Editing Rockbox (section)

== Features ==

=== Target status ===
Rockbox has many features additional to those supported by the original operating firmware, but in many cases there are limitations. On platforms classified as "stable" and supported, the device can be used as a digital music player, but even on some such platforms Rockbox does not support charging or USB; the player must be dual-booted into the original firmware to be charged or to transfer files. Some platforms are classified as "unstable", but supported; those deemed "unusable" are not supported, and their use is not recommended. Some porting projects are in a pre-development hunting and gathering stage, with no code written.<ref name=targetstatus>[https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/TargetStatus Rockbox Target Status]</ref>

=== Codecs ===

Rockbox on software decoding platforms (non-Archos) supports playback of twelve [[lossy compression|lossy]] codecs (depending on how one counts), five [[lossless data compression|lossless]], two uncompressed and twelve miscellaneous formats.<ref>{{cite web|title=Rockbox Supported audio formats|url=http://download.rockbox.org/daily/manual/rockbox-sansaclipplus/rockbox-buildap2.html#x17-335000B.1|work=Rockbox Manual}}</ref> This makes a conservative total of 30 supported audio formats, although a few of them do not operate in realtime on all platforms. Extensive work has gone into optimizing each codec, with FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, APE, TTA, MPC, Wavpack, ATRAC3, Cook and WMA Pro among the fastest known integer implementations for those formats.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?showtopic=82125&view=findpost&p=716976 |title=Codec performance comparison – Hydrogenaudio Forums |publisher=Hydrogenaudio |access-date=March 12, 2011}}</ref>

==== Lossy formats ====
* MPEG audio layers I-III (MP3/[[MPEG-1 Audio Layer II|MP2]]/[[MPEG-1 Audio Layer I|MP1]])
* [[Vorbis|Ogg Vorbis]]
* [[Advanced Audio Coding|MPEG-4 AAC]](-LC/HE/HEv2 profiles) (in [[MPEG-4 Part 14|MP4]] or [[RealMedia|RM]] containers)
* [[Musepack]]
* [[Dolby Digital|AC3]] (raw or [[RealMedia|RM]] container)
* [[Windows Media Audio|WMA Standard]]
* [[Windows Media Audio|WMA Professional]]
* [[Speex]]
* [[Cook Codec|Cook]]
* [[Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding#ATRAC3 (LP2 and LP4 Modes)|ATRAC3]]
* The lossy portion of [[WavPack]] hybrid files
* [[Opus (audio format)|Opus]]

==== Lossless formats ====
* [[Free Lossless Audio Codec|FLAC]]
* [[Apple Lossless Audio Codec|ALAC]]
* [[WavPack]]
* [[Shorten (file format)|Shorten]]
* [[Monkey's Audio]]
* TTA

==== Uncompressed formats ====
* [[WAV]]
* [[Audio Interchange File Format|AIFF]]
Together they include over a dozen different [[Pulse-code modulation|PCM]] and [[Adaptive DPCM|ADPCM]] formats.

==== Miscellaneous formats ====

In addition, there are playback of game audio types [[ADX (file format)|ADX]], [[MOS Technology SID|SID]], [[NES Sound Format|NSF]], [[Atari SAP music format|SAP]], [[SPC700 sound format|SPC]], AY, [[Game Boy Sound System|GBS]], [[Hudson Entertainment System Sound Format|HES]], KSS, SGC, [[VGM (file format)|VGM]], and [[VGM (file format)|VGZ]]. The [[MOD (file format)|MOD]] [[tracker (music software)|tracker]] format, and the Yamaha [[Synthetic Music Mobile Application Format|SMAF]] are also now supported.<ref>{{cite web|title=Other Codecs|url=http://download.rockbox.org/daily/manual/rockbox-sansaclipplus/rockbox-buildap2.html#x17-338000B.1.3|work=Rockbox Manual|access-date=May 22, 2011}}</ref>

Some profiles in Monkey's Audio are not real time on all targets due to very high CPU needs. Also, Rockbox will not play files with a [[digital rights management]] (DRM) scheme.

