VisorCentral.com - MP3 players?

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VisorCentral.com (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/index.php)
- Springboard Modules (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/forumdisplay.php?forumid=10)
-- MP3 players? (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=4988)

Posted by abrennan on 09-15-1999 02:23 AM:

Ok ... here's my thot. Two competing MP3 player springboards for the Visor, both using SmartMedia storage.

Rio uses SmartMedia storage and one of the two MP3 players is designed by DiamondMM ... so would it be safe to assume that (at least for the Diamond springboard) we'll be able to swap between a Rio and this springboard and listen to the MP3 files stored on the same SmartMedia storage card??

And, the more important question ... has InnoGear already thought of this? :^)

Posted by miradu on 09-13-2000 01:36 AM:

OK, so this is from like a year ago, I just thought that becasuse it's SetMP3ber (whatever), I would find the first MP3 player post (or one of the first)

ITS A NEW YEAR

my answer to abrennan...

Abrennan, Innogear is using MMC cards and is now shipping . The Rio, we do'nt have any data yet, and when customer service has been asked, I think they said "It;s under development or something" IF You had another MMC card capable device, yes you could (at least I think)

-miradu2000
VisorCentral past is as good has the present!

Posted by Gameboy70 on 09-13-2000 02:35 AM:

James, how do you pronounce "SeptMP3ber"?

Posted by lennonhead on 09-13-2000 03:10 AM:

Well, abrennan will never be able to say that his post went un-answered, even if it is a tad late.

I guess the question is whether they store the files on the cards in the same manner. The actual cards would definitely be compatible, and I would think the MP3's would be too. They do have different transfer methods(or should I say different transfer rates), but I wouldn't think that would cause a difference. So I guess I really don't have a clue and will stop typing now.

Posted by narnia_77 on 09-13-2000 04:47 AM:

quote:
Originally posted by Gameboy70
James, how do you pronounce "SeptMP3ber"?

I'm going for "SEP-M-P-3-ER".

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Posted by adenoid on 09-13-2000 05:09 AM:

A very pertinent question raised: Will MMC cards be "portable" between "readable devices". I always thought they would be, just like the CF cards I use in my digital camera. Instead of using a horrible serial connection to my camera, I just pop out the CF card, insert it into a PCMCIA adapter I bought for $11 (see http://www.sandisk.com/download/pho..._adapter_1.jpg), and put it into my laptop. The laptop thinks it has an additional hard drive, and all the files are there. I haven't seen a PCMCIA adapter for MMC cards, but I know there is a Flashpath adapter and a USB based "Imagemate" reader. It was my understanding that CF cards and MMC cards shared the feature of having a "controller" on the card so that it looked like an IDE drive to applications. SmartMedia is slightly different, I believe. One would hope that if you loaded up the MiniJam with some music, you could pop out the MMC card and give it to a friend with an IJam (or other MP3 player that uses MMC) and it would work. Comments/corrections/am I full of it?

...PS. the miniJam isn't really shipping, it's "dribbling"

Posted by EricG on 09-13-2000 05:55 AM:

Minijam MMC uses proprietary encoding

The format the Minijam uses is unique. I asked Innogear a while back about using a 3rd party USB MMC card reader/writer (like the one I have for my Smart Media digital camera card)
-------------------------------------------------------
Dear Eric,

Thank you for your recent email. The Mini-Jam uses proprietary encoding to place the MP3 files on the MMC cards. There are not any card readers on the market that can do this. Please contact us again if we can provide further assistance. We look forward to hearing from you again soon.

Thank you,

Jen
InnoGear Customer Care
---------------------------------------------------------
For what it's worth, rumor has it they are making their own USB MMC card reader for the minijam.

Posted by dkessler on 09-13-2000 02:24 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by adenoid
A very pertinent question raised: Will MMC cards be "portable" between "readable devices". I always thought they would be, just like the CF cards I use in my digital camera.

(snip)

It was my understanding that CF cards and MMC cards shared the feature of having a "controller" on the card so that it looked like an IDE drive to applications.

CF storage cards do emulate an ATA (IDE) device on the card so compatibility is very easy to come by. Almost all devices expect a standard MS-DOS filesystem on the card and that makes data exchange easy.

SmartMedia cards do not proved the ATA controller logic - it must be done in the driver software. However, the specification defines how an MS-DOS file system should be implemented on the cards, so devices that follow the full spec (most cameras and PC readers) can interoperate.

However, devices that don't follow the spec are free to put data on SmartMedia cards in whatever format they choose. An example of a device that does that ... the Diamond Rio 300! Not only is it impossible to read Rio formatted SmartMedia cards in other devices, most cameras and PC readers can't even reformat them back to the standard! Use a SmartMedia card in a Rio 300 and you may never be able to use it anywhere else

quote:
One would hope that if you loaded up the MiniJam with some music, you could pop out the MMC card and give it to a friend with an IJam (or other MP3 player that uses MMC) and it would work. Comments/corrections/am I full of it?

Don't count on it. Like SmartMedia, the MMC hardware does not impose any particular data format. And from what I've seen, the MMC spec offers even less "metaformat" guidance than the SmartMedia spec. That may change as MMC morphs into SD, but in the mean time, MMC interoperability looks very unlikely to me.

[Edited by dkessler on 09-13-2000 at 09:35 AM]

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