[jack963]

Hey folks. I currently have an iRiver h340. I truly enjoy owning this unit, but the startup time is killer. A minute and a half may not sound like a lot of time, but when other HD units start up in about 10 seconds (or less), it is hard to not want to get a new player. There are a couple other reasons I'm looking for a new player:

1) I don't use my H340 to its full potential. I don't use the picture, text, radio, or recording functions. In short, all I use it for is listening to music.
2) I am one of those poeple who constantly needs to update/change his equipment.

That being said, I am looking for an HD player that:

1) Plays Oogg: my entire library is in ogg, and it'd be a pain to have to convert to another format.
2) Has at least decent battery life: I never find myself listening to my player for more than 15 hrs straight, so anything that's 15 hrs or more works for me.

I'd also like a color screen, but it's not necessary. I realize with a color screen usually comes picture support, but I think a color screen can add a lot to a player. Are there any with color screens that don't have photo capability?

I think that's about it.

Any suggestions? Thanks a lot.

EDIT: Forgot about capacity. I want at least 20 GB. More than that is definitely a plus, but if a certain unit is only offered in a 20GB version, I wouldn't rule it out...

 

[hekoman]

You do realize that if you don't use the tag database that it only takes like 10 seconds to boot up.

 

[Taphil]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hekoman You do realize that if you don't use the tag database that it only takes like 10 seconds to boot up.

I don't know an iRiver, but yikes! Not using tags to get a faster boot time is like cutting off an arm because you only have one glove in the winter (lame analogy, I know, but I couldn't think of anything better).

 

[wanderman]

do you realize. That rockbox is porting to the h300 series right now. Audio is working now. Tag browsing, fast boot ups and gapless are already realities.

 

[jack963]

Wanderman...I don't think i caught your drift. What are you trying to say?

Hekoman: I didn't realize that. Thanks. Startup's still about 27 seconds though. I've got 25 gigs on there...still seems a bit long. However, it is much more tolerable than 90 seconds.

K, how about any suggestions as to what players to look at? Thanks.

 

[Strings]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taphil I don't know an iRiver, but yikes! Not using tags to get a faster boot time is like cutting off an arm because you only have one glove in the winter (lame analogy, I know, but I couldn't think of anything better).

Whats the big fuss about browsing without Tags? I wouldnt use anything but a filetree browse system.

 

[Andresin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jack963 Wanderman...I don't think i caught your drift. What are you trying to say?

He's talking about alternative software (i believe).

 

[YamiTenshi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jack963 K, how about any suggestions as to what players to look at? Thanks.

It just doesn't seem like you need a new player. Everything you've indicated you want is already present on the H340 or will be soon after Rockbox gets done with it. If you want quicker start up time go check out misticriver.net, they have a lot of tips.

If you still feel you want a new player check out the iaudio 30gb XL5. The Neuros 3 is coming out next year if you can wait.

 

[hekoman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jack963 Hekoman: I didn't realize that. Thanks. Startup's still about 27 seconds though. I've got 25 gigs on there...still seems a bit long. However, it is much more tolerable than 90 seconds.

Also you could probably cut a chunk off of that 27 seconds by defragging the hard drive. Or you could just copy all of the files off the player, format the hard drive and then copy all of the files back on.

I have an h120 with 19GB of music on it and it takes exactly 10 seconds to start into the original firmware. The h1xx's and the h3xx's are basiclly the same player, just different screens so you should not have that long a boot up time if you have a realitivly organized HDD.

 

[Taphil]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Strings Whats the big fuss about browsing without Tags? I wouldnt use anything but a filetree browse system.

Different advantages for each. Filetree requires you to organize your files so you don't have to bother with tags. Tags allows you to just dump all your music files into a single folder and they'll be sorted by tags, so you don't have to sort them yourself.

 

[wanderman]

@jack www.rockbox.org check the iriver port. Rockbox is an open source firmware project that is designing firmware spefically for the h300 series of iriver players. The firmware offers some key features like gapless playback, fast boot up times, otf playlisting, and pretty much everything that the original firmware was lacking. Rockbox also offers tons of codec support so pretty much any format you thow at it will most likely play it. I guess I am suggesting that you try the rockbox firmware before you consider replacing your current firmware.

 

[jack963]

Alright, thanks a lot for the input guys. I'll check out Rockbox.

But before I load their firmware onto my player, are there any dangers I should be aware of? Has it been known to mess up players? If I don't like it, can I switch back to the iRiver firmware?

YamiTenshi: you're right, I don't need a new player. I realize that, but I am the kind of person that needs to upgrade every once in a while. It's an illness...

 

[YamiTenshi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jack963 YamiTenshi: you're right, I don't need a new player. I realize that, but I am the kind of person that needs to upgrade every once in a while. It's an illness...

Well that's what head-fi is for, perpetuating this illness that we all seem to have.

I wasn't trying to be critical of your "need to upgrade", but I was just pointing out that it would be hard for us to suggest a new player when the player you had already did everything you wanted.

 

[jack963]

Oh, alright. I understand.