Slashdot Mirror

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://sonicblue.com/ > before Dec 2, 2000. I miss that site! Slashdot totally messes up the url though.

http://sonicblue.com/>http://web.archive.org/web/* /http://sonicblue.com/

The first is by the url method, the second a href. Get them on it pronto.

I'll admit, if the product is all that the review makes it out to be then I would be very interested. Cheap, too--it's selling for $169.99 + free shipping. Of course, you still have to add in your connectivity of choice, but regardless, a more than reasonable price considering some of what I've seen from similar media delivery companies such as Escient and SonicBlue.

Unfortunately, it seems that it's only a nice deal if you can get it to work. Three reviewers over at Review Centre are a little less than satisfied:

"Oritron NPD3117 networked DVD player is a very unreliable product. The first one I had, it stopped working after two weeks. I couldn't get the DVD door to open reliably...While playing DVD movie, the pixel would just break up all over the screen. The service center was no help. They did replaced my breaken unit. The second unit broke after one week."

"Had to return the first Oritron NPD3117 DVD player because networking did not function properly. Second player sent worked for a month and then would not turn on properly with wireless network card."

WITH Commercial Advance. For the next three days, apparently they are closing out factory-renewed 40-hour ReplayTV 5040 units WITH Commercial Advance. Not only that, but the site also says that these units are coming with lifetime service. The total cost is $330(!!). You can get them at SONICblue. I'm not in the market since I'm still happy with my "ancient" ReplayTV and just can't justify buying a new one, but it's the best PVR deal I've seen for a factory renewed unit (as opposed to a used unit bought privately).

If Replay drops these features in the 5500 series, it will just create a very hot secondary/used market for the older 5000 models that still have Commercial Advance & Send Show features.

So in my opinion, there's the possibility that they not only remove these features from new units, but also retroactively from the older 4000 and 5000 series also. Potentially very bad news for people who have shelled out $250 for a lifetime subscription recently...

SonicBlue is selling the ReplayTV 5040 (including Lifetime activation) for only $329

This is an incredible deal, especially since the price of the activation alone will be $299 on June 1st. The only catch is that it is refurbished, but it still comes with a 90 day warranty.

This is a limited time/quantity offer, so I'm guessing that it won't be available much longer.

More info in the AV Science Forum

ReplayTV is selling refurbished 5040 units for $330 + shipping ($12 for ground/standard), which includes a lifetime service subscription.

An 80 hour (refurb) Tivo Series 2 for $250

A 40 hour Replay5040 (refurb) WITH Lifetime Subscription for $330

Share and enjoy.. I prefer Tivo for its UI, however the sharing/extraction of the Replay is very nice as well.

The idea is a very exciting to think about. With Apple's track record with working with Unix based products (Tivo being Linux based) and very great history of graphics processing (I haven't worked at a TV station yet that could say that haveing Windows machines is better then having a majority of Macs in the graphics and video departments) the match would be perfect.

Apple also has a histroy of being the underdog with the more soild product and bug free product. I could see Tivo really changing with support from Apple, and maybe a bunch of new features. Apple would benifit in fighting the OS wars again if it owned Tivo. As it has done with products in the past, (such as the I-POD) make them intergrate with only their product (at least at first). I don't know anyone who can't say that the I-POD being only useable on Mac at first didn't help sales of the Mac in at least the smallest bit.

A down side you might see is a change in the policy to allow commerical skipping. Being a larger company with its own active interest in commericals might be compailed to retract some of the ease of this feature. On the other hand it might not because of the competition from SonicBlue's ReplayTV which from what I hear alread has better commerical skipping technology that detects commericals and automaticly skips them. (I own a ReplayTV 4500, which has this feature. From what I have heard, Tivo allows you to manually skip.)

I would buy a Tivo if Apple bought them. I'm a dedicated UNIX/Linux (former Mac user as of 1994), who programs for Windows at work. My interest in Mac is comming back now with their dedication to designing such a soild product.

I'm for an Apple owned Tivo. Its better for everyone (expect Micro$oft, hehehe).

Get a ReplayTv , connect it to your home network, and then load up DVArchive.

