Best PPC for mp3 playback

[subBlue]

I'm was considering getting an ipod as i'm desperate for an mp3 player to keep me going on my 3 hours daily train commute.
However, with the 1Gb cf cards around now (and everything else you can do besides mp3 playback with a PPC), i'm wondering if there are any recommendations for a PPC setup that would also be a viable mp3 solution?

[Pony99CA]

I'm was considering getting an ipod as i'm desperate for an mp3 player to keep me going on my 3 hours daily train commute.
However, with the 1Gb cf cards around now (and everything else you can do besides mp3 playback with a PPC), i'm wondering if there are any recommendations for a PPC setup that would also be a viable mp3 solution?
I think a 5 GB iPod goes for $299 list. To keep in that ballpark, you'd have to get the cheaper Dell Axim ($199 after rebate) and a 1 GB CF card for as close to $100 as possible.

If you rip at 128 kbps, you'd have about 1000 minutes of music, or about 16 hours before you'd hear the same song again.

Steve

[carlosgp]

I prefer a dedicated mp3 player, no doubt. The ipod is an excellent one, but consider archos player too. It's uglier, but cheaper, very functional and usb 2.0. Thanks to the ugly blue bumpers I drop mine in concrete a couple of times and is still working. Try this with an ipod, and you're fried :). And you can always attach it to you ppc through an CF card usb adapter in the future.

P.D: And check http://rockbox.haxx.se/ It's a really active open source firmware for the archos with daily updates.

[Rirath]

If you rip at 128 kbps, you'd have about 1000 minutes of music, or about 16 hours before you'd hear the same song again.

Steve

And you could almost double that by going with 48bit ogg instead with zero to extremely little (IMO) quality loss.
Personally, I'd say an Axim and the biggest memory card you can find.

[spinedoc]

From what I hear, and from experimenting with my new Axim, the Dell's have the absolute best battery life. Put your money into an X5, buy a 1gb CF card and you are set, plus you have all the extras that come with the Pocket PC.

[KuroNeko]

[quote="Rirath"
And you could almost double that by going with 48bit ogg instead with zero to extremely little (IMO) quality loss.
Personally, I'd say an Axim and the biggest memory card you can find.[/quote]

noob alert : is there an Ogg codec for PPC2002? Must have missed it on the sites I searched.

Neko

[TawnerX]

PocketMVP. (and I think 'withmp3 also supports ogg)

[Buddha]

A possible even cheaper alternative could be to buy a second-hand ipaq 38xx-series which has excellent sound. But in order to use CF you'd have to use the CF sleeve or you could buy a 512MB SD card.


A couple of free players that support ogg: WinamPAQ (http://www.projecteam.org/phpwiki/index.php/WinamPAQ%20-%20PDS), GSplayer2 (http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA032810/gsp.htm), PocketMVP

WithMP3 doesn't support Ogg, this will added in the future.

[PetiteFlower]

Ok, what program can I use to convert MP3s to OGGs?

[felixdd]

dbpoweramp (or you can use winamp if you're familiar with codecs and plugins).

If you prefer new PPC's -- wait for a month until Toshiba announces the new PPC. Then hunt for a cheap 512 mb memory card. It's all you'll need.

[Weyoun6]

Ok, what program can I use to convert MP3s to OGGs?

You should really rip from the cd to ogg (or cd -> wav ->ogg). You get better quality and usually a smaller file.

[Rirath]

Ok, what program can I use to convert MP3s to OGGs?

You should really rip from the cd to ogg (or cd -> wav ->ogg). You get better quality and usually a smaller file.

True, but if you're like me and you'd just prefer to convert what you already have, dbpoweramp makes it painless.

[PetiteFlower]

Thanks :) I can't convert from the CD because none of my MP3s came from CDs, they were all downloaded. I have no real desire to rip any of my CDs to any kind of file, I'm happy just carrying around the CDs themselves for that.

Besides even if I was converting from CD to ogg I'd still need a program to do it with!

[Janak Parekh]

I have no real desire to rip any of my CDs to any kind of file, I'm happy just carrying around the CDs themselves for that.
You'd be surprised... it's amazingly convenient to never have to carry a CD again. :)

Besides even if I was converting from CD to ogg I'd still need a program to do it with!
Check out CDex (http://cdexos.sourceforge.net). Download the latest beta of 1.5... it works very well.

--janak

[PetiteFlower]

Well I'll give the other one a try first since I already downloaded and installed it, but I'll keep this one in mind if I don't like it.

However, I'm starting to rethink the whole thing because I don't like any of the players that support ogg that I've tried. Winampaq doesn't shuffle correctly and I can't seem to get the hang of Pocket MVP and the site for GS Player is all in Korean! Does anyone know of any other players?

[felixdd]

GSplayer site is in Korean, but the program is in English. Does the site being in Korean bother you? (i.e. lack of support?)

If it's more of an issue of not knowing where to download GSP -- pm me and I'll email it to you.

[Janak Parekh]

Does anyone know of any other players?
iPlay (40th.com). It's extremely powerful, supports Ogg, equalizer, etc., but it's not cheap.

--janak

[PetiteFlower]

GSplayer site is in Korean, but the program is in English. Does the site being in Korean bother you? (i.e. lack of support?)

Bingo :) Besides that I wasn't sure if all the menus and stuff would be in English.

[subBlue]

Thanks for the tips guys, i decided to take the plunge and have just ordered Dell Axim X5 - just need to get a nice big CF card now to store all those tunes :D

[subBlue]

Actually, while on the subject of different codecs for music encoding - does the windows media player on PPC play WMA files encoded with the newer v9 encoder (free download from MS (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/encoder/default.aspx)) as they claim that for the quality of the newer v9 codec is better than v8

:?:

[Janak Parekh]

subBlue, I believe WMP 8.5 for the Pocket PC does; and I believe the Axim is bundled with it.

--janak

[PetiteFlower]

Help! I finally started trying to convert my files to ogg with dbpoweramp and it doesn't seem to be working :( After a few unsuccessful tried, I did finally manage to get a successful conversion, at least according to the conversion window, but the file doesn't seem to actually exist anywhere! It's not in the folder I told it to go to, or anywhere else on my computer. What am I doing wrong???

I'm gonna try CDex now but I really did like the interface of DB, if someone can tell me how to get it to work.....

[yschang]

PetiteFlower
Are you using the Powerpack with the P4 optimised CLI OGG encoder?
If you are, you need to switch the frequency to a higher rate (48000, I think). It won't work at 44100Hz.

I bought the Powerpack and I've been ripping from CD over weeks now. Fantastic stuff!!! So quick... takes approximately 1 minute per song of average length. You can email me to ask any related question if you want.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Help! I finally started trying to convert my files to ogg with dbpoweramp and it doesn't seem to be working :( After a few unsuccessful tried, I did finally manage to get a successful conversion, at least according to the conversion window, but the file doesn't seem to actually exist anywhere! It's not in the folder I told it to go to, or anywhere else on my computer. What am I doing wrong???

I'm gonna try CDex now but I really did like the interface of DB, if someone can tell me how to get it to work.....
Are you using the Music Converter app? Doesn't it ask you right up front where you want your destination file to go to?

If you're using the "CD Input" app, then click on the button that says "Options". There's an input box right at the top that says "Output To" followed by a defined folder. Your converted music should appear there.

[PetiteFlower]

yschang--Tried that, didn't work, unless there's another way to change it besides the "input" dropdown menu.

And Ekkie, I know how to tell it what folder I want the files put in, the problem is, they are not THERE, nor are they anywhere else on my computer. It tells me that the conversion was successful, yet there are no converted files that actually exist.