=== Rockbox features ===

Beside the ability of playing and recording audio files, Rockbox offers many playback enhancements that other firmware packages may not have implemented yet. Listed below are a handful of these features.
* [[Gapless playback]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Codec Featureset|url=http://download.rockbox.org/daily/manual/rockbox-sansaclipplus/rockbox-buildap2.html#x17-339000B.1.4|work=Rockbox Manual|access-date=May 22, 2011}}</ref>
* [[crossfader|Crossfading]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Crossfade|url=http://download.rockbox.org/daily/manual/rockbox-sansaclipplus/rockbox-buildch7.html#x10-1220007.7|work=Rockbox Manual|access-date=May 22, 2011}}</ref>
* [[ReplayGain]]<ref name="soft_decode">Software decoding targets only</ref>
* 10 band fully [[Equalization (audio)#Parametric equalizer|parametric equalizer]]<ref name="soft_decode" />
* Variable speed decoding with pitch correction<ref>{{cite web|title=Pitch|url=http://download.rockbox.org/daily/manual/rockbox-sansaclipplus/rockbox-buildch4.html#x7-630004.3.3|work=Rockbox Manual|access-date=May 22, 2011}}</ref>
* [[Crossfeed]]<ref name="soft_decode" />
* OTF ("on the fly") playlists
* True random shuffle (fresh randomly shuffled list every time)
* Custom [[Theme (computing)|UI themes]]<ref name=themepage>{{cite web|title=Rockbox themes|url=http://themes.rockbox.org/|access-date=19 April 2012}}</ref>
* Dynamic Playlists (queue files to play next, or in other parts of a dynamic playlist)
* Stereo voice/MIC & FM radio recording to WAV/AIFF/WavPack (lossless) and MP3<ref>MP3.</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Recording|url=http://download.rockbox.org/daily/manual/rockbox-sansaclipplus/rockbox-buildch10.html#x13-14900010|work=Rockbox Manual|access-date=May 22, 2011}}</ref> (limited model/device/target support)
* Remote control (supporting devices)
* Digital [[S/PDIF]] input/output (supporting devices)
* [[Last.fm]] support (even on players lacking [[Real-time clock|RTC]])
* [[cue sheet (computing)|Cue sheet]] support
* Album art<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/AlbumArt |title=Some limitations. Details at Rockbox Wiki |publisher=Rockbox.org |access-date=March 12, 2011}}</ref>
* Sleep timer

=== Plug-ins ===

Rockbox developers can create [[Plug-in (computing)|plug-ins]], which provide the user with other enhancements that may not be available on various [[firmware]] modules.

Available plug-ins include:
* [[JPEG]] viewer (16 bit color/129 shade greyscale)<ref>129 shade greyscale is achieved on 1 bit and 2 bit (4 shade) greyscale targets due to exploitation of the slow passive [[Liquid crystal display|LCD]] [[refresh rate]].</ref>
* Rockboy [[Game Boy]] emulator (port of [[List of video game console emulators#Game Boy and Game Boy Color|Gnuboy]])<ref>Rockboy supports original Game Boy and [[Game Boy Color]] ROMs.</ref>
* ZXBox [[ZX Spectrum]] emulator (port of Spectemu)<ref>[http://www.inf.bme.hu/~mszeredi/spectemu/ ZXBox emulates ZX Spectrum 48. The original site of Spectemu] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060929083245/http://www.inf.bme.hu/~mszeredi/spectemu/ |date=2006-09-29 }}</ref>
* ''[[Doom (series)|Doom]]'' (port of the [[PrBoom]] engine)
* ''[[Duke Nukem 3D]]'', ''[[Quake (video game)|Quake]]'', and ''[[Wolfenstein 3D]]'' running atop a version of the [[Simple DirectMedia Layer]] runtime
* [[Another World (video game)|XWorld]], a clone of [[Another World (video game)|Another World]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,48586.0.html|title=&#91;TESTERS NEEDED&#93; Another World}}</ref>
* WAV to MP3 and Wavpack encoder
* MPEG video player<ref name="mpegplayer">The mpegplayer plug-in supports [[MPEG-1]] and [[MPEG-2]] video streams with MPEG audio (layer II/III) multiplexed into .mpg files with no hard limits on [[frame rate]] or [[bit rate]]. Files must be encoded at [[Native mode|native]] screen [[Image resolution|resolution]]. Seeking is now implemented. [https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/PluginMpegplayer]</ref>
* PictureFlow, an album art viewer similar to Apple's [[Cover Flow]]
* Various games including [[2048 (video game)|2048]], [[Sudoku]], [[Solitaire (game)|Solitaire]], Chess, Minesweeper, Pong and many others (see https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/PluginIndex for an official list of plug-ins)
* [[Musical Instrument Digital Interface]] (MIDI) player, real-time on some targets.
* [[List of audio trackers#Interpreted platforms|MikMod]], used to play multiple [[module file]] formats<ref>[https://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/8806 FS#8806 - MikMod MOD, S3M, IT, XM player]</ref>