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Mac Forum / General / Portable Macs / July 2005solid state mp3 player with A/C ?
Can anyone list actual models of solid state (no hard disk) players (ipod suffle, creative muvo, etc) that can PLAY WHILST CONNECTED TO A POWER SOURCE? Seems like a simple thing, but I've yet to find a player that can. We have an application for hold music on our phone system that we'd like to hook an ipod or other device to, but not having much luck. Any help greatly appreacited! > Can anyone list actual models of solid state (no hard disk) players > (ipod suffle, creative muvo, etc) that can PLAY WHILST CONNECTED TO A [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > luck. > Any help greatly appreacited! It's not that difficult to modify an AC adapter so it can be connected to the battery compartment of a portable mp3 player. My iRiver iFP-899 runs on an AA battery, so I bought an AAA battery holder, cut off one side and hooked it up to an AC adaptor. All you need to do is ensure the player doesn't rest on a metal (or some other type of conducting) surface to ensure you don't short-circuit the AC adaptor. http://www.ibbu.nl/~nsprakel/iriver1.jpg http://www.ibbu.nl/~nsprakel/iriver2.jpg http://www.ibbu.nl/~nsprakel/iriver3.jpg > Can anyone list actual models of solid state (no hard disk) players > (ipod suffle, creative muvo, etc) that can PLAY WHILST CONNECTED TO A [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > luck. > Any help greatly appreacited! If you get a powered USB Hub you could play an iPod Shuffle connected to it. Or any number of other USB-based players I guess. MK. Unfortunately I tried this already and it did not work. The IPOD shuffle STOPS playing whenever it gets usb power, whether from a hub or direct from a PC. You press the play button and nothing happens. If it's in the middle of playing a song, and you plug it into a usb port with power, the player stops and goes into a charging mode. Thanks everyone for your input on this. Still looking for a good solution for us here.... > Unfortunately I tried this already and it did not work. > The IPOD shuffle STOPS playing whenever it gets usb power, whether from [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Thanks everyone for your input on this. Still looking for a good > solution for us here.... The iPod will begin to charge when first connected, once charged it will then function normally for as long as it is left connected. I do this all the time with an iPod with a dud battery (very short battery life). Regards David  SignatureTo email me, please include the letters DNF anywhere in the subject line. All other mail is automatically deleted. are you specifically referring to an IPOD shuffle solid state player vs. the standard ipod/20GB hard disk model? I'm pretty sure my battery was fully charged (I let it sit for a few hours on a usb hub) when I tried to press play again still nothing. Maybe something's wrong with my ipod shuffle? Thanks for any help ! > Can anyone list actual models of solid state (no hard disk) players > (ipod suffle, creative muvo, etc) that can PLAY WHILST CONNECTED TO A [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > luck. > Any help greatly appreacited! http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=4&subcategory=465&product=1874 The creative travelsound MP3 is the only mp3 player I know of that can be connected to an AC adaptor. It can only be expanded with a 128 MB smartmedia card and has 32 MB of built-in flash memory. > Can anyone list actual models of solid state (no hard disk) players > (ipod suffle, creative muvo, etc) that can PLAY WHILST CONNECTED TO A [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > luck. > Any help greatly appreacited! A Sony Clie plays just fine sitting in the cradle. Presumably other PalmOS devices with MP3 playback capability will do the same. Signature--John to email, dial "usenet" and validate (was jclarke at eye bee em dot net) >Can anyone list actual models of solid state (no hard disk) players >(ipod suffle, creative muvo, etc) that can PLAY WHILST CONNECTED TO A [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >luck. >Any help greatly appreacited! Cheapest Palm you can find that will run Real, has a headphone jack, and has a SD card slot would do the job. Might be a bit of overkill, although you may be able to find a cheap and capable enough PDA for the price of solid state MP3 player. On 7/12/05 1:00 AM, in article 1121122832.691906.271120@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com, > Can anyone list actual models of solid state (no hard disk) players > (ipod suffle, creative muvo, etc) that can PLAY WHILST CONNECTED TO A [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > luck. > Any help greatly appreacited! My Ipod came with a ac adapter which connects