Hard Drive Hack On Archos 6000 MP3 Player 62
Richard Holdman writes: "A few weeks ago the Archos Jukebox 6000 was realeased and only comes in a 6GB version. For those wanting to upgrade to a larger drive you might want to check out this page. It explains how to take your Archos Jukebox 6000 apart and install a 20GB hard drive. Be warned though, it will void your warranty." Or, you could pick up a Toshiba Libretto on eBay and pop in a 20GB drive for an MP3 jukebox you can telnet from.
Re:French Toast! (Score:1)
Re:Just 20 GB? (Score:1)
Toshiba libretto (Score:1)
Re:9.5 mm drive in Libretto 50 (Score:2)
Yep, mine gets attention from women and technophiles (both sexes). The only problem I have is that it's getting too slow. I could *really* do with one of the newer ff1100V models to replace my aging 50CT, but I haven't been able to find one in the UK. JPD are the only people I can find to import a Japanese one, and they're quoting extortionate prices for it :-(
'Cause the sound quality might suck (Score:2)
I've got a machine that plays MP3s fine under Windows 95, but under Linux the exact same MP3s sound scratchy and staticy. I've also got a laptop running NT that has similar but slightly different sound quality issues.
Now I know there are
The folks designing MP3 players like the Archos, Nomad, and NEO25/35 are presumably testing different components and configurations, using the good and discarding the bad, and mass producing the end result. This is something simply cannot be done systematically by one person who wants one MP3 player cost effectively. There's no way to buy low cost components and get guaranteed good quality. Even a "no questions asked" return policy will leave you out $10-$20 for every component that doesn't measure up.
Re:'Cause the sound quality might suck (Score:3)
I've tried several varieties of MP3: ripped with cdparanoia and encoded with bladenc and lame, downloaded from mp3.com, downloded from Napster.
I've used mpg123 and XMMS as players.
In an MP3 discussion on Slashdot (about 1.5 to 2 years ago) I asked what cards people had good results with because my Soundblaster16 didn't sound very good under Linux. I replaced it with a Creative Ensoniq AudioPCI because that card was specifically recommended for use with Linux.
The problem has also survived two versions of Mandrake and possibly Red Hat 5.0, although I'm not sure if I was trying MP3s back then.
It's not a big deal really. I just play regular CDs in a regular CD player. The CDs accumulate in the back seat of my car and every couple of weeks I clear out the pile and put them back in the racks.
I may eventually buy a NEO25 just to lend moral support to the people who are consumer friendly enough to not only allow the user to upgrade hard drives, but specifically sell a driveless version for people who want to supply their own.
Re:I find it hard... (Score:1)
But huge mix CDs, live bootlegs etc, do take up a lot of space.
You also rapidly fill up a lot of disk space when you start ripping all of your old and new CDs to put them in one large collection. That's what I do.
Re:'Cause the sound quality might suck (Score:1)
One of my machines uses a simple ISA Soundblaster 16 and it sounds just fine, I have it connected to my living room stereo.
Don't know about the AudioPCI though, but a friend of mine has it and never complained.
So really, your case sounds mysterious to me. As I said before, there's nothing in Linux itself that leads to bad audio quality. It's alway the application and the soundcard, but the operating system should not affect it...
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Re:Has anyone thought of . . . (Score:2)
It isn't a lot of money, but still, it's money for something that a company does not really need to do, so most companies here don't play "real" albums on the phone while you are waiting.
This is the main reason why (here in Germany) most "on hold" music is royalty-free. There are special music royalty-free collections for this purpose. Usually, these are short melodies and most of them suck.
A friend of mine has composed a few more interesting royalty-free tracks for this purpose. These are often instrumental tunes or even songs made for one particular company, sometimes featuring the company's name. Still, they will also go on your nerves after a short time...
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Re:'Cause the sound quality might suck (Score:3)
Two possible reasons:
- Your MP3s have defects (I have a couple, too, because I got them through a German TV-channel offline distribution system, don't ask) and your Linux MP3 player cannot cope with them, while your Windows player can do some error-correction (WinAmp is known to accept MP3 files with defects).
If you think that this is the cause, try different mp3 players. But more likey, I assume that
- Your particular soundcard is not supported as well in Linux as it is in Windows.
