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Q1. What is this NODO document?
A1. This is a list of Feature Requests we get repeatedly that we simply
cannot do on the Archos. View it as the opposite of a TODO!
Q2. Record to WAV (uncompressed) or MP3pro format!
A2. The recording hardware (the MAS) does not allow us to do this.
Q3. Crossfade between tracks!
A3. Crossfading would require two mp3 decoders, and we only have one. This
is not possible.
Q4. Interfacing with other USB devices (like cameras) or 2 player games over
USB
A4. The USB system demands that there is a master that talks to a slave.
The Archos can only serve as a slave, as most other USB devices such
as cameras can. Thus, without a master no communication between the slaves
can take place.
If that is not enough, we have no ways of actually controlling the
communication performed over USB since the USB circuit in the Archos is
strictly made for disk-access and does not allow us to play with it the
way we'd need for any good communication to work.
Q5. Support MP3pro, WMA or other sound format playback!
A5. The mp3-decoding hardware can only play MP3. We cannot make it play other
sound formats.
Q6. Converting OGG->MP3
A6. The mp3-decoding hardware cannot decode ogg. It can be reprogrammed, but
there is too little memory for OGG and we have no documentation on how
to program the MAS' DSP.
Doing the conversion with the CPU is impossible, since a 12MHz SH1 is far
too slow for this daunting task.
Q7. Archos Multimedia support!
A7. The Archos Multimedia is a completely different beast. It is an entirely
different architecture, differnt CPU and upgrading the software is done a
completely different way. We do not venture into this.
Others may do so. We do not.
Q8. Multi-band equalizer!
A8. The MAS only offers the standard bass/treble settings and we can't do
anything about it.
Q9. Support other filesystems than FAT32 (like NTFS or ext2 or whatever)!
A9. No.
Rockbox needs to support FAT32 since it can only start off a FAT32
partition (since that is the only way the ROM can load it), and adding
support for more filesystems will just take away valueable ram for
unnecessary features.
You can partition your Archos fine, just make sure the first one is FAT32
and then make the other ones whatever file system you want. Just don't
expect Rockbox to understand them.
Q10. Add scandisk-like features!
A10. It would be a very slow operation that would drain the batteries and take
a lot of useful ram for something that is much better and faster done
when connected to a host computer.
Q11. CBR recording!
A11. The MP3 encoding hardware does not allow this.
Q12. Change tempo of a song without changing pitch!
A12. The MP3 decoding hardware does not allow this.
Q13. Graphic frequency (spectrum) analyzer!
A13. We can't access the audio waveform from the MP3 decoder so we can't
analyze it. Even if we had access to it, the CPU would probably be too
slow to perform the analysis anyway.
Q14. Cool sound effects!
A14. Adding new sound effects requires reprogramming the MAS chip, and we can't
do that. The MAS chip is programmable, but we have no access to the chip
documentation.
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