There, even stream the video files from the computer to the ReplayTV in real time.

If you picked low labour and time, try a ReplayTV. Hook up your vcr to your replay, click record on the replay, start vcr playback, come back 2 hours later. Then get DvArchive and stream the recorded show off the Replay onto your pc. The stream is an MPG2 format. Use VideoLan Client to view the stream. Archive as desired.

Have fun!

INAL, but if D&M continues the ReplayTV "Name" (ie, they purchased the name, not just the products) then they should have to honor the agreement. If the company all of a sudden become "D & M R-TV", or even "ReplayTV+" then the current owners might be screwed. Hopefully, they'll honor the current agreement, or only charge a small "transfer" fee.

From the service agreement...
SonicBlue

REPLAYTV Digital Video Recorder

Activation and Service Agreement

This Agreement applies to your use of the ReplayTV Service and is a legally binding agreement between you, SONICblue Incorporated and its wholly owned subsidiary, ReplayTV Inc. (collectively "ReplayTV"). By clicking the button marked "I Agree" below or by otherwise communicating your acceptance to ReplayTV or by using the ReplayTV Service, you agree to all the terms and conditions in this Agreement. IMPORTANT NOTE: Your ReplayTV digital video recorder works only by activating and receiving the ReplayTV Service offered and provided by ReplayTV. If you do not agree with all the terms and conditions of this Agreement, you are not authorized to use the ReplayTV Service, and you may return the ReplayTV unit to ReplayTV or the authorized retailer from whom you purchased the product for a full refund within one (1) month of the original purchase date.

They're just changing the world differently now, by their absense.

SonicBlue invented many nifty products, including, obviously, the MP3 player (invented under its former name, Diamond), the audio set top box (they made the chipset in DELL's box), and many other innovations. They'll be missed.

With the pending bankruptcy, this product might have been vaporware used to stoke investor interest. But man, do I wanna buy one:

GoVideo® D2730 Networked DVD - World's First Networked DVD Player!

"The GoVideo Networked DVD Player is a high end, slim-line Progressive Scan DVD player, and is the first player of its kind to be able to stream video files through a wireless network to a consumer electronics component. The Networked DVD Player works with either a wired PCMCIA Ethernet Adapter (included) or an optional PCMCIA 802.11b Wireless Network Card. The D2730 can also stream MP3 and WMA audio files and JPEG image files, as well as MPEG1 and MPEG2 video files."

Yes, I can roll my own (even stylishly, with a Shuttle XPC. Yes, I can do so with a cool Linux distro (can't remember the couple I've examined off the top of my head - anyone? Bueller?). But I sure as hell can't do it for $250, which was the SRP for this unit.

Seems like a great play to me. No MPEG4 though.

I just decided to buy this a few hours ago, and now I hear they're selling that branch.

Say it ain't so!!!

uhhh....my Rio Volt (I don't know if the original poster was talking about a Rio Volt but thats what I am talking about) is definetly made by Sonic Blue (may have still been called Diamond MM when I bought it). Go here to see what I mean.

I have a Frontpath Progear (now owned by Sonic Blue). It uses a 400MHz Crusoe processor. They haven't made them in the last year or two, but you can still pick them up for a few hundred dollars on Ebay (I paid a little under $400 for mine about a year ago). Many of them came preinstalled with Slackware, so getting Linux to run on them isn't an issue.

Anyway, i fail to see how $199 is over-priced for an MP3/CD player. My brother has a 10-gig iPod, and it's really really nice, but you have to look at a couple of things when considering an iPod:

01.) No CD support. -- That means you can't just pop in one of your friends' audio CDs when, say, you're in the car. It also means that when you get tired of what's on your iPod, you have to hook it up to the computer, delete stuff from it, and then transfer stuff to it; whereas with the MP3/CD player, you could carry a CD booklet in your bookbag or car or whatever, and just switch between 700 megs of MP3s whenever you want.

02.) It's expensive. -- No matter what size of an iPod you get (unless you get a used one off eBay or something), the iPod costs, like you said, $100 more than any MP3/CD player out there today. And add $100 each time you go to a higher size.

