I am looking to buy a cheapo player..Thought about the Zen Stone...Any 
comments on this welcome or any other player worth looking at ?
-- 
Regards
   Ted Wager
    High Peak UK
     Using Sidux Linux

twager wrote:
> I am looking to buy a cheapo player..Thought about the Zen Stone...Any 
> comments on this welcome or any other player worth looking at ?

I think most cheapo mp3 players are the same for Linux, they just come 
up as flash drives and you copy your mp3 files on. So your choice would 
be based on other considerations.

This morning I bought a 1GB player in Tesco. Wish I'd waited until Argos 
was open. Got home, got the package open, then found the "Fast Forward" 
button wouldn't work. So I was going to bring it back after work. Except 
that I got rained on, and the thing got saturated, which surely made any 
warranty void. Now it's permanently fast-forwarding. I've taken it apart 
to dry out, maybe it'll work better then.

Frank

On 2008-06-25, twager  wrote:
> I am looking to buy a cheapo player..Thought about the Zen Stone...Any 
> comments on this welcome or any other player worth looking at ?

My Samsung Yepp works as a USB device - and plays ogg files.  No special 
software required, I use mc to copy files across to it etc.

-- 
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
--  Whiskers 
-- ~~~~~~~~~~

"twager"  wrote in message 
news:D_ydnbpGh9ySoP_VnZ2dneKdnZydnZ2d@plusnet...
>I am looking to buy a cheapo player..Thought about the Zen Stone...Any 
>comments on this welcome or any other player worth looking at ?

Anything that can run http://www.rockbox.org/, dunno if they're the cheapo 
ones though.

-- 
Geoff

Frank Peelo  writes:

> twager wrote:
>> I am looking to buy a cheapo player..Thought about the Zen
>> Stone...Any comments on this welcome or any other player worth
>> looking at ?
>
> I think most cheapo mp3 players are the same for Linux, they just come
> up as flash drives and you copy your mp3 files on. So your choice
> would be based on other considerations.

The OP should know that not all players present as USB mass storage
devices.  There is software to make use of these as well, but a USB
storage one is much simpler in my opinion.

-- 
Ben.

Ben Bacarisse  writes:

[...]

> The OP should know that not all players present as USB mass storage
> devices.  There is software to make use of these as well, but a USB
> storage one is much simpler in my opinion.

I've got a Creative Zen Vision:M (which allegedly can support USB mass
storage, but only in an awkward way so I've never bothered).  Amarok
works fine with it (it supports MTP), and gnomad2 works adequately (it
regularly crashes, and the transient dialogs aren't transient, so they
don't work right with xmonad).

I agree, easier to fail at getting working than USB mass storage, but
not a disaster (once you've worked out how to do it, it's pretty
easy).

I think if I wanted a cheap player I'd get one of those that take SD
cards.  Presumably one just sticks the MP3 files in some way onto the
SD card, so that ought to be straightforward.

twager wrote:
> I am looking to buy a cheapo player..Thought about the Zen Stone...Any 
> comments on this welcome or any other player worth looking at ?

Thanks to all who replied both on an off list..Looks like my choice is 
between the Zen and the ipod shuffle. Will try to get a listen to both 
before I choose...

-- 
Regards
   Ted Wager
    High Peak UK
     Using Sidux Linux

twager wrote:
> twager wrote:
>> I am looking to buy a cheapo player..Thought about the Zen Stone...Any 
>> comments on this welcome or any other player worth looking at ?
> 
> Thanks to all who replied both on an off list..Looks like my choice is 
> between the Zen and the ipod shuffle. Will try to get a listen to both 
> before I choose...
> 
Hmmm. Take at close look at the battery replacement costs (plural) for 
the ipod first.

Start with the small faint grey print near the foot of 
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/wa/RSLID?nnmm=browse&mco=MTMzNzU&node=home/shop_ipod/family/ipod_classic 
and follow the not-a-link to www.apple.com/support/ipod/service/battery

The battery in my son's ipod seems to have lasted about 2 years.

Mike Scott wrote:
> twager wrote:
>> twager wrote:
>>> I am looking to buy a cheapo player..Thought about the Zen 
>>> Stone...Any comments on this welcome or any other player worth 
>>> looking at ?
>>
>> Thanks to all who replied both on an off list..Looks like my choice is 
>> between the Zen and the ipod shuffle. Will try to get a listen to both 
>> before I choose...
>>
> Hmmm. Take at close look at the battery replacement costs (plural) for 
> the ipod first.
> 
> Start with the small faint grey print near the foot of 
> http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/wa/RSLID?nnmm=browse&mco=MTMzNzU&node=home/shop_ipod/family/ipod_classic 
> and follow the not-a-link to www.apple.com/support/ipod/service/battery
> 
> The battery in my son's ipod seems to have lasted about 2 years.
> 
> 

Thanks for that..Loks like the Zen stone.Much cheaper too..

Regards
  Ted Wager
   Using Sidux Linux

Ted  writes:

[...]

> Thanks for that..Loks like the Zen stone.Much cheaper too..