Unless you mention the name and version of your soundcard, your anecdotical evidence is just that: anecdotical. Here's my anecdote: I have half a dozen of computers running with all kinds of hardware inside, each having a different soundcard. One of them is not supported at all under Linux, another (an old Ensoniq Soundscape) shows the symptons you describe, all others sound exactly as good or bad as they do with Windows. At least to my ears.
From a technical standpoint, a MP3 file will sound the same on the same soundcard, there is nothing that Linux per se does "wrong" with MP3 and nothing that Windows does "better".
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The Libretto is a poor MP3 player (Score:5)
(I want it back desperately, especially because of some of my thesis files left on the harddisk when the laptop was stolen from a hotel room... sniff.)
However, its sound quality is poor with a lot of background noise from the mainboard circuitry and the harddisk. It features a not-quite-standard 2.5 mm headphone jack that requires using a bulky adapter (I always feared that I might rip the audio jack apart if I touched that adapter while plugged in). Battery time was 60 minutes, rarely more.
I haven't compared more recent models of the Libretto, but I doubt that audio quality was the engineers' main concern.
So yes, there's a good reason to build a dedicated MP3 player with a harddisk to overcome these problems.
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What's the point? (Score:2)
Now, one of the little cheap ones like the Rio 600 [themestream.com], that I can see, sort of. But until those big ones get down into the $200 range, I don't see much use for them save for the early adopters and people with too much money to buy toys.
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MP3 what about vorbis & M$ playback (Score:1)
the rio does MS$ sound as well
any other players for other codecs ?
john
(a deltic so please dont moan about spelling but the content)
Re:Toshiba Libretto (Score:1)
And running the Libretto power supply from an cheap inverter (in a car) generates so much 60Hz noise on the output that it's useless there too.
Re:Has anyone thought of . . . (Score:1)
Re:Toshiba Libretto (Score:1)
Old subnotebook you say, 2 years has passed and nobody has come up with a smaller subnotebook compare to my libby110. Those Sony stuff are just fancy looking.
CY
Re:I find it hard... (Score:1)
I'm now trying to get MisterHouse [misterhouse.net] to read that many playlist
Re:MP3 what about vorbis & M$ playback (Score:2)
It seems that many projects, especially the hobby ones floating online, are using a specific-purpose DSP designed for mp3 decoding- the MAS3507d, the STA013, etc. I'd argue in a heartbeat that this is a mistake, and that a general purpose DSP can be significantly cheaper with still enough power to do mp3, and can be updated by software to decode other formats (limited by the power of the DSP, of ocurse). Of interest, I know that the RCA Lyra uses this approach.
I too own a $99 MP3/CD player, the CM-415, and am quite happy with it.
Re:MP3 what about vorbis & M$ playback (Score:2)
Re:Actually, no. (Score:2)
These are the DSPs I'm talking about, and while I'm sure they have a general purpose core deep inside, there's no way to access it directly.
Re:MP3 what about vorbis & M$ playback (Score:2)
I know you're gonna call me crazy, but I _swear_ I've seen the TI DSP.. TMS320VC549 as cheap as $15 in individual units. I had found the match on findchips.com, and I think it was FAI that had the match (but there isn't one now)
As for the license rights, how much is it per unit? I hadn't taken that into consideration, and didn't take the flash into consideration either; not knowing how large the program would be, I can't judge on how much would be needed.
So, you're probably right, at least for hobbyist projects. (As in, not done in massively large quantities)
Stop referring to Telnet casually. (Score:1)
I'd like to think the Slashdot guys have enough sense to avoid installing Telnet clients and servers on their machines. God knows most Linux distributions don't, but then again, they install sendmail and wuftpd on workstation machines anyway, and generally love daemons which run as root.
Re:Stop referring to Telnet casually. (Score:1)
The story referred to Telnet casually, endorsing its common use. The above post was not off topic.
9.5 mm drive in Libretto 50 (Score:2)
A while back I replaced the 850 MB 8.5 mm drive in my Libretto with a 3.2 GB 9.5 mm drive. You have to take the case apart and remove a couple of little clear plastic spacers, then the 9.5 mm drive fits in just fine. Nowadays you can get 20 GB drives in this size. 850 MB was kind of cramped. But I have enough room on the 3.2 GB drive for both the Win95 that came with the box and a Linux installation as well.
I learned how to add a 9.5 mm drive through this excellent, illustrated page by Dr. Xin Feng [fixup.net]. The link on the adorable Libretto page doesn't work, Dr. Feng moved his stuff.
