The old Archos players are bulky, but they do go to 120GB when you drop in the latest Seagate 2.5" drives. Pretty sweet. It's nice being able to add $100GB to your DAP for only a hundred bucks or so.
It's just a pity that their expansion has to stop here because their disk controller is not LBA and only reads up to the ~127GB limit.
That's not enough to decode fullres MPEG4 in realtime. Heck, today's xScale PDAs can barely do that at around 500mhz. It would need a faster CPU and/or a dedicated custom decoder chip.
Remember, it's a small screen.
The open-source Rockbox people managed to add a video player to the 4-year-old Archos hardware, and it's using a CPU most often found in washing machines (12 MHz SH1734). Now, the video is greyscale, but it is impressive to see it working, and with full stereo audio synch, at 67 fps.
I'm expecting great things from the port to iRiver: a 140MHz ColdFire 5249 is a whole different kind of beast. It's already enabled a pretty spiffy Gameboy emulator,
Two years brings a lot of changes. At the time he was busy dissing those players, there were 1GB players available. In fact, a player I have from that era now takes 2GB cards. I like progress. Progress is good. The nano represents progress of a sort for Apple - I think absorbing most of the Creative mp3 player design team has worked out well. It's nice that Apple finally has a pretty good, albeit quite expensive, flash player, even if it did take it a few years to get it right.
But there are other players since then that have advanced significantly, adding video, games, emulators, PDA functions, wireless, expansion, and so on. For myself, I like my personal media tech to push the envelope, and to not be so hostile to open-sourcefirmware enhancements.
I'll take your word for the video. I don't really spend "probably on average 75-80% of my waking day" on the Internet, but let me see...
Jobs has said time and time again that he thinks the idea of a video iPod is stupid
Just like he and the other Apple drones spent a year or so dissing the expensive, high-end Flash players before introducing the ipod mini? I recall hearing quite a lot of apple fans parroting Apple's talking points: flash players suck, the capacity is tiny, everyone wants 60GB, and so on. On stage during the mini inro, he even spent an abnormal amount of time dissing existing Flash players. And today what is Apple's current ipod de jour? The Nano - a high-end, expensive Flash player. In fact, Apple even ditched its hard disk mini player in favour of a flash player.
Don't believe everything you hear. The only reason Apple is currently "down" on video is because it hasn't figured out to make a killing from it. Note that the desires of pod owners don't enter into it. It would be trivial to movie-enable colour ipods with a firmware update. But since Apple hasn't figured out how to *sell* movie content it sees no point giving people extra features. In the end, it's not about the ipod as an enabling device for personal media consumption and remixing but its positioning as a channel for Apple monetize.
Steve Jobs still believes video mobile devices aren't practicle
Just like he and the other Apple drones spent a year or so dissing the expensive, high-end Flash players before introducing the ipod mini? I recall hearing quite a lot of apple fans parroting Apple's talking points: flash players suck, the capacity is tiny, everyone wants 60GB, and so on. And today what is Apple's current ipod de jour? The Nano - a high-end, expensive Flash player. In fact, Apple even ditched its hard disk mini player in favour of a flash player.
Don't believe everything you hear. The only reason Apple is currently "down" on video is because it hasn't figured out to make a killing from it. Note that the desires of pod owners don't enter into it. It would be trivial to movie-enable colour ipods with a firmware update. But since Apple hasn't figured out how to *sell* movie content it sees no point giving people extra features. In the end, it's not about the ipod as an enabling device for personal media consumption and remixing but its positioning as a channel for Apple monetize.
Hmm. You're right, the 80 hour model is out. Some of the other models seem okay. Then again, maybe DNNA has stopped manufacturing them in advance of their HD/Escient launch.
the way I can use wifi with Tivo and how it handles programming over the web
Replay has built-in ethernet which is trivial to plug in to a wifi bridge, what are the extras that Tivo offers here? I was swayed from buying Tivo because I heard its shared shows come with DRM that's just annoying.
