I've tried time and time again to make my ideal player out of a 1st gen iPod mini, an A-Data 16GB compactflash card and RockBox. Sadly, the RB interface feels like molasses, and often completely refuses to play music. Suspecting the card I swapped in a known good microdrive, and it got even worse.
The people at the Rockbox forum suggested an alternate bootloader, which improved things not a whit.
I'm now sick of it. The iPod is getting the microdrive back and I'm gonna sell it for exactly as much as I spent on it to a friend who's looking for a cheap player.
This leaves me with a) a 16GB true-IDE CF card, and b) the desire, now stronger than ever, for a small ogg-enabled player. Ogg is imperative for me, and the small size requirement rules out slapping the CF card in my Karma with an adapter - it's just too bulky.
I have absolutely no use for graphic capabilities, or indeed a colour screen - I need it just to play music, so grayscale screens will do just fine.
As for the interface, I want ID3 browsing, good scrolling (ideally a wheel of some kind, but I'll adapt to other controls if need be) and the ability to create a "now playing" playlist on the go (like the old Creative players).
I also need to be able to find it, so no obscure products that I can't find anywhere but from, say, US-centric sellers who don't ship internationally. Obscure products that I can order from an online shop are OK.
Most of all, it needs to be cheap. I spent all of €35 or so for the iPod (plus the replacement battery); I can go higher, but not by very much. Say, €70 as an absolute cannot-possibly-overrun maximum budget, but cheaper is better.
I'm ok with buying used products.
Does such a player exist?
Thanks.
The people at the Rockbox forum suggested an alternate bootloader, which improved things not a whit.
I'm now sick of it. The iPod is getting the microdrive back and I'm gonna sell it for exactly as much as I spent on it to a friend who's looking for a cheap player.
This leaves me with a) a 16GB true-IDE CF card, and b) the desire, now stronger than ever, for a small ogg-enabled player. Ogg is imperative for me, and the small size requirement rules out slapping the CF card in my Karma with an adapter - it's just too bulky.
I have absolutely no use for graphic capabilities, or indeed a colour screen - I need it just to play music, so grayscale screens will do just fine.
As for the interface, I want ID3 browsing, good scrolling (ideally a wheel of some kind, but I'll adapt to other controls if need be) and the ability to create a "now playing" playlist on the go (like the old Creative players).
I also need to be able to find it, so no obscure products that I can't find anywhere but from, say, US-centric sellers who don't ship internationally. Obscure products that I can order from an online shop are OK.
Most of all, it needs to be cheap. I spent all of €35 or so for the iPod (plus the replacement battery); I can go higher, but not by very much. Say, €70 as an absolute cannot-possibly-overrun maximum budget, but cheaper is better.
I'm ok with buying used products.
Does such a player exist?
Thanks.