the adapter with the Ipod using a firewire cable. Why no hard disk? ej >Why no hard disk? Lower power consumption, failure rate, cost, and operating environment concerns would be the reasons I would choose a solid state solution for this problem. Tue, 12 Jul 2005 03:19:28 -0400, STKR@microsoft.com suggested: :>Why no hard disk? : : Lower power consumption, failure rate, cost, and operating environment : concerns would be the reasons I would choose a solid state solution : for this problem. Flash memory fails too, you know. I have a couple of CompactFlash cards that died after a year or so of light to moderate use in a digital camera. Signatureagreenbu @ nyx . net andrew michael greenburg > Tue, 12 Jul 2005 03:19:28 -0400, STKR@microsoft.com suggested: > : [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > Flash memory fails too, you know. I have a couple of CompactFlash cards > that died after a year or so of light to moderate use in a digital camera. Ignore the nym, posting from work. Flash memory fails, but usually as a result of writing to it. But since flash memory has no moving parts, and hard drives do, flash memory has far less environmental concerns than hard drives do. Plus, if you only write to flash memory once, it should last much longer. Each time you took a photo with a camera, you were writing to the card, and in particular, the same space on the card, since the FAT had to be updated on it. Bet a dollar to a doughnut that the FAT area was the area on the card that tanked. On 7/13/05 1:57 AM, in article 1121212666.611395.163920@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com, "Aunt Judy likes it in the rear" <Xeton2001IsATurdTampee.dwpj65@spamgourmet.com> wrote: > Flash memory fails, but usually as a result of writing to it. But since > flash memory has no moving parts, and hard drives do, flash memory has > far less environmental concerns than hard drives do. What environmental concerns? Hard drives have a thing called MTBF or mean time before failure, These are numbers in the 100s of thousands of actual work hours. ej > On 7/13/05 1:57 AM, in article > 1121212666.611395.163920@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com, "Aunt Judy likes it [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > These are numbers in the 100s of thousands of actual work hours. MTBF is not service life. MTBF is used to estimate how many drives in a server farm will fail within a given time or how many spares to stock in a remote site that isn't going to have regular resupply. It doesn't account for normal wear and the like. I agree with you on the "what environmental concerns"? > ej Signature--John to email, dial "usenet" and validate (was jclarke at eye bee em dot net) >Tue, 12 Jul 2005 03:19:28 -0400, STKR@microsoft.com suggested: >: [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] >Flash memory fails too, you know. I have a couple of CompactFlash cards >that died after a year or so of light to moderate use in a digital camera. Agreed, but you were writing to those cards when they failed. Every write operation that allocates space has to update the file allocation table (FAT) on the card. As I understand it, flash memory is only supposed to be good for so many writes, but nearly (in comparison) infinite reads. If you write to the card frequently from your PC, you may be able to extend the life of the card by configuring the port for delayed writing. That way writes to the FAT could be cached, eliminating some of them. On 7/13/05 8:14 AM, in article h1c9d1dkh9qncoopkejnbebpi3u2eq0cin@4ax.com, > Agreed, but you were writing to those cards when they failed. Every > write operation that allocates space has to update the file allocation > table (FAT) on the card. As I understand it, flash memory is only > supposed to be good for so many writes, but nearly (in comparison) > infinite reads. This would be incongruent with my experience. MY BEST FLASH CARD IS A 16MB KODAK which is 5 years old and was OEM with my camera. Works fine, but 16mb leaves little room for 3.2 Mp photos, so it has lots of writes and relatively few reads, as I empty the cards all at once only when they are full. So there are 30x as many writes as reads. My 128mb compact flash card died after about 1 year of use. ej On 7/12/05 10:46 PM, in article 1121201198.988971@irys.nyx.net, "andrewunix" <agreenbu@nyx.net> wrote: > Flash memory fails too, you know. I have a couple of CompactFlash cards > that died after a year or so of light to moderate use in a digital camera. I have one of those too. ej >Why no hard disk? Playing Greensleeves on endless loop hardly requires one. SignatureAndrew, contact via interpleb.blogspot.com Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards, please don't top post. Trim replies to quote only relevant text. Check groups.google.com before asking an obvious