RockBox

Mark McCrosky Flash Memory News

What is Rockbox? Rockbox is an open source software replacement for a larger number of MP3 players. Since Rockbox is open source this means an infinitely larger number of developers are constantly working on Rockbox…kinda like WordPress blogging software. Rockbox aims to provide more functionality and efficiency to MP3 players.

rockbox logo

In addition, Rockbox is a great management tool for flash memory. For example, I just found out Rockbox may be used to run microSDHC cards on microSD compatible devices. Although the Rockbox solution might not work for all devices, it’s a great place to start when looking for possible solutions. Here are some key features of Rockbox:

Support for over 15 Sound Codecs, including OGG and FLAC
Gapless playback
5-band fully-parametric equalizer, and crossfeed
High-resolution volume control, 64-100 levels (model-dependent)
Abilty to create your own themes or use user-uploaded ones
Advanced crossfading
ReplayGain support (volume normalization)
Cuesheet support
Album Art Support
JPEG image and text-file viewing
Doom!
MPEG video support
Real Time Clock (RTC)
Customizable Tag Database
Unicode support
Advanced On-The-Go playlist creation
Multilingual Interface – 30 supported languages and counting
Optional spoken interface
Many plugins – games, apps, and demos
Open Source, so Rockbox is constantly improved

You can load different configurations quickly for different purposes (e.g. a large font for in your car, different sound settings for at home). You can even customize your While Playing screen to display only and exactly what you want to see when your music is playing. In addition, Rockbox features a 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. The players supported by Rockbox are impressive. Visit the Rockbox home page for more details.

Tags: MicroSD, MicroSDHC, rockbox

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Mark McCrosky

Kicking around in technology since 2002. I like to write about technology products and ideas, but at the consumer level understanding. Some tech, but not too techie. Posting on Quora.com as well.