Recommendations on Linux Compatible MP3 Players

[svet-am]

I'm currently a Zune 80 owner and I _love_ it. The player is solidly built and the newer releases of the desktop software have been fabulous.

However, I'm migrating over to a 100% Linux desktop in order to take advantage of a more stable programming environment.

Thus, I need to change players from the Zune to something that is compatible with Linux.

Here's what I'm looking for: video, picture, and MP3 playback, 60-80GB of space. If it plays ogg, nice -- but, it must play back MP3. I _DO NOT_ want an iPod.

Recommendations anyone?

[aysiu]

I know a bunch of people are going to jump in and recommend Cowon, but I had a horrid experience with one of their players.

I would highly recommend a Sandisk player. They support drag and drop, and they're very reliable.

[artir]

Sansa Fuze +1
Better than iPods, and even supports FLAC!+built in minisd card reader

[elianthony]

I know a bunch of people are going to jump in and recommend Cowon, but I had a horrid experience with one of their players.

I would highly recommend a Sandisk player. They support drag and drop, and they're very reliable.

+1

This has worked great for me. Some of our songs ripped from CDs weren't tagged correctly and song info wouldn't show up in the mp3 player. IIRC I used Easytag to change that, and I think it's in the repos.

[gnomeuser]

The Sansa Fuze 8GB with an additional 8GB microSD card is what I have. I love it, it's small, handy and supports Ogg Vorbis (and FLAC) out of the box (you may need a firmware update but that is a simple download and copy operation).

I highly recommend it, the interface is easy and works well. Interaction with Linux is superb (uses mtp or msc as you prefer), I used Banshee to handle the syncronization and have few complaints.

The one minus is that they require some kind of special encoding for videos so your average video podcast download e.g. is likely not to work without transcoding (and sadly no mediaplayer so far does this right to my knowledge).

The Sansa Fuze gets warm recommendations from here.

[m0ntels]

I like my Sansa Fuze much better than my girlfriend's Cowon D2 as far as the sound and interface goes, but the first thing he listed that he wants from a player was video so that knocks the Fuze right out as far as I know. I've never gotten a video to work on it. I've also had problems before trying to access files from the XP running computer at the radio station when I tried to play songs from it like it was a regular flash drive.

The D2, while I hate the touch screen and GUI, has been flawless, plays most video, sounds about as good as the Fuze, and has much better battery life and uses a standard USB cable.

[steeleyuk]

Not had a problem with my Cowon player (iAudio 7). Good sound quality, plays FLAC/OGG and has excellent battery life.

Looks like Rockbox may also be supported on it soon.

[Rifester]

Gnomeuser,
Did you have any problems with cover art showing up in the ogg format? I just ordered a new Sansa Fuze and have been copying cd's with Rhythm Box in the ogg format. While doing this I started reading online that many people think it would be better to copy them in the flac format (due to tagging, sound quality issues). Did you have tagging issues with the Fuze when you copied the files onto the players? Did the cover art come across? I also read you use Banshee. Can you actually sync the player in Banshee? Or do you have to drag and drop onto the player? If you can sync the Fuze in Banshee I may have to switch media players. Thanks for your input!

Mark

[/usr/sbin]

sansa sandisk, it served me well until i moved to an ipod purely for the space. I know that i will get slated now :(

[hyperdude111]

I have had a sansa fuze but it went through the wash. I now have an archos2 and although it has a less appealing UI it is great value at £39.99 for 8gb