The game ends when robotfindskitten.
Key Action
Up, Down, Left,
Right
Move robot
On/Off Quit
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10.1.14. Rockblox
Figure 10.12.: Rockblox
Rockblox is a rockbox version of the classic falling blocks game. The aim of the game is
to make the falling blocks of different shapes form full rows. Whenever a row is complete it will be cleared and the game score will increase. For every ten lines completed
the game level increases, making the blocks fall faster. If the pile of blocks reach the
ceiling the game is over.
Key Action
Left Move left
Right Move right
Down Move down
Mode+Up Rotate left
Up Rotate right
Mode Drop
On/Off Quit
10.1.15. Rockblox1d
Rockblox1d is a game for people who find rockblox too hard. In this version the second
dimension is missing so the user only has to move the bricks down. No horizontal
moving anymore and no need to rotate the brick!
Key Action
Right Move down faster
On/Off Quit
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10.1.16. Sliding Puzzle
Figure 10.13.: Sliding puzzle
The classic sliding puzzle game. Rearrange the pieces so that you can see the whole
picture, or switch to number tiles if you like it a little easier
Key controls:
Key Action
Left, Right, Up
and Down
Move Tile
Long Mode Shuffle
Mode Change between picture and numbered
tiles
On/Off Stop the game
10.1.17. Snake
Figure 10.14.: Snake
This is the popular snake game. The aim is to grow your snake as large as possible by
eating the dots that appear on the screen. The game will end when the snake touches
either the borders of the screen or itself.
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Key Action
Up/Down Change levels (1 is slowest, 9 is fastest)
Mode Toggle Play/Pause
10.1.18. Snake 2
Figure 10.15.: Snake 2 – The Snake Strikes Back
Another version of the Snake game. Move the snake around, and eat the apples that
pop up on the screen. Each time an apple is eaten, the snake gets longer. The game
ends when the snake hits a wall, or runs into itself.
Key Action
In menu
Up / Down Set game speed
Right Select starting maze
Left Select game type (A or B)
Mode Start the game
In game
Up / Down / Left
/ Right
Steer the snake
Mode Pause and resume the game
On/Off Quit
In game A, the maze stays the same, in game B after an increasing number of apples
eaten the maze is replaced by a new one.
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10.1.19. Sokoban
Figure 10.16.: Sokoban
The object of the game is to push boxes into their correct position in a crowded warehouse with a minimal number of pushes and moves. The boxes can only be pushed,
never pulled, and only one can be pushed at a time.
Sokoban may be used as a viewer for viewing saved solutions and playing external
level sets with the .sok extension. Level sets should be in the standard Sokoban text
format or RLE (Run Length Encoded). For more information about the level format, see
http://sokobano.de/wiki/index.php?title=Level format
Key Action
In game
Up, Down, Left,
Right
Move the “sokoban” up, down, left, or
right
On/Off Menu
Mode+Left Back to previous level
Mode+Up Restart level
Mode+Right Go to next level
Mode Undo last movement
Mode+Down Redo previously undone move
Solution playback
Mode Pause/resume
Up/Down Increase/decrease playback speed
Left/Right Go backward/forward (while paused)
On/Off Quit
Some places where can you can find level sets:
• http://www.sourcecode.se/sokoban/levels.php
• http://sokobano.de/en/levels.php
Note that some level sets may contain levels that are too large for this version of Sokoban
and are unplayable as a result.
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10.1.20. Solitaire
Figure 10.17.: Klondike solitaire
This is the classic Klondike solitaire game for Rockbox. This is probably the best-known
solitaire in the world. Many people do not even realize that other games exist. Though
the name may not be familiar, the game itself certainly is. This is due in no small part
to Microsoft’s inclusion of the the game in every version of Windows. Though popular,
the odds of winning are rather low, perhaps one in thirty hands.
For the full set of rules to the game, and other facinating information visit
http://www.solitairecentral.com/rules/klondike.html
Key Action
Up / Down /
Left / Right
Move Cursor around.
Mode Select cards, move cards, reveal hidden
cards...
Long Mode If a card was selected – unselect it, else
Draw 3 new cards from the remains stack
Long Down Put the card from the top of the remains
stack on top of the cursor
Long Up Put the card under the cursor on one of
the 4 final colour stacks.
Long Right Put the card on top of the remains stack
on one of the final colour stacks.
On/Off Show menu
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10.1.21. Spacerocks
Figure 10.18.: Spacerocks
Spacerocks is a clone of the old arcade game Asteroids. The goal of the game is to blow
up the asteroids and avoid being hit by them. Once in a while, a UFO will appear –
shoot this for extra points.
Key Action
Mode Shoot
Up Thrust
Left/ Right Turn left/right
Down Teleport
Mode+On/Off Pause game
On/Off Quit
10.1.22. Star
Figure 10.19.: Star game
This is a puzzle game. It is actually a rewrite of Star, a game written by CDK designed
for the hp48 calculator.
