Where are the non-SDMI MP3 Players?

alen asks: "I'm in the market for an MP3 player. I've been looking at various models and they all seem to be SDMI ready or compliant. Looking at customer reviews on Amazon confirms this as you'll find at least one person saying you can't transfer the music from the MP3 player to your PC. At least on the newer players you do." I've been resisting the urge to get an MP3 player for precisely this reason, opting to use my laptop and a cassette adaptor for those long driving trips, but this is hardly affordable or efficient. Handhelds might work, but memory is a problem here. Are there any players out there that haven't forgotten the "fair" part in "fair-use"?

"So far I have narrowed my search to 3 choices. I want it to sound very good and be able to play music encoded at 128kb or higher.

The Rio Volt 250 is a CD based player so the SDMI thing doesn't really apply. The Creative Labs Nomad II" proudly displays this as a feature. The Samsung Yepp doesn't use SDMI, but something called SecuMax as stated in the Nomad II technical specs on Amazon. And this little tid bit on the Samsung Yepp homepage confirms that SecuMax is just like SDMI.

Now I'm not looking to download any illegal music from the Internet. I simply want to listen to my CD collection on the train to work or while working out. And there is freely downloadable music out there. If I were to download a song at work or a friend's house, put it in my MP3 player I then wouldn't be able to transfer it back to my PC at home to add to my collection. Where is 'fair use' when the artist is giving away their music for free? And I don't have the link, but what of the recent surges in so called 'secure' CD's that one can't rip into MP3's? Where is the 'fair use' there? Or are we supposed to purchase multiple copies of the same music in different formats?"

Ipod!

[Noodlenose]

Go for the Ipod! Dirk

archos jukebox

[theridersofrohan]

Try the archos jukebox (http://www.archos.com )

A hard drive based solution, comes at 6GB-20GB flavors, works under Linux (I'm using it with the usb-storage module), and I got it for around £150 (british pounds).

Great for transfering data as well: Windows finds it as a normal drive, and I can mount it under linux (vfat).

Cheers,
Stefanos

iPod

[Green Light]

For the FireWire-equipped PeeCee (or Mac, obviously), you can not only carry your music collection (or at least a large percentage of it) around with you, but can transfer the files to any suitably equipped machine. The music files are in an invisible directory on the iPod, and are easy to find.

Rio 500

[Bullschmidt]

Its old, so you probably can't buy it new, but the RIO 500 rocks. It uses SmartMedia, has no copy protection, and came with 64MB built in. The smartmedia cards are now pretty cheap, so its not too bad to buy lots of these tiny cards. It has pretty good battery life (a little less than 10 hours if you are actively - triggering the backlite - using it). It runs on a single AA, is rugged, and light. It has nice sound quality (the earphones that come with it suck though). I recommend one if you can find it.

Archos Jukebox - USB Hard Drive / MP3 Player

[Jammer@CMH]

The Archos Jukebox [archos.com] is a combination USB hard drive (6 gig, upgradeable) and MP3 player. It exerts absolutely no control over what you put on the hard drive, and works with any computer with a USB driver. (I don't know what the included "MusicMatch" software is for, I never installed it.)

It is a little bulky for carying around, but is great for use in the car and office.

NexII

[twenex]

Check out the NexII from FrontierLabs [frontierlabs.com]. It is $99 with 0 memory, but takes compactflash cards. They are < $90 for 256MB these days (check out Pricewatch [pricewatch.com]).

When you get to work, offload the CompactFlash card with a PCMCIA adaptor ($12) to your laptop or a USB adaptor ($25) to your desktop.

Oh, I should mention, the NexII sounds good too, but you want to dump the headphones they ship.

Re:Nex II

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah, i have one, they kick ass.
you can use a microdrive in it, or a compactflash type 2 (you can find 160 mb CF typeII cards for cheap)
and you can use it as an external drive to transport any files. (i think that works in linux too, but i'm not too sure)
try www.mp3playerstore.com if u wanna buy one, especially if you're from canada or us. they have it for cheap and i think it's free shipping now

iPod

[Xibby]

What about the iPod? I'm not up on it's specs, but plug it into your firewire and it shows up as a hard drive right? (On Mac's anyway ;) And the firmware on the thing is upgradable, so maybe, just maybe, it will suppot ogg sometime in the future. Or somebody will hack ogg support for it.

