Gentoo Friendly flash based mp3 players...

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Uncle_Psychosis · Post by **Uncle_Psychosis** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 6:47 pm

Hi guys

I've been thinking about getting a portable mp3 player for a while. Currently, my favourite choice is the Samsung YP-Z5, which I can get the 4Gb version of for about £100.

Does anyone have any experience using this under gentoo? Or have any other recomendations?

99% of my music is encoded as 192kbs mp3s, and I'd quite like something with a decent battery life.

Sam

crudh · Post by **crudh** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 9:10 pm

When I chose my latest mp3-player I simply made sure, by reading reviews, that it could be mounted as a removable drive in windows without any drivers and that you could add music to it by drag n drop to the drive. If so it is a standard usb drive and it should work anywhere.

Ion Silverbolt · Post by **Ion Silverbolt** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 5:28 am

The Cowan players are really nice and play the ogg format as well. Which tends to be more popular among linux users.

jsheedy · Post by **jsheedy** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 8:06 am

I have an Ipod nano 4 gig portable mp3 player that works great under linux, but I am looking for another one that works under linux. I am not sure I really need a color display, plus I would have no problem getting away from Apple. Has anyone heard/used any of these with linux?

SanDisk C140
XMmicro XM-076
SanDisk Sansa e250
ilo 1GB MP3 Player

Any others??

Thanks

yngwin · Post by **yngwin** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 5:24 pm

Ion Silverbolt wrote:The Cowan players are really nice and play the ogg format as well. Which tends to be more popular among linux users.

I can second the Cowon iAudio players. They rock! They support many formats out of the box and are easily mounted as USB Mass Storage Devices.

gkmac · Post by **gkmac** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 7:09 pm

yngwin wrote:
Ion Silverbolt wrote:The Cowan players are really nice and play the ogg format as well. Which tends to be more popular among linux users.
I can second the Cowon iAudio players. They rock! They support many formats out of the box and are easily mounted as USB Mass Storage Devices.

I can third the Cowon iAudio players for all the reasons above. Plus some of them run off a standard AAA battery (and a couple use AA batteries too!), hence after a few years you need never throw it away, just because a proprietary, non-replaceable lion wore out.

Uncle_Psychosis · Post by **Uncle_Psychosis** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:15 pm

The cowon players don't have enough capacity (well, not within my budget).

I'm now looking at either the new 8Gb ipod nano or possibly a creative zen vision. Any comments on these?

Sam

PaulHindt · Post by **PaulHindt** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 3:23 am

I have an old Sandisk Sansa 1gb player: http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Product ... px?ID=1205
Is there some kind of kernel support I have to build in to use it?
I am looking thru the GenKernel list under USB and I don't see anything related to it.

Thanks.
Paul

bunder · Post by **bunder** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 3:38 am

Code: Select all

copy n paste, the URL tag is choking on the brackets...
http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Item(1209)-SDMX1-512-SanDiskDigital_Audio_Player_512MB.aspx

these sandisks use standard usb storage modules... not sure about the other sandisk products, but they could possibly use them as well.

01mf02 · Post by **01mf02** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 5:46 pm

I have one of those. It has an 8GB flash drive, is cheaper than a comparable iPod and is easily mountable.

As a bonus, you can install Rockbox on it - I use it to play games and you could play OGG files.

turtles · Post by **turtles** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 11:47 pm

Have any of you gotten USB trnasfers to work with rockbox and a e200?
Looks like it does not work yet

razze · Post by **razze** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 10:44 am

I got myself a Creative Zen V plus (8gb) that works perfectly with gnomad2 (at least version 2.8.12). I can upload music and maintain the jukebox data without any problems.

Razze

01mf02 · Post by **01mf02** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 3:56 pm

turtles wrote:Have any of you gotten USB trnasfers to work with rockbox and a e200?
Looks like it does not work yet

It does *not* work within Rockbox itself, but you just have to power off the player and plug in the USB cable, then the original firmware starts automatically and you can transfer your stuff. After that, you reboot into Rockbox again.