03.) Requires FireWire. -- I guess you're all set if you have a newer Mac (and if you do, you can probably afford a 20-gig iPod anyway :p ), but if you don't, there's a very good chance that you're going to have to buy a $40 FireWire PCI card when you order your iPod. This raises the actual price of your iPod, and it depends on you having an extra PCI slot.

Really, the only thing you need for an MP3/CD player is a CD burner, and pretty much any computer you buy today will have one, or will have an option. I can't imagine buying a new computer without at least a CD-RW drive. Then again, you don't really even need that. You could just play regular CDDA if you wanted, heh.

What i'm really looking for is an Ogg/CD player. That would own.

Slashdotters, before you slam this thing, please consider the following facts:

not everyone has a spare PC or two lying around the house
some people DON'T have their PC sitting in the middle of their family room, right next to the stereo.
people value elegance



Hmmm, yeah companies like turtle beach or Sonic Blue should have came up with and idea like this...

they could have sold it under the names like audiotron or Rio reciever

what a great Idea! you are such a smart feller!

Think about it... someone could have mp3's playing without a computer! I wish the above 2 companies would have thought of that 2 years ago...Oh wait.... they DID!

It expires tomorrow (Dec 31), but right now with rebates you can get a ReplayTV 5040 (40 GB, ethernet) with lifetime subscription for $450.

That's reasonable enough for me to give it a shot...I hope my wife appreciates a surprise Kwanzaa present.

Check out the press release:

The D2730 works with either a PCMCIA Ethernet Adapter (included) or an optional PCMCIA 802.11b Wireless Network Card and can stream MPEG1 and MPEG2 video files that are compressed at bitrates up to 3 Mbps.

So, it will work on a good 802.11b wireless link, as long as the connection speed doesn't fall back to below 3 Mbps (the 802.11b standard says the fallback rates are 5.5, 2, and 1 Mbps). WEP, if its there, can lower the rate as well by 20-50%.

There is no mention of DivX or other formats in the press release, so you can assume anything other than MPEG1/2 is not supported. I would assume that even the MPEG file has to be VCD/SVCD/XVCD compliant.

for $250 I can buy a DVD player from a company that, admittedly, is not a huge consumer electronics corporation. And at $250, that DVD player is significantly more expensive than similarly specced (excluding the networking) players from companies like Sony, Toshiba, or Panasonic. It's only saving grace: the ability to play back video over a network.

OR

For $199 (after the two $50 rebates), I can get the 40 hour replay TV (granted, subscription required) which IS a PVR. Many of the name brand DVD players nowadays will support SVCD if you're dying to watch your MPEG-4/DiVX movies on your television. My other question: with as many different flavors of DiVX, and as many different takes on encoding the audio there-in (MP3, WMA, OGG, standard AC3), I don't really trust a hardware-based player to be able to handle any old DiVX file without some tinkering. Once I get to the point where I'm decompressing the audio and other similar exploits, I'm not as interested.

It seems that it supports standard ethernet out of the box, with 802.11 supported by swapping the ethernet PCMCIA card with an equivilent wireless PCMCIA card.

It plays MPEG1 and MPEG2 video and MP3 and WMA audio over the network. (presumably via SMB fileshare) Not too bad for the price point ($249 MSRP). No mention of anything MPEG-4 based ala DivX/Xvid, so it's highly doubtful.

For my money, I think I'll get a modded Xbox for roughly the same price and run Linux and mplayer or XBMP, which is based on the mplayer code anyway. I don't need 802.11 for this application. If I did, an ethernet to 802.11 wireless bridge (such as the Linksys WET11) would serve quite nicely.

For the not-hackers out there, however, this isn't at all a bad deal, and a bunch of MPEG-2 (ala SVCD, or ripped DVD's) on today's large hard drives, combined with multiple cheap "media terminals" like this one, plugged into your TV's / Home Theatre, is a decent solution. Consider that network mp3 stereo components are going for about this price already, and you get the ability to archive and play your DVDs across your network, too, for the same price.

Not too shabby.