Since you have a Libretto, another must-see page on his site is this one [fixup.net], which describes how to make an external battery pack for your laptop using real cheap lead-acid camcorder batteries which will run your Libretto in full-power mode for about four hours. With only $50 worth of batteries, I can use my Libretto all day long in the field.
I suppose this is kinda dumb and irrelevant, but if you ever get your laptop out and use it in a public place, have you noticed how so many of the ladies strolling by just love the Libretto? Weird, but repeatedly women have stopped and told me they think it's so cute! Maybe that's why that web page is titled adorable Libretto [silverace.com]. Something worth thinking about, for you single guys; if I were still single I'd think I might take it down to the park, find a well-shaded park bench, and hack away...
Yours WDK - WKiernan@concentric.net
Toshiba Libretto (Score:1)
Hmmmm... isn't the Libretto a relatively old subnotebook? I highly doubt you could put in a 20 gig hard drive. I tried to put a 12 gig drive into a friend's laptop (P133) and it only showed up as 8. I'm guessing the Libretto is saddled with the same limit.
Awww, but what the heck, while we're dreaming anyway, I want one with a 12Ghz processor, 64 gigs of ram, 6 pcmcia slots, and USB 8.0... and let's shrink it to the size of a dollar bill. =-)
No 20Gig in Libretto (Score:1)
Has anyone thought of . . . (Score:5)
Which of these is best? (Score:1)
John
Ok fine, but.... (Score:1)
In all seriousness, I have 100's of CD's. I'd be glad to dump my 50+ CD stereo jukebox. Press the "xmas playlist" button and I could sleep through the entire holidays.
Re:I find it hard... (Score:1)
Re:Has anyone thought of . . . (Score:1)
Why? Really, why? (Score:2)
Does anyone even know 20 gigs worth of songs? That's a hell of a lot of music.
Re:MP3 what about vorbis & M$ playback (Score:2)
It seems that many projects, especially the hobby ones floating online, are using a specific-purpose DSP designed for mp3 decoding- the MAS3507d, the STA013, etc. I'd argue in a heartbeat that this is a mistake, and that a general purpose DSP can be significantly cheaper with still enough power to do mp3, and can be updated by software to decode other formats (limited by the power of the DSP, of ocurse).
Mine is one of those players [pjrc.com] you mention. I used the STA013 chip. There's a few compelling reasons to use the STA013 or MAS3507D. First of all, you get a really high quality decoder without having to write code, which is difficult and requires the expensive ISO standard (I paid $170 for it). Witness the poor performance of the NJB on slightly corrupt MP3 files that winamp and the STA013 can play just fine (and Creative spent a lot). The free MP3 decoder software all uses floating point. Floating point DSPs are very expensive. A second motivation is that the STA013 and MAS3507D use less power than a general purpose DSP chip. Third, these chips include the royalty paid to Thompson, which you don't get if you write the code yourself. Finally, I do not believe there is a MP3-capable programmable DSP chip that's "significantly cheaper" (at 100 qty, say) than the STA013. Perhaps you will reply to this and give a part number of a programmable DSP (don't forget the cost of external flash memory if it doesn't have built-in in-circuit upgradable flash memory).
Perhaps WMA and Ogg will be a big deal someday, but so far, the vast majority of people I've had contact with want cool user-interface features. Of course, I'm working to get there, and it's a damn good thing I designed the board to be flash upgradable!
Someday maybe MS will force WMA on everyone, perhaps right after their antitrust case is dismissed? But consider the a closed-source upgradable design is worthless if the company holding the code doesn't spend the time and money to create the upgrade. How likely is it that you'll get Vorbis decoding from a commercial closed-source implmentation??
Re:I find it hard... (Score:2)
Re:What's the point? (Score:2)
surely you jest. or simply don't get it.
you can't take a laptop everywhere - easily, at least.
I was recently called to wait for jury duty. I was stuck in this large room for hours and hours. nothing to do, nothing to read (there) and no idea how long until I was called to go do something. at the time, I had a portable cd-based mp3 player. the disc and batteries would get me by for about 10 hrs. I had a feeling that they wouldn't keep me there that long ;-)
would a laptop run for 10 hrs, while playing thru its sound port and accessing the drive pretty regularly? doubt it.
similarly, in a plane, taking a long trip, many many continuous hours of playback is well appreciated!
there are places for laptops; and there are places, still, for long-play audio devices.
