Mindstab.net

I'm looking to buy an MP3 player to replace my Creative Muvo with 128MB. Or to replace my GP2X, although my GP2X might be more viable if I would open it up and disable the speakers. The GP2X's problem is it's audio jack sucks and keeps telling the speakers to turn on when I still have the head phones in so I'll be on a bus or in a library and suddenly making far too much noise. On the plus side, the GP2X spoils me by having MPlayer on it so I can watch many videos with out converting them.

As for a replacement, I've been looking very much at Cowon's X5. It's gotten very positive review, especially by Linux users, and it looks close to perfect. So close I wish they could just tweak it, but I may yet settle for it.

My requirements in some sort of order for a replacement MP3 player:

1. Linux compatible: This is a must since I only use Linux. The best method for this is things that just plug in via standard USB cables and show up as mass storage devices, like my creative Muvo. The X5 does this but has to have an adapter plug into the bottom of the unit first to give you the USB port. A tiny bit lame and it means you have to lug the adapter around if you want to plug it in anywhere (and to recharge it) so don't loose it. :/
2. OGG Vorbis: A good sized chunk of my music is in OGG Vorbis format and I am not transcoding it to listen to it on the go.
3. Shuffle: I'm sure everything has this now, but it's the feature I wish the most my Muvo had.
4. Fast Fast Forward: I also wish my Muvo had this. If I download a Lugradio podcast, it is 1 hour and 30 minutes. If I listen to half of it on the bus that means that I would like to skip to half way through on the ride home rather quickly, and not say in the ~10 minutes it takes my Muvo going at slow fast forward.

Those are the key features I really need. The X5 and several other players, like iRivers, should cover those. Now we get onto the wish list.

• Battery
  • The jury is somewhat out on whether lithium ion or NiHM (AA or AAA) batteries are battery. I think I am probably a little partial to the MiHM variety because I can carry spares and replace them on the go, but those are mostly only seen in flash players, not hard drive players.
  • Battery life: I'd like the most I can get :)
• Video: The GP2X has spoiled me. And sadly, the X5 is so close here. It can do MPEG4, but only ones transcoded specifically for it in it's Windows only JetAudio. I could probably run it in wine, but drag and drop is so much nicer than drag-transcode-drop. It'd be nice if the player just dropped frames for me ;).
• Space:
  • Lots (harddrive): I'm kind of starting to like the idea of a harddrive player where I could carry all my music and have some videos all at the same time. And as a mass storage device then I could also ferry other data on it at times too. Handy.
  • SD Cards: Some of the flash players out there augment their smaller capacity with an SD card slot (like my GP2X, or San Disk's players). This is pretty cool.
• Size: I'd almost consider a full blown PVP except that it's kind of expensive. I could buy a computer for that price. Also, Just a bit too big. Smaller is better. Pocket sized is good. Or something I can strap on somewhere.

So there you have it. I'm kind of demanding. And I may settle for an X5, or possibly get a cheaper iRiver as a stop gap and hope Cowon improves the iAudio in the coming year.

Thoughts, suggestions, things I over looked?