4.  Browsing and playing

4.1.  File Browser

Figure 4.1: The file browser

Rockbox lets you browse your music in either of two ways. The File Browser lets you navigate through the files and folders on your player, entering folders and executing the default action on each file. To help differentiate files, each file format is displayed with an icon.

The Database Browser, on the other hand, allows you to navigate through the music on your player using categories like album, artist, genre, etc.

You can select whether to browse using the File Browser or the Database Browser by selecting either Files or Database in the Main Menu. If you choose the File Browser, the Show Files setting lets you select what types of files you wish to view. See section 7.3 for more information on the Show Files setting.

Note: The File Browser allows you to manipulate your files in ways that are not available within the Database Browser. Read more about Database in section 4.2. The remainder of this section deals with the File Browser.

4.1.1.  File Browser Controls

4.1.2.  File Menu

Figure 4.2: The File Menu

The File Menu allows you to perform certain operations on files or folders. To access the File Menu, position the selector over a file or folder and access the context menu with Submenu.

Note: The File Menu is a context sensitive menu. If the File Menu is invoked on a file, it will display options available for files. If the File Menu is invoked on a folder or directory, it will display options for directories.

The File Menu contains the following options (unless otherwise noted, each option pertains both to files and directories):

Playlist.

Enters the Playlist Submenu (see section 4.4.3).

Playlist Catalog.

Enters the Playlist Catalog Submenu (see section 4.4.2).

Rename.

This function lets the user modify the name of a file or directory.

Cut.

Copies the name of the currently selected file or directory to the clipboard and marks it to be ‘cut’.

Copy.

Copies the name of the currently selected file or directory to the clipboard and marks it to be ‘copied’.

Paste.

Only visible if a file or directory name is on the clipboard. When selected it will move or copy the clipboard to the current directory.

Delete.

Deletes the currently selected file. This option applies only to files, and not to directories. Rockbox will ask for confirmation before deleting a file. Press Select to confirm deletion or any other key to cancel.

Delete Directory.

Deletes the currently selected directory and all of the files and folders contained in the selected directory. Deleted directories cannot be recovered. Use this feature with caution!

Open with.

Runs a viewer plugin on the file. Normally, when a file is selected in Rockbox, Rockbox automatically detects the file type and runs the appropriate plugin. The Open With function can be used to override the default action and select a viewer by hand. For example, this function can be used to view a text file even if the file has a non-standard extension (i.e., the file has an extension of something other than .txt). See section 9.3 for more details on viewers.

Create Directory.

Create a new directory in the current directory on the disk.

Properties.

Shows properties such as size and the time and date of the last modification for the selected file. If used on a directory, the number of files and sub directories in that directory will be shown, as well as the total size.

Set As Recording Directory.

Save recordings in the selected directory.

4.1.3.  Virtual Keyboard

Figure 4.3: The virtual keyboard

This is the virtual keyboard that is used when entering text in Rockbox, for example when renaming a file or creating a new directory.

4.2.  Database

4.2.1.  Introduction

This chapter describes the Rockbox music database system. Using the information contained in the tags (ID3v1, ID3v2, Vorbis Comments, Apev2, etc.) in your audio files, Rockbox builds and maintains a database of the music files on your player and allows you to browse them by Artist, Album and Genre.

4.2.2.  Initializing the database

The first time you use the database, Rockbox will scan your disk for audio files. This can take quite a while depending on the number of files on your player. This scan happens in the background, so you can choose to return to the Main Menu and continue to listen to music. If you shut down your player, the scan will continue next time you turn it on. After the scan is finished you may be prompted to restart your player before you can use the database.

4.2.3.  The Database Menu

Load To Ram.

The database can either be kept on disk (to save memory), or loaded into RAM (for fast browsing). Setting this to Yes loads the database to RAM, allowing faster browsing and searching. Setting this option to No keeps the database on the disk, meaning slower browsing but it does not use extra RAM and saves some battery on boot up.

Note: If you browse your music frequently using the database, you should load to RAM, as this will reduce the overall battery consumption because the disk will not need to spin on each search.

