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Nomad Jukebox 3 Officially Out
An Anonymous Coward writes: "It seems that the long awaited Jukebox 3 is officially out. Features include time scaling, to play files at different speeds without affecting pitch, multichannel effects, optical input, wireless remote and two battery ports. Probably not an iPod killer yet, although it has many, many more features and welcome firewire port. Now when will this thing be available?"
The source for all Creative Labs news, and not paid for by CL! www.nomadness.net
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from the specs page:
Memory
16MB DRAM buffer
20GB hard drive storage (333 hours at 128kbps MP3 encoding)
Microsoft® Windows® 98 (Second Edition required for SB1394 transfer)/2000/Me/XP
Intel® Pentium II 233MHz or AMD K6®-2 266MHz (Pentium III450MHz or higher recommended for MP3 encoding)
SVGA graphics adapter (256 colors, 800x600)
Internet connection for Internet content downloading or CDDB® support (any charges incurred are the responsibility of the end user)
64MB RAM (128MB recommended)
USB or SB1394 port (found on Sound Blaster® Audigy(TM) series of audio cards)
30MB free hard disk space (more for audio content storage)
Installed Mouse
Sound Blaster® Audigy(TM), Extigy(TM) or Live! for EAX® enhanced MP3 encoding
CD-ROM drive with digital audio extraction support
end thieved content from NOMAD page
I have to buy a new SOUNDCARD to use this thing? I just got my 5.1 Platinum six months ago. I'm not sure a lot of people are going to be up for paying $100 for a new card just to be able to use "SB 1394."
I can get an 10GB iPod with XDrive for under $450. Yes, the storage site is only 10GB, but with true Firewire I can shift files on and off in minutes rather than the hours USB1 takes.
Come on Creative, give us REAL Firewire support!
20GB storage space holds up to 8000 songs encoded in WMA at 80kbps or 5000 MP3s encoded at 128kbps
ika:/home/derek> bc
8000*80
640000
5000*128
640000
Derek
You are wrong. The ASIC based decoders have less horsepower than the ARM based decoders. It's lack of a codec that's holding it back. The ammount of NOR flash on most player boards is more than enough for an additional codec. NO ADDITIONAL PARTS WOULD BE REQUIRED FOR MOST MP3 PLAYERS.
To help in making a fixed pont Ogg codec, see: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ivdev
From everything I've read, including posts from the Ogg guys, the Ogg decoding algorithm requires floating-point math, something small embedded processors typically don't have. This isn't the case with mp3's.
I bet the hardware manufacturers would love to implement Ogg- I doubt they like paying licensing fees to Microsoft and Franhofer (sp?) for WMA and MP3 licenses.
I believe the Ogg guy(s) are working on a decoding algorithm that doesn't require floating-point math. I'm out of touch with Ogg land though... check their site.
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The first hands on review of the nomad 3 is available here.
I have a Nomad Jukebox and I have been very, very, VERY disappointed with the "user-interface" on the thing. There is no quick access to songs (by first letter or such), so you have to scroll down linearly through your entire collection to find an album, artist, or title. This is made even more painful because the thing becomes very sluggish and the scrolling has "hiccups" while a song is actually playing. Mine takes over a minute to boot (not an exaggeration), frequently will hang with a "Please Wait..." message for a good 20-30 seconds when switching modes (normal/random) or navigating a large playlist.
Not to mention that the interface menus are laid out inconsistently, and it has two modes you have to switch back and forth between just to create a playlist. The physical button layout is very inergonomic and difficult to manipulate without looking while driving.
I just took my Nomad on a road trip and I honestly had to spend several minutes explaining the interface to my friend (an engineer) just so he could operate it while I was driving. In terms of ease-of-use, it's the exact opposite of an iPod. By the end of the trip we were ready to chuck the thing into the Grand Canyon.
The point of this tirade: don't waste your money on a Nomad 3, at least not unless they've spent a lot of time improving what must be one of the worst interfaces ever designed.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that the unit locks up playing some mp3's (possibly the mp3's had encoding errors, but still...), and the Creative PlayCenter software you use to download songs crashes constantly when transferring, even after several upgrades to both it and the Nomad firmware.