Check out the SonicBlue ProGear. It's a Transmeta 400 Mhz CPU with 128 Megs of RAM, 5 Gig HD, WiFi, IR, and a touch screen. It comes in two flavors, Windows98, and a bastardized Linux (that can be replaced with your favorite distro). I've got one that currently runs Slackware 8.1, and I've heard of others that have RedHat installed.

If you want to check out the "Progear Scene," head over to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/progear/ to check otu the Progear User's Group. We've been hacking away at this thing for a a good six months (or so) now.

<SHAMLESS PLUG>Check out www.mira2go.com to buy a PG for circa US$600.</SHAMLESS PLUG>

It should be noted that the Replay TV 5000 supports USB 802.11b adaptors. I decided to pick one of these up since it can use the net instead of requiring a phone line like Tivo

There's been hypes before, but this one might actually make it. There is a lot of needs for this kind of device in the medical field where a pda doesn't have enough screen space and a laptop is too heavy. It is just that previous implementation were too expensive because they only targeted the medical community (volume is too small to be practical). There are already applications like Medinotes written to take advantage of tablets, so hopefully electronic medical records will become a reality.

Timers are being included on a number of portable MP3 players, the newest Rios among them. Their small formfactor and high stability make them ideal for working out with, and manufacturers are capitalizing on this. Even Nike sells the things now. A few even come with armbands.

What do others use for recording?

I went through using various tools and had best results with:
vcr
and
nvrec

Apparently mencoder (part of the kickass mplayer package) will also do the job.

Using nvrec you can start recording a program and then start playing it back via mplayer a short time later as it's still recording with few problems.

I recently bought a ReplayTV
though, and since these babies have ethernet, I should be able to stream my video directly from it using Xine/mplayer over my LAN. I'm moving on Monday and haven't bothered to wire ethernet to it yet so this is untested. To grab/stream video from a ReplayTV under Linux or another Java enabled OS use dvarchive
I've been thinking of setting up a cron job to suck the video off my ReplayTV, use transcode to convert it to mpeg1 and burn it to a VCD to archive shows to CD automatically..

BTW, I've had problems many times with mplayer and A/V sync, while xine will play the same video flawlessly. I hate the xine UI though, and much prefer mplayers sparten interface..

Here's a review of the iPod I posted on Slashdot a while back in a thread about the release of the XPlay software.

A good friend of mine got an iPod as a corporate gift (he works for a major market radio station) and gave it to me since he doesn't own a Mac. Now, I don't have a Mac either, but as a tech-head and a digital audio guy I figured I could probably do something with it. I actually did consider getting a new iMac, but I'd heard about XPod (now XPlay) and figured I could check it out if I got a firewire port somehow.

Some background: I have been running Windows XP for about six months now on my homebuilt Athlon PC (T-Bird 1.33). I have been very happy with the performance and stability of XP, but the Turtle Beach Montego II Home Studio sound card I have used for years is only supported under 9x. I could get basic analog audio working by disabling ACPI in the BIOS, but with lousy driver support and no digital I/O, I realized it was time to upgrade. I thought about getting a semi-pro audio card such as those from Terratec, M-Audio, and Event, but since I also use my PC for games and home theater, I ended up getting the Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum Ex. The last Creative card I had was a SB AWE32 many years ago, and though I wouldn't touch the Live! series (especially since my mobo uses a Via chipset), the Audigy is totally killer. Now, just as posts here have mentioned the possibility of people buying a Mac to complement the iPod, a big part of the reason I picked the Audigy was for the built-in Firewire port.

Okay, time to get to the goods. I downloaded and installed a beta of XPlay and hooked up my virgin iPod. To my surprise, Windows immediately recognized the iPod as an external drive and mapped it through explorer. XPlay seemed to suggest that I should control the iPod primarily through Windows Media Player, but I have generally stayed away from WMP since they introduced v7. I have never been fond of its music library management, especially since it likes to screw with your music files even if you don't want it to--no ID3v2 tags for me, thank you. And the idea that it needs to lock up 30MB of RAM just to play one song is pretty ludicrous. A quick check revealed that WMP8 did indeed see the iPod as a portable device, but I wasn't going to use it to transfer any files.

