OT: Portable MP3 player with this feature?

[wkulecz]

Sorry for an off-topic post, but I can't think of a better group of gear heads. It it exists, someone here probably knows about it.

I'm looking for a portable MP3 player that will use a standard FAT filesystem and let me copy files to a memory card in an external reader and simply put the card in the player and play the songs.

I don't want anything than requires a special USB cable and software.

Preference is CF over Smartmedia over anything else and AA batteries instead of AAA (which hold about 1/3 the enegry for 90% of the cost of AA).

Anyone know of such a beast?

I've tried and returned three models. I'm beginning to think that the designers of these things are staying up late at night taking stupid pills.

--wally.

[Marshmallowman]

yeah so I am I, I have a few CF parts from my digital camera, it would be cool to find a MP3 player that could use them as well...

[VJ]

I think Archos has models that use CF-cards and regular FAT-systems: http://www.archos.com (jukebox multimedia)
It has a harddisk as well and can play divx movies, but I have no experience with this device what so ever. (I know of its existance because of my presence on digital photography forums)


Jörg

[VJ]

Perhaps this is more what you are looking for:

http://www.mp3kit.com/Products/Mello_MP3/mello_mp3.html

[wkulecz]

I tried the Archos 6GB player and quickly returned it as it was too stupid to remember where it was so everytime it was turned on it started playing the same song! With 100 hrs of music on the thing this is the not what any reasonable person would want. Perhaps they've fixed the firmware. It acted like a normal USB FAT32 hard drive which was great but too brain dead when I tried it last year.

Thanks for the info of the Mello. Sounds like what I want, but I've tried and returned something similar that claimed to be a "3-in-1 device" that used smartmedia, but its format was not compatible with either of the other two SM readers I have. These are mutually compatible so I blamed the player for being wrong, after all the point is to copy the files to a card using a "random" reader and then move them to the player.

I note the Mello seems to be from the same company that makes the Pine MP3 CD player. I have one of these, battery life is too short (4hrs is a stretch), anti-shock is not good enough to use in the gym, and its brain dead -- not remembering the last song played when stopped. It was the first one I bought, I use it at the office now where I generally just let the whole CD play. I've noticed that it seems to skip if the MP3s are burned to 700MB CD-R, same files on 650MB disks play fine, which is curious since it seems OK on an 80 minute audio CD I copied to CD-R.

Phillips and Sonic Blue have portable MP3 CD players that remember where you were when you left off. Sonic Blue has much better battery life (~10 hrs! vs ~6) and anti-shock, Phillips has better navigation, but thats my lowest priority as long as it starts again where it left off.

Thanks again!

--wally.

[VJ]

I found the Mello doing a search on the internet (on the site, in "products", there is another similar product).

I personally like the possibilities of the Archos multimedia (before it was markted, they even made mention of a video-recorder module, but now every trace of this seems to be vanished), but it might be quite bulky... But you're right about that not remembering the last position is stupid.


Jörg

[wkulecz]

I just orderd the Mello for about $70. Hopefully it'll remember where it left off, but in the gym random play is an acceptable alternative.

I loved everything about the Archos except the fact that it always started with the first file it found. This was over a year ago, one would hope they'd have updated the firmware by now. It was usable as a USB hard drive as well -- I think quite a few were ordered as "notebook backup external hard drives".

--wally.