[NTLUG:Discuss] MP3 Players for my wife...

[Robert Pearson]

On 3/25/09, Alvin Goats <agoats at compuserve.com> wrote:
> Ya'll,
>
>  The spousal unit <duck, crack, smash>  wants an mp3 player that is
>  compatable with Kubuntu and will allow her to easily move files, sync
>  files and get/purchase music from the web. She fancies the Sansa View
>  MP3 player.
>
>  Of course, everything talks about M$, but.... we know how that goes.
>  Natively, the little beast supports:
>  mpeg4
>  wmv
>  H.264
>  wma
>  wav
>  non-DRM AAC
>  and of course, mp3
>
>  She likes the music subscriptions of Yahoo! Music, Rhapsody To Go,
>  Napster, eMusic and video services of Amazon Unboxed, MovieLink and Guba.
>
>  If the software to manipulate files and services is similar to iTunes,
>  that would be great!
>
>  ALTERNATELY, what mp3 players do you recommend and what interface
>  software for it?
>
>  At this time, her only reason to drop back to Windoze is to use iTunes,
>  otherwise she is strictly Kubuntu (it was quick and easy to convert her
>  to Kubuntu, Slackware was too much for her).
>
>  Alvin
>
>
>  _______________________________________________
>  http://www.ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>


Since I don't do any iTunes or iPod recording I delete the emails
talking about it.
Here are the only ones I saved:

[Reply from 10-05-07. A bit out of date]
[1]
> I just installed Fedora 7 and I was wandering other then Totem I like
> the quicktime program and the Itunes one as well is there something like
> this avaliable for Fedora 7

I use VLC(1) for videos and Exaile(2) for music. VLC handles most formats
without the need for additional formats and Exaile uses the GStreamer
backend. The main thing Exaile brings is excellent library functionality. I
particularly enjoy the dynamic playlist feature where I pick a song from my
library and it checks last.fm for similar music in my library and
continually builds my playlist that way. Sometimes, the music meanders in
interesting directions, but it definitely allows me to rediscover music in
my collection that I would have otherwise forgotten about.
(1) http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
(2) http://www.exaile.org/

[2]
I tried both and all the problems I have had are now gone and
interesting enough a file I got from a friend that would not play in
Media player or quicktime only audio can be viewed as well.  Thanks for
the help

[3]
> I bought a couple of SanDisc players for cheap. They also come with FM
> radio which I use a lot while biking. I replaced the earbuds with some
> decent Sennheiser headphones (more expensive than the player), but that
> investment was well worth it. They are more comfortable and the sound is
> excellent, even when riding + windnoise. I rip my daughter's CDs for her
> player to MP3 and everything she owns fits on there comfortably in MP3
> format.

I too recommend a non-ipod flash player.  I spent several months researching
them last year, and I'm really sold on the units from COWON/i-audio as they
nativly support both mp3 & ogg out of the box now:
      http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/

I have one of the older U2 flash+FM models:
      http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/iaudio/u2/

I have a 1GB model (around $100).. and the newer 4G ones are slimmer and
around $150 from NewEgg:
      http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16855228004

The things can direct record from the radio->mp3, have a built in mic for
doing voice/meeting recordings, and even have a line in for high quality mic
or line level recording! I love the thing!

[4]
Heck yeah! I have the Cowan X5l. It tears up the ipod in capability. Not
quite as pretty, but it's mostly in your pocket. So, if you can live
without the status symbol of having white headphones, you'll be much
happier getting a cowan product.

[5]
<<http://ipodlinux.org/Main_Page>>
Welcome to the home of the iPodLinux Project
(http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipodlinux/)! iPodLinux is an open
source venture into porting Linux onto the iPod
(http://www.apple.com/ipod/). So far, we have successfully ported a
customized uClinux (http://www.uclinux.org) kernel to the iPod, and
written a simple user interface for it dubbed podzilla. Additional
applications and modules have been written, adding many capabilities
not found in Apple's firmware.

iPodLinux is currently safe to install on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation
iPods. Development is currently on-going on later generations of iPod,
including the fourth generation click wheel, mini, U2, Photo/Color,
Nano, and Video. Donations always help when it comes to supporting new
hardware. Progress can be tracked on the Project Status page or the
blog (http://www.ipodlinux.org/blog). We are unable to provide support
for these newer iPods.

[More up to date (03-14-09) but less specific]

(1) I use gtkpod instead of itunes and download mp3's from amazon.
They don't have any special encoding I know of.  Amarok in kde works
well with the older generation ipods.
(2) I second Amazon.  They have a lot of the same music as iTunes, it's all
256K plain vanilla mp3, and many songs cost up to 20 cents less than
they do on iTunes.  With iTunes, even the non-DRM "iTunes+" stuff is in
some kind of proprietary format.  You can at least convert those to mp3,
but why mess with the extra step?