NOTE: The current situation should change soon, because there is a lot happening on the USB part of Rockbox.

jstead1 · Post by **jstead1** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 7:35 pm

jsheedy wrote:I have an Ipod nano 4 gig portable mp3 player that works great under linux, but I am looking for another one that works under linux. I am not sure I really need a color display, plus I would have no problem getting away from Apple. Has anyone heard/used any of these with linux?

SanDisk C140
XMmicro XM-076
SanDisk Sansa e250
ilo 1GB MP3 Player

Any others??

Thanks

I've used the e250 and have a C150 (the 2GB version of the C100 series) Both work fine with linux, they are mounted as removable flash drives. I like sandisk's menu system you can play music by album, artist, genre, shuffle, repeat, repeat all, and it reliably reads the mp3 tags.

I prefer the c100 series because it uses a removable AAA battery. I use rechargables and when one is dead, I put in another and keep listening. I recharge the dead one and it is ready before the one I'm using is dead. My other concern with built in batteries, is that the battery wears out before the player, and I bet it costs almost as much as a new player to replace the battery. Although, I've never used the same player for more than a year, since they always come out with another one with more features, more capacity and cheaper.

MostAwesomeDude · Post by **MostAwesomeDude** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 8:03 pm

Buy a 5G iPod (iPod Video) off eBay, put on Rockbox. It's the only player that will actually hold my ~45GB of music.

01mf02 · Post by **01mf02** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 8:07 pm

MostAwesomeDude wrote:Buy a 5G iPod (iPod Video) off eBay, put on Rockbox. It's the only player that will actually hold my ~45GB of music.

LOL

MostAwesomeDude · Post by **MostAwesomeDude** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 9:11 pm

01mf02 wrote:
MostAwesomeDude wrote:Buy a 5G iPod (iPod Video) off eBay, put on Rockbox. It's the only player that will actually hold my ~45GB of music.
LOL

Is there another player that can hold and play 45 gigs of Vorbis?

01mf02 · Post by **01mf02** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 3:59 pm

MostAwesomeDude wrote:
01mf02 wrote:
MostAwesomeDude wrote:Buy a 5G iPod (iPod Video) off eBay, put on Rockbox. It's the only player that will actually hold my ~45GB of music.
LOL
Is there another player that can hold and play 45 gigs of Vorbis?

Well, I just don't understand how 45 GB of music fit on a 5GB player.

(unless you convert your files first, but it sounds funny when you just read the sentence)

jstead1 · Post by **jstead1** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 11:19 pm

01mf02 wrote:
MostAwesomeDude wrote:
01mf02 wrote:
MostAwesomeDude wrote:Buy a 5G iPod (iPod Video) off eBay, put on Rockbox. It's the only player that will actually hold my ~45GB of music.
LOL
Is there another player that can hold and play 45 gigs of Vorbis?
Well, I just don't understand how 45 GB of music fit on a 5GB player.
(unless you convert your files first, but it sounds funny when you just read the sentence)

5G is fifth generation, not 5GB
I don't know what sizes they are (I've only seen 30GB models. but I really don't follow the apple line)
Of course, there are many players that hold more than 45GB of music, for instance, cowon players support ogg vorbis and come at least as big as 80GB

hunky · Post by **hunky** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 11:43 pm

I'm sort of leaning towards an 8GB Cowon D2 with SDHC memory slot (will work with up to 16GB cards and maybe even the 32GB - though priced a bit out of my reach.) But I don't really need a video player and some are put off a bit by the touch screen interface. But great audio battery life: 52 hrs claimed.

I'm still looking - leaning towards flash for battery life but want memory slots for extra memory. Need ogg so hopefully find something that plays natively or works with rockbox, which actually I would like to try. Nothing I've found really hits my desires.

