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Neuros Audio hopes to do just that soon with linux support as well.

Right here, of course! Ogg and Linux support are confirmed, and FLAC support is a possibility.

Hmm. Looks like a neat toy, but their Web site says it only plays MP3s.

For now, it does. But Vorbis support is coming Real Soon Now (scroll to the bottom). Not too shabby for a 2 year old codec.

will make sure the next player I buy supports Ogg

Introducing your next player. It's a pretty nifty little device, actually, and upgradable to boot.

take a look at people who embed audio in other projects - in-game music, for example. free code and specs availability and patent-freeness is making ogg a de-facto standard in that scene pretty rapidly.

okay, so AAC has k-rad standards bodies bowing down in its direction five times a day. what's a license gonna cost me, and who guarantees some patent holder won't just decide to up and change that tomorrow? with ogg, you know what you're in for.

if you've encoded all your CDs as MP3 at 192kbps or better, then clearly you care about sound quality at least a little, or you'd've gone for 128k or less. in that case, you're not gonna reencode as anything - you're gonna re-rip from the CDs and encode the CDDA in whatever new format tickles your fancy. (which is, of course, what you were talking about. most people use "reencode" to mean translating from one lossy format to another, not to mean redoing all their work. semantic quibble.) and if you're considering that sort of effort, then you should definitely give a damn about ogg - its sound quality per file size is quite competitive.

the one thing people still need to worry about is portable players. too often they just play the crummy (encumbered, non-free) formats; me, i'm not wasting my money on a toy that won't play the format i've settled on for my music collection, and i'm not re-ripping all my discs now that i've finally got the quality settings down pat the way i like them. if your iWhatever won't play my ogg, i won't buy it, i'll just have to dig the CD out of storage and play it on my discman. as for that "neuros" thingy, now - that looks like it might become something.

Maybe these guys?...

Ogg Vorbis support is important to me, that's why I bought a Neuros. When other companies follow suit, I'll consider giving them my cash. But, in the meantime I have a player to replace my aging Rio 300 and I couldn't be happier.

All I know is tha the Neuros upgrade will be out soon that will let me use it in GNU/Linux *and* be the first portable hardware player that can do Ogg Vorbis, and in the future, Ogg Speex and FLAC.

I've waited years for these features, and soon my wait will be over.

If there were another player with the same features out now, I'd buy that.

Oh, and the Neuros will also let you record from FM and has a low-range FM broadcast so you can use it in your car.

- Serge Wroclawski

For those interested in the same things with this player, I posted my feedback (with some additions) on their forums. It should be more productive to do feature requests there if you are willing to register for their forums.

For those interested in the same things with this player, I posted my feedback (with some additions) on their forums. It should be more productive to do feature requests there if you are willing to register for their forums.

1) Linux synchronization software (they currently claim to only support Windows). Normally I would figure on the community to support the device, but this one looks like it probably has some sync features that need to come from the device owner (like the HiSi feature that lets you ID songs from the FM tuner).

2) USB 2.0 ... Neuros is a USB 1.1 device ... transferring 5000 songs on 1.1 is going to be slow. I don't have a USB 2.0 PC yet, but I will shortly. I'm not to concerned with firewire support.

3) (not a demand but they suggested it and I want it) timed recording of FM stations ... like a TiVo for NPR ... I've wanted this in an easy to use format for a LONG time. I dearly hope it can record FM while playing other recordings ... schweet if so.

4) Ogg support, but this is what this article was about so I'll be optimistic.

Otherwise, the unit has everything else I've been looking for (I really like that the HD is removable while the unit is still playable via the internal storage). I'm probably going to wait 6 months to see if they add any of these features, but if not it's feature-rich enough that I'll happily get this thing.

I already have a DSB-R100, and tried using a Win2K installation for this. I gave up and uninstalled all the related software, because the driver made my machine too flaky. I guess it's time to try again on a Linux machine.

Here's some dedicated hardware that could be used for a radio TiVo.

• RPR
• Neuros
• Archos FM recorder

In addition to the Vorbis poll option (keep reloading), an Ogg Vorbis support topic has been added to the Neuros forum section.

The specifications say:

Recording

- 64-160 kbps
- MP3 format

In general these types of devices are just stuck on a particular frequency, and generally it's at the very low end of the FM broadcast radio band (88.5 - 89.9, I think) and there's little interference there because that area of the FM broadcast band was set aside for non-commercial stations - mostly college stations and PBS/etc. The transmitters I've seen in the past they've always had a switch to manually selecte between two or three frequencies. Apparently this just finds *any* frequency that is avalible, and I assume it's actively scanning for new frequencies as one drives. scroll down to my-fi

[snip]
The site said recording was to MP3, but didn't specify bit-rate. Anyone know? Other MP3 players that recorded have done so in such low rates that they would only be useful for recording speech.
[/snip]

From the site:
"
Recording
64-160 kbps
MP3 format
"

http://www.neurosaudio.com/store/prod_20gbspec.asp

Ack! Why didnt I preview!

From the neurosaudio.com store - "Easily upgrade your Neuros by exchanging the backpack that comes attached to your Neuros 128MB for the 20GB HD backpack. Now you will have 2 units - super portable and huge capacity."

Do any of the new hd players have a compact flash slot too? would like to use one as an image bank sometimes.

Relax! Then go read this. The Neuros is based on (in their words) "an open platform". Unlike the iPod, their database and menu systems are open and based on XML (schemas coming in a few weeks apparently), so even though their synchro software is currently Windows only, making a Linux version should be a snap.

This is a pretty cool MP3 player. It looks good, has some nify features, and is open. Sounds like a serious contender to the iPod to me (at least for anybody semi-geeky).

It's right on the front page here. There appear to be a few different polls though, so if it doesn't show up the first time, try reloading the page.

specs

the slashdot insanity filter makes it hard to properly format this data so use the link above

Display 2-inch (diagonal) liquid crystal display with orange LED backlight 128 by 128 pixel resolution .21/.28 dot pitch 4 level gray scale Size and Weight Height: 5.3" Width: 3.1" Depth: 1.3" Weight: 9.4oz. Environmental Requirements Operating temperature: -4 to 125 degrees F Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet Audio Up to 30 minutes of skip protection Maximum output power: 60mW rms (30 mW per channel) Frequency response: 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz MP3 format (up to 320 kbps), MP3 Variable Bit Rate (VBR) Upgradeable firmware enables support for future audio formats Recording 64-160 kbps MP3 format Input and Output Full speed USB 1.1 3.5mm stereo headphone jack 3.5mm stereo line-in jack 2.5mm stereo RF jack (for external antenna) MyFi FM Broadcasting 33 channel selection Mono and stereo modes Maximum range: 20 feet Frequency response: 15Hz-20kHz Transmission strength: 250 microV/M-2 at 3m Earphones Earbud type earphones using Neodymium transducer magnets Frequency response: 20 to 20,000Hz Impedance: 32 ohms Wall Power Adapter AC input: 100V to 125V at 0.4 Frequency: 50 to 60Hz DC output: 9V at .8 amp Power and Battery Built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery Playtime: 10 hours when fully charged Full charge time: 8 hours Car Power Adapter DC output: 9V at 1.0 amp Full charge time: 8 hours

Until I can buy it, it is vaporware.