My mp3 collection is up to about 30GB now (all ripped myself using EAC with LAME), so it was a little difficult to pick out which five gigs of tunes I wanted to take with me. Going through Windows Explorer, I ctrl-clicked the folders of my favorite albums and dragged them into the \Music folder on the mapped iPod drive. Transfer was fast but not blazing, taking about 25 minutes to copy everything over the firewire. Using the Explorer interface meant that no playlists were transferred, but the Artist/Album interface on the iPod is so good that I don't really need them anyway. I suppose that I'm not really using XPlay to its fullest, but at least WMP doesn't muck up my mp3s in the process. I'd love to see plug-in support for the iPod in my player of choice, JRiver's Media Jukebox.

Reactions: While I'm not using any of XPlay's features beyond the support for HFS, I don't really need it to. I'd much rather control things myself anyway, just doing drag 'n drops instead of becoming a slave to the software interface. I also have a first gen Diamond Rio (parallel port connection!) and the original Rio Volt, and the included software has never wowed me enough to use it regularly. Actually, that's why I liked the Volt most of all, since I could just burn my own CD's and be done with it. The iPod is definitely best of all though--the small size makes it much more convenient for the car or carrying in your pocket, and the rechargeable lithium-ion battery is just awesome. I use it in the car every day (about an hour-round trip) and only have to charge it every other week. The playback interface is the best of any I have seen--very easy to control with one hand and the white backlight works great in the dark. It does seem to skip sometimes, though it seems it's actually blank parts in the mp3 file since it happens in the same part of a song every time. My guess is that there was a blip of some sort during the firewire transfer, since the mp3s play back perfect on the computer.

Overall, XPlay does what it advertises. I can use the iPod on my PC, which would not be possible otherwise. However, there are some other features I'd like to see, such as the ability to upgrade the iPod firmware and synchronization support for programs other than WMP. Combining the huge installed base of the PC/Windows platform with the style and reliabilty of Apple hardware is a winning situation for everyone. I think that MediaFour has done just what Apple had hoped, allowing them to sell more units without getting into the headache of supporting the PC platform. And personally, I am thrilled to be an Apple user again, since my first home computer was a IIGS. Who knows, I still might pick up an iMac after all...

Tivo has a bigger marketing budget, pure and simple.

It doesn't sound like it does any sort of preference-tracking. The thumbs-up/thumbs-down feature that lets TiVo pick new shows for you...

Correct, Replay does no such thing. It only records the shows you tell it to. This can be with a "show based channel" (what Tivo calls a "season pass") or by keyword searching in a "theme channel" (I think Tivo calls this a "wish list"). They also have something called Replay Zones, which are basically theme channels that use more complex queries on the program database preset by the folks up at Replay.

The keyword search can be restricted to Title, Description, Actors and Directors on each channel. This is handy, I have an "Alfred Hitchcock" channel set up on my Replay that works quite nicely -- theres always some Hitchcock film sitting there ready to watch.

The ReplayZones feature has a wide variety of stuff in there, I don't use it much frankly. In the early days of the product, there was alot of advertising sponsored stuff in here, for instance a "Must See TV" channel sponsored by NBC. They seem to have abandoned this approach as they have abandoned the freeze-frame advertisements they once ran. Now Replay Zones is category-based stuff, but there are interesting things like for instance theres a zone for "four star" rated films, another one for sci-fi flicks, another one that is just films shown in Letterbox format, etc.

I liken it to a Yahoo-style approach (using human editors) as opposed to Tivo's Google approach (using unknown computer algorithms possibly involving flying rats).

Personally I like this. I know what I want to watch, I don't need some harebrained piece of software "guessing" what I want to watch. YMMV.

Tivo has a bigger marketing budget, pure and simple.

It doesn't sound like it does any sort of preference-tracking. The thumbs-up/thumbs-down feature that lets TiVo pick new shows for you...

Correct, Replay does no such thing. It only records the shows you tell it to. This can be with a "show based channel" (what Tivo calls a "season pass") or by keyword searching in a "theme channel" (I think Tivo calls this a "wish list"). They also have something called Replay Zones, which are basically theme channels that use more complex queries on the program database preset by the folks up at Replay.