Here's a great little site - not sure they have all players on board yet but they have a great compare feature:
http://anythingbutipod.com/compare/

MostAwesomeDude · Post by **MostAwesomeDude** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 5:21 am

jstead1 wrote:
01mf02 wrote:
MostAwesomeDude wrote:
01mf02 wrote:
MostAwesomeDude wrote:Buy a 5G iPod (iPod Video) off eBay, put on Rockbox. It's the only player that will actually hold my ~45GB of music.
LOL
Is there another player that can hold and play 45 gigs of Vorbis?
Well, I just don't understand how 45 GB of music fit on a 5GB player.
(unless you convert your files first, but it sounds funny when you just read the sentence)
5G is fifth generation, not 5GB
I don't know what sizes they are (I've only seen 30GB models. but I really don't follow the apple line)
Of course, there are many players that hold more than 45GB of music, for instance, cowon players support ogg vorbis and come at least as big as 80GB

Mine is 80 gigs. Of course, I didn't know that Cowon made players that big; I'll look into that when my iPod dies.

kynky · Post by **kynky** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 12:38 am

I wanted an mp3 playerthat worked with gentoo.
After much searching and reading of reviews I chose

Cowon D2 4GB (you can get the 8GB version now too with DAB)

why?
Awesome sound (especially paired up with some shure SE210 earphones)
SDHC suppport, i got an 8GB card, u can get upto 32GB cards at the mo (32GB+8GB[onboard]) = 40GB
Awesome battery - 52 hours music (10 for video)
Acts as a usb mass storage device - lovely linux support (supports mtp too)
You can upgrade the firmware in linux too (copy some files then reboot)
mp3/flac/ogg/mpeg4/jpeg (and others) support
2.5" touchscreen
Browse via directories (awesome!!) or library
seek bar

to me it is very customizable, just like gentoo is, not forced to use windows (not locked in), bought a nice leather case and screen protector.Check the forums about firmware upgrades the koreans like adding loads of functionality, like dictionary, flash games, flash ui, but to be honest its just sugar, best to get the most stable firmware instead, i mean all i use it for is music, and its perfect for me. No gapless playback which would be nice. Thought it was better than creative zen microphoto/zune/ipod touch/nano/iriver clix2/Meizu M6/sandisk sansa. Archos do good products, also TrekStor vibez 12 GB is supposed to be really good (has gapless support - and superior sound quality).

I nearly went down the rockbox route, but seemed to have too many quirks, woulda done this with first gen nano, but be warned the firmware isnt consistent across devices, chek their website for the functionality of each device, other than that, personally i think it a great project.

There is no perfect mp3 device, I think the best bet is to write down what you think are the most important things you need, then go looking for one, don't get distracted with pointless niceties, remember its all about the music.
Ipod touch does look awesome and is a crowd pleaser, but personally I got a list of reasons why its not suitable for me.

energyman76b · Post by **energyman76b** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 5:11 pm

I just bought (6h ago) a sweet little (really small) Sandisk Sansa e260 4gb for 99€.

The music files already there are rubbish - but who cares? I put rockbox on it (very easy) and listening to my qntal oggs at the moment.

Removable accu
micro sd slot
good sound
looks good
easy to install rockbox and easy to recover.

Great little player - and gentoo sees it as a mass storage device.

sweeeeet

bertaboy · Post by **bertaboy** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 3:27 pm

jsheedy wrote:I have an Ipod nano 4 gig portable mp3 player that works great under linux, but I am looking for another one that works under linux. I am not sure I really need a color display, plus I would have no problem getting away from Apple. Has anyone heard/used any of these with linux?

SanDisk C140
XMmicro XM-076
SanDisk Sansa e250
ilo 1GB MP3 Player

Any others??

Thanks

I would stay away from the Sansa. I have an e260, and the thing freaks out on me quite a bit: whether the screen doesn't want to turn on, the screen gets corrupted, or the whole thing just crashes. Sometimes I experience the same types of problems when using Rockbox, so I think it may be more shoddy parts instead of just a bad firmware, but the firmware could easily be improved, too.

I really liked my old iRiver iFP 799, I wish I hadn't lost that thing.