MD players

[atom6]

Another no-copy-protection alternative is Minidisc player/recorders -- I switched from an MP3 player about a year ago and I've been pretty happy. They have their drawbacks and can be slightly more expensive (mine was about $300), but the discs are much cheaper than memory cards and can hold a lot more music (up to 5 or 6 hours in the most extended format), and the audio quality is at least marginally better.
As far as I know, there is no security technology on the horizon for MD media. And with the USB-based "MD link" that's now included with most players, it's virtually as easy to record things off of a random friend's computer as it would be with an MP3 player.
The only big drawback is that they record in real time (so, for example, 40 minutes of music would take 40 minutes to record.) And recording from an MD onto your computer is a little bit more of a hassle. But other than that, I'd say they're worth checking out.

Apple iPod

[Josuah]

The Apple iPod does not have any "anti-piracy" features built in. Specifically, it states something to the effect of "Piracy is a social issue, not a technological one" on the packaging. You can use it with Windows (via Mediafour's XPod [mediafour.com]) or Macs, and probably soon with Linux. If you use the iPod as a portable drive on a Mac, you can simply copy files back and forth at will. But if you use iTunes to sync, the MP3 files are invisible. Some information on this is available here [macobserver.com], and here's a simple utility [www.cooc.de] to access the invisible MP3 files.

Also, the iPod supports a variety of encodings. It should support up to 256Kbps (or is it 320Kbps?), variable bit rate, joint stereo or normal stereo, because that's what iTunes supports. The 1000 songs it advertises is for 160Kbps songs.

Re:I don't think that word means what you think...

[JASegler]

I believe the "fair" part they are talking about relates to time shifting and media conversion.
It's fair use to copy an LP to cassette so you can play it in your car.
It's fair use to copy a CD to cassette so you can play it in your car.
It's fair use to convert a CD to mp3 so you can play it in your computer/mp3 player.

The fair use part is that you bought it once. You shouldn't have to buy it for every media type on the planet.

Even under the "license" model. The person has purchased a license to listen to a piece of music. The media in which it is stored is irrelevant. Of course if the RIAA ever switched to a convoluted EULA like MS's...

-Jerry

Re:Women - The Myth of the Internet

[Anonymous Coward]

I would like to take a minute out to dispel a rumor that has been oozing around the Internet for quite sometime. This is a foul and insidious bit of gossip that's only used to provoke a negative reaction from people. Perhaps you've heard this rumor: That pubescent geek males have sex. Now, this thought is quite patently absurd. To begin with, pubescent geek males simply aren't handsome enough to get it. A PGM's mind is pre-programmed, if you will, to troll slashdot and download porn and little else. Chatting with a real live female is simply not in his genes. When put in front of a female, your typical PGM will stare at it before attempting to play quake III on it. Of course monkey's have been seen having sex, so it is theoretically possible that a PGM, guided by the all-powerful mind of a mature woman, might be able to kiss a female. Perhaps even with tongues. But lets enter the realm of imagination for a moment and we'll see why even if they had the mental control not to prematurely ejaculate, most little geeks still wouldn't get past first base. The reason for this is that most geeks simply lack the desire. All geeks find the greatest joy in life to be spent in the cellar installing mandrake, or in the shopping mall licking windows. While some geeks may dispute this, its a scientific fact that this is just a coy game some geeks play to attract a mate. Deep inside they all crave the glowing warmth that comes from overclocking an Athlon. So the next time you hear someone claiming to be a "geek" having sex, think twice. I am saddened to say this, but most likely it is nothing more than a wet dream. Remember what Egg Troll says: A geek couldn't get laid in a brothel with a 20 pound note tied around his cock. Thank you. [Ed. Note - It has since come to my attention that there have been reported sightings of geeks having sex. However, in all cases these geeks turned out to be train spotters. So if you should see a geek using the Internet, it will actually be a train spotter - a much superior race.]

this is a non-issue, afaik

[MoNsTeR]

If "SDMI Compliant" means "can't copy from player to PC", then this is a 100% non-issue. Even the original Rio 300 (which I have) doesn't let you do this. Furthermore, I can't really think of a reason you'd *want* to. Why would I want to move only 64MB of mp3's over a slow-ass parallel port connection, when I can download all 6GB of my mp3's from home at 128Kbps? Or just burn some favorites to a CD and bring that to work?

