Posted by SansaUser on 10/30/07 16:15

On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 09:23:17 -0600 'Charles Russell'
wrote this on alt.music.mp3.hardware:

>SansaUser wrote:
>> On Mon, 29 Oct 2007 20:08:04 -0600 'Charles Russell'
>> wrote this on alt.music.mp3.hardware:
>>
>>> SansaUser wrote:
>>>> On Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:57:48 -0600 'Charles Russell'
>>>> wrote this on alt.music.mp3.hardware:
>>>>
>>>>> skarkada@gmail.com wrote:
>>>>>> I bought iRiver e10 about a week ago and tried many of its features. I was able to transfer some
>>>>>> files into the device just by drag-and-drop. Music files transferred
>>>>>> like this can be played, but with limitations. First, you have to
>>>>>> navigate to that folder to play the music. Second, if you copy
>>>>>> multiple music folders, you can only shuffle among the files in a
>>>>>> particular folder.
>>>>
>>>>> Does it support subfolders, so that you can duplicate the directory tree
>>>>> from your computer and don't have to depend on ID3 tags for
>>>>> organization? Do any players allow this?
>>>> Why not simply load MP3 tags into each MP3 file? Easy peasy using
>>>> MP3Tag which is a free program. That way you can control what files
>>>> appear in which lists on the player.
>>> Basically, because I change my mind about file organization as my
>>> collection grows and my interests change. 1) It is much easier to
>>> reorganize files using the operating system than by changing id3 tags,
>>> and 2)I would like to retain the original tag information when
>>> reorganizing.
>>
>> ok but I'm not sure what you use to load MP3s onto your player.
>
>Currently I'm using itunes with ipod, for lack of better alternatives,
>but ultimately I would like to move to free software and generic hardware.

I guess you'll probably want to use USB hardware and something like
a free file manager. The thing to look for is a player which can
connect to your system as a removable USB drive w/o all the iTunes
overload.

When I was researching players, it took me a while to click that
many of them deliberately tie users into their s/w, their websites
and their expensive music, whereas all I wanted was a generic player
under *my* control which I could copy my own MP3s onto. Solution:
Sansa and several others but not iPod!

>> On the Sansa I use a payware filemanager (ZtreeWin) and Windows
>> sees the player as a removable drive, so I can add/copy/move/delete
>> files willy nilly as I wish using the simple USB connection.
>>
>> Many other folks don't have such simplicity with their players but
>> have to use other s/w like WMP etc. That probably makes it more
>> time consuming to shuffle files around than using ID3ags to control
>> where they appear on the player lists. I also retain copies of all
>> MP3s on my system with their original ID3tags in...
>>
>> The other thought which comes to mind is installing one of the
>> RockBox op/sys for the player you want.
>
>By using the operating system I meant using the computer operating
>system (preferably linux) and not some dedicated music management
>bloatware. I would prefer to use the same directory tree on the player
>as on the computer, and forget about tags except as reference data.

I'm pretty sure that will require support from the player's own
op/sys, whether it's the stock one or eg RockBox...
Even on my Sansa there are some limitations as to folder naming etc
although it's quite flexible.

>Rockbox has a number of features that I find attractive, but as far as I
>know it does not support any cheap players, and I am not eager to risk
>voiding the warranty on an expensive one.

Indeed, that's part of thee reason I stick with the stock Sansa
op/sys and manipulate the ID3tags to get them to appear in the
music lists I want. Given that Sansa recognises: album, genre,
artist, title etc it does give quite a lot of flexibility for doing
that.

>That gives many more
>> options than the standard op/sys supplied with most players and
>> (IIRC) is allows file management along the lines you want. But the
>> price of more features is complexity of use. Horses for courses.

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