<http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/> have a few SD/MMC reading MP3
players for even less.  Specifically these two B-grade players for £4
and £5:

<http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/shop/MP3_Players.1/Sumvision.137/SDMMCREADER-BGRADE__/Sumvision_MP3_Card_Reader_SD_MMC__B_Grade_.3235.html>
<http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/shop/MP3_Players.1/Daisy_Multimedia.12/DIVAGEM-128-RED/DIVA_GEM_128MB__B_Grade_.48.html>

I seem to remember Argos sold some pretty cheap ones, too.

(Not sure whether it's worth bothering too much, though, the Zen
Stones seem cheap enough, and the Creative Vision:M I've got feels
reassuringly solid.  And it supports playlists, which I guess some of
the SD card readers may not which would be annoying.)

Bruce Stephens wrote:
> Ted  writes:
> 
> [...]
> 
>> Thanks for that..Loks like the Zen stone.Much cheaper too..
> 
> <http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/> have a few SD/MMC reading MP3
> players for even less.  Specifically these two B-grade players for £4
> and £5:
> 
> <http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/shop/MP3_Players.1/Sumvision.137/SDMMCREADER-BGRADE__/Sumvision_MP3_Card_Reader_SD_MMC__B_Grade_.3235.html>
> <http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/shop/MP3_Players.1/Daisy_Multimedia.12/DIVAGEM-128-RED/DIVA_GEM_128MB__B_Grade_.48.html>
> 
> I seem to remember Argos sold some pretty cheap ones, too.
> 
> (Not sure whether it's worth bothering too much, though, the Zen
> Stones seem cheap enough, and the Creative Vision:M I've got feels
> reassuringly solid.  And it supports playlists, which I guess some of
> the SD card readers may not which would be annoying.)

Do this things look like straight usb mass storage though, or does one 
need to install hundreds of megabytes of junkware purely to protect 
others' 'IPR'??

Mike Scott  writes:

[...]

> Do this things look like straight usb mass storage though, or does
> one need to install hundreds of megabytes of junkware purely to
> protect others' 'IPR'??

I guess the Zen Stone uses MTP, like the Vision:M does.  I think it
also supports SD cards, and quite likely stuff on those is done
differently.

I find the Vision:M works fine with Amarok, once I'd worked out how to
do it.  No "IPR" as such: it's still playing regular MP3s, and they
can be copied from the player as well as to it (I think, anyway).

Ben Bacarisse wrote:
> Frank Peelo  writes:
> 
> 
>>twager wrote:
>>
>>>I am looking to buy a cheapo player..Thought about the Zen
>>>Stone...Any comments on this welcome or any other player worth
>>>looking at ?
>>
>>I think most cheapo mp3 players are the same for Linux, they just come
>>up as flash drives and you copy your mp3 files on. So your choice
>>would be based on other considerations.
> 
> 
> The OP should know that not all players present as USB mass storage
> devices.  There is software to make use of these as well, but a USB
> storage one is much simpler in my opinion.

Thanks - the OP may know that, but I didn't. I thought that would only 
be the expensive ones like iPod or that. I get them as a commodity item 
that I expect to last 6 months at best, before rain or a hard knock 
stops play. So I've never gone for an expensive one.

So, one more thing to watch out for...

Frank

twager wrote:
> I am looking to buy a cheapo player..Thought about the Zen Stone...Any 
> comments on this welcome or any other player worth looking at ?

One thing I have noticed is that the cheapo ones which come without a
software CD are usually set up to look like mass storage devices and
work straight off on Linux.

Incidentally I've bought a gadget called a "Zoom H2 handy recorder" from
Amazon. Not only does it play and record MP3, it also works as a mass
storage device, and as it records on an SD card I can take the card out
and put it in my fast card reader.

Frank Peelo wrote:
> Ben Bacarisse wrote:
>> Frank Peelo  writes:
>>
>>
>>> twager wrote:
>>>
>>>> I am looking to buy a cheapo player..Thought about the Zen
>>>> Stone...Any comments on this welcome or any other player worth
>>>> looking at ?
>>>
>>> I think most cheapo mp3 players are the same for Linux, they just come
>>> up as flash drives and you copy your mp3 files on. So your choice
>>> would be based on other considerations.
>>
>>
>> The OP should know that not all players present as USB mass storage
>> devices.  There is software to make use of these as well, but a USB
>> storage one is much simpler in my opinion.
> 
> Thanks - the OP may know that, but I didn't. I thought that would only 
> be the expensive ones like iPod or that. I get them as a commodity item 
> that I expect to last 6 months at best, before rain or a hard knock 
> stops play. So I've never gone for an expensive one.
> 
> So, one more thing to watch out for...
> 
> Frank

It seems remarkably hard to tell. Something like the zen range seems to 
come with vast amounts of 'explorer-alike' software -- but how do you 
tell if it's /needed/ because of daft non-standard interfaces or whether 
it's just fancy bloatware?

(Similar problem to cameras - I duly installed the XP s/ware package for 
mine - but truly, it's just a usb mass storage doodah. Bloatware for the 
sake of it, and "windows this that or the other required" to use the 
camera they say. Tosh! Works fine under freebsd, so presumably linux too.)