Rules: Take all of the “o”s to go to the next level. You can switch control between the
filled circle, which can take “o”s, and the filled square, which is used as a mobile wall
to allow your filled circle to get to places on the screen it could not otherwise reach. The
block cannot take “o”s.
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Key Action
Left Move Left
Right Move Right
Up Move Up
Down Move Down
Mode Switch between circle and square
Mode+Left Previous level
Mode+Up Reset level
Mode+Right Next level
On/Off Exit the game
10.1.23. Sudoku
Figure 10.20.: Sudoku
Sudoku in Rockbox is implemented as both a plugin and a viewer. When you start
Sudoku in plugin mode from the BR OWS E PL UGI NS menu, a random game will be
generated automatically, and an estimate of its difficulty (very easy, easy, medium, hard
or fiendish) will be displayed on the screen. New games can be generated from the
GENER ATE menu option.
When you use Sudoku as a viewer for playing pre-generated Sudoku games. You
need sudoku games stored (one game per file) in text files with the .ss extension (see
links below). You then browse these games using the normal FIL E BROW SER, and open
the file to launch Sudoku.
You can create and save your own grids under the NEW menu option. Enter the
menu (as described in the key table below) when you have finished and enter the full
path to save to including the .ss extension (e.g. /sudoku/new.ss).
The thing on the left (AKA the scratchpad)
When you play Sudoku on paper most people like to mark numbers in cells that are
possible candidates for the cells. This can be done with the column on the left. Change
the number under the cursor to a number which might be valid and press the scratchpad button, the number will then be added on the left. The column is stored seperatly
for every cell on the board. These are NOT saved when saving the game.
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Key Action
Up / Down / Left
/ Right
Move the cursor
Mode Change number under the cursor
Long
Mode+Down
Constantly changing the number under
the cursor
Long Mode Open Menu
Mode+Left Add/Remove number to scratchpad
On/Off Quit
Some places where can you can find .ss files:
• Simple Sudoku (Advanced Puzzle Packs 1 and 2 located near the bottom of that
page): http://www.angusj.com/sudoku/
• Kjell’s Sudoku generator/solver: http://kjell.haxx.se/sudoku/
10.1.24. Wormlet
Figure 10.21.: Wormlet game
Wormlet is a multi-worm game on a multi-threaded multi-functional Rockbox console.
You navigate a hungry little worm. Help your worm to find food and to avoid poisoned
argh-tiles. The goal is to turn your tiny worm into a big worm for as long as possible.
Menu controls:
Key Action
Left / Right Controls number of worms in the game
Game controls:
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Key Action
Left Turn left
Right Turn right
Up Turn Up
Down Turn Down
The game
Use the control keys of your worm to navigate around obstacles and find food. Worms
do not stop moving except when dead. Dead worms are no fun. Be careful as your
worm will try to eat anything that you steer it across. It won’t distinguish whether it is
edible or not.
Food. The small square hollow pieces are food. Move the worm over a food tile to eat
it. After eating the worm grows. Each time a piece of food has been eaten a new
piece of food will pop up somewhere. Unfortunately for each new piece of food
that appears two new “argh” pieces will appear, too.
Argh. An “argh” is a black square poisoned piece - slightly bigger than food - that
makes a worm say “Argh!” when run into. A worm that eats an “argh” is dead.
Thus eating an “argh” must be avoided under any circumstances. “Arghs” have
the annoying tendency to accumulate.
Worms. Thou shall not eat worms. Neither other worms nor thyself. Eating worms is
blasphemous cannibalism, not healthy and causes instant death. And it doesn’t
help anyway: the other worm isn’t hurt by the bite. It will go on creeping happily
and eat all the food you left on the table.
Walls. Don’t crash into the walls. Walls are not edible. Crashing a worm against a wall
causes it a headache it doesn’t survive.
Game over. The game is over when all worms are dead. The longest worm wins the
game.
Pause the game. Press Mode to pause the game. Press Mode again to resume the
game.
Stop the game. There are two ways to stop a running game.
• If you want to quit Wormlet entirely simply hit On/Off . The game will stop
immediately and you will return to the game menu.
• If you want to stop the game and still see the screen hit On/Off+Mode .
This freezes the game. If you hit On/Off+Mode button again a new game
starts with the same configuration. To return to the games menu you can hit
On/Off . A stopped game can not be resumed.
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The scoreboard
On the right side of the game field is the score board. For each worm it displays its
status and its length. The top most entry displays the state of worm 1, the second
worm 2 and the third worm 3. When a worm dies its entry on the score board turns
black.
Len: Here the current length of the worm is displayed. When a worm is eating food it
grows by one pixel for each step it moves.
Hungry: That’s the normal state of a worm. Worms are always hungry and want to
eat. It is good to have a hungry worm since it means that your worm is alive. But
it is better to get your worm growing.
Growing: When a worm has eaten a piece of food it starts growing. For each step it
moves over food it can grow by one pixel. One piece of food lasts for 7 steps.
After your worm has moved 7 steps the food is used up. If another piece of food
is eaten while growing it will increase the size of the worm for another 7 steps.