The only way player-to-PC-copy would be really useful is if you had a hard-drive player, and I believe some of them (Archos Jukebox?) can do that.

OTOH, if "SDMI Compliant" means something else, then it might be a bigger problem. But if the thing plays standard MP3's, I don't see how there's much to worry about, as there's no way to "trust" an mp3, and thus no way to restrict the player, IF in fact it plays standard files.

Re:archos jukebox

[Quaryon]

I second this - I'm listening to my jukebox 6000 as I write. I've ripped out the original 6Gb hard disk (you can now get a 20Gb version too, called the "studio 20") and inserted a 30Gb one - since it takes standard 9.5mm height 2.5" drives this is quite a simple operation, and it uses a normal FAT filesystem so you can use all the normal tools on it (defrag, scandisk, whatever..) The PC sees it as an extra drive using the standard USB hard disk mechanism so it works under Windows or Linux, and I believe Mac as well (I don't have a Mac so I can't test it..)

It has a few idiosyncrasies so it's well worth reading the list at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/archosjukebox6000 [yahoo.com] (requires registration) to pick up all the necessary hints and tips - the support there is probably better than you will get from Archos themselves.

The JB6K has the advantage that you can copy whatever files you want onto it - if they're MP3 format it will play them, if not it will ignore them so you can use it just as an external portable hard disk. It'll cope with MP3's encoded up to 320kbit/s CBR or VBR. It also has upgradable firmware so theoretically it could be made to support other sound formats although there doesn't seem to be any sign that Archos are moving towards this.

Q.

Seconded and amended - try the jukebox recorder!

[isaac]

I agree with the parent that Archos seems to have the best MP3 devices at the moment. In particular, though, I would recommend staying away from their cheaper "Jukebox 6000" and "Studio 20" products, in favor of their "Jukebox Recorder" machine.

Highlights of this thing?
- Works great on any OS that supports USB storage devices; when attached, mounts like any other USB hard disk. Will store anything you put on there.
- Hackable; will take any 9.5mm 2.5" laptop hard disk. I replaced the stock 6 GB disk with a 20 GB mechanism without any problems.
- Unlike the cheaper models, the Recorder (which goes for around $300-$350 these days) does real-time MP3 recording from analog line-in, digital SPDIF, or an onboard mic!
- Digital in doubles as digital out when not recording.
- The Recorder has a MUCH, MUCH BETTER interface than the cheaper jukeboxes, with an 8-line screen that during playback shows ID3 info (or directory info if file is untagged), elapsed/remaining/total time, left and right VU meters, and labels for the three soft-button function keys.
- Also, the recorder has greatly superior sound compared to the cheaper jukeboxes, with base/treble/loudness/balance adjustments and plenty of volume.

And of course, no SDMI anywhere in sight. The iPod looks nicer, and firewire is cool, but with a 20 gig disk in mine, I've got 4x the capacity of an iPod in a package not much bigger, with digital i/o and real-time mp3 recording abilities. Oh yeah, 10-hour battery life, too, using standard replacable NiMH AA cells.

-Isaac

Re:iPod?

[mblase]

Except you can't sync the iPod's playlists to more than one Mac. (However, you can copy it manually, which is more than these other players seem to be doing.)

Re:Philips eXpanium

[mirko]

Yep, the sound is fabulous, the autonomy and fault-tolerance are more than okay (I have some dusty CDs ;-)...

My only cons is that I have to hide these from the frozen wind when I am biking (here in Switzerland it had some "hickups" around -5 degrees (Celsius))

BTW it can also read standard Audio CDs.

Sssh.... Secret about Creative Labs SDMI support

[Dan Nolan]

I've owned a Nomad Jukebox for almost a year. When I first bought it, the firmware would not allow you to copy files from the device to you computer. But as soon as the first firmware upgrade was release, it did away with this. It claims to have support for SDMI, but only on files the are encoded in particular formats with particular digital rights management software. Mp3s are safe.

In fact, the latest firmware upgrade now allows you to move any type of file onto the Nomad and back, so you can use it as a portable harddrive!

