In an earlier thread I mentioned that I had reflashed my iPod video to be able to dual boot into either Rockbox or Apple mode.

The biggest downfall of running Rockbox back then was that the battery lasted like 1/3 of the time.

Until the a couple of days ago I've been living with this battery inefficient version of Rockbox. I've upgraded to a new version and the battery duration has improved also the roller wheel is better behaved but does not yet click.

Here is the big reason to run Rockbox. Despite my poopooing on the sound quality of the iPod I've discovered that it is the Apple firmware that has a lot to do with poor sound quality. It is in fact filtering all the high frequencies off not to deafen you and avoid Apple a class action law suit. The iPod hardware can pump out some pretty serious sound, the bass is not strong enough for my liking, even with these Sony EX headphones, which they told me to buy over the ShureA3 to listen to Techno. I would not like to know what this thing can do to your ear drums with something like Shure earphones, which is meant to render high frequencies far better.

Beware not to listen to listen to Rockbox in noisy environments such as the MTR and you will be feeding high frequencies at a high volume to your ear drums will feel it after a while.

Rockbox does have some high frequency capping but I can't seem to get it to do much other than use the graphic equalizer and adjust things myself. So far only the software equalizer is working not the hardware one. Another thing that they are yet not using to decode the MPG4 is the video decompression hardware. Whilst the software version works it is not as efficient as the super low battery consumption video decompression chip.

In the same way that a few years ago I started to alternate between Firefox and IE, I am now rebooting the unit one mode or another. For audio books and video I run it on Apple mode, but when I want to treat myself to some crisp clear music or want to play FLAC or OGG files I boot it up in Rockbox mode. Its another world compared to the Apple firmware.