Linux Friendly MP3 Players (hardware not software)

[Quella]

I'm currenlty looking for a FLASH Based MP3 player that supports UMS (USB Mass Storage) that requires no software to load files on it. It seems that the majority of manufactures have sold out to MS and gone the route of MTS and no longer support UMS. I know that iRiver did much with UMS in the past devices, biut they too seemed to sell out to MS.

I really do not care about recording features, or a cool display screen. I would like to have some thing that supports charging from an adapter (I dirve in my car 3-4 hours a day and I would plug it in during this time to an inverter or the 12v).

So here is what I'm looking for.

1. Flash Based (1gig or more)
2. Supports UMS (no software required)
3. Ability to recharge in car
4. Looking for a cost arouns 150.00USD or less.

Any body have such a player they have used with Fedora or other OS they like or can recommend? I did see that iAudio is one company that all their players to date support UMS.

Quella

[hollywoodb]

A friend of mine has an older Samsung YP-C1Z that holds 1GB, plays MP3 and OGG among other formats. Works fine for him under linux, and they still make them. I have no idea if the newer YP-C1Z is still mass-storage, from what I can tell the appearance of it went through a little 'freshening'.

[Quella]

Thanks Hollywoodb for the recommendation. I did some more research and came to this conclusion. It seems to meet all my earlier requirements.

iAudio U2 2gig Model at NewEgg.com for $119.00USD This system also received a 7.7 from Cnet.

Quella

[uth]

Originally Posted by Quella

I'm currenlty looking for a FLASH Based MP3 player that supports UMS (USB Mass Storage) that requires no software to load files on it. It seems that the majority of manufactures have sold out to MS and gone the route of MTS and no longer support UMS. I know that iRiver did much with UMS in the past devices, biut they too seemed to sell out to MS.

I really do not care about recording features, or a cool display screen. I would like to have some thing that supports charging from an adapter (I dirve in my car 3-4 hours a day and I would plug it in during this time to an inverter or the 12v).

So here is what I'm looking for.

1. Flash Based (1gig or more)
2. Supports UMS (no software required)
3. Ability to recharge in car
4. Looking for a cost arouns 150.00USD or less.

Any body have such a player they have used with Fedora or other OS they like or can recommend? I did see that iAudio is one company that all their players to date support UMS.

Quella

The Creative MuVo TX series runs as a Mass Storage device, goes up to 1G, is less than $150. For #3, it uses a single AAA battery. You can get a car charger for those batteries, the MuVo itself does not charge batteries.

Also, the Muvo is powered through a USB connector, so it may be possible to power it directly from a car adaptor with that type of connection.

[Linux The Great]

My COWON mp3 player supports both Mp3 and ogg. It's more than you are interested in (as it's a 30gb hard drive based). If I recall you can buy a car charger accessory (and the plug on mine is pretty standard anyway). I actually never charge it in the car since it has a 35hr battery.

But most importantly of all, the COWON players officially support Linux (2.4 kernel and up).

[Quella]

Thanks The Great. I did get the U2 flash model, but iAudio seems to be a good solution for PNP on Linux. I plan on plugging this device into my cars 12v via an existing USB/CAR adapter I have.

Thanks for your input and good info on the company.

Quella

[Antifreeze]

I use an RCA Lyra, they come in 32, 64, 128, 256, and 512 meg varieties, but have a SD card slot which allows you to upgrade them to what ever size you want. My lyra is a 128 meg, currently outfitted with a 1 gig card, and I have several other cards that I carry with me, which I swap depending on what type of music I'm in the mood for.

Here's a picture of a 128 meg model which is currently on e-bay for 10 bucks.


It's powered by a single tripple A battery, which lasts up to 6 hours under heavy usage, and rechargables seem to agree with it just as well as regular alkaline.

The thing is simple to operate, and was designed for single handed, no-eyes control. It was mainly marked towards the athletic crowd, and it comes with an arm-strap carry pouch. It only has 8 buttons, 4 across the face. Stop/Off, Previous, Next, Play/Pause/On. On the right hand side there are 2 buttons which control the volume, and on the top there are 2 buttons which control the DSP mode, and Shuffle / Random / Repeat mode.

While designed to be oprated by feel, it does have a nice large, lcd desplay, which has two rows of text, listing track number, song length / time remain, track title, and bit rate. Benieth that it also has icons which show battery status, button lock status, repeat status, volume and playback mode.

Transfering songs to and from the mp3 player is simple, you can either remove the SD card from the player and use an external SD reader, or you can use the built in mini-usb jack on the back of the player.

Using the mini-jack, Fedora recognizes 2 drives, the 1st is the mp3 players built-in ram which can hold up to 512mb of mp3's, the 2nd is the players card slot. I personally leave the players internal memory empty, and just load files onto the card.

The player is also great for use as a thumb drive ;-) I've successfully stored movies, programs, and documents on the player, moving them from location to location and had no problems with the transfers.

The player simply ignores file types it doesn't recognize and happily jumps to the next song without missing a beat.

It's been several years since I've updated the firmware on my mp3 player, but as of last update, the player was complatable with mp3, mp3pro, wma, and ogg.

Audio quality is very good, considering how cheap the device is. I've compared it to products by Creative, and Apple, and will take a Lyra over either of them any day.

My player cost me $60, that was almost 5 years ago, I am sure you can pick one up off of e-bay for about 10 to 15 bucks plus shipping, and while your at it you can probably get your 1 gig sd cards there as well ;-)