5  The Main Menu

5.1  Introducing the Main Menu

The Main Menu is the screen from which all of the Rockbox functions can be accessed. This is the first screen you will see when starting Rockbox. To return to the Main Menu, press the Menu button.

All settings are stored on the unit. However, Rockbox does not spin up the disk solely for the purpose of saving settings. Instead, Rockbox will save settings when it spins up the disk the next time, for example when refilling the MP3 buffer or navigating through the File Browser. Changes to settings may therefore not be saved unless the player is shut down safely (see section 3.1.2).

5.2  Navigating the Main Menu

5.3  Recent Bookmarks

If the Save a list of recently created bookmarks option is enabled then you can view a list of several recent bookmarks here and select one to jump straight to that track.

Note: Bookmarking only works when tracks are launched from the file browser, and does not currently work for tracks launched via the database. In addition, they do not currently work with dynamic playlists.

There are two options in the context menu:

Resume will commence playback of the currently selected bookmark entry.

Delete will remove the currently selected bookmark entry from the list.

This entry is not shown in the Main Menu when the option is off (the default setting). See section 8.6 for more details on configuring bookmarking in Rockbox.

5.4  Files

Browse the files on your player (see section 4.1).

5.5  Database

Browse by the meta-data in your audio files (see section 4.2).

5.6  Now Playing/Resume Playback

Go to the While Playing Screen and resume if music playback is stopped or paused and there is something to resume (see section 4.3).

5.7  Settings

The Settings menu allows you to set or adjust many parameters that affect the way your player works. There are many submenus for different parameter areas. Every time you are setting a value of a parameter, and that value is selected from a list of some predefined available values, you can press Long Play, and the selection cursor will jump to the default value for the parameter. You can then confirm or cancel the value. This is useful if you have changed the value of the parameter from the default to some other value and would like to restore the default value.

5.7.1  Sound Settings

The Sound Settings menu offers a selection of sound properties you may change to customise your listening experience. The details of this menu are covered in section 6.

5.7.2  Playback Settings

The Playback Settings menu allows you to configure settings related to audio playback. The details of this menu are covered in section 7.

5.7.3  General Settings

The General Settings menu allows you to customise the way Rockbox looks and the way it plays music. The details of this menu are covered in section 8.

5.7.4  Theme Settings

The Theme Settings menu contains options that control the visual apperance of Rockbox. The details of this menu are covered in section 9.

5.7.5  Manage Settings

The Manage Settings option allows the saving and re-loading of user configuration settings, browsing the hard drive for alternate firmwares, and finally resetting your player back to initial configuration. The details of this menu are covered in section 11.3.

5.8  Playlist

This menu allows you to work with playlists. Playlists can be created in three ways. Playing a file in a directory causes all the files in it to be placed in a playlist. Playlists can be created manually by either using the Context Menu (see section 4.1.2) or using the Playlist menu. Both automatically and manually created playlists can be edited using this menu.

Create Playlist:

Rockbox will create a playlist with all tracks in the current directory and all sub-directories. The playlist will be created one directory level “up” from where you currently are.

View Current Playlist:

Displays the contents of the playlist currently stored in memory.

Save Current Playlist:

Saves the current dynamic playlist, excluding queued tracks, to the specified file. If no path is provided then playlist is saved to the current directory.

Playlist Catalog:

The Playlist Catalog provides a simple interface to maintain several playlists (see section 4.4).

5.9  Plugins

With this option you can load and run various plugins that have been written for Rockbox. There are a wide variety of these supplied with Rockbox, including several games, some impressive demos and a number of utilities. A detailed description of the different plugins is to be found in section 10.

5.10  System

Use the MINUS and PLUS keys to step through several pages of information.

Rockbox Info:

Displays some basic system information. This is, from top to bottom, the amount of memory Rockbox has available for storing music (the buffer). The battery status. Hard disk size and the amount of free space on the disk.

Credits:

Display the list of contributors.

Sleep Timer:

The Sleep Timer powers off your player after playing for a given time. It can be set from Off to 5 hours in 5 minute steps. The Sleep Timer is reset on boot.

Debug (Keep Out!):

This sub menu is intended to be used only by Rockbox developers. It shows hardware, disk, battery status and other technical information.

Warning: It is not recommended that users access this menu unless instructed to do so in the course of fixing a problem with Rockbox. If you think you have messed up your settings by use of this menu please try to reset all settings before asking for help.

5.11  Shutdown

This menu option saves the Rockbox configuration and turns off the hard drive before shutting down the machine. For maximum safety this procedure is recommended when turning off the player. (There is a very small risk of hard disk corruption otherwise.) See section 3.1.2 for more details.