Portable HD MP3 Player

Message

KevinSchaper · #1 Post by **KevinSchaper** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 1:02 am

So, I've been goofin with an Archos Jukebox 15 for a couple of days - it works alright, but the usb 1.0 is slow as hell, and the OS on it is kinda buggy.

Anybody else have and recommend HD players?

I figure it's a forgone conclusion that the ipod is the best, but it's there's a lot of 20gig players that cost half as much, so it seems tougher to justify..

main_stem · #2 Post by **main_stem** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 12:12 pm

Oh man the Ipod is just too good. I've had mine (5gig) for about a year now and love it. Don't worry about price I'm sure it'll drop in another 6 months when they release a 50 gig version.

-Kevin

GemZombie · #3 Post by **GemZombie** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 12:56 pm

I use a laptop, and don't need a portable MP3 player, so I just have a portable USB drive.

I recommend the following drives because they are extremely small, and powered from the USB bus... so you do not have to have anythign but the drive.

Check out the Pockey Datastor - http://www.pocketech.net

CafeSavoy · #4 Post by **CafeSavoy** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 3:55 pm

i have an archos 20 and it's a little clunky. i think sourceforge has a project
to update the OS, but it's not that far along yet. the iPod is themack daddy
but expensive. Creative Nomad has been updating it's products; they now offer
bigger drives and playlist on the fly.
http://www.nomadworld.com/products/jukebox_zen/
http://www.nomadworld.com/products/Jukebox_20GB/

but personally i want to wait before the dust settles before getting a new player.
i think there are going to be more entries in the market.

PhilShapiro · #5 Post by **PhilShapiro** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 4:38 pm

I have a PJB100 that I've had for over two years now. When I bought it, it had a 6G drive, now it has a 40G one.

The firmware is good, sound quality is good, and the USB protocol it uses is open.

On the downside it's a 3+ year old hardware platform. It's bigger than the ipod, and it only supports USB 1.0.

For me it works well and gets the job done... and I get to take the contents of (most) of my CDs everywhere I go.

KevinSchaper · #6 Post by **KevinSchaper** » Wed Feb 12, 2003 2:44 pm

main_stem wrote:Oh man the Ipod is just too good. I've had mine (5gig) for about a year now and love it. Don't worry about price I'm sure it'll drop in another 6 months when they release a 50 gig version.

-Kevin

Yeah... but then I'll want the 50 gig version!

So, you can use it as a portable hard drive, but you have to partition off two seperate spaces?

JohnDyer · #7 Post by **JohnDyer** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 12:44 pm

I'm looking for an MP3 player with a HD (at least 40GB) that I can use as an external USB drive when DJing from my laptop, but also use as a player itself when I'm teaching or just kicking around listening to my collection. Any suggestions on the latest batch of these? I think someone here mentioned using their IPOD as a USB drive.

Oh, another requirement - doesn't need to be plugged into a power source and has at least a 4 hour run time on its battery or can be powered from a USB connection.

I have a big Maxtor external USB now, but it's big, and needs to be plugged in. I'm all for minimalizing my setup, especially if I get a decent MP3 player in the deal.

I DJ using PCDJ Red on a Windows XP laptop

Anyone have any suggestions?

dana · #8 Post by **dana** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 1:17 pm

I just got a 20G iRiver (http://www.iriveramerica.com) which also comes in 40G. They're price-equivalent to the iPod, but better because:

- Longer battery life (11-16 hr)
- Firmware upgradeable
- Plays tons of codecs, not just AAC/MP3
- No DRM (for those of us who care)
- No iTunes, just drag-and-drop directory structure
- Plays Winamp playlist files (*.m3u)
- Optical line-in and -out
- Standard remote control

It does need to be plugged in occasionally to recharge the battery.
Runs on USB 1/2.
Because it's just a hard drive, you can put anything on it - schoolwork, games, archives, or even *gasp* music.

I love mine. It's brilliant.

