Friday, February 8, 2008

Watch videos on your 1st Generation iPod Nano installing RockBox

Before you begin you need

  1. A 1st Generation iPod Nano - (Check if your player is supported by rockbox here)
  2. A backup of all the data on the iPod
With these + a whole lot of courage follow these steps :-

  1. Install RockBox (An Open Source Jukebox Firmware)
    • You can download the current build from here - http://build.rockbox.org/
    • Connect the 1st Generation iPod Nano to the PC via USB
      • Connect it to the PC in Disk Mode
      • Pressing both the Menu and the Select (center) buttons reboots the Nano
      • As the Nano is rebooting if you hold the Play and the Select (center) button it will reboot into Disk Mode
    • Extract the contents of the file downloaded into the root directory of the iPod Nano
    • Explore the contents of the iPod with win explorer. You will see a directory called .rockbox (NOTE: Do not change the name of this directory or any of its sub-directories)
    • Now, In order to make your player load and execute the Rockbox firmware you have just installed, you will need to install the Rockbox bootloader (next step)
  2. Run the iPodPatcher
    • Download ipodpatcher.exe from here and run it
      • Follow the instructions
    • Congratulations you have a iPod that dual boots Rockbox and the Apple OS firmware
    • REMEMBER the patcher installs the RockBox as the default OS
    • Now to boot into the RockBox firmware
      • Do nothing Reboot the iPod Nano – it boots RockBox by default
    • And to boot into the Apple OS firmware -
      • Reboot the iPod Nano pressing both the Menu and the Select (center) buttons
      • Hold the Menu key to reboot to the Apple OS firmware
    • For more details on the installation visit this link
  3. Encode your favorite videos


IMPORTANT NOTE :-
If anything goes wrong you can restore your iPod Nano Apple OS firmware using iTunes’ Restore utility. Just remember - In order to ensure that you do not damage your iPod, before disconnecting your cable be sure that you see the “Ok to Disconnect” message on your iPod.

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