Also, you may or may not have seen DVArchive - it makes the Replay visible as a uPNP device and you can control it from any Java-equipped device. I use it in combination with VideoLAN to transcode and stream some shows to some friends in Europe.
Also, DVArchive on PC/Mac/Linux runs a central web server that lets you control any and all networked Replays and DVArchive boxes. One new thing I really like is that you can also see, stream, and copy with the Replays from a modded XBox running XBox Media Center.
I looked at MCE (expensive), MythTv (Free but a pain to setup), Tivo (Montly fees), standalong units (Sony, Toshiba, but also expensive), SageTv (not free but easy to setup), etc, etc.
Your biggest sin of omission was not looking at ReplayTV.
Find me a borough where everyone is happy with all of the decisions and activities of their local government, and I will show you Elysium.
If you are going to live in a city with many different cultures, ethnicities, and lifestyles, then you should expect a city government that reflects that diversity. And of course, many of the things they do will strike you as bizarre, ugly, or stupid. Just as, presumably, many things you do appear to others.
If you want a homogeneous city government, where decisions are transparent and unitary and meet with almost complete consensus, then why not try living in Colorado Springs, or Salt Lake City, or Salem, MA, circa 1692?
Moving onto "federal" land to dodge local responsibilities is as old as the hills. Or last year, in fact, if you consider the relocation of the George Lucas Dark Empire into the federally owned Presidio in San Francisco. By doing this, Lucas manages to dodge paying local, state and city payroll taxes. Meanwhile, it gets to rent out around 200,000 square feet of its Presidio space. If it gets a high market rate of $30 per square foot this will bring in maybe $6 million a year -- $200,000 more than the rent Lucas will pay for the entire 23-acre lot. And of course, it then gets to dodge local and state taxes on rent profits as well. Swete deal for everyone except the citgizens of San Francisco.
Especially, when it's those damn capitalists who aren't paying enough. errrrgghh!
Really? Well then, let's see Google get into the business of building and maintaining roads, providing fire and public safety, and doing local health and zoning operatings.
I really want to sell the whole thing that cost me over $400 to build and switch to a Tivo.
Tivo has some nasty approaches to DRM and content expiration. If you like Myth, you'll probably be happier with a networked OOBE, DRM-free thing like ReplayTV.
Mossberg hasn't yet met a product by Steve Jobs that hasn't made it sound like he wants to get down on the ground and start immediately fellating it. If Apple brought out "AMail" that worked exactly like GMail (only with, you know, brushed metal or some other eye candy shit) then Mossberg would be all over it like flies on shite, praising it for its "forward thinking", and "radical re-invention", and "style".
ReplayTV with the p2p Poopli has, for years, let you browse, request, and download TV shows from other ReplayTV owners on the internet. It rules. WHy is Tivo always several years behind?
What we have here is a failure to communicate fully. I should, of course, have written "limited to a single type of device". For that is what I ment - the single-brand player lockin. There are plugins to enable iTunes to function with others devices (I am aware of some Archos and some Rio plugins), but these are not supported by Apple and prone to failure at every iTunes point upgrade.
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These are just rebadged Archos PVPs - which is no bad thing with Archos's laissez-faire approach to DRM! Echostar bought 25% of Archos for $10m. Vive la France.
The old Archos players are bulky, but they do go to 120GB when you drop in the latest Seagate 2.5" drives. Pretty sweet. It's nice being able to add $100GB to your DAP for only a hundred bucks or so.
It's just a pity that their expansion has to stop here because their disk controller is not LBA and only reads up to the ~127GB limit.
That's not enough to decode fullres MPEG4 in realtime. Heck, today's xScale PDAs can barely do that at around 500mhz. It would need a faster CPU and/or a dedicated custom decoder chip.
Remember, it's a small screen.