The keyword search can be restricted to Title, Description, Actors and Directors on each channel. This is handy, I have an "Alfred Hitchcock" channel set up on my Replay that works quite nicely -- theres always some Hitchcock film sitting there ready to watch.

The ReplayZones feature has a wide variety of stuff in there, I don't use it much frankly. In the early days of the product, there was alot of advertising sponsored stuff in here, for instance a "Must See TV" channel sponsored by NBC. They seem to have abandoned this approach as they have abandoned the freeze-frame advertisements they once ran. Now Replay Zones is category-based stuff, but there are interesting things like for instance theres a zone for "four star" rated films, another one for sci-fi flicks, another one that is just films shown in Letterbox format, etc.

I liken it to a Yahoo-style approach (using human editors) as opposed to Tivo's Google approach (using unknown computer algorithms possibly involving flying rats).

Personally I like this. I know what I want to watch, I don't need some harebrained piece of software "guessing" what I want to watch. YMMV.

I think there must be two distinct groups at SonicBlue designing MP3 players. One does fairly standard players, often sold under somebody else's label. The other grinds out these strange backpack players.

What the second group is smoking is one of the great mysteries of our time. The players and backpacks are filled with strange, inexplicable features. On the other hand, this series is one of the few that supports bookmarks, which are essential to us spoken word types.

I think there must be two distinct groups at SonicBlue designing MP3 players. One does fairly standard players, often sold under somebody else's label. The other grinds out these strange backpack players.

What the second group is smoking is one of the great mysteries of our time. The players and backpacks are filled with strange, inexplicable features. On the other hand, this series is one of the few that supports bookmarks, which are essential to us spoken word types.

I think there must be two distinct groups at SonicBlue designing MP3 players. One does fairly standard players, often sold under somebody else's label. The other grinds out these strange backpack players.

What the second group is smoking is one of the great mysteries of our time. The players and backpacks are filled with strange, inexplicable features. On the other hand, this series is one of the few that supports bookmarks, which are essential to us spoken word types.

More and more players these days are MP3 and WMA compatible, like my Rio SP250 CD-MP3 player. With upgradeable firmware (like the SP250), it couldn't be that hard to add Ogg into the mix. I mean, nobody I know of uses WMA, but there it is. That would solve a good deal of your conversion issues right there. Simply don't. But until I see media devices go in that direction, you won't see me creating anything in Ogg anytime soon.

For companies to produce portable Vorbis players, they need to be made aware that there is a market for them. Every day, I hear the same thing from Vorbis listeners; 'I'm not buying a hardware portable music player unless it supports Ogg Vorbis.' It's nice to hear, but we can't do anything about it (we're not a hardware company). So, this page is here to let you send that message to people who can. Remember, be polite!

The Companies:

Frontier Labs - URL - has told a lot of people that they're considering implementing Vorbis support for the NEX II machine. Here's their information:

Frontier Labs
Unit 2206 - 8, Cyberincubator, Kodak House II
No. 321 Java Road
North Point, Hong Kong
Telephone: 852.2527.3322
Fax: 852.2528.5277
E-mail: techsupport@frontierlabs.com

iRiver - URL - has said they are planning to support Ogg Vorbis in the future via firmware upgrade, but the schedule is not yet finalized. Here's their information:

iRiver America
1716 Ringwood Avenue
San Jose, CA 95131
Telephone: 1-408-452-7940
Fax: 1-408-452-9944
E-mail: contact@iriveramerica.com

UPDATE: Forwarded E-mail from iRiver America

The engineers have Ogg Vorbis under consideration to support. However, at this time, there is no decision whether it will be supported in the future or not.

Regards,

Erica L. Briggs
Customer Service Representative
iRiver America, Inc.
Direct: 408.452.7940

Wouldn't you like to see Vorbis on the super-sexy iPod? We would, too. Here's some contact information for Apple Computer (URL):

Apple
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014
Telephone: 408-996-1010

UPDATE: Don't forget to drop a note to Apple about the iPod at http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipod.html!

