How to Use Pictureflow on Rockbox

Pictureflow is an awesome plugin included in the Rockbox firmware. Rockbox is a free, open source firmware created for a dozen or so different mp3 players, including iPods, iRivers, and Sansa's, The firmware is free to download and can be used by anyone who wants to give it a try.

Pictureflow is a specifically unique plugin - it allows the user to scroll through the album covers of the various albums they have saved on their players. It is the alternative to Coverflow found on iPods, and is a nice feature to have. If you have a fair amount of albums on your device and you'd like to give the smooth eye candy a go, follow the next instructions to get started.

Items Needed:

MP3 Player with Rockbox
Album Artwork
Computer with Internet Access

Step 1: Your mp3 player needs to be running Rockbox. You'll need album art loaded onto the player. If you're using music purchased from online stores, the odds are it already has album art, so navigate to PLUGINS > APPLICATIONS > PICTUREFLOW. It should start loading album art. If it says that no album art could be found, however, then you'll need to manually add it.

Step 2: If you need to add the artwork, the first thing to do is get pictures of all the covers. You can find these from different online stores - Amazon, for example, will usually have pictures of the albums. Save them all to a file.

Step 3: Open a photo editing program on your computer. This can be Photoshop or GIMP, or anything that allows you to resize and save images. GIMP is free if you need something.

Import your first picture and resize it to 100 x 100 pixels and save it as a BMP. It must be saved as a bitmap or it won't work. Repeat this will all the different album covers.

Step 4: Connect your player to your computer. Make sure the player is set to MTP mode by booting into the original firmware (power + left button), and then go to Settings > USB > MTP. Wait for your computer to recognize the player and then open the folder to view the files.