iRiver Ships Linux Media Players

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iRiver Ships Linux Media Players

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday October 23, 2004 @01:33AM from the media-to-go dept.

prostoalex writes "The Register talks about new Linux-based portable media players available from iRiver. PMP-120 and PMP-140 feature 3.5'' color screen and 20 and 40 GB drives. The price tag is $500 and $600 respectively. The players support MP3, WMA, WAV and ASF music formats as well as MPEG, ASF, AVI and DivX video formats."

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Ogg Vorbis by gspr · 2004-10-23 01:36 · Score: 2, Insightful

Aaargh! Although it is nice and well, this isn't what the average free software Joe is crying out for. We want Ogg Vorbis capable players!
1. Re:Ogg Vorbis by FlipmodePlaya · 2004-10-23 01:40 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Hmmm, most iRiver players (such as the iHP series) support ogg. I would be very surprised if this didn't, I imagine it's an error that it is not listed.
2. Re:Ogg Vorbis by Donny+Smith · 2004-10-23 01:48 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  > this isn't what the average free software Joe is crying out for.
  
  Yeah, it isn't and the probable reason is that there's only about 50,000 of average free software Joes compared to 2 billion of all average Joes.
  
  Not to mention that this tiny market segment isn't exactly known for their generosity and lavish spending habits.
REAL question is.. by Manip · 2004-10-23 01:39 · Score: 5, Insightful

The real question is, did IRiver release the source code for their new Linux players?

If they did, have they made it easy for people to change the software on the player?

Do they support open-source software for their player?
1. Re:REAL question is.. by rixdaffy · 2004-10-23 02:27 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I don't see why they would need to release the source for their player.
  They probably should release any modifications they did to the kernel, but AFAIK they don't have to release any apps they make run on Linux. It's not like every company who makes commercial software which runs on Linux is obliged to release the source (would be great if they did though)
  
  Ricardo.
Audio quality by Norgus · 2004-10-23 01:45 · Score: 1, Insightful

Frequency range at 20Hz~20kHz
Isn't this a little low? or am I getting confused by the fact all my audio files are at 44Khz?
Missed a format by fire-eyes · 2004-10-23 01:50 · Score: 3, Insightful

Now i've heard some manufacturers say that they don't try support for certain formats because the cpu power on the units is too low.

Being a new unit, and the price, I really think that's BS now.

Of course, the format is ogg. I would consider one (though NOT at that price!) if it had it... Sigh.

--
-- Note: If you don't agree with me, don't bother replying. I won't read it.
1. Re:Missed a format by chendo · 2004-10-23 02:12 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Common sense is required here.
  
  If it could play DivX... how could it not have the CPU power to play OGG? It's probably a mistake on iRiver's part to not have included it in the supported formats list.
  
  --
  Founder of Mirror Moon - Tsukihime Game Trans
My $30 CD player can do something these can't... by nwbvt · 2004-10-23 02:26 · Score: 4, Insightful

Namely play entire albums. Most MP3 players cannot do this simply because they lack the ability to play songs without sticking gaps in between them, which ruin many albums.
I've heard rumors that the iRiver was planning to support gapless playback, but their latest update doesn't work at all. Until they do, I'll just stick with my CDs when I want to listen to music on the go.

--
Mathematics is made of 50 percent formulas, 50 percent proofs, and 50 percent imagination.
Must Be Gapless by nathanh · 2004-10-23 02:45 · Score: 3, Insightful

Until these players are gapless I am simply not interested. Too many of my albums are continuous movements. There's nothing more frustrating than a two-second moment of silence during the music.
The other thing these players seem to be missing is a simple text reader. My #1 use for my PDA is an e-book reader. It would be really sweet if the PMP could double-up as an e-book reader.
1. Re:Must Be Gapless by Shinglor · 2004-10-23 03:13 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  There's nothing more frustrating than a two-second moment of silence during the music.
  
  If that's the worst thing that's ever happened to you, you should consider yourself lucky.
Re:FLAC by Hatta · 2004-10-23 03:23 · Score: 3, Insightful

Uncompressed audio is so big that even a 40% reduction in size can make a difference. Especially if you're hauling 3 hour Dead shows around on your portable. Or downloading them for free at archive.org

There's also the embedded checksums and the support for vorbiscomments that make it real nice to use. If I weren't a poor grad student I'd definately buy one of these.

--
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Re:No .ogg :-( by nwbvt · 2004-10-23 05:11 · Score: 2, Insightful

Well gee, if you don't know anyone who uses a certain technology it must not be in existence.
In case the frequency of "What about ogg" posts on this story didn't clue you in, the format is indeed popular within the geek crowd.

--
Mathematics is made of 50 percent formulas, 50 percent proofs, and 50 percent imagination.
Re:My $30 CD player can do something these can't.. by nwbvt · 2004-10-23 05:53 · Score: 2, Insightful

" You can't play two arbitrary MP3s "back to back" without the potential for silent gaps."
Who said anything about MP3s? I know the MP3 format does not support gapless playback. Thats one reason I have my music collection ripped into ogg vorbis files (this is slashdot you know, people here are familiar with the format). Thus I can listen to them with no gaps. What I'm looking for is a portable player which can also do this. I've heard the Karma supports it, though it has its own problems.

--
Mathematics is made of 50 percent formulas, 50 percent proofs, and 50 percent imagination.