Crashed: This indicates that a worm has crashed against a wall.
Argh: If the score board entry displays “Argh!” it means the worm is dead because it
tried to eat an “argh”. Until we can make the worm say “Argh!” it is your job to
say “Argh!” aloud.
Wormed: The worm tried to eat another worm or even itself. That’s why it is dead
now. Making traps for other players with a worm is a good way to get them out
of the game.
Hints
• Initially you will be busy with controlling your worm. Try to avoid other worms
and crawl far away from them. Wait until they curl up themselves and collect the
food afterwards. Don’t worry if the other worms grow longer than yours - you
can catch up after they’ve died.
• When you are more experienced watch the tactics of other worms. Those worms
controlled by artificial stupidity head straight for the nearest piece of food. Let the
other worm have its next piece of food and head for the food it would probably
want next. Try to put yourself between the opponent and that food. From now
on you can ’control’ the other worm by blocking it. You could trap it by making
a 1 pixel wide U-turn. You also could move from food to food and make sure
you keep between your opponent and the food. So you can always reach it before
your opponent.
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10.1.25. Xobox
Figure 10.22.: Xobox
Xobox is a simple clone of the well known arcade game Qix. The aim of the game is
to section off parts of the arena with your trail in order to remove that section from the
game. Be careful not to get in the way of enemy balls because, if they hit you or your
trail, you lose a life. To finish a level you have to section off more than 75%.
Key Action
Up, Down, Left,
Right
Move around the arena
Mode Pause
On/Off Open menu
10.2. Demos
10.2.1. Bounce
Figure 10.23.: Bounce
This demo is of the word “Rockbox” bouncing across the screen. In SC ROL L M ODE the
bouncing text is replaced by a different one scrolling from right to left.
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Key Action
Up / Down Moves to next/previous option
Left / Right Increases/decreases option value
Mode Toggles Scroll mode
On/Off Exits bounce demo
Available options are:
Xdist/Ydist. The distance to X axis and Y axis respectively
Xadd/Yadd. How fast the code moves on the sine curve on each axis
Xsane/Ysane. Changes the appearance of the bouncing.
10.2.2. Credits
The credits plugin scrolls the entire list of the names of all the Rockbox contributors
after displaying the Rockbox logo and version. This plugin is called when selecting
VERSI ON from the SYSTEM section of the Rockbox main menu. Exit at any time by
pressing Left or On/Off.
10.2.3. Cube
Figure 10.24.: Cube
This is a rotating cube screen saver in 3D.
Key Action
Mode+Right Display at maximum frame rate
Mode+Left Pause
Mode Cycle draw mode
Right / Left Select axis to adjust
Up / Down Change speed/angle (speed can not be
changed while paused)
On/Off Quit
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10.2.4. Demystify
Figure 10.25.: Demystify
Demystify is a screen saver like demo.
Key Action
Up / Down Increase / decrease speed
Right / Left Add / remove polygon
On/Off Quit
10.2.5. Fire
Figure 10.26.: Fire
Fire is a demo displaying a fire effect.
Key Action
Up / Down Increase / decrease number of flames
Mode Toggle flame type
Right Toggle moving flames
On/Off Quit
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10.2.6. Logo
Demo showing the Rockbox logo bouncing around the screen.
Key Action
Right / Left Increase / decrease speed on the x-axis
Up / Down Increase / decrease speed on the y-axis
On/Off Quit
10.2.7. Mandelbrot
Figure 10.27.: Mandelbrot
This demonstration draws fractal images from the Mandelbrot set using the greyscale
engine.
Key Action
Direction keys Move about the image
Mode /
Mode+Up
Zoom in
Mode+Down Zoom out
Mode+Left Decrease iteration depth (less detail)
Mode+Right Increase iteration depth (more detail)
Mode+On/Off Reset and return to the default image
On/Off Quit
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10.2.8. Mosaique
Figure 10.28.: Mosaique
This simple graphics demo draws a mosaic picture on the screen of the player. Press
On/Off to quit.
10.2.9. Oscilloscope
Figure 10.29.: Oscilloscope
This demo shows the shape of the sound samples that make up the music being played.
Keys
Key Action
Mode Toggle filled / curve / plot
Mode+Right Toggle whether to scroll or not
Mode+Left Toggle drawing orientation
Mode+On/Off Pause the demo
Up / Down Increase / decrease volume
Right / Left Increase / decrease speed
On/Off Exit demo
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10.2.10. Plasma
Figure 10.30.: Plasma
Plasma is a demo displaying a 80’s style retro plasma effect.
Key Action
Up / Down Adjust frequency
On/Off Quit
10.2.11. Snow
Figure 10.31.: Have you ever seen snow falling?
This demo replicates snow falling on your screen. If you love winter, you will love this
demo. Or maybe not. Press On/Off to quit.
10.2.12. Starfield
Figure 10.32.: Starfield
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Starfield simulation (like the classic screensaver).
