From: BlueChip <cs_bluechip_at_webtribe.net>
Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2005 13:37:06 +0000

Nice to hear some negative points on the iRiver for a change ...sorry to
hear that it is not perfect for you right now, but it does seem that all
your 'complaints' (if that is the right word) seem to be firmware and not
hardware problems :)

Thank Dog the put a sensible USB socket on it, the Archos Socket-A is the
bain of musical life.

BC

At 12:24 15/01/2005, you wrote:
>My new H-140 arrived today, and here are my first impressions, from the
>point of view of a long-time Rockbox user on the Archos JBR.
>
>Firstly, size and weight. The iRiver is slightly smaller and slightly
>lighter than the JBR, but not significantly. Most of the perceived size
>difference is due to the lack of bumpers on the four corners and the
>curved battery compartments on the archos.
>
>The iRiver has the more standard USB "B" socket on it, so that's more
>convenient than Archos's choice of using an A socket. The screen is
>much larger, and the other physical difference is that the iRiver's
>buttons are spread around the unit - some on the front, and others on
>the left and right sides. On the Archos they are all together on the front.
>
>Now to playback - most of the files I listen to on my Archos are
>"time-shifted" recordings from digital radio - these are MP2 files. So
>my first test was to copy some of these to the iRiver.
>
>These ".mp2" files weren't even recognised in the file browser. I then
>tried the obvious hack and renamed them to ".mp3". The iRiver still
>didn't play them. So my new "multi-codec jukebox" can't play 90% of the
>files on my old Archos...
>
>My next test was a .wma file that I recorded from a webcast. This was a
>48KHz Stereo 128kbps file. The iRiver didn't like this - there was
>constant clicking during playback and it also seemed to be playing back
>slower than it should be. My best guess is that the iRiver was playing
>it back at 44.1KHz.
>
>I then tried out the WAV playback by converting a short 48KHz ".mp2"
>file to a 48KHz WAV. This played back perfectly. Not trusting my
>hearing 100%, I double-checked that the iRiver was indeed playing back
>at 48KHz by playing the file back simultaneously on both my PC and
>iRiver. They stayed in perfect sync. So at least I know there are no
>hardware problems with 48KHz playback.
>
>I then compressed that WAV file to .ogg using the default settings of
>"oggenc" - I just typed "oggenc file.wav", which gave me an average
>bitrate of 107.0 kb/s. The iRiver refused to play this file -
>attempting to play it just caused it to think for a few seconds and then
>move on to the next file in at directory.
>
>Next test was a 48KHz MP3 - no problems there.
>
>I then converted my WAV file to 44.1KHz and then re-encoded to ogg -
>again, no problems.
>
>As a final test, I re-encoded my 44.1KHz WAV file to a 192kbps MP2 using
>"toolame". This failed in the same way as my 48KHz MP2 files.
>
>So to conclude:
>
>OGG - only works at 44.1Khz, not 48KHz
>MP2 - no playback at either frequency
>WMA - doesn't work at 48KHz
>WAV/MP3 - works at both frequencies.
>
>But apart from the fact that the iRiver can't play back any of my
>recordings, I'm happy I bought it and I think I would recommend it as an
>upgrade to any other Archos owners - assuming we can get Rockbox working.
>
>Regards,
>
>Dave.
>_______________________________________________
>http://cool.haxx.se/mailman/listinfo/rockbox

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Received on 2005-01-15