question. We just got a new phone system and did this too. We used a Perstel DR201 DAB radio with MP3 player which takes mains adaptor, been working constantly for a few weeks now with no problems. They are widely available in the UK at least. www.perstel.com Z > Can anyone list actual models of solid state (no hard disk) players > (ipod suffle, creative muvo, etc) that can PLAY WHILST CONNECTED TO A [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > luck. > Any help greatly appreacited! >We have an application for hold music on our phone system >that we'd like to hook an ipod or other device to, but not having much >luck. MOH means to the caller that 1) The called party is too busy to deal with you right now, and 2) that you can't possibly have anything better to do than listen to our wonderful wonderful music. Far better: A small beep every 10 seconds will tell a caller that they're still connected AND and allow them to do other things, like tell others what a forward thinking compay they're calling... (Just because you *can* do something doesn't mean it's a good idea to do so.) Wayne R.: > MOH means to the caller that 1) The called party is too busy to deal > with you right now, and 2) that you can't possibly have anything [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > (Just because you *can* do something doesn't mean it's a good idea to > do so.) <flashing lights, pleasant ding> Someone finally got the right answer. I have to need talk to someone /really bad/ before I'll listen to music while on hold. I lay the phone down so that the music is barely detectable and I can note -- and breathe a sigh of relief -- when it goes away. </flashing lights, pleasant ding> Signatureusenet *at* davidillig dawt com I agree that just because you *can* do something doesn't mean it's a good idea. However, your assessment of MOH seems like one of many possible perspectives. I personally think MOH is much better than a beep for my tastes, as does our company apparently.. I can do other things whether it's music or a beep, but I think music is much more personable and calming. I think it depends on the types of people you're putting on hold, your client base, etc, we have plans to even have a christmas mix around the holidays. Just a touch of class from one perspective, from another perspective, a waste of time. As with everything, "it all depends". > >We have an application for hold music on our phone system > >that we'd like to hook an ipod or other device to, but not having much [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > (Just because you *can* do something doesn't mean it's a good idea to > do so.) >I personally think MOH is much better than a beep for my tastes, as >does our company apparently.. I can do other things whether it's music [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >holidays. Just a touch of class from one perspective, from another >perspective, a waste of time. As with everything, "it all depends". I'll bet exactly zero people call any company to listen to their music. And no matter how wonderful your selections are, they can't please everyone. And I doubt it's arguable to say that it's presumptious to think filling their ears with it isn't their reason for calling. I can do other things too, but you've hijacked my ears. I can't listen to my own music, can I? (After all, my own selections can't sound as good as yours coming out of my crappy telephone handset.) Do you think that the people who resent your 'taking their ears' are counter-balanced by those who are soothed? Would you consider that the people who might otherwise hear nothing resent the lost opportunity for you to entertain them will they wait for you? Probably not. It's aural crap in a world soaked in growing cesspools of it. Just some thoughts on this tangent we've went off on: >I'll bet exactly zero people call any company to listen to their >music. Agreed. I also bet zero people call to listen to a beep every 10 seconds. > And no matter how wonderful your selections are, they can't >please everyone. Agreed. I'll add: Same with a beep every 10 seconds.. it wouldn't please everyone. >And I doubt it's arguable to say that it's >presumptious to think filling their ears with it isn't their reason >for calling. Huh? It's not only presumptious it's absurd. The music isn't a REASON for calling it's a condition you may be put into when calling. >I can do other things too, but you've hijacked my ears. I can't listen >to my own music, can I? (After all, my own selections can't sound as >good as yours coming out of my crappy telephone handset.) This is a great point, as a music lover myself I do agree with you here.. while on hold with some other music, even if you have it turned down you really can't listen to your own music. But thinking on this further... I would guess the majority of