Key Action
Right / Left Increase / decrease number of stars
Up / Down Increase / decrease speed
On/Off Quit
10.2.13. VU meter
Figure 10.33.: VU-Meter
This is a VU meter, which displays the volume of the left and right audio channels.
There are 3 types of meter selectable. The analogue meter is a classic needle style. The
digital meter is modelled after LED volume displays, and the mini-meter option allows
for the display of small meters in addition to the main display (as above). From the
settings menu the decay time for the meter (its memory), the meter type and the meter
scale can be changed.
Key Action
On/Off Save settings and quit
Mode Help
Long Mode Settings
Up Raise Volume
Down Lower Volume
10.3. Viewers
Viewers are plugins which are associated with specific file extensions. They cannot be
run directly but are started by “playing” the associated file. Viewers are stored in the
/.rockbox/rocks/viewers/ directory.
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10.3.1. Shortcuts
The Shortcuts Plugin allows you to jump to places within the file browser without having to navigate there manually. The plugin works with .link files. A .link file is just
a text file with every line containing the name of the file or the directory you want to
quickly jump to. All names should be full absolute names, i.e. they should start with a
/. Directory names should also end with a /.
How to create .link files
You can use your favourite text editor to create a .link file on the PC an then copy
the file to the player. Or you can use the context menu on either a file or a directory in
the file browser tree, and use the “Add to shortcuts” menu option. This will append
a line with the full name of the file or the directory to the shortcuts.link file in
the root directory of the player. (The file will be created if it does not exist yet.) You
can later rename the automatically created shortcuts.link file or move it to another
directory if you wish. Subsequent calls of the context menu will create it again.
How to use .link files, i.e. jump to desired places
To use a .link file just “play” it from the file browser. This will show you a list with the
entries in the file. Selecting one of them will then exit the plugin and leave you within
the directory selected, or with the file selected in the file browser. You can then play the
file or do with it whatever you want. The file will not be “played” automatically.
If the .link file contains only one entry no list will be shown, you will directly jump
to that location. The file shortcuts.link in the root directory is an exception. After
“playing” it, the list will be shown even if the file contains just one entry.
If the list you are seeing is from shortcuts.link in the root directory, you can
delete the selected entry by pressing Long Mode. Deleting entries from other .link
files is not possible.
Advanced Usage
Placing the line “#Display last path segments=n” (where n is a number) in the beginning of a .link file will leave just the last n segments of the entries when they are
shown. For example, if n is chosen to be 1, then the entry /MyMusic/collection/song.mp3
will be shown as song.mp3. This allows you to hide common path prefixes.
You can also provide a custom display name for each entry individually. To do so,
append a tabulator character after the entry’s path followed by your custom name. That
name will then be used for showing the entry. For example:
EXAM PL E
/MyMusic/collection/song.mp3<TAB>My favourite song!
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10.3.2. Chip-8 Emulator
Chip8 is a kind of assembly language for a long-gone architecture. This plugin runs
games written using the chip8 instructions. To start a game open a .ch8 file in the FILE
BROWS ER
There are lots of tiny Chip8 games (usually only about 256 bytes to a couple of KB)
which were made popular by the HP48 calculator’s emulator for them. The original Chip8 had 64x32 pixel graphics, and the new superchip emulator supports 128x64
graphics.
The only problem is that they are based on a 4x4 keyboard, but since most games do
not use all of the buttons, this can easily be worked around.
To do this, one may put a .c8k file with the same name as the original program
which contains new key mappings (for BLINKY.ch8, one writes a BLINKY.c8k file).
That .c8k file contains 16 characters describing the mapping from the Chip8 keyboard
to the default key mapping (that way, several Chip8 keys can be pressed using only one
Rockbox key). For example, a file containing the single line:
CODE
0122458469ABCDEF
would correspond to the following non-default mappings:
3 → 2, 6 → 8, 7 →4, 8 → 6.
The default keymappings are:
Chip8 Off 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
Key
On/Off
Up
Up
Left
Mode
Right
Down
Some places where can you can find .ch8 files:
• The PluginChip8 page on www.rockbox.org has several attached: ZPluginChip8
• Check out the HP48 chip games section: http://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/games/chip/
• PC emulator by the guy who wrote the HP48 emulator: http://www.pdc.kth.se/
∼
lfo/chip8/CHIP8.htm
• Links to other chip8 emulators: http://www.zophar.net/chip8.html
10.3.3. JPEG viewer
Open a JPEG file in the FI LE BROW SER to view it using Rockbox’s greyscale library.
Note: This plugin will cause playback to stop.
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Key Action
Up / Down / Left
/ Right
Move around in zoomed in image
Mode Zoom in
Mode+Down Zoom out
Mode+Right Next jpeg in directory
Mode+Left Previous jpeg in directory
On/Off Show menu
The menu has the following entries.
Quit. Quits the viewer and returns to the FILE BRO WSE R.
Toggle Slideshow Mode. Enables or disables the slideshow mode.
Change Slideshow Timeout. You can set the timeout for the slideshow between 1 sec-
ond and 20 seconds.
