# Small portable MP3 players?

## Snorelax

I'm looking to get one of the smaller 4-5GB portable MP3 players and have now tried two with absolutely no success. Neither the iRiver H10 nor the Samsung YH-820-MC function in Linux at all with respect to getting music on them.

The iRiver requires you to use some Microsoft MTP transfer protocol through Windows Media Player. Aapparently only the American version does this. The Korean version would work, which is what I guess my research pointed to. However, I lack access to Korean MP3 players through work where I can get a small discount on such things.

The Samsung works as a removable storage device, but uses some closed format for playlists and I guess forces you to use their bundled Napster software to get music onto the device.

The only other options I'm aware of are the iPod mini, which I've heard has weird problems in Linux, and the Rio Carbon, which I've heard has extensive problems with locking up and such.

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## TheRAt

my brother's iPod mini works perfectly in linux, using gtkpod...

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## Leikor

I'm not sure about the iRiver 100 series, but I have an iRiver 320. and Quite frankly it works better in linux than windows. I have trouble (sometimes) unmounting it in windows, but it's just an external hard drive in linux, and I set it up to automount. Getting files to it is as easy as cp -rf /Music /mnt/iriver.

Now there is actually a program that came with it, that scans the music files for all the tag info and put it into a database that the player uses. I don't know how to do this in linux right now (short of using wine).

Leikor

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## nightblade

 *Snorelax wrote:*   

>  The Korean version would work, which is what I guess my research pointed to. However, I lack access to Korean MP3 players through work where I can get a small discount on such things.

 

Have you checked if the difference between the two versions is at firmware level only ? If that's the case, you might buy the US version and then upgrade the firmware

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## R!tman

I am planning on getting a Samsung YP-MT6Z, but as Snorelax already mentioned, you have to use some special software to get music on it that it can actually play. The data storage does not seem to be a problem, but using it for its main purpose does. 

Has anyone found a solution to this? 

The other choice for an mp3 player was an iRiver 899. Again, as Snorelax mentioned, ... getting playable music on it is the problem.

Is there a solution with this player?

The third option for me would eventually be a iAudio G3. This acually works in linux, it is even mentioned on the main webpage. But as I heard it is poorly manufactured regarding the case. That is what I liked about the Samsung, it is made of metal. The iAudio G3 is made of cheap plastic. Although its technical specification are quite good, I can hardly accept such a crappy case, especially because it is rather expensive.

I would also welcome other suggestions for mp3 players, if they can offer this:

ogg vorbis support (q=10 if possible)

very small

no round form (eg not a discman look, but pen-like is ok)

AA battery 

512MB-2GB flash memory

Thanks in advance

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## Need4Speed

My creative muvo2 player is pretty nice.  It's as small as a flash player (smaller than ipod mini), looks ok, and has a small expensive 4gb hard drive.  Just plug it in and gentoo sees it has a regular scsi hard drive connected by usb2.  I'm not crazy about the smallish buttons and  screen, but it has an amazing 98db s/n and stores all the mp3's I have.

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## R!tman

 *Need4Speed wrote:*   

> My creative muvo2 player is pretty nice.  It's as small as a flash player (smaller than ipod mini), looks ok, and has a small expensive 4gb hard drive.  Just plug it in and gentoo sees it has a regular scsi hard drive connected by usb2.  I'm not crazy about the smallish buttons and  screen, but it has an amazing 98db s/n and stores all the mp3's I have.

 

The Movo² does not have ogg vorbis support. IIRC, none of the creative mp3 players has.

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