Auto Update.

If Auto update is set to on, each time the player boots, the database will automatically be updated.

Note: The Auto Update will only check for deleted files if the Directory Cache (Settings → General Settings → System → Disk → Directory Cache) is enabled. Update now includes that check whether dircache has been enabled or not.

Initialize Now.

You can force Rockbox to rescan your disk for tagged files by using the Initialize Now function in the Database Menu.

Warning: Initialize Now removes all database files (removing runtimedb data also) and rebuilds the database from scratch.

Update Now.

Update now causes the database to detect new and deleted files

Note: Unlike the Auto Update function, Update Now will update the database regardless of whether the Directory Cache is enabled. Thus, an update using Update now may take a long time.

Unlike Initialize Now, the Update Now function does not remove runtime database information.

Gather Runtime Data.

When enabled, rockbox will record how often and how long a track is being played, when it was last played and its rating. This information can be displayed in the WPS and is used in the database browser to, for example, show the most played, unplayed and most recently played tracks.

Export modifications.

This allows for the runtime data to be exported to the file
/.rockbox/database_changelog.txt, which backs up the runtime data in ASCII format. This is needed when database structures change, because new code cannot read old database code. But, all modifications exported to ASCII format should be readable by all database versions.

Import modifications.

Allows the /.rockbox/database_changelog.txt backup to be conveniently loaded into the database. If Auto Update is enabled this is performed automatically when the database is initialized.

4.2.4.  Using the database

Once the database has been initialized, you can browse your music by Artist, Album, Genre and Song Name. To use the database, go to the Main Menu and select Database.

Note: You may need to increase the value of the Max files in dir browser setting (Settings → General Settings → System → Limits) in order to view long lists of tracks in the ID3 database browser.

There is no option to turn off database completely. If you do not want to use it just don’t do the initial build of the database and do not load it to RAM.

4.3.  While Playing Screen

The While Playing Screen (WPS) displays various pieces of information about the currently playing audio file. The appearance of the WPS can be configured using WPS configuration files. The items shown depend on your configuration – all item can be turned on or off independently. Refer to section B for details on how to change the display of the WPS.

• Status bar: The Status bar shows Battery level, charger status, volume, play mode, repeat mode, shuffle mode and clock. In contrast to all other items, the status bar is always at the top of the screen.

• (Scrolling) path and filename of the current song.
• The ID3 track name.
• The ID3 album name.
• The ID3 artist name.
• Bit rate. VBR files display average bitrate and “(avg)”
• Elapsed and total time.
• A slidebar progress meter representing where in the song you are.
• Peak meter.

See section 10.2 for details of customising your WPS (While Playing Screen).

4.3.1.  WPS Key Controls

4.3.2.  Peak Meter

The peak meter can be displayed on the While Playing Screen and consists of several indicators. For a picture of the peak meter, please see the While Recording Screen in section 5.8.1.

The bar:

This is the wide horizontal bar. It represents the current volume value.

The peak indicator:

This is a little vertical line at the right end of the bar. It indicates the peak volume value that occurred recently.

The clip indicator:

This is a little black block that is displayed at the very right of the scale when an overflow occurs. It usually does not show up during normal playback unless you play an audio file that is distorted heavily. If you encounter clipping while recording, your recording will sound distorted. You should lower the gain.

Note: Note that the clip detection is not very precise. Clipping might occur without being indicated.

The scale:

Between the indicators of the right and left channel there are little dots. These dots represent important volume values. In linear mode each dot is a 10% mark. In dbfs mode the dots represent the following values (from right to left): 0db, -3db, -6db, -9db, -12db, -18db, -24db, -30db, -40db, -50db, -60db.

4.3.3.  The WPS Context Menu

Like the context menu for the File Browser, the WPS Context Menu allows you quick access to some often used functions:

Sound Settings

This is a shortcut to the Sound Settings Menu, where you can configure volume, bass, treble, and other settings affecting the sound of your music. See section 6 for more information.