Return. Returns you to the image
Note: Progressive scan and other unusual JPEG files are not supported, and will result
b
in various “unsupported xx” messages. Processing could also fail if the image is too big
to decode which will be explained by a respective message.
10.3.4. Movie Player
Play movies on your player! In order to do this, movies must be in AVI format, and
then converted to .RVF, Rockbox’s own video format. For more details on how to use
this plugin, please see ZVideoTutorial.
10.3.5. Rockbox flash
For “playing” .UCL files on a flashed player. Reprograms the flash memory of the
player unit (see section 11.5 (page 109) for details).
10.3.6. Search
This plugin can be used on playlists. It searches through the playlist that it opened
on looking for any occurrences of the string entered by the user. The results of this
search are saved to a new playlist, search results.m3u, within the same directory as the
original playlist.
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10.3.7. Sort
This plugin takes a file and sorts it in ascending alphabetical order. Case is ignored.
This is useful for ordering playlists generated by the CREAT E PLAYLIST menu option
(see section 5.10 (page 38)).
10.3.8. Text Viewer
This is a Viewer for text files with word wrap. Just open a .txt file to display it. The text
viewer features controls to handle various styles of text formatting, has top-of-file and
bottom-of-file buttons. You can view files without a .txt extension by using Open with
from the Context Menu (see section
4.1.2 (page 20)).
Key Action
Up Scroll-up
Down Scroll-down
Left Top of file (Narrow mode) / One screen
left (Wide mode)
Right Bottom of file (Narrow mode) / One
screen right (Wide mode)
Mode Toggle autoscroll
Long Mode Enter menu
On/Off Exit text viewer
The Viewer’s Menu
Quit Exits the plugin.
Viewer Options Encoding sets the codepage in the text viewer. Available settings:
UTF-8 (Unicode), BIG5 (Traditional Chinese), K SX-1001 (Korean), GB-2312
(Simple Chinese), SJIS (Japanese), C P1250 (Central European), ISO-8859-2
(Latin Extended), ISO-8859-9 (Turkish), ISO-8859-6 (Arabic), ISO-8859-11
(Thai), CP1251 (Cyrillic), ISO-8859-8 (Hebrew), ISO-88 59-7 (Greek), ISO8859-1 (Latin 1). This setting only applies to the plugin and is independent
from the DEFAULT CODEPAGE setting (see section ?? (page ??)).
Word Wrap toggles between Wrap and Chop.
Off (Chop Words) breaks lines at white space or hyphen.
On breaks lines at the maximum column limit.
Line Mode cycles through Normal, Join and Expand and Reflow Lines.
Reflow Lines justifies the text fully.
Expand adds a blank line. Useful for making the paragraphs clearer in some
book style text files.
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Join joins lines. Useful for adopting the orphans that occur with e-mail style
(i.e. pre-wrapped) text files.
Normal breaks lines at newline characters.
Wide View toggles between Narrow and Wide.
Yes sets maximum column to 114. Useful for navigating large files. (Cur-
rently, Wide and Join cannot be selected together.)
No (Narrow) sets maximum column to the screen width.
Show Scrollbar toggles scrollbar for the current View mode. If the file fits on
one screen, there is no scrollbar and toggling this setting has no effect.
On has a scrollbar by default, until toggled.
Off has no scrollbar by default, until toggled.
Overlap Pages toggles between Normal and Overlap.
Yes tells page-down/page-up to retain one line from previous screen.
No sets page-down/page-up to one full screen.
Scroll Mode controls the function of the “Scroll-up” and “Scroll-down” buttons.
Scroll by Line
Scroll by Page
Auto-scroll Speed controls the speed of auto-scrolling in number of lines per
scroll step, available options are 1 to 10 lines. As an example, a setting of 4
will scroll up the text four lines per second.
Show Playback Menu controls the playback of the currently loaded playlist and change
the volume of your playerwithout leaving the plugin.
Return to the text view.
Note: The text viewer automatically saves its settings and also stores the current posi-
b
tion in the viewed text files (up to the last 46 files).
Compatibility
• Currently messages are in English
• Does not currently support right-to-left languages.
10.3.9. VBRfix
This function scans a VBR (Variable Bitrate) MP3 file and updates/creates the Xing VBR
header. The Xing header contains information about the VBR stream used to calculate
average bit rate, time information and to more accurately fwd/rew in the stream. This
function is especially useful when the playback of a file skips, fwd/rew does not work
correctly or the time display is incorrect.
Note: VBRfix can only run when music is turned off (since it uses the same memory as
b
the player) and can take a while to complete if run on big files.
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10.3.10. Wavplay
Figure 10.34.: Wavplay
This plugin is for demo purposes only. It is planned to have Wavplay as part of the
normal playback engine later.
At the moment it is only possible to start playing one .wav-file at a time. Therefore playlists are impossible. As every other viewer plugin, Wavplay is associated with
the specific files. Playing a .wav-file starts the plugin automatically and the Wavplay
screen appears. This screen gives information about samplerate and length of the playing file.
