Hi Sarai,

now _that_ is a long list of questions. I'll start and do my best, I
hope the other list members will correct me and add things I forgot.
See my answers below...

Sarai D. Bucciarelli wrote:
> 1. The text file of the manual is written pretty descriptively, but I can't
> navigate to different sections. Is there a search string I can put in to
> find things? Can you guys mark page numbers, create hyper links from the
> table of contents, or something?

Did you notice that there's also a pdf and an open office version of the
manual on the rockbox website? Perhaps you can navigate better with one
of those. You could also try to use the headline of the chapter you're
interested in (as printed in the table of contents) as search string.

> 2. What exactly is flashing the Rock Box, what are advantages and
> disadvantages?

After switching on your jukebox, it executes a program which is stored
in a flashable chip. This program is your stock firmware which tries to
load the ajbrec.ajz from disk afterwards. By flashing your jukebox, you
overwrite the contents of this chip with rockbox code. The main
advantage is the speedup of the boot process. Disadvantages are that you
are really screwed up if something goes wrong (it's like reprogramming
your mainboard bios). But that is not a real concern, because the
reflashing procedure is well documented, well tested and has many saftey
stages.

See
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/FlashingRockbox
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/BlindFlashing

or manual chapter 7: Rockbox in flash

> 3. How do I tell the status of my battery and the time?

IIRC the battery status and the time are spoken in the info menu.

> 4. In the manual it says something about a safe way to shut down the player,
> something different then turning it off, I still don't understand how to do
> it, can some one explain?

If you have a new recorder model (V2), simply hold the off button. It
will shut down in a safe way automatically, there's no difference for
the user in this case.

> 5. Under the rock box menu, there is a choice for version, but when I hit
> enter on it, nothing happens, what am I doing wrong?

Nothing, there's only a screen displaying the version you've loaded at
the moment, but it's not spoken.

> 6. What do the other f keys do? I push them and nothing happens.

They invoke a short menu (in combination with other keys). Read chapter
4: Quick Screen Menus in the manual for details.

> 7. How do I create and edit play lists? When I click on creating a play
> list, nothing happens?

Are you sure. Normally your hard disk should spin up and a play list of
all files and subdirectories in the current directory should be
generated.

> Can I use winamp to create them?

Yes, rockbox reads winamp m3u-playlists fine.

> Can I add or remove songs from play lists?

The normal way of generating playlists in rockbox is to select songs or
directories in the file browser and "insert" them into your current
playlist (on+play menu, see manual for details). You can then save the
current playlist using the f1 menu. If you want to remove songs or
rearrange them, use the playlist viewer (or your computer).

> I now have music in folders, should I put them in
> play lists instead? Will play lists save more space on the player?

If you use playlists, you still need the mp3s of course. Playlists are
just a plain text list of files to play. Actually you can use a normal
text editor program like notepad to edit them.

> 8. Some times the speech won't read all of the word in the menus, is this a
> bug?

No, the voiced menus have to fit in your 2 MB memory of the jukebox,
that's why only those menu entries which are necessary and helpful are
included.

> Can I make the speech read faster?

You would have to create your own voice font for this. Have you tried
the several ones which are available on the rockbox site?

> Can you guys make it read
> songs/directories w/o spelling everything out, have it read like the menus,
> by words?

See
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/VoiceHowto

or manual chapter 2.7 Voice

> 9. How can I get the info on screen to read when the song is playing?

Doesn't work due to hardware limitations.

> 10. I can't get anything to read when charging the player. What do I do?

If you plug in the charger and your jukebox was switched off before, the
archos software doesn't load rockbox automatically. It stays in the
archos charging screen. You could either plug in the charger after
switching on your jukebox or flash rockbox to prevent this behaviour.

> 11. According to the FAQ, Archos won't support wma files, but if I buy them
> from these web sites, can I use CDEX to convert them to MP3's?

If you don't have any copyright limitations, yes.

> 12. Can Archos support books from Audible?

No, you have to convert them to mp3s

> 13. Can I delete the other langs b/s English, and the fonts and games from
> Rockbox? If not, do they waist space on the player?

You can delete them, but it won't save you much space. In any case, they
will reappear if you update rockbox.

> 14. Kurzweil is an OCR program that is for blind users, you can create MP3's
> >from books, will these play on the player?

Yes, if they are ordinary mp3s.

> 15. You guys keep coming out wiht a daily build, do I have to download these
> every day? If so, do I have to delete files b/f hand, or will the files just
> be replaced?

You don't have to download the daily build every day. Regard it as
service for those who want to have the newest features as soon as
possible. Just overwrite your old version with the new one, no problem.

> 16. I just downloaded the daily build and not V 2.3, is that okay? It seems
> to work fine, but not sure if I'm right?

Yes, that's fine.

> 16. Archos is coming out with a new 20 GB player, I can't remember the name,
> but the unit is smaller, is it accessible? Are you guys making rock box for
> it?

Unlikely. Do you mean the Gmini? The main developers are currently
working on porting rockbox to the iRiver series of harddisk based
players.

> 17. The rock box players that can store photos and movies, I can see some
> and would love one of these players, will Rock box ever be made for them?

Unlikely

> 18. The manual touched on a car adapter, is this a charger? If so, where
> does it plug in, how much is it, and where can I get it?

If you use your jukebox in a car and have a charger for the car
(universal charger or the archos model), you can have your jukebox start
automatically when you start the engine of the car. But you have to
flash your jukebox for this (see car adapter mode in the manual)

> 19. Is there an adapter I can buy to play the music through the car stereo?
> If so, does it drain the battery? Where does it plug in and where can I buy
> it?

Depends on your car stereo. Some have direct line in possiblities
(Aiwa), but for most you need a special adapter which simulates a cd
changer in order to make the line in sockets usable.

HTH, Andreas

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Received on Thu Dec 16 18:45:24 2004