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Beta Ogg Vorbis Firmware For The Neuros [updated]
volsung writes "It's finally here! Xiph.org has made a beta release of firmware with Ogg Vorbis support for the Neuros portable music player. You can grab the firmware from the Neurosetta site. Note that this beta release only plays Vorbis files, and may skip on very high quality files, like average bitrates above 200 kbps. Also, you'll need to head over to the positron website for instructions on how to upload Vorbis files. Big thanks go out to Monty all of his hard work, and Digital Innovations for supporting the project.
(See the DI press release here.)"
Update: 07/01 15:26 GMT by T : Stan Seibert writes with an update: if you'd like to get one of these players, visit open.neurosaudio.com to find them on sale.
Especially given that the Vorbis format supports bitrate peeling.
According to neurosaudio, this beta firmware upgrade will disable mp3 playback support. You can have one, but not the other. Looks like it would be better to wait until the beta stage has been passed before upgrading your firmware, since this will be resolved in later releases.
"I am not bound to please thee with my answers" [William Shakespeare]
With such things like Personal Submarines, Personal Rockets, Z80 based webservers etc., can't we have a Slashdot store or something?
The would probably be a little redundant, taken that thinkgeek already exists.
I'm all for competition, but running a store takes some serious logistics.
.: Max Romantschuk
Especially given that the Vorbis format supports bitrate peeling.
/. page you linked states that bitrate peeling isn't implemented yet... Are you is or is you aint?
The page linked from the
Anyone have an update? The info is dated Nov. 7th 2002.
.: Max Romantschuk
Price wise, the Neuros is no worse than the ipod, and while the hard-disk backpack version is larger, it does substantially more (including the possiblity of hardware upgrades). The big selling point for me is the built in FM Transmitter. A close second is the (beta) Linux support. The Ipod has neither of these. Although several of the (relatively) cheaper Archos Jukebox devices have offered good GNU/Linux support for some time now (because they are fundamentally external harddisks).
Galium Arsenide is the material of the future, and always will be.
The iPod is fully usable under linux, has been for some time. Mounting to add and delete files was easy since it's just a firewire disk, the db support to actually list the songs took a little while, but since Ephpod was open source all that work was easy to replicate on linux.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
According to Ogg Traffic from April 2003 they are still working on it...
Quoted from the above URL: "... The bottom line is that Version 1.0 files don't peel very well due to how the packets are organized."
"... He is convinced that this can be done [peeling], but that takes time, which is something he doesn't have in excess. Of course, if somebody offered him a contract to implement bitrate peeling for money, the process could be accelerated a lot. Oh, and did I mention that donations to Xiph.org are now tax-deductible?"
I love my Neuros dearly. It's a part of the family now. It sits at the dinner table and has its own bedroom.
But it's a bit slow. At around 2 gigs per hour, it takes 10 hours to fill all 20 gigs. Those of you itching to buy one might do better to wait a couple months for the release of the USB2 HD backpack. Those of us who bought early will be recieving a free (or nearly free) upgrade to USB2, but I don't think that applies if you buy one right now.
It might, though. You should ask. Those guys are great.
Emmett
USB 2.0 support's coming - and you get a free hardware upgrade if you buy before the 31st of July.