The open-source Rockbox people managed to add a video player to the 4-year-old Archos hardware, and it's using a CPU most often found in washing machines (12 MHz SH1734). Now, the video is greyscale, but it is impressive to see it working, and with full stereo audio synch, at 67 fps.
I'm expecting great things from the port to iRiver: a 140MHz ColdFire 5249 is a whole different kind of beast. It's already enabled a pretty spiffy Gameboy emulator,
their clumsiness, and their poor interface.
One word: Shuffle.
Two years brings a lot of changes. At the time he was busy dissing those players, there were 1GB players available. In fact, a player I have from that era now takes 2GB cards. I like progress. Progress is good. The nano represents progress of a sort for Apple - I think absorbing most of the Creative mp3 player design team has worked out well. It's nice that Apple finally has a pretty good, albeit quite expensive, flash player, even if it did take it a few years to get it right.
But there are other players since then that have advanced significantly, adding video, games, emulators, PDA functions, wireless, expansion, and so on. For myself, I like my personal media tech to push the envelope, and to not be so hostile to open-source firmware enhancements.
I'll take your word for the video. I don't really spend "probably on average 75-80% of my waking day" on the Internet, but let me see...
Jobs has said time and time again that he thinks the idea of a video iPod is stupid
Just like he and the other Apple drones spent a year or so dissing the expensive, high-end Flash players before introducing the ipod mini? I recall hearing quite a lot of apple fans parroting Apple's talking points: flash players suck, the capacity is tiny, everyone wants 60GB, and so on. On stage during the mini inro, he even spent an abnormal amount of time dissing existing Flash players. And today what is Apple's current ipod de jour? The Nano - a high-end, expensive Flash player. In fact, Apple even ditched its hard disk mini player in favour of a flash player.
Don't believe everything you hear. The only reason Apple is currently "down" on video is because it hasn't figured out to make a killing from it. Note that the desires of pod owners don't enter into it. It would be trivial to movie-enable colour ipods with a firmware update. But since Apple hasn't figured out how to *sell* movie content it sees no point giving people extra features. In the end, it's not about the ipod as an enabling device for personal media consumption and remixing but its positioning as a channel for Apple monetize.
I prefer my media devices DRM-free, thanks.
Steve Jobs still believes video mobile devices aren't practicle
Just like he and the other Apple drones spent a year or so dissing the expensive, high-end Flash players before introducing the ipod mini? I recall hearing quite a lot of apple fans parroting Apple's talking points: flash players suck, the capacity is tiny, everyone wants 60GB, and so on. And today what is Apple's current ipod de jour? The Nano - a high-end, expensive Flash player. In fact, Apple even ditched its hard disk mini player in favour of a flash player.
Don't believe everything you hear. The only reason Apple is currently "down" on video is because it hasn't figured out to make a killing from it. Note that the desires of pod owners don't enter into it. It would be trivial to movie-enable colour ipods with a firmware update. But since Apple hasn't figured out how to *sell* movie content it sees no point giving people extra features. In the end, it's not about the ipod as an enabling device for personal media consumption and remixing but its positioning as a channel for Apple monetize.
I prefer my media devices DRM-free, thanks.
they are all out of stock
Hmm. You're right, the 80 hour model is out. Some of the other models seem okay. Then again, maybe DNNA has stopped manufacturing them in advance of their HD/Escient launch.
the way I can use wifi with Tivo and how it handles programming over the web
Replay has built-in ethernet which is trivial to plug in to a wifi bridge, what are the extras that Tivo offers here? I was swayed from buying Tivo because I heard its shared shows come with DRM that's just annoying.
Also, you may or may not have seen DVArchive - it makes the Replay visible as a uPNP device and you can control it from any Java-equipped device. I use it in combination with VideoLAN to transcode and stream some shows to some friends in Europe.
Also, DVArchive on PC/Mac/Linux runs a central web server that lets you control any and all networked Replays and DVArchive boxes. One new thing I really like is that you can also see, stream, and copy with the Replays from a modded XBox running XBox Media Center.