Playlist

The Playlist submenu allows you to view, save, search and reshuffle the current playlist. To change settings for the Playlist Viewer press Power while viewing the playlist to bring up the Playlist Viewer Menu.

Playlist catalog

View catalog.

This lists all playlists that are part of the Playlist catalog. You can load a new playlist directly from this list.

Add to playlist.

Adds the currently playing file to a playlist. Select the playlist you want the file to be added to and it will get appended to that playlist.

Add to new playlist.

Similar to the previous entry this will add the currently playing track to a playlist. You need to enter a name for the new playlist first.

Rating

The menu entry is only shown if Gather Runtime Information is enabled. It allows the asignment of a personal rating value (0 – 10) to a track which can be displayed in the WPS and used in the Database browser. Press Right to increment the value. The value wraps at 10.

Bookmarks

This allows you to create a bookmark in the currently-playing track.

Show ID3 info

Figure 4.4: The ID3 viewer

This screen is accessible from the WPS screen, and provides a detailed view of all the identity information about the current track. This info is known as meta data and is stored in audio file formats to keep information on artist, album etc. To access this screen,

Open With...

This Open With function is the same as the Open With function in the File Context Menu.

Pitch

The Pitch Screen allows you to change the pitch and (at the same time) the playback speed of your player. The pitch value can be adjusted between 50% and 200%. 50% means half the normal playback speed and the pitch that’s an octave lower than the normal pitch. 200% means double playback speed and the pitch that’s an octave higher than the normal pitch. It’s not possible to change the pitch without changing the playback speed and vice versa. Changing the pitch can be done in two modes: procentual and semitone. Initially (after the player is switched on), procentual mode is active.

Graphical EQ

This is a shortcut to the Equalizer. See section 6.8.

Browse EQ Presets

Browse presets for the Equalizer.

4.4.  Working with Playlists

This section is currently in a half written state, with possible errors and a lot of stuff missing. Please help us fix this chapter by submitting additions/corrections to the tracker

4.4.1.  Playlist terminology

Some common terms that are used in Rockbox when referring to playlists:

Directory.

A playlist! One of the keys to getting the most out of Rockbox is understanding that Rockbox always considers the song that it is playing to be part of a playlist, and in some situations, Rockbox will create a playlist automatically. For example, if you are playing the contents of a directory, Rockbox will automatically create a playlist containing the songs in that directory. This means that just about anything that is described in this chapter with respect to playlists also applies to directories.

Dynamic playlist.

A dynamic playlist is a playlist that is created “On the fly.” Any time you insert or queue tracks using the Playlist submenu (see section 4.4.3), you are creating (or adding to) a dynamic playlist.

Insert.

In Rockbox, to Insert an item into a playlist means putting an item into a playlist and leaving it there, even after it is played. As you will see later in this chapter, Rockbox can Insert into a playlist in several places.

Queue.

In Rockbox, to Queue a song means to put the song into a playlist and then to remove the song from the playlist once it has been played. The only difference between Insert and Queue is that the Queue option removes the song from the playlist once it has been played, and the Insert option does not.

4.4.2.  Creating playlists

Rockbox can create playlists in four different ways.

By selecting (“playing”) a song from the File Browser

Whenever a song is selected from the File Browser with Select, Rockbox will automatically create a playlist containing all of the songs in that directory and start playback with the selected song.

Note: If you already have created a dynamic playlist, playing a new song will erase the current dynamic playlist and create a new one. If you want to add a song to the current playlist rather than erasing the current playlist, see the section below on how to add music to a playlist.

By using Insert and Queue functions

If playback is stopped, the Insert and Queue functions can be used as described in 4.4.3 to create a new playlist instead of adding to an existing one. This will erase any dynamic playlist.

By using the Playlist catalog

The Playlist catalog makes it possible to modify and create playlists that are not currently playing. To do this select Playlist catalog in the File Menu. There you will have two choices, Add to playlist adds the selected track or directory to an existing playlist and Add to a new playlist creates a new playlist containing the selected track or directory.