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Re:'Cause the sound quality might suck (Score:2)
the neo25 is almost perfect. it has an OK battery life, it has a very usable display, it reads fat16 and fat32 OPEN formats. adding a hard drive does NOT void the warrantee, and it uses standard notebook drives.
I put an 18gig drive in mine and as soon as the 32gig drives hit the common market, I'll get one of them. I have over 700 cd's encoded on my large disk at home, and I could easily fit all my most-used mp3's into a 32gig drive. that's about 7000 songs. enough for about 3 weeks of uninterrupted non-repeat playback!
and the price was right, too. its about $300 for the player sans disk. add an 18gig drive and that's about $200 more. $500 for about 300 cd's worth - not too bad...
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telnet?? (Score:1)
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I'm not ashamed. It's the computer age, nerds are in.
They're still in, aren't they?
Why not buy the libretto / laptop option? (Score:3)
1) size - the 6000 is small enough to put in your pocket! Imagine trying to use a laptop to listen to music while rushing around a busy town or city centre...
2) battery - the 6000 now ships with two pairs of rechargable batteries, one charged pair lasting over 5 hours. Can any (non-transmeta) laptop hope to last that long which so much hd access? No.
3) cost - at $350, the 6000 is still the cheaper option, and the fact that it can be used as an external USB hd as well as a good mp3 player is an added bonus.
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ManicHawk
Re:What's the point? (Score:1)
Real Men Do it themselves... (Score:1)
Personaly, I just use a P-100, 24M ram, and a 20 Gig HDD for my mp3's... telnet, web, wap, ir, lcd - it suports them all, plus I can upgrade it anytime I want.
Why waste time hacking a comerical product when you can make your own for less?
Re:Has anyone thought of . . . (Score:2)
Yup, and you could use this [phreakstore.com] nifty little device to patch the whole thing in. Not that bad, if you ask me.
Re:Toshiba Libretto (Score:1)
Re:Toshiba Libretto (Score:1)
That's an older BIOS thing. I've got an old P200 that sees my 13GB as a 8 but Linux sees it as it is and it works fine. I know that when I bought a Western Digital hard drive a while back it came with a floppy that fixed the >8GB problem.
-antipop
Upgrading PJB-100 Link (Score:1)
I don't think that this link mentions that, if you're so inclined, can clone your old hard drive to the new hard drive using dd or similar utility, but there's a lot of information in the PJB100 group at egroups. The Toshiba is the only hard drive bigger than 6 gigs that will work.
How much could that sucker hold? (Score:2)
Re:Ok fine, but.... (Score:1)
Re:Toshiba Libretto (Score:1)
A lot of older systems have this limit, I'm not exactly shure why. I know someone that had this problem with his compaq but he found some workaround, check deja or maybe even the toshiba site or something like that.
Just 20 GB? (Score:1)
"Titanic was 3hr and 17min long. They could have lost 3hr and 17min from that."
Nevermind, retracted... (Score:2)
"Titanic was 3hr and 17min long. They could have lost 3hr and 17min from that."
Re:MP3 what about vorbis & M$ playback (Score:1)
"Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto"
(I am a man: nothing human is alien to me)
Re:MP3 what about vorbis & M$ playback (Score:1)
Re:I find it hard... (Score:1)
Re:MP3 what about vorbis & M$ playback (Score:1)
Re:I find it hard... (Score:1)
Hard drive reliability (Score:1)
By the time prices for DVD burners have leveled, surely DVD-R(W) will be a better choice -- expect that to happen at least a year and a half from now, however.
Re:Why? Really, why? (Score:1)
Re:I find it hard... (Score:1)
The whole point (Score:1)
I wonder how many of you have never taken the case off of your machine.. I almost considered getting a new $150 case for myself for Christmas, just because I tweak so much... Isn't that the whole motto?
Seeka
I find it hard... (Score:3)
How on earth do you amass 6GB of tracks, let alone 20?!
MP3, Vorbis, M$ etc (Score:1)
I'm all in favor of new and improved formats but it is very hard to replace de-facto standards (read VHS, M$ Office, etc)
The simplest act of surrealism is to walk out into the street, gun in hand, and shoot at random
Re:I find it hard... (Score:1)
I have a membership with some music club that offered me a bunch of free CDs if I would buy a certain number. I bought my required number, but I haven't even bothered ordering the remainder of my free CDs.
Sounds good (Score:1)