Other companies producing audio hardware:

Archos Technology Inc. - URL
3-A Goodyear
Irvine, CA 92618
Telephone: (949) 609-1400
Fax: (949) 609-1414

ReQuest Multimedia - URL
435 2nd Ave.
Troy, NY 12182
E-mail: bizdev@request.com

Evolution Technologies - URL
118 Kitty Hawk Drive
Morrisville, NC 27560
Telephone: 919-544-3777 / toll-free: 866-848-8070
E-mail: info@nowevolution.com

UPDATE: Note from Evolution Technologies

Evolution Technologies, Inc. is committed to support our consumers music appetite. We will support the formats that are consistent with both their desires and good business practices. While we have not ruled out supporting "open source" formats, we must first evaluate the acceptance levels with the buying public so that our organization can justify the expense of developing a new compatible CODEC. When the demand is sufficient, we will support the technology.

Sonic Blue - URL
2841 Mission College Blvd.
Santa Clara, CA 95054-1838
Telephone: (408) 588-8000

I-Jam Multimedia LLC - URL
1092 National Parkway
Schaumburg, IL 60173
Telephone: 847-839-1233
Fax: 847-839-1277
E-mail: ehamnett@geltzerpr.com

Alaris, Inc. - URL
44061 Nobel Drive
Fremont, CA 94538

Creative Labs, Inc. - URL
Developer Relations
1901 McCarthy Blvd.
Milpitas, California 95035
Telephone: 408-546-6425
Fax: 408-432-6717
E-mail: devmusic@creativelabs.com

Daisy Technology, LLC - URL
111 N. Market Street, Suite 624
San Jose, CA 95113
Telephone: 408-286-7697
Fax: 408-351-3330
E-mail: info@daisytech-usa.com

Procell Media - URL
69 Wrexham Road
Whitchurch, Shropshire
SY13 1HT
UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone: +44 (0)1948 665048
Fax: +44 (0)1948 667099

G-NET Canada Headquarters - URL
11 Sinclair Court
Cambridge, Ontario
N1T 1K2 CANADA
Telephone: 519-623-4901
Fax: 519-623-3229

I'm personally hoping that Rio will make a flash update for OggVorbis for the SP250. They've released an update that gives it a different visualizaion, hopefully they'll be nice and add Ogg support. Since the codec is out they shouldn't have too much trouble doing it. It's a matter of demand. So, if you own a Rio Volt SP250 contact SonicBlue or directly at their customer support page (for the sp250)
Thanks

I'm personally hoping that Rio will make a flash update for OggVorbis for the SP250. They've released an update that gives it a different visualizaion, hopefully they'll be nice and add Ogg support. Since the codec is out they shouldn't have too much trouble doing it. It's a matter of demand. So, if you own a Rio Volt SP250 contact SonicBlue or directly at their customer support page (for the sp250)
Thanks

I have had this for about a year now, bought it 2nd hand. The one problem they ALL face is that the inline remote/lcd unit sucks and WILL stop working properly. Know that. But it doesnt stop this from being the king MP3 player for sport/running. Its small, lightweight, but best of all comes with an arm strap, so you strap it to your upper arm and forget its there. It comes with 128MB (64 built in and a 64MB MC card) memory.

Software-wise, the BEST interface I have found for this is iTunes on OSX. It comes with a proprietary management app for Win and Mac, but this thing SUCKS. iTunes works very well. There is also a plug-in for Windows Media Player, if you want to venture to the dark side.

There is a linux interface as well, although I must admit, I have had problems with it. You need rioutil for the base interface and there are a few front ends you can layer over that. I dont find that the rioutil interface is perfect, because it often uploads songs to the player, yet the player cant play them for some reason.

Anyway, if its sport-ability you want, this is the player for you. Takes on AA battery, lasts about 8 hours on this.

This Sony products sounds very similar to the RioCentral from SonicBlue. The RioCentral rips a CD that you insert, grabs cd track info from cddb, and stores on 40GB drive in mp3 format. It has USB ports for connecting your portable MP3 player, and you can connect it to the rest of your network with the ethernet port. A feature it has over the Sony model is that it can also burn CDs that you mix. You can also transfer files to and from the unit over the network. The only feature sony seems to have on this guy is the ability to tune to radio stations.