Note: Seeking within the .wav-file or changing the volume once the plugin is running is
b
not possible. Wavplay uses the sound settings that were used before (except for pitch).
The only action that can be performed is to stop by pressing On/Off, and Wavplay
will be exited and you are returned to the filebrowser. If the end of the file has been
reached, you will also be returned to the filebrowser.
10.3.11. ZXBox
Figure 10.35.: ZXBox
ZXBox is a port of the “Spectemu” ZX Spectrum 48k emulator for Rockbox (Zproject’s
homepage). To start a game open a tape file or snapshot saved as .tap, .tzx, .z80 or
.sna in the file browser.
Note: As ZXBox is a 48k emulator only loading of 48k z80 snapshots is possible.
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Default keys
The emulator is set up for 5 different buttons: Up, Down, Left, Right and Jump/Fire.
Each one of these can be mapped to one key of the Spectrum Keyboard or they can be
used like a “Kempston” joystick. Per default the buttons, including an additional but
fixed menu button, are assigned as follows:
Key Action
Up/Down/
Left/Right
Directional movement
Mode Jump/Fire
On/Off Open ZXBox menu
ZXBox menu
Vkeyboard. This is a virtual keyboard representing the Spectrum keyboard. Controls
are the same as in standard Rockbox, but you just press one key instead of entering a phrase.
Play/Pause Tape. Toggles playing of the tape (if it is loaded).
Save Quick Snapshot. Saves snapshot into /.rockbox/zxboxq.z80.
Load Quick Snapshot. Loads snapshot from /.rockbox/zxboxq.z80.
Save Snapshot. Saves a snapshot of the current state. You would enter the full path
and desired name - for example /games/zx/snapshots/chuckie.sna. The
snapshot format will be chosen after the extension you specified, per default .z80
will be taken in case you leave it open.
Toggle Fast Mode. Toggles fastest possible emulation speed (no sound, maximum
frameskip etc.). This is Useful when loading tapes with some specific loaders.
Options. Map Keys To Kempston. Controls whether the player’s buttons should sim-
ulate a “Kempston” joystick or some assigned keys of the Spectrum keyboard.
Display Speed. Toggle displaying the emulation speed (in percent).
Invert Colors. Inverts the Spectum colour palette, sometimes helps visibility.
Frameskip Sets the number of frames to skip before displaying one. With zero
frameskip ZXBox tries to display 50 frames per second.
Sound. Turns sound on or off.
Volume. Controls volume of sound output.
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Predefined Keymap Select one of the predefined keymaps. For example 2W90Z
means: map ZXBox’s Up to 2, Down to W, Left to 9, Right to 0 and Jump/Fire
to Z. This example keymap is used in the “Chuckie Egg” game.
Custom Keymap This menu allows you to map one of the Spectrum keys acces-
sible through the plugin’s virtual keyboard to each one of the buttons.
Quit. Quits the emulator..
Hacking graphics
Due to ZXBox’s simple (but fast) scaling to the screen by dropping lines and columns
some games can become unplayable. It is possible to hack graphics to make them better
visible with the help of an utility such as the “Spectrum Graphics Editor”. Useful tools
can be found at the “World of Spectrum” site (http://www.worldofspectrum.org/utilities.
html).
10.4. Applications
10.4.1. Battery Benchmark
The Battery Benchmark Plugin enables you to test your battery’s performance, while
making normal use of your player. Once loaded it will run in the background (TSR plugin), reading various info about your battery while you use it. Once you finish your session you can find the benchmark output data in a file on your player /battery bench.txt.
Please submit your results to the Rockbox wiki. ZBatteryRuntime
How it works
After you load the plug-in the operation of your player continues as normal. You can
do whatever you could do before loading the plugin except loading another plugin.
If you happen to load a plugin while benchmarking, a splash screen will inform you
about the termination of the benchmark. While you operate it will log various battery
related information every time the disk is activated by external causes, (buffer refill,
open directory, USB mode) or an hour passes without updating the log file.
The plugin will continue to log info until:
• Another plugin is loaded.
• The player is shut down.
• The battery is empty.
Between disk activity (or an hour), it will log info in memory (every measurement is
captured when the voltage changes). If there are too many measurements older entries
will be deleted and the log file will inform the user about the interval where entries
were lost. Benchmarks can be resumed if you accidentally load a plugin, or turn off
your player, as long as the log file /battery bench.txt is not deleted.
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Information explained
On the top of the file you will see various info on how to use the plugin.
Time This column reports the total time of operation of the player. It is not the time
that you started the plug-in. If you have your player on for 5 minutes and then
start the plugin, it will start measuring from 5 minutes.
Seconds As time, it shows time passed in seconds. Nothing special, it is there because
it is free and maybe someone might want to make graphs with seconds.
Level The percent level of the battery estimated by Rockbox. This is an estimation
and not an accurate result. Using the real percentage (current battery voltage /
top battery voltage) * 100) we can calculate the difference between the estimation. Goal of this column is to make the estimation algorithm of Rockbox more
accurate.
