portable mp3 player recommendation

Ian Malone ibm21 at cam.ac.uk
Tue Sep 28 04:45:52 UTC 2004


> 
On Mon, 27 Sep 2004 18:28:03 -0500, Brad Alpert
<balpert at fortbradford.com> wrote:
> 
> On Sun, 2004-09-26 at 09:26, Christopher J. Bottaro wrote:
> > Hello,
> > I'm thinking of getting a portable mp3 player.  What kind of Linux
> > (specifically KDE support) do these devices have?  Is there any particular
> > brand/model that is well supported in Linux/KDE?
> > 
> > Thank you.
> 
> I'm loving my Neuros Audio 20gB mp3 player.  I use NeurosDBM, which is a
> Java application to synchronize files.
> 
> Works great!
> 
> http://www.neurosaudio.com/
> 
> Good luck!
> 
> Brad
> 

Two cents to follow, but I should warn you that I don't own a flash/hd
player because I've yet to find one I like.

Three things to consider before getting the Neuros: it's one of the
bulkier players, it has a non-standard rechargeable battery (which will
have to be replaced by the manufacturer when it finally expires),and
it's only available in the US (which may be irrelevant or a killer).

OTOH the manufacturer seems concerned about Linux support and it
plays a wide range of formats (they were one of the first players
to consider Vorbis support).  Also, most players (especially hd
players) use proprietary batteries.

<http://www.mp3players.co.uk/> lists a lot of different brands, and
details OS support (presumably as listed by the manufacturer: iRiver
iFPs are listed as not supported for Linux - true, but there is a driver
project on sourceforge).

I'm not sure if the OP was after a flash or a hard disc player, but
the Iops <http://www.iops.co.kr/enghome/> might be worth looking at.
The English website is rather limited, but looking at Google leads me
to believe it supports m3u-style play-lists.

It may be worth trying to get an iPod working with Linux, have a look
at Google.  It seems they use either FAT or (preferably) HFS.

iFP500 seems to be the last flash iRiver for which UMS (USB Mass
Storage) firmware is available.  You would still need to use Windows
or the sourceforge driver to load that onto the device.  UMS firmware
for the newer flash players is promised in September (odd things,
deadlines).  I'm not sure about playlist support on these devices.
The manual for the iFP 800 describes a 'program' mode, where you
select, via the player's menu, a list of files - basically one playlist.
Otherwise you play a folder or the entire device contents, in whatever
order it chooses.  Funnily iRiver's hd based H300 series works as UMS
and supports .m3u play-lists.  You'd have to check up on the H100 series
yourself, as its web page only mentions Windows compatibility, and while
it does mention Winamp play-lists there's no reason to believe it's not
talking about a plugin of some kind.

>From what I've read, the MuVo has a feature which seems quite common
among UMS-type players; its default is to play the files in a directory
in the order they were copied in (I've also seen claims that it plays
in ASCII order, but think what 'cp * $MUVO' would do).  Whether this is
done by creation time or based on the order the file names are stored in
the FAT I don't know.  If the former then 'touch' would work quite well
if you needed to alter play-lists.  Play-list wise,
<http://www.nomadness.net/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=14>
may be worth a look (MuVo downloads at nomadness.net).

HTH rather than discourages, best of luck.

-- 
imalone
(As U2 would say: But I still haven't found what I'm looking for)





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