h a l f b a k e r yIt's not a thing. It will be a thing.
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It seems silly to continue the MP3 vs AAC vs HD vs CF etc
etc
etc argument. Bits are just bits after all - we need
somewhere to store them and a decoder/encoder to play
them back.
This device has no internal media storage, just an
embedded
CPU with a standard filesystem controller,
an LCD, a high-
spec
ADA and headphone amp, and a USB *host* port - ie like the
one on the computer.
You can plug any USB storage device into the player - say
you
start off with a cheap 128 meg USB keydrive, then later you
could add an external USB hard drive, a USB flash card
reader, CDROM or whatever your heart desires.
The storage device is plugged into your PC as a standard
external drive, and files are transferred as you would to any
drive.
One file on the drive contains the instructions for encoding
the format of the media files - MP3, Ogg, AAC, WAV, AIFF,
Mpeg-4, whatever. In fact, files in different formats could
be
stored together, with a standard DOS/Unix file extension
which identifies the format. Whenever required, the device
loads the decoder into a small onboard flash RAM. A little
more RAM could be set aside as a playback buffer.
A set of standard clamps to attach the device to a range of
storage boxen and a short USB-USB stub should take care of
the aesthetic and portability factors.
With a USB hub and a smart enough filesystem controller,
you
could attach multiple storage device simultaneously, so you
can transfer files from CF card to hard drive.
Hell, use an open-source language for the encoding
instructions and let people write their own firmware for it.
Terapin mine
http://www.linuxdev...s/AT7443334424.html
Pretty close... and wireless capable [BunsenHoneydew, Oct 17 2004]
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(+) for the paragraph breaks. |
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You'll end up paying a lot for the rights to all of the compression formats (try getting the rights for a RealAudio encoder/decoder- bastards ([jutta], feel free to delete this if they file a lawsuit over this comment)). </rant> |
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<pedant>sp: independent</pedant> |
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"...a standard filesystem controller..."
What's that? |
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"You can plug any USB storage device into the player..."
How does the player know how to talk to the device? |
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"One file on the drive contains the instructions for encoding the format of the media files..."
How does the player know how to find/read this file? |
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man i just like your name. breadage for the muppets reference. |
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[phoenix] <"...a standard
filesystem controller..."
What's that?> |
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Presumably FAT-32 or whatever
WinDOS standard the $45 CD MP3
players are talking these days.
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<How does the player know how
to talk to the device?> |
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USB mass storage is standardised,
so one driver should be sufficient.
How do you think your PC can
boot from a keydrive?
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<"One file on the drive contains
the instructions for encoding the
format of the media files..."> |
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I guess you'd call that a codec... |
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<How does the player know how
to find/read this file?> |
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Same way your PC knows how to
start Windows - the codec would
have to be stored at the top level
of the directory hierarchy and
given a standard name or file
extension. Like ogg.cdc for
example. |
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I"m not suggesting the device be
completely dumb - obviously it
needs a very basic OS or
bootloader to perform the
functions you mention. I just
thought that'd be stating the
obvious .... |
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[Worldgineer] That's true, so I
guess we stick with the free
codecs - there are plenty of them.
And we only need the playback
codec, not the encoding one.
Never seen a portable Realplayer
anyway. |
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