Where are the non-SDMI MP3 Players?

alen asks: "I'm in the market for an MP3 player. I've been looking at various models and they all seem to be SDMI ready or compliant. Looking at customer reviews on Amazon confirms this as you'll find at least one person saying you can't transfer the music from the MP3 player to your PC. At least on the newer players you do." I've been resisting the urge to get an MP3 player for precisely this reason, opting to use my laptop and a cassette adaptor for those long driving trips, but this is hardly affordable or efficient. Handhelds might work, but memory is a problem here. Are there any players out there that haven't forgotten the "fair" part in "fair-use"?

"So far I have narrowed my search to 3 choices. I want it to sound very good and be able to play music encoded at 128kb or higher.

The Rio Volt 250 is a CD based player so the SDMI thing doesn't really apply. The Creative Labs Nomad II" proudly displays this as a feature. The Samsung Yepp doesn't use SDMI, but something called SecuMax as stated in the Nomad II technical specs on Amazon. And this little tid bit on the Samsung Yepp homepage confirms that SecuMax is just like SDMI.

Now I'm not looking to download any illegal music from the Internet. I simply want to listen to my CD collection on the train to work or while working out. And there is freely downloadable music out there. If I were to download a song at work or a friend's house, put it in my MP3 player I then wouldn't be able to transfer it back to my PC at home to add to my collection. Where is 'fair use' when the artist is giving away their music for free? And I don't have the link, but what of the recent surges in so called 'secure' CD's that one can't rip into MP3's? Where is the 'fair use' there? Or are we supposed to purchase multiple copies of the same music in different formats?"

Comments

Re:iPod?

[pi radians]

Not true. There is a sticker on it that specifically states "Don't steal music".

Now you know.

Re:Head to eBay and pick up a....

[onion2k]

you can have different genres of music for driving/working out etc

Working out? You realise this is slashdot, right?

Re:iPod?

[sllort]

In Mac OS X, just hop to the "Terminal" and do a "cp -R /Volumes/[iPod Name]/Music/* ~/Music" and it moves across nicely.

You fool! Your comment is a circumvention device! I hope you posted it from an anonymous relay, because the RIAA Thought Police are already mobilized. Your comment is a "digital crowbar", it will be used by millions to deprive starving recording artists of their royalty proceeds! Jack Valenti is currently mobilizing an army, if I were anywhere near the Slashdot server room I'd leave the area immediately. Laser-guided "smart bombs" aren't always perfect for accuracy.

Re:OT , command lines (was Re:iPod?)

[toupsie]

I thought the official party line was that CLIs were "evil", like two-button mice

That's what us Mac zealots want you to think. Its a part of our propaganda goals. Apple has had a historical problem of building enough machines to match demand so as a Mac zealot we really don't want too many converts so we don't have to fight for a Mac. Those "deficits" of the Mac platform are meant to drive the weak minded to Windows.

Re:iPod?

[toupsie]

Oh sh*t! The last thing I need is the Sensible Shoe Wearing, Amazon Warriorette of the RIAA chasing me down for my DMCA violation! I am now going into hiding in a country where freedom of speech still matters.

Re:What is DMCA ?

[mattkinabrewmindspri]

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (Doesn't Mean Crap Anyway...)

Re:iPod?

[MrEfficient]

Aha, but have you noticed the almost subliminal message on the commercial? Near the end of the commercial, at the bottom of the screen are the words, "Don't steal music". After viewing this commercial several times, I found that I was unable to download music off the internet. Apple is clearly making use of copy protection schemes, they just use different methods. What do you think, "Think Different" means?