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More Linux Portable Media Players On The Way
An anonymous reader writes "According to LinuxDevices.com, Taiwanese motherboard maker FIC will unveil a Linux-based portable media player (PMP) at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. FIC's 'Vassili' includes a 3.6-inch color LCD screen and a 20GB hard drive, and supports files in MPEG 1-4, MP3, WMA, WAV, ASF, AVI, and JPEG format. Speaking of Linux-based PMPs, Archos will also showcase its lastest PMP, the Pocket Media Assistant PMA400 at CES, and other Linux-based PMPs have recently been announced by iRiver, Veritouch, and Zupera."
The Neuros has open firmware, hardware, and software. You currently have to download a trial version of TI's compiler for their DSP, but last I knew there was an effort underway to get a gcc target written for it.
Start here to find out more about its open-sourceness.
Seeing as you're lazy, I'll click those little hyperlinks for you. Maybe I'll get like modded up or something for my efforts:
The FIC Vassili is limited to MPEG4, MP3, WMA, WAV, ASF, AVI, and JPEG.
The iRiver PMP-120 does not currently support it, but they promise it will soon, I think.
The VeriTouch iVue doesn't mention which formats it supports.
Zupera Technology's one is limited to MP3, WMA, WAV, CD and AC-3.
So none of them support it.
- Jax
Actually, This says that the iRiver supports OGG out of the box.
So iRiver does.
iRiver seem to make great players in any case. When I get a new MP3 player, I'll get an iRiver. Especially if Rockbox is ported to it!
- Jax
Probably because while USB has a higher theoretical speed than firewire, the constant sustained transfer rate of firewire is usually much higher than that of USB. (ever wonder why most cameras go with it?) http://www.usb-ware.com/firewire-vs-usb.htm --more info if you want.
Valid question.
-Firewire is freely licensed by Apple.
-USB is not. At least last I heard.
-Firewire does not require a CPU, ie a PC, to mediate file transfers.
-USB requires a PC. And originally, Windows, tho that changed eventually.
-Firewire 400 is faster than USB.
-Firewire 800 is faster than USB2. Note that contention on the inferior bus and the mediation of the CPU are two big factors that retard USB and USB2.
-Firewire, six-pin, has a superior ability to power peripherals compared to USB.
-(Bone to pick) Firewire and USB were introduced by Apple and Intel, respectively. Intel used its influence in mobo design and OEM to promote its own, inferior, standard over Apple's. (And Apple waived the licensing fees - $1 per mobo, I believe, early, so that was not a factor). As a result, to this day Firewire still hasn't hit the magic numbers to drop the cost down to parity with USB. Microsoft had no small role in retarding the introduction of Firewire in Windows. MS/Intel swing a lot of weight. They did not exactly like Apple making a new standard.
So we're stuck with a slower data transfer rate in real life and a lousy peripheral power option because Intel wanted to rool over all.
Lucky you! aA solution!
Open firmware for a popular PMP!
WTPOUAWYHTTOTWPA
What's the point of using acronyms when you have to type out the whole phrase anyways?
I use plenty of hardware with third-party, hacked drivers and such, but if I'm shelling out US$300 or US$400 for an MP3 player, it would be nice to have support for at least some decent OS.
To understand recursion, you must first understand recursion.
I was under the impression that the wmv family of formats was proprietary to Microsoft. I'd be shocked into next Tuesday if MS licensed those codecs to be used for a Linux-based player.
I hope you're sitting down: any company is allowed to license WMA/WMV for any platform. Microsoft hates Linux, but they won't sacrifice Windows Media world domination just to spite Linux.