Tell me about portable media players that aren't iPods.

Oh, I think the term I was looking for was UMS

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(Empty set.)

If yr desiderata start to crumble, start here.

the thing is i am sure i was reading about something that could do all of these things yesterday. I think i am just spoiledwith my iriver ifp-799 and my iriver h10, which did everything i wanted (except for video) with a very easy firmware "upgrade"

i'd even be willing to concede on FLAC and OGG, but i want DivX w/o transcoding, and i want it to play back decently, and UMS would be SOOOO nice.

This is why there can be no trafficking with ogg:

http://lwn.net/2001/0301/ov.gif

because jesus fights snakes i can't use >mp3 awesomeness? D:

but srsly all i care about is UMS/DivX satisfaction, if i have to i will carry two PMPs! I have audio covered with the H10!

I think he's supposed to be Thor, and HELLO EMASCULATION METAPHOR???

I have a Rio Karma, and it does FLAC fine, but the interface is pure ass. Also, I broke the jog wheel replacing the batt'ry.

why not get another iriver?

i'm not sure on how easy the newer irivers are to use in this context. i remember that the second iriver i got didn't even support ogg w/o a firmware hack, so i assumed the company was getting crappier. also, i don't think they do divx. my home computer is crap so i don't relaly wanna spend all of my time transcoding files.

ok, so i did some research today, and i think i am looking at the Meizu M6. A lot of people seem to like them. Not finding much (yet) in the way of bad reviews.

You are trying too hard. Buy an iPod.

apple haters seem to dig archos :(

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if you could play Pac-Man on this or do some long division.

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/8844/rcalyra20gbmp3playervunud6.jpg

have you looked here

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/

interesssting. i have had really bad luck with ipods. i think i break them just by thinking. also don't want to recode all the .oggs D:

i want that rca logo on my ipod - its like a relic from 1983

Came here to suggest Archos but DG was first.

wish Cowon's customer base wasn't primarily Korean. I love the O2 I have but later models haven't worked out as well for my mom. the i10 crashed right away and the S9 has a janky connect port. also, the later models don't do the incredibly simple artwork display of the O2, which just displays whatever JPG is in the folder that's playing.

anybody know of other FLAC-supporting PMPs out there now?

Loved my Cowan iAudio 7 before I let it get wet during a scuba trip last year. Much better audio quality than the Apple or Sandisk product I've tried. Now I'm contenting myself with the iPhone 3, which is fine as I mostly use it for The Economist/Stitcher podcasts.

I'm still tempted by the iAudio 9 for jogging w/ music. No interest in the large screen video players with less than 30 hours of playtime (I got about 45 out of my i7).

Cowon J3 is pretty much perfect for my needs. The flap over the connect port is crap tho.

Since I made this thread I (a) got an iPod Classic (b) switched everything to iTunes (c) got an iPhone (d) had my hard drive w/ all my music die (e) had my iPod die completely unrelated a couple weeks later (before I could find a way to get my music back off my iPod) (f) got a new iPod for xmas (g) heard that Apple episode of This American Life (on my new iPod).

Wish I had decided on a good alternative before I got in on this cycle of horror. Going to look into this iAudio thing before next time. Imagine: when I made this thread a mere 4y ago phones & PMPs were separate devices!

glumdalclitch can you tell me if your J3 displays jpgs as album art if they are in the folder? or does it use the ID3 tags that don't work with flac?