Time Left It shows the estimated (by Rockbox) remaining time until shutdown. Again,
as with Level(above), this column can be used to see differences between real time
left and estimated time left. This could help make time left more accurate.
Voltage The battery voltage, the moment the measurement was captured. Measure-
ments are captured when this number changes while benchmarking. This column
can be used to give quite interesting graphs in a spreadsheet program. (Excel,
Calc, e.t.c)
M/DA (Measurements per Disk Activity) The number of measurements stored tem-
porarily in memory, before written on the log file. This can give you an idea
of how many voltage changes there are between disk activity (or one hour).
C Stands for Charger. An ”A” in that column shows if there was the power adapter
attached to the unit, at the time of the measurement.
S The ”S” column shows the state of the device (Charging, or not). The ”C” indicated
that the unit was charging when the measurement was captured.
U USB powered. Only for targets that support this. A ”U” will indicate if the unit was
using the USB port for powering.
Making graphs
While you can tell how long your battery lasted, with a single look at the last line of the
battery log (/battery bench.txt), the most useful purpose of Battery Benchmark
is to make graphs using a spreadsheet program like Excel or Calc. The battery log
(/battery
bench.txt) is in CSV format (comma separated) so you can quite easily
import it to a spreadsheet program.
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10.4.2. Calculator
Figure 10.36.: Calculator
This is a simple scientific calculator for use on the player. It works like a standard
calculator. Pressing the “1st” and “2nd” buttons will toggle between other available
math functions.
Key Action
Left / Right / Up
/ Down
Move around the keypad
Mode Select a button
Long Mode Calculate
On/Off Quit
10.4.3. Chess Clock
Figure 10.37.: Chess Clock
The chess clock plugin is designed to simulate a chess clock, but it can be used in any
kind of game with up to ten players.
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Setup
Key Action
Up / Down Increase / decrease displayed Value
Right Move to next screen
Mode Move to previous screen
• First enter the number of players (1–10)
• Then set the total game time in mm:ss
• Then the maximum round time is entered. For example, this could be used to play
Scrabble for a maximum of 15 minutes each, with each round taking no longer
than one minute.
• Done. Player 1 starts in paused mode.
While playing
The number of the current player is displayed on the top line. The time below is the
time remaining for that round (and possibly also the total time left if different).
Keys are as follows:
Key Action
On/Off Exit plugin
Left Restart round for the current player
Right Pause the time (press again to continue)
Up Switch to next player
Down Switch to previous player
Mode Open menu (Right to select.)
From the menu it is possible to delete a player, modify the round time for the current
player or set the total time for the game. When the round time is up for a player the
message “ROUND UP!” is shown (press NEXT to continue). When the total time is up
for a player the message “TIME UP!”is shown. The player will then be removed from
the timer.
10.4.4. Disk Tidy
Disk Tidy deletes junk files left behind by Windows, Linux or OS X after a USB connection. Select the OS’s files you want to delete in the ’Files to Clean’ menu and select ’Start
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Cleaning’ to begin to process. The settings are stored in .rockbox/rocks/apps/disktidy.config,
in a plain text file that is user-modifiable to allow more entries to be added.
Available Options
All selects all Linux, OS X, and Windows files.
None deselects all file options.
Linux selects Linux files. Default files are .dolphinview, .d3lphinview, and .Trash-*/.
Windows selects Windows files. Default files are Thumbs.db, RECYCLE.BIN, Desktop.ini,
/Recycled and /System Volume Information.
Mac selects OS X files. Default files are .*, .DS Store and /.Trashes.
Other selects additional files added in by the user.
Key Action
Left or On/Off Exit / Abort
10.4.5. Firmware flash
[Warning: Image ignored]
Firmware flash
Use when flashing Rockbox (see section ?? (page ??). In the ideal case, you’ll need
this tool only once. For safety reasons you may wish to delete firmware flash.rock from
/.rockbox/rocks once flashing is complete.
10.4.6. Keybox
Keybox is an encrypted password storage using the “Tiny Encryption Algorithm” with
a key derived using md5.
Using Keybox
To get started, start up the plugin and select ENTER KEYBOX. The first time you enter
Keybox you will be prompted for a master password and for confirmation of the master
password. The master password is the password that you must use to access your
stored passwords.
Once inside, enter the context menu by pressing Long Right. From the context menu
you can create new entries, delete entries and edit entries. Each entry has a “title”, a
“user name” and a “password”.
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Selecting RESE T KEYBOX from the main menu will delete the current list of passwords and a new, empty list will be created the next time you select ENTER KEYBOX
after prompting for a new master password. Entries are automatically saved when the
plugin is exited.
10.4.7. Random Folder Advance Configuration
This plugin is used to configure the folders which will be considered when the AutoChange Directory feature is set to RANDOM.
Menu
Generate Folder List Generates a list of all folders found on the player. You can filter
the directories which are scanned by creating a file called
/.rockbox/folder advance dir.txt. Only the directories in this file and
any contained directories will be scanned. You can have up to 10 directories ignored by the scan by placing a minus sign before them in the list (i.e. -/CDs will
cause everything in the /CDs directory to be ignored.). If you just want /CDs to
be ignored but want to include the folders within it you need to have both -/CDs
and CDs as entries.
