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iRiver Ships Linux Media Players
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."
$500 and $600? Lucky they're using Linux to keep the price down.
clearly the pmp stands for pimp
When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
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?
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.
Yet, at the bottom, there's the following:
About iRiver
iRiver is the leading innovator in delivering portable digital media devices. iRiver provides consumers with the viewing, listening and recording flexibility to accommodate their active lifestyles by manufacturing award-winning hybrid products supporting existing and emerging formats, including MP3, OGG, ASF, WMA and WMA-DRM. Milpitas-based iRiver America, Inc. can be found on the Web at www.iRiverAmerica.com.
(emphasis of 'OGG' mine)
Ok the official specs say no ogg, but maybe that is a misprint. But here they say it has ogg.
Was Ogg support the cause for the long delay?
***Quis custodiet ipsos custodes***
> 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.
Although it looks really neat it is way too expensive. I mean, the iPod is pretty overpriced and I thought Archos players to be on the upper edge but this beats them both. I mean isn't the whole purpose of using Linux on such a device to bring the costs down? I hope they are very successful with this device so it might get affordable in the near future but right now this is way out of reach for the average geek.
;-)
Slightly offtopic: In case you are looking for a feature laden, flashbased player you might find the VaioX miniXen interesting. It is pretty cheap and can do everything you might ever want from such a small device. It plays nice with your Linux OS too, of course. I was comparing prices and features of these players for half a year now and finally settled on the Vaiox. I am very happy with it, although I am not sure where to get it in the US!
The human ear can only detect sounds between 20Hz and about 20kHz (some people can hear higer, some cannot hear frequencies that high).
Audio is typically sampled at 44kHz to eliminate aliasing distortion. Google for "Nyquist" and "aliasing distortion" for more than you could ever possibly want to know.
Now it can't compete on storage space, I admit, but my palmone treo 600 has been my exclusive portable music player for about 6 months now. Combined with the pocket-tunes software and a sd memory card, the treo 600 becomes a rather fancy mp3, wma, wav, and ogg player. In addition to that, it's also a cell phone, plays games, browses webs, etc. You can buy a 1gb sd card for about $80, and the pocket-tunes software is $30. The phone itself is only $350 with a contract from the evil phone company of your choice. If you get their unlimited data plans, then you can stream your favorite shoutcast streams straight to your phone.
Ever since I bought this phone, my archos jukebox 6000 has been sitting on the shelf collecting dust.
If you don't want the phone you could always get the tungsten t5. Also be sure to check out the yet unreleased treo 650.
What the hell are you smoking?
They work with any OS (and I have tried mine with OSX, Linux and Windows), and need no configuration. They do show up as removable storage.
There is a program called "iripdb" which you can use in place of the iriver's database ripper. It's open source so you can theoretically compile it for any platform.
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
They do support ogg. It just didn't register with the submitter of the story (or the editor who approved it) that .ogg was a music format popular in geek crowds.
Mathematics is made of 50 percent formulas, 50 percent proofs, and 50 percent imagination.
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.
Seriously! Oh, look at us we managed to make a player that runs Linux and still isn't Linux-friendly. How stupid can you get?
It's like some marketing guy came in and said "You know what's hot? Li-nux!" and then no one ever bothered to figure out why or how or with who.
adam b.