(Let's keep Creative Labs lack of SDMI enforcement just between us. We wouldn't want certain powerful industry lobby groups *cough-RIAA* to come down on them.)

Re:Automotive MP3 Head Units

[Anonymous Coward]

go to http://www.carplayer.com and check out there cpm-25 unit. It uses a standard ide hard drive and hooks to your computer as a fat32 format drive. No drivers and no SDMI.

Re:iPod?

[toupsie]

I have had my iPod for a little over a week now and its very trivial to copy files from the mp3 storage area to your mac. In Mac OS X, just hop to the "Terminal" and do a "cp -R /Volumes/[iPod Name]/Music/* ~/Music" and it moves across nicely.

Consider getting a MiniDisc recorder/player

[ziffie]

MiniDisc players are a viable alternative to portable mp3 players. The ATRAC compression technology has reached a point where you can store 80/160/320 minutes on a single 80 minute minidisc.

The units themselves are tiny (most of them are in the 80x16x75mm range) and weigh almost nothing (the Sharp MD-MT770 weighs 128g). The discs are infinitely re-recordable and cost about $1.50 each.

Depending on the level of compression you record at, shock protection can be up to 160 seconds. Most units have rechargeable batteries and can also use an extra AA for backup yielding incredible battery life -- the MT770 for example can play up to 49 hours on the highest compression level (35 on the regular SP mode).

One of the coolest advantages they have over mp3 players is that you can record concerts at virtually CD quality sound. Plug a microphone into the in-jack and you can bootleg with ease. Most of the latest recorders feature manually adjustable recording levels (while recording!), automatic 3/5/10 minute timestamping, audio syncing and optical line-in (which means you can optically record mp3s from a computer equipped with optical-out). Some of the Sony recorders (MZ-R700DPC for example) ship with external D/A converter that connects the MD's digital input with your computer's USB port, which makes recording all internet audio formats quite easy.

You can shuffle tracks around on a disc on the fly, delete them, insert new ones and of course there are the usual random/repeat play modes.

You can get an entry-level MDLP (2x/4x recording) player/recorder for around $215. Compared to paying $90 for each 256mb flashcard, they are really cost efficient.

I have a Sharp MD-MT77 which I am quite happy with. I make 5 hour playlists in xmms, plug the recorder into my soundcard's line-out and make mix MDs. 5 hours is a lot of space to work with -- and the quality is quite decent. At 2x (160 minutes), recordings sound virtually like CD quality.

Check out minidisc.org [minidisc.org] for more information, or minidisco.com [minidisco.com] for a run-down on most of the available models.

Personal Jukebox

[haslup]

The PJB [pjb100.com] is available with up to a 30 gig hard drive and connects via USB... I've got the 20 gig and it's great. Plus, linux support through the OpenPJB [sourceforge.net] Sourceforge project that even includes an emacs mode.

jason

PJB-100 (Personal Jukebox)

[Zed Pobre]

Although the initial advertising claimed otherwise, with the more recent firmwares (2.3.x, the one I have currently is 2.3.2) DO in fact support transferring data from the device back to the hard disk. There is a FAQ [mpython.com] that has links to the various places which have software that can do this -- one of which is a SourceForge Project [sourceforge.net].

The PJB itself [pjbox.com] is a fairly nifty device (though the main website tends to get either broken out outdated from time to time -- and the pictures they have of the products are in some cases DEAD WRONG! The only colors that are really available as shown are the titanium with black buttons and the all black; the blue one is actually kind of an off teal with dark teal buttons) -- storage capacities range from 6GB to 30GB, making the high-end model the largest capacity wearable MP3 player that I know about.

There are Linux synchronization tools available, but they were all unfortunately in a more or less half-finished state the last time I checked, so I still rip under Linux and then boot back to Windows to transfer the MP3 files to the PJB. It also has the downside of being USB rather than firewire, so transferring large amounts of data can take a while. Battery life is around 10 hours with the rechargeable LI battery. Recharging can only be done in the main device though -- no external chargers are aviailable. It also makes a loud tone when the battery is getting low, and will make the tone again after a few seconds of playing if you stop and then start the device again, which can be somewhat disconcerting if you weren't expecting it, especially since it triggers when there's still an hour or two of life left in the device. It is documented in the manual, but was easy to overlook or forget.