Edit Folder List Enter the folder list editor
Export List To Textfile Exports the list to /.rockbox/folder advance list.txt
Import List From Textfile Imports the list from /.rockbox/folder advance list.txt
Quit
Folder List Editor Keys
Key Action
Right Delete selected folder
Long Right Bring up the context menu which allows
you to remove the selected folder or it’s
entire folder tree
Left or On/Off Exit
10.4.8. Split Editor
When recording an mp3 file, it is common practice to start the recording a little bit
early and stop it a little bit late to ensure all the desired sound is recorded. This results
in recordings that contain extra snippets of sound in the beginning and the end. Unfortunately these snippets can not be deleted easily because they are stored in the same
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file as the desired recording. The purpose of the split editor is to split an mp3 file (the
input file) at a point in time (split point). Two new files can be generated from the input
file. The first file contains the part before the split point and the second file contains the
part after the split point. Once this process has been successful the original file can be
deleted or kept as a backup. The whole process of splitting an mp3 file consists of three
steps:
• Defining the split point
• Generating the result files
• If desired deleting the input file (with the browser, not the split editor)
How To Use The Split Editor
When the device plays the song just hit the On/Off button to pause, when playback has
roughly reached the split point. This need not be very precise as the split point can be
fine tuned later. A screen similar to the one below will appear.
Figure 10.38.: The Split Editor’s Main Screen
The Split Editor’s Main Screen
The waveform displays the volume of the song over time. It will appear as the song
plays and help to visually identify the point in time where the split is desired
The split point indicator is a vertical line with a small triangle at the top end. It is the
most important control element of the split editor. It can be moved with the Left
and Right buttons. Later, when you have fine tuned the split point, the song will
be split at this position.
The split time At the top of the window a time value is displayed. This is the point in
time within the song at which the split point indicator is positioned.
The locator Another vertical bar represents the position locator. It moves along as the
song plays. In contrast to the split point indicator it has no triangles at the ends.
The time bar displays the current position within the song relative to the whole song.
The entire length of the time bar represents the song length. The length of the
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solid part of the time bar represents the position and length of the displayed part
of the song.
The scale mode On the right side of the bottom line the scale mode is displayed. The
waveform can be scaled either logarithmically or linearly. In logarithmic scale
mode the letters “dB” are displayed, in linear mode “%”. Use Mode + Right
to switch between these modes. Linear mode usually gives better optical hints
with commercially recorded music. For quiet recordings, especially of human
speech, the logarithmic scale often is preferable. More information in the Scale
section 10.4.8 (page 100) below.
The loop mode In the middle of the bottom line the loop mode icon is displayed.
There are 4 different loop modes. Pressing Mode + Up changes to the next loop
mode.
Playback loops around the split point indicator. This mode is best used when
searching and zooming for the desired point at which to split the recording.
Playback loops from the split point indicator to the end of the visible area.
This mode is best used when fine tuning the split indicator position at the
beginning of a recording.
Playback loops from the beginning of the visible area to the split point. This
mode is best used when fine tuning the split indicator position at the end of
a recording.
Playback does not loop, the borders of the visible area as well as the split
point indicator are ignored. This mode is best used when playing the song
outside of the borders of the displayed region.
Perform the split (8) The icon above the Left button indicates its function to execute
the split. When split positioning is complete open the save dialogue with Mode
+ Left.
Key Action
On/Off Quit plugin
Left / Right Move the split point indicator
Up / Down Zoom in / out
Mode Play from the split position
Mode + Left Enter the save dialogue
Mode + Up Toggle loop modes
Mode + Right Toggle logarithmic / linear scaling
Table 10.1.: Controls in the split editor
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Save dialogue
In the save dialogue it is possible to specify which of the files you want to save and their
names. When finished, select “Save” and the files will be written to disk. Note that files
can not be overwritten, so filenames that do not exist yet must be chosen. If unsure
whether the file already exists simply try to save it. If another file with this name exists
the dialogue will return and you can choose another filename
Figure 10.39.: The Split Editor’s Save Dialogue
Key Action
Up / Down Select item
Right Toggle / edit item
On/Off Cancel
Table 10.2.: Controls in the save dialogue
Scale
The values in the waveform are scaled according to the settings of the peak meter. These
can be altered in the peak meter settings, see section 7.5 (page 49). If extreme minimum
or maximum values are set the waveform might be cut off. A minimum setting of -60 dB
and a maximum setting of 0 dB are recommended. These settings should be capable of
producing useful waveforms for very soft sounds in logarithmic mode (dB). When the
editor is used on loud sounds (such as commercial rock or pop music) switching to the
linear scale may prove more effective since the logarithmic scale compresses loud noises
and makes it more difficult to identify characteristic shapes. Note that it is always
possible to toggle between the two scale modes.
THE ROCK BOX MANUAL ARCHOS ONDI O
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