Note: All playlists in the Playlist catalog are stored in the /Playlists directory in the root of your player’s harddisk and playlists stored in other locations are not included in the catalog. It is however possible to move existing playlists there (see section 4.1.2).

By using the Main Menu

To create a playlist containing all music on your player, you can use the Create Playlist command in the Playlist Options menu found in the Main Menu. The created playlist will be named root.m3u and saved in the root of your player’s harddisk.

4.4.3.  Adding music to playlists

Adding music to a dynamic playlist

Figure 4.5: The Playlist Submenu

The Playlist Submenu is a submenu in the File Menu (see section 4.1.2), it allows you to put tracks into a “dynamic playlist”. If there is no music currently playing, Rockbox will create a new dynamic playlist and put the selected track(s) into it. If there is music currently playing, Rockbox will put the selected track(s) into the current playlist. The place in which the newly selected tracks are added to the playlist is determined by the following options:

Insert.

Add track(s) immediately after any tracks added via the most recent Insert operation. If no tracks have yet been added via an Insert, new tracks will be added immediately after the current playing track. If playback is stopped a new dynamic playlist will get created with the selected tracks.

Insert next.

Add track(s) immediately after current playing track, no matter what else has been inserted.

Insert last.

Add track(s) to end of playlist.

Queue.

Queue is the same as Insert except queued tracks are deleted immediately from the playlist after they’ve been played. Also, queued tracks are not saved to the playlist file (see section 5.10).

Queue next.

Queue track(s) immediately after current playing track.

Queue last.

Queue track(s) at end of playlist.

Play next.

Replaces all but the current playing track with track(s). Current playing track is queued.

The Playlist Submenu can be used to add either single tracks or entire directories to a playlist. If the Playlist Submenu is invoked on a single track, it will put only that track into the playlist. On the other hand, if the Playlist Submenu is invoked on a directory, Rockbox adds all of the tracks in that directory to the playlist.

Note: You can control whether or not Rockbox includes the contents of sub-directories when adding an entire directory to a playlists. Set the Settings → General Settings → Playlist → Recursively Insert Directories setting to Yes if you would like Rockbox to include tracks in sub-directories as well as tracks in the currently-selected directory.

Dynamic playlists are saved so resume will restore them exactly as they were before shutdown.

Note: To view, save or reshuffle the current dynamic playlist use the Playlist sub menu in the WPS context menu or in the Main Menu.

4.4.4.  Modifying playlists

Reshuffeling

Reshuffeling the current playlist is easily done from the Playlist sub menu in the WPS, just select Reshuffle.

Moving and removing tracks

To move or remove a track from the current playlist enter the Playlist Viewer by selecting View Current Playlist in the Playlist submenu in the WPS context menu or the Main Menu. Once in the Playlist Viewer open the context menu on the track you want to move or remove. If you want to move the track, select Move in the context menu and then move the blinking cursor to the place where you want the track to be moved and confirm with Select or Right. To remove a track, simply select Remove in the context menu.

4.4.5.  Saving playlists

To save the current playlist either enter the Playlist submenu in the WPS Context Menu (see section 4.3.3) and select Save Current Playlist or enter the Playlist Options menu in the Main Menu and select Save Current Playlist. Either method will bring you to the Virtual Keyboard (see section 4.1.3), enter a filename for your playlist and accept it and you’re done.

4.4.6.  Loading saved playlists

Through the File Browser

Playlist files, like regular music tracks, can be selected through the File Browser. When loading a playlist from disk it will replace the current dynamic playlist.

Through the Playlist catalog

The Playlist catalog offers a shortcut to all playlists in your player’s harddisk root folder called /Playlists. It can be used like the File Browser.

4.4.7.  Helpful Hints

Including sub-directories in playlists

You can control whether or not Rockbox includes the contents of sub-directories when adding an entire directory to a playlists. Set the Main Menu → Settings → Playlist → Recursively Insert Directories setting to Yes if you would like to include tracks in sub-directories as well as tracks in the currently selected directory.