This Sony products sounds very similar to the RioCentral from SonicBlue. The RioCentral rips a CD that you insert, grabs cd track info from cddb, and stores on 40GB drive in mp3 format. It has USB ports for connecting your portable MP3 player, and you can connect it to the rest of your network with the ethernet port. A feature it has over the Sony model is that it can also burn CDs that you mix. You can also transfer files to and from the unit over the network. The only feature sony seems to have on this guy is the ability to tune to radio stations.

Sorry in advance... another product plug :P.

Something interesting for those who like the RioVolt player (or the AVC Soul) is a little-known company called iRiver, who actually designed the latter two, and only recently started to distribute their products in N.A..

Their ChromeX (iMP 150) is *identical* to the other 2 players mentioned above, and comes with that neat external lcd controller, whereas SonicBlue will ask another $20 for it. Their SlimX (iMP 350), OTOH, simply is awesome! I own one and I must say it is the best MP3/CD player I have tried (I also use the SMC-based MPio DMG when I'm at the gym though, due its smaller (2" x 2") size.

According to this Sonicblue's Replay 4500 is also Linux based.

sonicblue seems to be dumping them cheap ($599 from the original price ~$3000). I picked one up, it's running Midori linux on a transmeta 400 mhz chip, has 128 megs of ram, a 5 gig disk, orinoco 802.11, USB, and IR.

You'll need a USB keyboard to do anything major on it, but it's a slick little device

Buy yourself a replaytv and you won't even have to fast-forward through commercials. Now if i could only get the fucking think to work with my satellite reciever...

Or buy a SonicBlue Rio Volt SP250 for $146 at Buy.com and hook it up to your standard car stereo. It has many options most MP3 car stereos should have, but don't. Whether it's a portable or in-dash unit, however, MP3 players have quite a bit going for them. That's not to say Satillite Radio doesn't. But I figure you're shelling out how much and still getting commercials?! Record a 650mb winamp stream, burn it to disk an bam, you're there.

there are a few solutions. the empeg is extinct. the ssi neo is cheap. it's not good, but it's cheap. the phatbox is probably the best solution for you (especially if you're getting an aftermarket stereo). if you're scared of small companies, the phatbox also comes as the kenwood music keg (it runs linux, too).

10 gigs in my car. haven't listened to the radio in months.

Sonic Blue is clearancing their Pro Gear 1050 web tablets. They run linux on a TMTA processor, 128 MB of RAM, and a 5 gig hard drive They also have 802.11b cards and a PCMCIA slot. I had never heard of them prior to seeing the clearance sale, so I can't say anything about using it but it looks like it was a pretty nice little pad. The price is 599 USD while they last, when iniatally created they were 2800 USD.

Play back recorded shows with Commercial Advance® and you'll enjoy commercial-free TV. You'll still have the choice to watch recorded shows with the commercial, if you really want to, and you can still use QuickSkip(TM) to manually jump over them in 30-second increments

TiVo, on the other hand, seems to be striving much harder to finding some middle ground between pleasing the consumer and pacifying the behind-the-times TV companies. So you get innovative little deals like this. Admit it--no matter your ethical reservations, it's a pretty smart way to make some extra cash, which by all accounts they're in need of right now. But in the end it's clear that the ReplayTV-style DVRs will win out. We're learning time and again that this type of technology just doesn't go away. It didn't with the VCR, it didn't with personal MP3 players, it didn't with CD burners, it didn't with DeCSS, and it won't with felt-tip pens (ahem). You can already buy the ReplayTV 4000 now, and it's increasingly likely that the networks' "you must spy on your consumers" edict isn't going to stand either. The cat isn't going back in the bag.

There are some other options out there:

The AquaPAD from FICA starts at $650.

You can get it running Midori Linux or WinCE. I've played with both and support for WiFi cards is good with either version.

The SonicBLUE ProGear can also be ordered with Linux as the OS, but it's WAY pricey - like over $3000. And the version running Windows98 runs hot. Burn your lap off and runs sluggish. But it has a built in 802.11b card. No drivers to load for this one.