I looked at MCE (expensive), MythTv (Free but a pain to setup), Tivo (Montly fees), standalong units (Sony, Toshiba, but also expensive), SageTv (not free but easy to setup), etc, etc.
Your biggest sin of omission was not looking at ReplayTV.
prove me wrong by explaining the subtle, hidden meaning to your original statement, because to a philistine such as myself
I'd love to, but I fear your incipient philistinism would prevent you from appreciating its beauty.
rampant local governmental stupidity
Find me a borough where everyone is happy with all of the decisions and activities of their local government, and I will show you Elysium.
If you are going to live in a city with many different cultures, ethnicities, and lifestyles, then you should expect a city government that reflects that diversity. And of course, many of the things they do will strike you as bizarre, ugly, or stupid. Just as, presumably, many things you do appear to others.
If you want a homogeneous city government, where decisions are transparent and unitary and meet with almost complete consensus, then why not try living in Colorado Springs, or Salt Lake City, or Salem, MA, circa 1692?
Moving onto "federal" land to dodge local responsibilities is as old as the hills. Or last year, in fact, if you consider the relocation of the George Lucas Dark Empire into the federally owned Presidio in San Francisco. By doing this, Lucas manages to dodge paying local, state and city payroll taxes. Meanwhile, it gets to rent out around 200,000 square feet of its Presidio space. If it gets a high market rate of $30 per square foot this will bring in maybe $6 million a year -- $200,000 more than the rent Lucas will pay for the entire 23-acre lot. And of course, it then gets to dodge local and state taxes on rent profits as well. Swete deal for everyone except the citgizens of San Francisco.
Especially, when it's those damn capitalists who aren't paying enough. errrrgghh!
Really? Well then, let's see Google get into the business of building and maintaining roads, providing fire and public safety, and doing local health and zoning operatings.
Mayor Newsom has stated making access available to the poor as a prime reason for free wireless.
Yeah, because the only thing keeping down those wretched souls on around 6th and Market is their sad lack of reliable wireless internet.
I really want to sell the whole thing that cost me over $400 to build and switch to a Tivo.
Tivo has some nasty approaches to DRM and content expiration. If you like Myth, you'll probably be happier with a networked OOBE, DRM-free thing like ReplayTV.
No Sapphire & Steel? This list sucks.
Mossberg hasn't yet met a product by Steve Jobs that hasn't made it sound like he wants to get down on the ground and start immediately fellating it. If Apple brought out "AMail" that worked exactly like GMail (only with, you know, brushed metal or some other eye candy shit) then Mossberg would be all over it like flies on shite, praising it for its "forward thinking", and "radical re-invention", and "style".
AVS
Planet Replay
I wanna see you filling 120GB of music through a USB 1.1 interface
My Archos is USB 2. Charges through the USB port as well.
120 GB is from 41 to 83 days of music
Obviously, you are not familiar with some of Sven Väth's longer mixes...
Wow. I know what's going into my trusty old Archos mp3 player real soon now...
Diamond Multimedia was the first to market such a device in the late 90s.
Actually, it was a Korean company, Saehan, that released the world's first hardware mp3 player. The Saehan MPMan was released a few months before the first Rio, in June 1998. It was marketed in the US as the Eiger Labs MPMan.
ReplayTV with the p2p Poopli has, for years, let you browse, request, and download TV shows from other ReplayTV owners on the internet. It rules. WHy is Tivo always several years behind?
Apple doesn't limit to a single device
What we have here is a failure to communicate fully. I should, of course, have written "limited to a single type of device". For that is what I ment - the single-brand player lockin. There are plugins to enable iTunes to function with others devices (I am aware of some Archos and some Rio plugins), but these are not supported by Apple and prone to failure at every iTunes point upgrade.
Couldn't someone make a utility that just converts DRMed files to mp3 on the fly as they're being transferred to an iPod
Yes, they have. It's called Media Center.