The Ipod

[drone]

At Christmas-time, I think I saw an 8GB iPod Nano. So the flash-based players are getting up there in size.

iPods will play standard mp3s (I think it even plays wavs, if you don't mind the file size).

[Dutch_guy]

iPods will play standard mp3s (I think it even plays wavs, if you don't mind the file size).

Yes, it converts them into MP3 files if I'm not mistaken.

[Blodrast]

At Christmas-time, I think I saw an 8GB iPod Nano. So the flash-based players are getting up there in size.

iPods will play standard mp3s (I think it even plays wavs, if you don't mind the file size).

cool, I didn't know that. 8 GB is pretty good.
Actually, with some of the older models, you can mod them to play pretty much anything. I am not sure about newer ones, last time I checked you couldn't do that with the last couple of generations of ipods.

[drone]

Googling got me this:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/appl...d-quality.html

All iPod models have an upgradable firmware that "enables support for future audio formats". According to "About Compatible Song Formats" from the Apple Support Site, iPod models using the most up-to-date firmware support "MP3 (from 32 Kbps to 320 Kbps), MP3 Variable Bit Rate (VBR), AIFF, WAV (with no compression), M4A AAC, M4P AAC (Protected), M4B AAC (iTunes Store Spoken Word files), and Apple Lossless".

Same site had this:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/appl...ndex-ipod.html
which lists 8GB as the largest Nano currently available.

I wonder if the Lucent-Microsoft ruling is going to affect mp3 players. doc_bean, you might also want to follow the European iTunes debate:
http://blogs.pcworld.com/digitalworl...y_outlaws.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070122-8676.html

[Blodrast]

Well, I was rather referring to this: http://www.ipodlinux.org/FAQ#Applications

Is there an MP3 player?

Currently we use Intel's highly optimised library for the ARM processor that includes MP3 decoding support. The MP3 player in podzilla that uses this library runs quite well, but it isn't perfect - some songs will skip, VBR isn't handled too well and high bitrates aren't always decoded fast enough. With current developments on 4G iPods, realtime playback is possible and these problems generally don't apply.

The MAD (http://www.mars.org/home/rob/proj/mpeg/) player also runs, however it is not quite real-time.

The Helix MP3 Decoder (http://datatype.helixcommunity.org/mp3dec) has been tested and runs almost as fast as the Intel library.
[edit]
Is there an Ogg player?

The Tremor (http://www.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/) player is running at about 80% real-time. With current developments on 4G iPods, realtime playback is possible.
[edit]
What about FLAC, AAC, Mod, and wave files?

Right now some development is happening on MPD which supports these formats as well MP3 and OGG Vorbis.

An AAC player is in the current beta of podzilla. See the blog entry (http://www.ipodlinux.org/blog/index.php?p=15) for details.

I'm interested in FLAC, mostly.

[Beirut]

8GB of music?

I like my tunes as much as the next guy, but I don't see the need to carry around 130 hours+ of music on my person.

If I was moving to a desert island for a year or using the unit as the repository of all music for my home system, I can see the merit, but anything that holds thirty or forty songs has got to be good enough for a portable unit.

[Papewaio]

Long commutes so you don't have to reload every week... is a good reason... Or if you work where you are allowed to play music then not having the same songs repeat in the week is good too.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

I don't want to hijack the thread, but anyone aware of any current players that support Ogg Vorbis? My old iriver H140 is getting on a bit, and a replacement might be on the cards, but I prefer not to have to re-rip my entire music collection, which is all in Ogg-aside from the fact that I like it as a file format.

It's still a cracking player though, I'm very glad I bought it. I'd be perfectly happy sticking with it if I can't find a reasonable replacement.

[Blodrast]

8GB of music?

I like my tunes as much as the next guy, but I don't see the need to carry around 130 hours+ of music on my person.

If I was moving to a desert island for a year or using the unit as the repository of all music for my home system, I can see the merit, but anything that holds thirty or forty songs has got to be good enough for a portable unit.

*coughs*
Ahem. I have a 30GB one, which is 2/3 full, and I'm unhappy with what music I have on it.

You see, it's not that simple:

1. I'm picky. Really picky. I get bored of listening to the same stuff, over and over. I'm sure that doesn't make me unique, or special, and there must be loads of individuals just like me in that aspect. So I want the stuff recycled as often as possible.

2. Bigger size means you have to recycle the music on it less often. Recycling it is usually a pain in the butt, because we people are lazy. I can rarely bring myself to dig through a bunch of cds, look for something that *might* pique my interest, then transfer it on my puter, then put it on the mp3 player, possibly needing to decide to remove something from the player in order to make more room.
It's a chore. So I want to do it as rarely as possible.

3. 8 GB is really, really, not that much. A regular album, MP3 format ripped from an audio cd at 320kbps is gonna be anywhere between 100MB and 200MB.
Also, do note that "8GB" is nowhere near 8GB actually. It's "8 billion bytes", which is much less. On top of that, you have the mini-OS which also takes up a bit of space (especially for hard-disk based ones), and, poof, there go the megabytes!
For example, my so-called 30GB harddrive actually has about 27.4GB or 27.8GB (can't remember exactly), because, just like I said, it's 30 billion bytes. At that size, the difference is considerable.

Now, did I manage to convince you of the difficulties I'm facing ? Is that a tear in the corner of your eye ?

[Beirut]

*coughs*
Ahem.

Ouch! Stop that.

* I have a 30GB one, which is 2/3 full, and I'm unhappy with what music I have on it.

Then listen to better music.

3. 8 GB is really, really, not that much. A regular album, MP3 format ripped from an audio cd at 320kbps is gonna be anywhere between 100MB and 200MB.

This is true. It would be neat to have one little MP3 player the size of a lighter with my entire collection of Floyd on it. I might buy one just for that.

Now, did I manage to convince you of the difficulties I'm facing ? Is that a tear in the corner of your eye ?

You managed to convince me that if you hit me with that hammer again I'm going to upload 20 GB of Milli Vanilli onto your MP3 player and lock you in the Backroom for a month. We'll see who has the tear in the corner of their eye then, eh?