RTP-area local music and culture

[grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>]

They're larger partly due to the larger form-factor of the hard drive, 
and partly due to the fairly large battery, which results in being able 
to use the thing for quite a while between charges (don't ask me how 
long because I don't really know). However, the "base unit+backpack" 
design is something of a space-waster, and as I never swap over to my 
128mb flash-based backpack, I'd love to see a newer, smaller HD-only 
single-unit design.

But the thing was cheap for the feature-set (it has a built-in FM 
transmitter, which with the new 2.x firmware is actually usable, as it 
has controllable gain--I used it all the way to Baltimore & back this 
weekend & it worked like a champ), and when you factor in the 
hackability, the rapid progress of firmware upgrades & the 
officially-supported OGG playback support, it's exactly the machine for me.

If you don't give a crap about those features, then it's not the machine 
for you.

I can't comment on whether the sound is "better". I usually listen to it 
 with a cable plugged into the headphone jack & then into my stereo or 
into the portable at work, and it doesn't sound any different than the 
same source files played on WinAmp on my laptop & connected in the same 
manner. I can't imagine that it would sound appreciably worse than any 
other $300 portable digital audio device, but I can't imagine that it 
would sound any better, either.

Theoretically, the OGG support means it should sound appreciably better 
at similar bitrates than certain other lossy compression technologies, 
so if that's what you meant, then maybe so.

I dunno about the FM tuner reception. It also has a microphone so you 
can use it as a portable (low-fi, low bitrate) digital recorder. And it 
has this weird feature where you can record a snippet of a song off the 
radio & then it'll go look it up in some master database & try to tell 
you who the artist is the next time you synch with your PC. Something 
I'll never use, but vaguely interesting, I guess.

It *does* mount as a regular PC USB drive, so you can drag stuff onto it 
& as long as you don't dick around with the existing directory 
structure, you can add yr own directories & put whatever you want on it. 
They've just come out with a USB2 version & I'm not sure if they're 
available for general sale (I got one as an upgrade, but I'm not sure if 
they're selling them to first-timers yet); I wouldn't bother getting one 
unless it's USB2.

Last thing: you can't buy them from Neuros with >40GB drives. There is 
no official support for anything larger. To get an 80GB drive to work, a 
basic knowledge of the PC chkdsk command is advisable. You also wanna be 
sure to get a Hitachi Travelstar drive.

Ross

My friend Phil said, wrote:

> The Neuros players are really large and heavy. Not as good as the
> iPod. But I take it.. the sound is better?? and it has an FM tuner.
> How good is the reception? 80 gigs!  My 10 gig iPod is only half
> full??  I do have a lot of digital photos....thousands, can I put
> these on it and use it as a storage device too?
>
> grady AT ibiblio.org (grady) wrote in message 
> news:<40BDCDA5.2070804 AT ibiblio.org>...
>
> > There's a whole page devoted to hardware support: 
> > http://wiki.xiph.org/VorbisHardware
> >
> > I have the Neuros Audio player. I love it, despite its slightly-large 
> > form-factor. They're in the process of opening the source for the 
> > firmware (the PC interface software is already open) & even with the 
> > firmware closed or mostly-closed, they still are making leaps & bounds 
> > in terms of usability & responding to user requests for new features.
> >
> > Plus it uses standard 2.5" laptop drives, so mine has been rodded 
> > slightly with an 80GB drive. I'm at 10,000 tracks and counting, and 
> > about 8,000 of those are OGGs.
> >
> > Ross
> >
> >
> > > "Ron Thigpen" <rthigpen AT nc.rr.com> wrote in message
> >
> >
> >
> > > > of course, now the world has spun around a few times and more of us are
> > > > encoding to 192 VBR and greater.  it's fantastic to see vorbis having
> > > > come so far.  now if we only had portable player support (or good grey
> > > > firmware to flash an iPod).
> >
> > -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
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>
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