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Neuros Gets (Beta) Linux Support

Posted by timothy on from the and-ogg-is-close dept.

Jahf writes "/. reported awhile back that the folks at Digital Innovations (makers of the Neuros portable MP3 player) were teaming up with Xiph.org (makers of the Ogg Vorbis audio format) to release both native Linux support for synchronizing the Neuros and firmware support in the Neuros for Ogg Vorbis files. Today they announced in this forum posting that the native Linux client has reached beta. Nice to see this happen ... I can ditch my last Windows install (well, I'll keep it for a couple of games). It is a command-line utility, no amazing fancy UI, but I'm sure plenty of folks will work to remedy that in some fashion or another and I'm happier with a rock-solid command-line util than a buggy GUI app anyway since I already do all my ripping/encoding/freeDBing/etc from scripts in a shell (so I can just add this as the final step). Next on the list is Ogg Vorbis support ... not done yet but hopefully close. w00t!"

13 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. Buy One by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Show your support for this and buy a Neuros player.

  2. Ogg will have won... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    when these MP3 players get marketed as "portable Ogg Vorbis players" instead. (Yeah geeks have strange wet dreams I know.)

  3. Editors! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Can't the editors at least remove the lame stuff from the submission text?

    Nice to see this happen ... I can ditch my last Windows install.

    Why does this need to be in the submission?

    (well, I'll keep it for a couple of games).

    Ok now I'm confused.

    no amazing fancy UI, but I'm sure plenty of folks will work to remedy that

    Good attitude! :)

    I'm happier with a rock-solid command-line util than a buggy GUI app anyway

    Or not..

    I already do all my ripping/encoding/freeDBing/etc from scripts in a shell

    Too l33t for me!

    Next on the list is Ogg Vorbis support ... not done yet

    Ok, so a non-story.

    w00t!

    I don't think this one needs an explanation.

  4. Yeah right..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I can ditch my last Windows install

    I wish I had a dollar every time I heard that on /. And another dollar every time they end up re-installing Windows when it didn't work out as they dreamed.

  5. is there really need for vorbis portable? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    you generally use your portable while you travel in bus or go jogging etc.
    the ambient noises disort the sound anyway so you don't have to use full 192Kbps quality for your audio, besides the memory in the devices is limited and still bit expensive to expand.

    how's your headphones? do you really carry around high end half open/closed headphones that cost $1000 when you go jogging?
    no, you use the $10 button headphones that you got cheap from some junk shop --> no need for the extra quality

    Currently you can get portable mp3 player with 128Mb memory for less than $100

    how about getting one of those cheap mass produced mp3 players and whip up script that transcodes the ogg on your hard drive to 64-160kbps mp3 just before transferring it to the player

    you could still enjoy the quality of oggs on your high end speaker system at home since the files are oggs on your hd

    1. Re:is there really need for vorbis portable? by RoLi · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Or you could use Ogg-Vorbis and be able to have twice as much songs at the same quality on your device.

    2. Re:is there really need for vorbis portable? by OO7david · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's not only for jogging, or on the bus, or between classes for which I'd like a Vorbis player. You are right in that the quality difference between a 128 or 192 mp3 vs vorbis with the headphones I'd wear around campus is negligible.

      However, about 45% of the music on my computer is in vorbis, and it would save me alot of hassle to simple dump them on a player rather than convert or re-rip (especially since for some I can't find the CDs after moving).

  6. Re:I keep hopin by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now when I DO get a vorbis player, I'm going to have to spend about 300 hours re-ripping my entire collection.

    Don't rip to vorbis, rip to FLAC and then never worry about having to re-rip to the format dejure again. Disk is cheap, go lossless for archival purposes and then whenever you need it in a lossy format, just use the FLAC version as your base source and convert on the fly. Makes it easy to support MP3, Vorbis, AAC, AARP, NCAA, etc.

    --
    When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  7. Re:I keep hopin by Darren+Winsper · · Score: 2, Insightful

    My MP3/Ogg collection i getting on for 20GB. Storing all those in FLAC isn't practical, I might as well just grab the CD when I need to convert to another format.

  8. Why not USB-storage? by NotoriousQ · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I am slightly confused why this device just would not support usb-storage. That would sound like the simplest thing to do. No strange programs run, etc.

    Even for those who want syncronization abilities. They can just mount the usb-storage and then rsync the local paths.

    Why the special utility?

    --
    badness 10000
  9. FLAC does matter by Jucius+Maximus · · Score: 3, Insightful
    "And whoah, fanboy. If I was gonna go lossless, I'd go with with a RIFF wav-- those are compatible with every imaginable program."

    Yeah, you say that now. But with FLAC, the files are compressed losslessly, and in my experience, I generally get about a 33% size reduction. And with subtle music with a lot of will placed percussion (e.g. my jazz albums) FLAC does give a noticeable improvement over ogg vorbis encoded at 9.1 quality.

    So assuming you'd get about 74 minutes of audio on the standard CD, you'd get 747 MiB of wave files per disc.

    Note: CD Audio encoding is different than regular data encoding. You cannot fit 747 MiB of wave files on a CD-R in a regular file 74 or 80 minute system because of redundant error correction data that does not exist in the CD Audio format.

    So with a 20 GiB Neuros Audio Player you would be able to fit 27.4 CDs on one player. With FLAC, assuming a 33% file size reduction, you would be able to get 40.9 CDs onto the player.

    Lossless support in the Neuros player IS a big deal because it allows you to put a significantly larger quantity of non-lossy music on it. And furthermore, if you want, you can just convert the FLAC back to RIFF wave format whenever you want because, one again, the conversion is lossless in both directions.

  10. Re:Right, indeed. by NineNine · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Well, in my experience, it usually goes like this: 1) user installs some Linux distro, 2) user keeps Windows around just in case, 3) user ends up not using Windows anymore at all. Once in a blue moon at -most-.

    In my experience it goes like this: 1) User installs some kind of Linux 2) User spends 15 minutes trying to change the resolution, or get sound working, or something else that should be trivial. 3) Users says "fuck this. I don't have time for this shit. This is unuseable". 4) User wipes Linux and boots back into Win 2K.

  11. bitrate peeling does not exist by Trepidity · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Bitrate peeling is not yet implemented, and will not be for quite some time.*

    * Well, there are experimental implementations, but the quality is generally considered to be unacceptable, so the interfaces are not yet exposed.

    --
    10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10