[Disiskurt]

I've been following DAPReview for a good while now, and since last holiday season almost all new products being released are either flash players or PMPs. People aren't interested in the high-capacity alternatives to the iPod because all there is now a days is the questionably better, brick-sized Zen Vision M.

Personally, when I heard about the legendary Sigmatel chip that was going to be implemented in the Rio Chroma (that remained unreleased when Rio shut its doors,) I held out on buying anything expensive DAP-wise until someone bought this technology and put out the next evolution of the Karma (which DAPReview projected to be late 2006.) Sadly, the only thing that looks to use the thing is the Trekstor Vibez, a player that looks terrible control-wise, has a tiny screen, and uses small hard drives of capacities of up to 12 GB. Worst of all, they're priced WAY too high. I'm beginning to doubt whether any new players living up to the Karma's standards will be coming out any time soon. In other words, I'm very close to breaking down and buying the 80GB iPod.

 

[Genocide]

the reason that i get my 1st ipod, due to the black colour, which is not common for ipod, and the very attractive HDD size.

 

[bazmonkey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by craiglester /img/forum/go_quote.gif If apple have only nano's or (probably quite expensive) video ipods available...

I don't think that'll happen until they can offer flash players with the same capacity as their current HDD brethren (80GB or so). They may sell more nanos because the flash DAP market is just larger, but their total domination is in the HDD player market. Until they have flash players that are just plain better than the HDD models in functionality and price, they would be abandoning the area of the market that they not only dominate, but effectively created.

 

[m_memmory]

Rockbox

EDIT:

Actually although the M5 is very similar to the X5 it looks like no one is currently working on a port...

 

[jdimitri]

Quote:

Originally Posted by w&q /img/forum/go_quote.gif IMO, after a while* as the lossy formay won't sacrifice the people in terms of sound, people will tend to rip their songs in lossless formats or at least at higher kbits. this will create a huge demand of high capacity daps and the firms sooner or later will have to answer this demand. unfortunately we have to wait for the upcomin revolution. * i dont exactly know how long this will take. best regards

This will probably never happen..
If anything, it'll be better compression so that people can fit more songs

 

[w&q]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdimitri /img/forum/go_quote.gif This will probably never happen.. If anything, it'll be better compression so that people can fit more songs

it is not actually only the "songs". also videos, tv episodes and etc.
i thought from a point of little bit long term. for instance, the screen quality will be higher by the time and also the battery life and this will make people able to watch movies or store lossless formats. IMHO, either flash memory will be revolutionized - upto 60 gb or more, hopefully - or high capacity daps will be designed by the firms. but this is sure not going to be done in 2 or 3 years.

 

[digitalmind]

Quote:

Originally Posted by noblsheep /img/forum/go_quote.gif kinks of apple: have to retag everything (i download most of my stuff) battery scratches and gets dirty will have to get audiogear in white from now on needs itunes to work on other peoples computers (and for some reason, my laptop hates itunes) no use for color screen iaudio: plays flac, ogg doesn't scratch AT ALL (i've tried) needs no software on pc organizes by folder so i don't have to worry about tags no video (cheers) long battery didn't know that... how do i get it?

Other than the white and scratches Rockbox fixes all those kinks (well, battery is slightly improved but still not up to iAudio's specs). Offcourse it's not standard and really shouldn't be used in comparisons but installation is easy and it's a good option. I allways used my Nano with Rockbox and loved it. Check out the link m_memmory posted for more information and installation files.

But yes, out of the box the iPod is lacking in features and possibly quality compared to the iAudio's.

 

[Digitalbath3737]

Quote:

Originally Posted by w&q /img/forum/go_quote.gif it is not actually only the "songs". also videos, tv episodes and etc. i thought from a point of little bit long term. for instance, the screen quality will be higher by the time and also the battery life and this will make people able to watch movies or store lossless formats. IMHO, either flash memory will be revolutionized - upto 60 gb or more, hopefully - or high capacity daps will be designed by the firms. but this is sure not going to be done in 2 or 3 years.

Trust me lossless at the size it is now will never be the standard. Lossy codec are just going to improve over time... so that you'll be able to fit better quality in a smaller size. That includes video codecs as well. Eventually compression will be so good that we'll have lossless files the same size as our current lossy.