JohnDyer · #9 Post by **JohnDyer** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 3:23 pm

dana wrote:I just got a 20G iRiver (http://www.iriveramerica.com) which also comes in 40G. They're price-equivalent to the iPod, but better because:

- Longer battery life (11-16 hr)
- Firmware upgradeable
- Plays tons of codecs, not just AAC/MP3
- No DRM (for those of us who care)
- No iTunes, just drag-and-drop directory structure
- Plays Winamp playlist files (*.m3u)
- Optical line-in and -out
- Standard remote control

It does need to be plugged in occasionally to recharge the battery.
Runs on USB 1/2.
Because it's just a hard drive, you can put anything on it - schoolwork, games, archives, or even *gasp* music.

I love mine. It's brilliant.

Dana, a couple of questions:
1. Do you laptop dj using it?
2. Can you pick which filesystem goes on it? (Like my Maxtor)
3. I care about DRM! Yay!
4. How many hours do you have on it?
5. Have you ever had a glitch or hiccough using it?
7. I assume it will handle VBR MP3s? I think all new ones do don't they?

This looks very tempting. I am shying away from the IPOD for exactly the reasons you list, but I'm open to all suggestions. Thanks for the post

KevinSchaper · #10 Post by **KevinSchaper** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 4:16 pm

Numark is making the box I always wanted now, a dual cd player with a hard disc inside.. it needs to cost about a third as much as it does now, but it's a start...

Zot · #11 Post by **Zot** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 7:54 pm

JohnDyer/Dana:

Sorry, but what does DRM have to do with the iPod?

Are you confusing the iTunes music store issue with the iPod? Almost every single track on my iPod has no problems with DRM whatsoever. Only those that were purchased on the iTMS have any DRM issue at all.

<side track>
I personally have no problem at all with DRM if it's implemented well. I do have one major complaint about iTMS, which is simply that I can't download a track more than once, even though I've paid for it to be on up to 3 computers. It seems to me you should be purchasing a token which allows you to download the track as many times, and in whatever the current format/bitrate the store is using, in perpetuity.
</sidetrack>

Again, this is an issue with iTMS, not the iPod. I would not be giving that up for any other device I've seen so far. It's just too good.

dana · #12 Post by **dana** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 10:40 pm

JohnDyer wrote:Dana, a couple of questions:
1. Do you laptop dj using it?
2. Can you pick which filesystem goes on it? (Like my Maxtor)
3. I care about DRM! Yay!
4. How many hours do you have on it?
5. Have you ever had a glitch or hiccough using it?
7. I assume it will handle VBR MP3s? I think all new ones do don't they?

1. I don't, but I could (it just happens to be full of pop stuff right now). A nice feature is that you can browse your collection while a song is playing and choose the next song to be played - could be very easy to dj off.
2. I'm not sure.. if you're talking OS-wise, it's all-OS compatible 'cause it's just a USB harddrive.
3. DRM yay.. will address more later
4. Hours of music? Not sure.. currently about 16Gb ripped at ~160 or greater (mostly oggs). I think it's about 215 complete CDs. Hours of battery life has been 11-16hr/charge.
5. Glitches/hiccoughs - absolutely none. It's been rock solid.
6. Yup.

DRM stuff - I hate it that iTunes limits the number of times that you can copy cds. So for example, if I buy a bunch of songs on iTunes and put them on my iPod, and the iPod dies or is stolen or lost, I have lost all those songs unless I've done something tricky and backed them up somewhere. I'd rather just be able to do my backups my own way and not try to figure out what you're able to do or not able to do under different people's DRMs.

The other cool thing I didn't mention about the iRiver is that you can record with it - it comes with both an integral mic and an external mic. You can record up to 5 hours in .mp3 or .wav formats.

d.

JohnDyer · #13 Post by **JohnDyer** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 1:48 am

Dana, thanks for the info. This is now at the top of my wishlist.

As far as hours, what I meant was, how many hours have you used it - how much have you used it? Just would like to know if there have been any song access baubles. That would be a minus for djing off of it.

dana · #14 Post by **dana** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 8:40 pm

I've only had it for a month, I'll admit, but I listen to it all day at work every day (40h/wk) and have had no troubles.

d.

JohnDyer · #15 Post by **JohnDyer** » Mon Apr 12, 2004 8:56 am

Oh yeah, one more thing Dana regarding the iRiver, can you modify playlists on the fly? If I ever did want to pseudo dj from it, that would be important. I think IPODs now let you do this.