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80 Gig MP3 Player
An Anonymous Coward writes: "I don't know who has anywhere near enough MP3 music to need an 80G drive, but for those who want one Reality Media has just released the GIDI Digital Jukebox. The company is based out of Belgium and offers the unit in three different box styles including one for the dash ($715) and one for a systems rack ($795). The company will also sell you the guts alone to build your own player. The key is the company's Single Board Audio Computer (SBAC), which is a pre-programmed for digital music."
I love the idea of these players but what happens when a new audio format takes lead? I want a player that is upgradeable.
"You can kill a man, but you can't kill what he stands for. Not unless you first break his spirit."-Smoking man,X-Files
It would be *very* nice if other manufacturers followed suit, but I'm not holding my breath... (It would also be nice if the sources were GPL, but I'm not complaining.)
-CT
This pisses me off too. The anti-piracy busybodies where I work have been up my skirt a few times about my bringing MP3 files from home to listen to at work. They have no problem with music on the job -- they're just convinced that MP3 is a "pirate-only" format because there has been so god damn much news about Napster and pirates.
I personally archive any CD I buy IMMEDIATELY as a high quality (256kbps or -r3mix) MP3 because CDs are just too damn fragile. I've had to buy some CDs twice (and #$Y&^@ Tidal by Fiona Apple FOUR times) because they developed serious skips/scratches before I started encoding everything to MP3. And YES, I do share my MP3 files sometimes. More than once I've sent a song to a friend in e-mail with a subject like "HOLY SHIT, I just bought a CD and *kicks ass*, LISTEN TO THIS!"
And do you know what? I don't feel guilty about doing it.
These could be wonderful times -- we have the ability to reproduce information endlessly, so no information, be it music or paperwork or video or photos or whatever ever has to die or disappear -- and instead of preserving and sharing all this bounty of knowledge, we're even being prevented from perserving our OWN data for PERSONAL use by the likes of Microsoft, RIAA, SDMI, and all of those damned MP3 BUSYBODIES!
Yes, I need more MP3 space, my CD collection online is now up to 48 gigs and growing by two CDs a week! GIVE ME 80 GIGS OR GIVE ME DEATH!
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
There's got to be a better way, like a modularized HD assembly with basic USB or FireWire conectivity that you can lug to your PC and back to the car. Sure would beat those MP3 car players that do CD-R's.
First, taking music off a CD and reformating into MP3 results in some degradation. Much more importantly, however, just because music is digitally stored does not mean it will be audiophile quality. Storing bits of data is one thing. Converting them to high fidelity audio is arguably much more difficult. Go to Circuit City and listen to your favorite CD, and then go to an audio shop and listen to a good CD player such as the Rega Planet 2000 through a good amplifier and speakers. If you don't notice a huge difference, next go to the Beltone dealer nearest you and have your hearing checked.
For one company's solution to the problem of computer-based music, go to www.12dax7.com. They produce a preamplifier that uses the USB port, high quality DACs, and 12AX7 vacuum tubes (!) to produce a decent audio output.
I have a slightly different idea from the 12dax7 on the drawing board (and hopefully doable for about 1/3 the price!)
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this is exactly what I was referring to.
Unless this unit (or at least the radio station version of it (rack mount)) comes with a external display + mouse + keyboard so that you can roll your own playlists for it, it's going to be rather difficult to use.
And no, I don't think ANYONE has that much time on their hands to sit in front of a one-line LCD display picking music for a playlist. 80gb of storage definitely requires a external monitor + keyboard to be able to make some sense out of all the music.
Or how about this, make it run Linux (maybe it does already?) then you can ssh into it, and make all playlists with vi! Then on the one-line display you only pick from say, 40 playlists instead of 40000 songs. All the playlists could be stored in a separate directory, as plain text (m3u or something), and LCD display can be switched between songs/playlists mode. Hopefully this kind of functionality is already present in this unit in one way or another.
This is cool and all, but I'd like to see a wireless network interface built into a dash unit. There would be nothing cooler than refreshing your available playlist by just driving in front of your house.