People will always find more things to put in thier DAPs. I know that I want a DAP that can fit all my music... as well as whole video collection... that would be a few TBs. So lossless isn't an option. However the quality of lossy today s so good (LAME) that I don't even bother with lossless... except for archiving. I'm just waiting for video lossy to catch up to audio...

 

[noblsheep]

Quote:

Originally Posted by m_memmory /img/forum/go_quote.gif Rockbox EDIT: Actually although the M5 is very similar to the X5 it looks like no one is currently working on a port...

could open that link only thru a proxy, weird...

people on the chinese iaudio forums told me ports are the same for m3, m5 and x5. guess i'll have to drop by the cowon store soon and check it out.

btw, condolences on your x5.

 

[noblsheep]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Digitalbath3737 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Trust me lossless at the size it is now will never be the standard. Lossy codec are just going to improve over time... so that you'll be able to fit better quality in a smaller size. That includes video codecs as well. Eventually compression will be so good that we'll have lossless files the same size as our current lossy. People will always find more things to put in thier DAPs. I know that I want a DAP that can fit all my music... as well as whole video collection... that would be a few TBs. So lossless isn't an option. However the quality of lossy today s so good (LAME) that I don't even bother with lossless... except for archiving. I'm just waiting for video lossy to catch up to audio...

yup eventually we'll all be carrying around a tiny little thing that can make calls, take pictures, write memos, record audio and video, listen to music, watch movies, and surf the net. it'll have a calendar, dictionaries, games, and a bunch of stuff we can't even imagine.

hoping we can live to see that happen.

 

[wolfen68]

Quote:

Originally Posted by noblsheep /img/forum/go_quote.gif yup eventually we'll all be carrying around a tiny little thing that can make calls, take pictures, write memos, record audio and video, listen to music, watch movies, and surf the net. it'll have a calendar, dictionaries, games, and a bunch of stuff we can't even imagine. hoping we can live to see that happen.

More important to me.....I hope I live to see a tiny portable that sounds as good as today's $3000+ sources.

 

[viator122]

I think that the more time goes by, the tougher it is for an "iPod Killer" to emerge. I think a reason for this that often goes overlooked is iTunes. Now this probably doesn't apply to many of us here at Head-Fi, but there are many people out there who have been using iTMS for a long time and they are heavily invested in DRMed songs. So now how can a person like that reasonably buy a device that is not an iPod? This is especially true in a marketplace where there are other devices that are comparable, but nothing that wipes the floor with the iPod. This is, IMO, genius on Apple's part as a long term strategy.

 

[m_memmory]

Quote:

Originally Posted by viator122 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think that the more time goes by, the tougher it is for an "iPod Killer" to emerge. I think a reason for this that often goes overlooked is iTunes. Now this probably doesn't apply to many of us here at Head-Fi, but there are many people out there who have been using iTMS for a long time and they are heavily invested in DRMed songs. So now how can a person like that reasonably buy a device that is not an iPod? This is especially true in a marketplace where there are other devices that are comparable, but nothing that wipes the floor with the iPod. This is, IMO, genius on Apple's part as a long term strategy.

This could very well be a great strategy however reports state that (on average) each iPod user has 20 tracks from the iTMS. Now I'm sure that many people here who have iPods don't own ANY DRMed music at all (I know I don't) so that means that it's more likely that there are a few people who heavily use it and the majority only have a little (or even less)

Plus I would imagine that a lot of people wouldn't be averse to burning their DRMed music to a CD and re-importing it via whatever other program to use it on another DAP. Not everyone is as OTT about sound quality as we are and others just are unable to tell the difference.

 

[gloco]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wolfen68 /img/forum/go_quote.gif More important to me.....I hope I live to see a tiny portable that sounds as good as today's $3000+ sources.

How about a portable dsd recorder?

More can be read here: http://www.korg.com/gear/info.asp?a_...&category_id=3

I'd love to jump on one of these....

edit: I wish iriver hung around and continued to release newer HDD-based recorders.

 

[viator122]

Quote:

Originally Posted by m_memmory /img/forum/go_quote.gif This could very well be a great strategy however reports state that (on average) each iPod user has 20 tracks from the iTMS.

I guess that's what happensn when I assume things. But do you think that just using iTunes as a media player may cause people to resist moving to a player incompatible with the program?