[APP] ROCKBOX - music player (touch screen)

[kiwiguy]

Rockbox - Touchscreen music player (in English)

I finally got around to loading the latest version of Rockbox on my A1200 today (even though it is now a couple of months old) and found that it really is a nice player.

This is the version dated 20071215 created by motorolafans developer, blackhawk, obtained from the Rockbox for E680/A780 thread in the developer's forum

However, it took me awhile to figure out how to install it and use it - as the instructions are scattered in many different posts - so here is an attempt to provide clear Install and Use Instructions for Rockbox on the the A1200/E6 in one place!

Install Instructions

I have pulled all of the files you need into the 1 zip file attached to this post. It includes both a normal and portrait mode mpkg install file - so you can select which one you want to install (or install both)


This file is for the A1200 and E6 only

1. Download the attached file and unzip.
2. Copy the folder rockbox to the root folder of your SD card (i.e mmca/mmca1/rockbox). Make sure you use lowercase.
3. Open the folder and click on either the rockbox.portrait-a1200-e6.pkg or the rockbox-a1200.pkg file to install it (It installed fine using Smart Asst on my 53P)
4. After the install the Rockbox icon should appear in the application manager

How to Use Rockbox

It supports *.mp3, ogg, wma, aac in mp4 container, mpc, wav, wv files. Supports 18 audio codec! Does not support video files.

Rockbox consists of a main play screen (fig 3) and a number of menu screens for selecting songs (fig 2), saving and retrieving playlists, changing themes, changing the equalizer settings, and many, many other options. You navigate around Rockbox using the joystick or the side buttons.

No matter where you are the following buttons have these functions:

Left Top : previous screen
Left Bottom : display main Play screen
Top Left (Camera): exit

Also:
Left Center : Creates screen dump file (so avoid clicking)
Green Send - Hold (not able to figure out what this does!)
Red End - nothing

Menu Screens


All of the menu screens are touch sensitive so you can use the stylus to navigate and select menu options

• Touch stylus at top of screen to go up a menu.
• The option "Now Playing" or the Left Buttom button returns you to main Play screen.
• THe joystick can also be used to navigate and click down to select.

Main Play screen

The main play screen is not touch sensitive. Here you have to use the joystick and the other side buttons
The joystick performs multiple functions depending on how long you hold it down!!

Joystick:
Left - quick : previous file
Left - hold: rewind (same song)
Right - quick : next song
Right - hold : fast forward (same song)
Top : volume down
Bottom : volume up
Click - quick : Open files
Click - hold : Options Menu

Left Bottom button: pause/play toggle

Minimizing

The only way to minimize Rockbox is to close the flip - and it will keep playing (though there is no way to control it with flip closed). When you reopen flip, I have not been able to find a way to return to Rockbox. You have to reboot phone to stop it.

Themes

The installed version comes with 4 themes. The one displayed in the screen shots is "cabbie unifont". If when you first install the app, the writing is very tiny, then you have 1 of the other themes. The first thing you should do is change it to cabbie unifont.

Album Art

To have rockbox display album art, you need to put a 100*100 image of the album with the name 'cover.bmp' in the song folder and the Album art will be applicable to all the songs.

For individual song you'll have to do the same size but the name should be same as the name of the song. For e.g. Lakshya.mp3 will have album art as Lakshya.bmp of size 100*100.

Landscape Mode

You are able to flip the screen in landscape mode by going to Settings - General - Display - LCD - Upside Down. However, there is a known bug with this change: do not use RIGHT button when changing the value (Yes/No). Use the SELECT button. (If you use the
RIGHT button, all buttons will stop responding until you press the RIGHT button again).


Known Issues


Even though this is a great app, it has a couple of known issues:

• On incoming calls Rockbox does not stop playing music. Even when you answer or make call - it continues playing so you need to quit player (or pause music) before making or answering calls.
• FM radio option not working on A1200/E6
• Fire, mosaique, plasma, midiplay, mp3_encoder, mpegplayer make Rockbox crash
• Some users have reported if you lower the volume using Rockbox then exit the app, the phones ringtones and speaker volume will be muc lower also. Have to restart rockbox and increase volume again.
• No controls available with closed flip.
• If you have Rockbox playing and you close the flip, there is no way to return to the application. If you tap on the Rockbox icon again it will start a second copy, but as soon as you try to go to the Play screen, it will freeze and you have to reboot phone. (One user reported you can click on the Red End button to return to Rockbox - but that does not work on my fw) This to me is the killer bug that stops me from using Rockbox more often!

All of the above was taken from reading about 20 different posts and my own experience with the application. Please feel free to post additional info or corrections and I will update this main summary!

[erichs_tan]

Actually i am Rokr E6 user.but i always look in A1200 forum too bcause I love this A1200 forum.its very completed and update links.Applause and Spesial Thanks for u and all moderator in A1200 forum.guide of modding,explanation about application and modification is nice.And all of application is moved to 1 thread (A1200 modification and hacks) is nice too so all user can find easily.hope our forum better and better.thanks kiwiguy for ur guide.i believe its usefull guide for us and spesially newbie.

[Konig]

1. The size of the bmp should be 100*100
2. Huge set of themes avalable at WpsIpod5g TWiki. Just extract the folder from the archives and add them to /mmc/mmca1/rockbox/archos/.rockbox

[Ice[z]]

No controls available with closed flip. Rockbox will continue to play, but no way to return to it. If you tap on the Rockbox icon again, it will start again, but as soon as you try to return to the Play screen, it will freeze and you have to reboot phone.

push the red button to return to rockbox

There is no way to minimize app and do other tasks with phone and then return to Rockbox.

close-open flip

[twitchthecat]

Rockbox - Touchscreen music player (in English)[*]Fire, mosaique, plasma, midiplay, mp3_encoder, mpegplayer make Rockbox crash
COLOR]

About the mpeg player causing the program to crash. Mpegs are video files right? I guess two questons then - are there other video formats that won't cause a crash?

Kiwiguy, thanks for the help. I am going to look for another firmware first to get rid of the annoying ring tones on Ahman's hybrid firmware and the less than useful voice recognition ability, then i'll get smartassist and then i'll download Rockbox.

Regards

[MANUP456]

Its a MUSIC Player no videos.Theres other Video players you could use just use search to find a video player.But i think converting your videos to rmvb format would be your best bet.It looks the really good doesn't take up much memory an works with realplayer.

[telectroguy]

BUG:

The album art for each song dose not changr automatically when the song changes ....the right or the left button needs to be pressed...............

[twitchthecat]

Thanks for the info. I'll search the threads but is there any consensus on a good video player?

[MANUP456]

Check out this post there is a great video converter it converts videos to rmvb.I use this im not really using any video app.
Movies on A1200 -- UPDATE 3 Ghostrider +BORAT is here - MotorolaFans.com Forums

[erichs_tan]

teletroguy,what u mean bug album art cant change automatically when song changes.in my Rokr E6,its change.maybe u have wrong setting.please try to read my post in album art in Rockbox in moto skin discussion.hope it will be clear and can solve ur problem.thx