The navigation buttons are fairly easy to use and simple to understand. I've had one problem with an mp3 that had a click in it that wasn't present when played on the PC, but it was an isolated case, and was one of my oldest rips, so it might be a genuine glitch in the encoding.

Well, this turned into more of a full review than a comment on another device that can do two-way transfers, so I should probably shut up now. I will add a final note that I had problems when trying to reach the company directly or order directly from their website, so I ended up buying from MP3FactoryDirect [mp3factorydirect.com] and quite satisfied with that.

Re:MD players

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, MiniDiscs do have a sort of SDMI (I believe it's called SCMS), but only for digital recording between MD players with digital/optical connectors. Once a song is recorded digitally it gets tagged so that it can't be used to make another digital copy.

Of course if you use analog recording there's no copy protection. If you use good quality cables and equipment the difference between digital and analog should be negligible.

Also, in early 2002 Sony (and other companies I'm sure) will be introducing MD players that support the NetMD standard. They supposedly support 4x recording through a USB connection. From Sony's press release it looks like they use the same 1-digital-copy-only SCMS system, but I wouldn't be surprised if Sony changes it in the future.

Re:iPod?

[toupsie]

It takes my Archos Jukebox 6000 about 5 1/2 hours to copy over 6 gigs of data and it take my iPod only 12 minutes to copy 5 gigs over. The iPod can set individual EQ settings for each of your mp3. I can play breakout on my iPod. The iPod supports ID3v2.3 tags while the Archos supports on the 1.1 tags. The Archos only displays the song title while the iPod will display the song, artist and album.

Gay? Like in happy or your alternative lifestyle?

JazzPiper

[TheCrunch]

I've got a JazzPiper MVR64P [mediaforte.nl]. The capacity is better than average and it's SDMI-free.

64MB Built-in,
Takes up-to 32MB SmartMedia cards,
Plays MP3/WAV,
No SDMI,
Crappy FM Radio,
Voice Recording,
Useless phone book thingy,
Parallel interface,
Dunno about non-win support,
Looks nicer than most 1st gen players.

I've seen it go under the name of MPIO-SV64. MP3Players.co.uk [mp3players.co.uk] have a nice selection to look at.

-TheCrunch

Re:Philips eXpanium

[Picass0]

My wife gave me a Philips Expanium recently. I'd say the pros outweigh the cons. The sound is good, I don't get too much skipping, and when I insert a disc, the scan process will look for mp3s on any disc. I have old archive discs where I have zip files and misc. data mixed with my mp3s, and I have no problems listening to these discs.

My biggest gripe is the display sucks. I would like to have a scrolling text message, but instead the display gives you a number for the directory (album) and file (song).

It's a bit bulkier than the nifty little solid state devices, but I have 301 They Might Be Giants songs on the disc in my player right now. The mini players with large memory cost more, while the Expanium sells for for only 90 US dollars.

I picked up a 20 hour rechargable lead battery at Radio Shack (part number 23-505) and replaced the headphones with a Kenwood KPM-510 headset. I usually keep the thing in a bookbag anyway, so the bulk doesn't bother me.

Re:Philips eXpanium

[evilmonkey_666]

Yeah but I brought it back after a week and changed it for the diamond riovolt.

The expanium is cheaper and it sounds ok. However you cannot skip through the tracks, the headphones are crappy and the LCD is hard to read.

The rio sounds better, can scan tracks, has better headphones and a big lcd. Well worth it IMO.

Re:Rio 500

[furiousgeorge]

another vote for the R500 - i've got one and it's great. The only caveats:

-the off/lock/on switch. When trying to lock the player it's TOO easy to turn it off. And it doesn't remember the place in the song you were - only what song. It's stupid, but i hit this all the time and it's annoying. The switch should be off/on/lock, or put lock on another switch.

-the supplied headphones are sucky. Spend $15 and get another set.

-i get a min of 10hours out of a single AA battery. Kickass.

-i don't think it takes >64MB smartmedia cards (i may be wrong). I always downsample the stuff to the portable at 96Kbs, so that gets me a good 2 hours with minimal glitches.

