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Topic: FLAC Player (Read 7500 times) previous topic - next topic
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FLAC Player

Hi All,

I have flac'ed all my music and I am totally happy playing the files from my NAS at home via both a Sonos and a Squeezebox.

However, I would like to play the files from a small harddrive (320 GB) when I am on the road too. Accordingly, I was wondering if there are any portable or small stationary players with USB host mode which can play flac directly from a harddrive (i.e. without a "network")?

Does anyone have a suggestion?

VRN

FLAC Player

Reply #1 –
I suspect that you can find an iAudio/Cowon player to do this.

They certainly tend to have support for FLAC, and I think I remember a hard drive based MP3 player that worked as a host. However, they seem to have taken all reference to hard drive players off their website(?), and the only one listed that will act as a USB host is the A2, which is a bit over the top for your needs, being as it is a full PMP.

FLAC Player

Reply #2 –
Just FYI: Cowon wrote me and suggested to go for the Q5W, which should do the trick. However, considering the price tag and the extremely bad reviews the unit gets, I don't think I'll go for it.

In the meantime I have managed to get my Nokia N800 into OTG (i.e. USB-host) mode and to play FLACs directly of a USB harddrive attached to the USB port. Very cool!!! Unfortunately, however, the only software I can get to do that on N800 is MPlayer, which has an awful (i.e. virtually no) GUI interface. For some reason my current version of Canola does not allow for access of external drives, but I guess that might come later....

So, generally I am pretty optimistic.

>V<

FLAC Player

Reply #4 –
Just fyi: I tried the Cowon A3 the other day and couldn't get it to work. Also tried the D2, which didn't work.

Does anyone know a FLAC-player with an internal 2.5" harddrive?

FLAC Player

Reply #5 –
Maybe the Cowon devices only support PTP, not USB mass storage devices. At least my attempts with a camera were successful, while trying it with a USB flash drive was not, but that may be caused by the fact I can’t really remember how to switch between the disk and the external device. (I have a X5L, which has a 1.8" IDE drive I think)

Edit: Tried it again with a 2 GB memory stick after reading the manual, works.
FLAC.

FLAC Player

Reply #6 –
Thank you Martin,

I believe you might be right.

One thing I have noticed is that many OTG-players allow you to copy from external USB devices but they will not allow you to play any of the media files while they are still on the external device (which is what I want to do).

It is highly likely your player has a 1.8" harddrive. Most of the harddrives in the players are 1.8". In fact I am not aware of any player sporting a 2.5" drive. Unfortunately, I still can't get 1.8" drives with space enough for all my music (around 300 GB), that is why I would like a FLAC-player with support for external drives (or room for a 2.5" internal drive).

>V<

FLAC Player

Reply #7 –
Quote from: VRN on
Thank you Martin,

I believe you might be right.

One thing I have noticed is that many OTG-players allow you to copy from external USB devices but they will not allow you to play any of the media files while they are still on the external device (which is what I want to do).

It is highly likely your player has a 1.8" harddrive. Most of the harddrives in the players are 1.8". In fact I am not aware of any player sporting a 2.5" drive. Unfortunately, I still can't get 1.8" drives with space enough for all my music (around 300 GB), that is why I would like a FLAC-player with support for external drives (or room for a 2.5" internal drive).

>V<

The only portable players that I know of that have 2.5" drives and that can play flac through rockbox are the older creative nomad zen players.

Not hypermodern, but really cheap on ebay.

FLAC Player

Reply #8 –
Quote from: Seiitsu on
The only portable players that I know of that have 2.5" drives and that can play flac through rockbox are the older creative nomad zen players.

Not hypermodern, but really cheap on ebay.


Rockbox doesn't run on any Creative players, though theres a port to the Zen Vision M model thats well along and will hopefully be working soon.  You're probably thinking of the old Archos players, which do run rockbox, but cannot decode FLAC.
 

FLAC Player

Reply #9 –
@ Mike:

Just to be sure. Are you saying that there are old Archos players having 2.5" drives and which do run Rockbox, but that these do still not support FLAC despite of Rockbox?

Fyi 1) I have been checking eBay and been Google'ing for a 2.5"->1.8" adapter. Guess what! They don't exist. You can get 1.8"->2.5" adapters (i.e. to let you use a 1.8" drive instead of a 2.5" drive), but I haven't been able to find one the other way around. Some of the companies I've contacted replied that these are not produced due to the higher voltage/current requirements of the 2.5" drive, which probably makes sense if you intend to feed it from the original power source for the 1.8". However, I intend to power it separately. I found one site though, where a guy has attached a 2.5" drive to his iPod-whatever, but he soldered his adapter from scratch (although in a later post there was mentioning of an IBM harddrive caddy for an apparently extinct laptop, which should do the trick - haven't been able to find that one either).

Fyi 2) I've also tried a hell of a lot of various boom-boxes/"ghetto-blasters"/Radio-Recorders with USB/MP3-support today and during last week. None of those I checked supported FLAC.

>V<