Portable Media Player

A few posts back I noted that I am searching for a portable media player and that my requirements were:

1. Linux Friendly


2. Plays ogg files


3. FM Transmitter


4. ~5G of storage

I have been doing some research on the possibilities. Here is a summary of my findings.

• ipod - The ipod can be used with Linux to some extent. There are reports of varying success with it. Basically you either get the windows model that has a FAT filesystem, or you install HFS+ support into you kernel. No big deal either way, however, ipod's do not support ogg files. No ogg support == no ipod. Why in the fsck apple would not build in support for ogg files is beyond me. Especially since ogg is unencumbered by patents/licenses etc. If the ipod supported ogg files, I would by one even though an FM transmitter is not built in. I have fonud transmitters for about $100.


• Rio Karma - This unit looks really cool. It comes in a 20G model. It has a built in ethernet port so you can communicate with it over a network. Supposedly the transfer software that comes with it is in java, so it works on anything. It plays ogg files. There have been several reports of problems with it rebooting and doing other buggy things. Some people have noted that Rio released a bios upgrade that fixed many of these problems. The Karma does not come with a built in FM transmitter and I could not find one for it. The Rio can not be mounted as a USB mass storage device, so it's drive can not be used for any type of file storage. If it came with a built in FM transmitter, I would probably buy this unit.


• Neuros 20G HD - The neuros has everything that I am looking for. Support for ogg, mp3, etc. A 20G drive. Built in FM transmitter with up to 250mW of output power. It can be mounted as a USB mass storage devie and used for file storage. There is an open source java app neurosdbm that can be used to manipulate the xml database files and transfers to the unit. I am not a huge java fan, but I figure that I can probably use the code as a reference and hack out something in ruby to download the podcasts I want and transfer them.
  

The neuros isn't as slick looking as the ipod, but asthetics are not really important to me since it won't be seen much anyway. My use will primarily be in the car, which is why the FM transmitter is such a plus.