-it may be just my player, but it's not very shock resistant. i use it at the gym, and if it gets tapped with even more than a slight touch it jumps songs and stops playing (even when locked). Maybe a lose wire somewhere, but it's always done it.

otherwise - highly recommended.

Re:I like the CD option personally

[mdowell]

Hello

I bought a RioVolt about 3 months ago and I friggin love it! I archive my mp3s on CD anyway so this is the perfect player for me. My DVD player also reads mp3 cds so I can't go wrong. The player also reads CD-RW discs so if you want a daily selection of songs you got it made. On top of that it is upgradable by d/l a new patch onto a CD-RW, pressing play, viola, upgraded. It currently reads *.mp3 and *.wma files, but I'm sure other formats could be added. The last patch added support for reading WinAmp playlist files (*.m3u) 2 double AA batteries last about 10-12 hours because it loads the current mp3 file up and then stops spinning...very cool! For around $150 bucks it is a great deal.

I really can't say enough about how cool this bad boy is!!

Anyway, that is my 2 cents :)

Suggest: Kodak mc3 and CompactFlash

[tomharvey]

I think the Kodak mc3 is really underappreciated.

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/digital/cameras/mc3/

mp3 player with a digital camera thrown in. Still quite small and light.

Transferring music in or out is a matter of plugging the CompactFlash card into an $8 PCMCIA card adapter (or a $25 USB CompactFlash card reader). I bought the version that comes with a 16MB CompactFlash card (way too small, of course), and replaced it with a 256MB card. The smaller card (and the bigger one, too, when you're not using it for music) is great for your other digital camera. This is a nice, fairly OS-independent way to deal with transfers, as long as your OS can understand an MS-DOS filesystem.

It also comes with a USB connection, but I've never used it.

The mc3 plays CBR and VBR mp3's, and has upgradeable firmware. I found an internet retailer with "nerds" in their name selling it (and its separate case) rather cheaply.

NEX II

[ramblinrednek]

Check out the NEXII at http://www.frontierlabs.com Nice and small little unit with support for 1gig IBM microdrive.. The base unit is $99 (less any CF cards or microdrive). I use it under linux, Mac and Windows.. just through the CF card in my box and copy over the songs..

Neo Jukebox 2200

[ArgoTango]

The Neo 2200 [iomagic.com] features a 20GB USB hard drive with a multi-line display that's easier to use than the Archos. I was considering either the Archos 20G model or the similarly priced Neo 2200 because both are MP3 Players that also double as USB hard drives for data storage. The Neo is larger in size, and a little more cumbersome as a result. On the other hand, they've placed the hard-drive under an easy to open panel so upgrading to 30+GB drives later is easy. Upgrading the Archos yourself [funmp3players.com] involves voiding the warranty.

I've been using the Neo for over a month now, and it's working great for me.

Re:Seconded and amended - try the jukebox recorder

[isaac]

Have you upgraded to the latest firmware (1.21d) listed on their page, yet? I'd be curious as to what, exactly, "Serial Copyright Management System", and how it affects the usefulness of this device.

I have installed 1.21d. SCMS is the bozo-bit-based copy protection scheme used by consumer digital audio recorders (DATs and CD burners, mainly; it's mandated by the Audio Home Recording Act for any digital audio recorder, and this thing qualifies). SCMS has very little practical effect on this device for 2 reasons:

- One, the SCMS system allows one digital copy from an original copyrighted digital source (e.g. a CD), which is all you really need in most cases. It just won't let you record digitally from a digital copy made with an SCMS device (e.g. it would block recording from a CDR copy of an original CD, if the CDR copy was made with a consumer standalone audio CD burner).

- Two, disabling SCMS on the Archos Jukebox Recorder is trivial, and doesn't require messing with hardware or firmware. When recording, set the "Artist Name" string to HFSCMSOFF. That's it. Re-enable with HFSCMSON, or just by resetting the device.

-Isaac

Re:Ipod! - not so fast there

[tew]

This is not accurate. Runnning Debian/PPC with kernel 2.4.13-ben0 on my G4 Powerbook, the sbp2 driver is able to identify the iPod as a Firewire disk. Make sure you've got the CONFIG_MAC_PARTITION kenel option enabled -- the iPod uses the MacOS partitioning scheme.

