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Portable MP3 Player w/ Unix Support?
oobeleck asks: "With my birthday just around the corner and my 8 mile runs needing music, I am thinking of asking for a portable mp3 player. What is the Slashdot community's experience with MP3 portables. What has the most support, what should I stay away from. I have been eye-balling the Diamond Rio 600/800 model. Any opinions on the Rio? I want something that works good with Linux/OpenBSD. Thanks for your help." Ask Slashdot last ran such an article back in April of 2000, I'm sure bigger and better MP3 players have been made since then. Which of today's players would you all recommend?
I suggest the iPod. With MacOS, *nix (if you can get XTunes to compile; holy crap what a nightmare), and (soon) Windows support, you can't go wrong. The price is a bit higher than other mp3 players, but you get the added bonus of having a portable hard drive for moving files around, if you need it.
On that note, are there portable players with Vorbis support?
"You're getting brutal, Sark. Brutal and needlessly sadistic."
"Thank you, Master Control"
-Sark and the MCP
I just wanted to add that I've used several other MP3 players and like the Nex II best.
Players I've tried:
Rio 300
Rio 600
Archos Jukebox (early one, don't remember the model)
Creative Jukebox
Yepp
iPod
The Rio 300, Archos, and Creative took for-freaking-ever to fill up. The Rio 300 because it attaches via parallel port and the Archos and Creative because GBs take along time to travel over USB. And if you only fill a few 100MB what's the point of having a jukebox right?
The Rio 600 has crappy DRM issues. You need special (Win or Mac) software to put files on it, and you can't take files off it on another machine.
The yepp was basically a piece of shit.
The iPod was excellent. But it doesn't work with n*x that I'm aware of and it's quite a bit more expensive than the Nex. I'd actually say the Nex is as easy to use as the iPod, and I just don't need GB's of space so the Nex gets my nod.
Also, all of these are really too heavy to run or bike with except the Yepp, which was crap. The Nex is just perfect at a few ounces.
obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
Yes yes, I record video game music on MD as well. Metropolis Street Racer has an awesome sound track, so long it won't fit on an MD!!!
works great with the 1gig microdrive, uses AA batteries (get some good 1800mAH nimh batts) and is small and reliable. and quite functional enough to please even the most serious control freak (EDITOR: guilty as charged).
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
So if you like the iPod (and it is in your budget), you probably can't go wrong.
--
The internet is the greatest source of biased information in the history of mankind.
OK....this has bugged for years....
"Minidiscs never caught on because they use a lossy compression algorhythm"
I wonder how MP3 caught on then...
I mean if all that people cared about was sound quality,
I think I would have a 1/2 inch reel-to-reel in my car by now.
(analog tapes are lossy, yet they are everywhere...why is that??)
There are different uses for different technologies.
CONVENIENCE VS. QUALITY.
Scenario 1.
Quality.
I really like the sound quality of DAT.
It's sampling rate is higher than that of cd (48Khz).
I also have -all the time in the world- to fast forward and rewind what are essentially cassette tapes 2.0.
I can overlook such things as bulky players, delicate internal mechinisms,
and fragile tapes.... for some of the best quality possible.
Scenario 2.
Convenience.
"I'm usually on the go when i listen to music.
I really like being able to throw my MD in my pocket with a couple of discs and go.
I can overlook things like "lossless" recording, higher frequencies i can't hear,
and the ability to trade DAT GD/Phish/DMB shows
for the versitiliy and convenience of minidisc."
Now this is a little silly...people don't talk like this...but they do SHOP like this.
HOW and WHERE do you do your listening?
In the car?
In a private listening room with headphones?
In a subway train?
Is space limited?
Is there a lot of background noise?
All of these things must be factored before a decision can be made on the appropriate format for the occasion.
FYI, I personally use...
MD when biking, walking around,
DAT when mastering/archiving studio tracks,
CD when in the shower,
Vinyl in a quiet room and headphones,
Car-MP3CD when driving,
HD-MP3 for my main jukebox,
MD-Data for recording OUT of the studio,
ADAT for recording IN the studio,
and old analog tapes for mixes for my not-so-high tech friends.
Everything has it's place.
Info on the Frontier Labs Nex II here
Quick reasons why:
1. CF and Microdrive support
2. No proprietary software, just drag and drop files
3. Works on windows and Linux
4. Cheap
5. Great battery life
6. No DRM crap
7. Customer service that actually writes back (unlike SonicBlueBalls)