See iPod on Linux [neuron.com] or ipodhacks.com [ipodhacks.com]

ieee1394: NodeMgr: hotplug policy returned 0xfffffffe
ieee1394: Device added: node 0:1023, GUID 0000000002002f0d
ieee1394: sbp2: Driver forced to serialize I/O (serialize_io = 1)
ieee1394: sbp2: Node 0:1023: Max speed [S400] - Max payload [0x09/2048]
scsi1 : IEEE-1394 SBP-2 protocol driver
Vendor: Model: Rev:
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 03
Attached scsi disk sda at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
SCSI device sda: 9780750 512-byte hdwr sectors (5008 MB)
/dev/scsi/host1/bus0/target0/lun0: [mac] p1 p2 p3

A week with an iPOD

[buserror]

Got my iPOD last week, I think I am objective in the choice I made.
I made the first ever mp3 player on mac (Vamp) a few years back just so I could make myself MiniDiscs with mp3s. I've been waiting for a device like the iPOD for a LONG time.

So the great points about the iPOD are known: 5Gb, large buffer, sync with iTune, super fast at copying etc.
The less known facts is that it works as a real hard drive, so if you want to copy *files* between work and home, you don't need to carry the laptop around. Heck, even .iso fits in easy and *fast*!

Now for the not-so-good sides:
1) There is a bug in the iPOD that makes it garble playback after some use. I've had that problem twice, it generates a nasty little noise in the right channel after some hours of use. To fix that, you need to restart the iPOD ('reset' but you keep all your data, 'reboot' is more appropriate) after that it's clean again.

2) If you want to listen to music with the iPOD while you recharge it with the firewire cable of your mac, you can't. It's hard drive OR mp3 player. It's too bad, since iTune eats CPU (like mad) while your iPOD sits there playing the unused hard-drive. I wish I could just tell the iPOD "Play dump, just sucks the voltage".

3) Lack of remote control is hard to bear; I had that Sony MiniDisc player for years, and you can find it hard to have to dig the iPOD from whatever place it is to change something. Thats even more annoying because the thing is *slick*; chromed metal slips!

4) No crossfade, No continuous play. There is no way to stick 2 files so they play as one, or to crossfade them. If you have live albums, it can be problematic.

5) With that size you need STATS. I want to know which files I *never* listened to, which ones I listen in wich order, and all that kind of crap. it's 1000 songs (or so) it takes DAYS to sort playlists!

6) 5GB is.... too small! I think 10Gb would fit my CD collection, with 5Gb I need to be selective.

Overall, I'm very happy with the thing still, it's definitly an incredible device.

Neo

[Lao-Tzu]

I own a Neo 25 portable MP3 player, produced and distributed by SSI America. It was rather expensive to get, but it has no copy protection mechanisms, and it doubles as a portable hard drive. It uses a 2.5 inch IDE laptop drive, which is replacable, and a rechargable lithium ion battery.

I love this unit. It has played MP3s for me 8 hours a day for the past year.

The Neo Jukebox [ssiamerica.com] is their latest Neo product, replacing the Neo 25. It looks even nicer than my unit. They also mape the Neo 35, a car MP3 player.

Spec compare page should help...

[Anonymous Coward]

Try this page [kentidwell.com] for an MP3 compare chart that is based on the iPod.

...shows at least two units that do not comply w/SDMI.

Yes, the iPod is one.

Re:Ipod! - Format as UFS

[baboyer]

There are a ton of differences between HFS and HFS+. The disk block thing is just what was immediately obvious to end users back when HFS+ was introduced, because MacOS 8.1 didn't take advantage of the other features. Small list of new features: unicode filenames, longer filenames, unix style permissions, 64 bit file size, 32 bit block numbers, etc. I'm actually working on HFS+ support for linux, but it's not ready for users yet. (Check out the SourceForge project linux-hfsplus)

Open Source Player

[pjrc]

If your MP3 player was open source, you wouldn't have to worry about it doing undesirable things behind your back... or at the very least you could hack on it to make it do whatever you want.

There actually is an open-source MP3 player [pjrc.com]. It's not a shiny polished product like a Rio, but I can say with 100% confidence that is has absolutely no SDMI features, since I designed it!

Ok, mod me down for shameless self promotion now.