our clientelle (our company specifically) wouldn't be wired into any other music,.. there's probably a few who do have a radio or whatnot on though. And of those who have their radio on, maybe 1/10th of 1% even care or pay attention. Thinking further I would guess the majority of people in the workforce in general, spanning all companies, do not have music going at their desks. The only people who listen to music in this company (even though more would like to I'm sure) are about 10% of the IT dept. I think that's a shame.. more music listening should be going on eh ! >Do you think that the people who resent your 'taking their ears' are >counter-balanced by those who are soothed? Would you consider that the >people who might otherwise hear nothing resent the lost opportunity >for you to entertain them will they wait for you? Probably not. As I mentioned above I definitely am sympathetic to it. But I think there's more of an approval of MOH than you give it credit for. Keep in mind that there are unique situations for every company, MOH isn't the best model in all cases, but it seems a good fit in others. > It's aural crap in a world soaked in growing cesspools of it. Disagree. I can understand that from one perspective, but certainly not a universal truth for everyone. Elevator music is pretty soothing to my senses. Certainily I do not prefer it over other music, but I wouldn't ever personally go so far as to call it crap. Thus spake barnes_jude@yahoo.com: > Just some thoughts on this tangent we've went off on: > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > Agreed. I'll add: Same with a beep every 10 seconds.. it wouldn't > please everyone. I think a beep every 30 seconds, or so, would be fine. I think no one would hand up if 1) no MOH was playing or 2) a beep sounded every once-in-a-while. MOH, on the other hand, is something you CAN'T not listen to. If the tunes are annoying (to you), you're more likely to hang up. OTOH, I can't think of anyone who would find an occasional beep annoying. SignaturePlease, no "Go Google this" replies. I wouldn't ask a question here if I hadn't done that already. DaveC me@privacy.net This is an invalid return address Please reply in the news group Thus spake barnes_jude@yahoo.com: > I personally think MOH is much better than a beep for my tastes, as > does our company apparently.. I can do other things whether it's music [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > holidays. Just a touch of class from one perspective, from another > perspective, a waste of time. As with everything, "it all depends". If it's MOH, I'll frequently hang up. Do you consider myself and others like me not important customers? I'll bet that you serve greater numbers of customers by presuming that they might want their ears for something else, than presuming that they might want to hear your music. I don't know anyone who would hang up while wishing for MOH. We simply want to know we're still connected, but not be under the presumption that we want to hear MOH. Think about it... again. SignaturePlease, no "Go Google this" replies. I wouldn't ask a question here if I hadn't done that already. DaveC me@privacy.net This is an invalid return address Please reply in the news group Point well taken... but we also shouldn't presume that certain customers would not prefer MOH. If I am listening to music I definitely personally would not prefer MOH, but it's one of those things that doesn't seem like too big a deal and until I've read this thread I don't think I've ever felt any negative feelings towards MOH. When I do make a call to a company to make a support call or whatnot, the music is comforting to me not because the music is that soothing but that I know I'm going to get my problem resolved soon. I think that's how a lot of people approach it. Would a beep be better for MORE people than not? I'd have to guess yuou're probably in a minority.. but maybe a growing minority. I kinda feel that it might be one of those things that started and is hard to move away from becuse it's so ingrained in us. Tongue in cheek mode <on>: Maybe we should add a voice mail option when put on hold "press STAR to turn off music!" Actually that wouldn't be a bad little voice mail feature! Thus spake barnes_jude@yahoo.com: > Tongue in cheek mode <on>: Maybe we should add a voice mail option when > put on hold "press STAR to turn off music!" > Actually that wouldn't be a bad little voice mail feature! If you instituted that feature, I'd actually call your phone number for no other reason than to be able to turn off MOH!!! (c : Seriously, a very good idea. Makes everyone happy! How often can you do that for ALL your customers? SignaturePlease, no "Go Google this" replies. I wouldn't ask a question here if I hadn't done that already. DaveC me@privacy.net This is an invalid return address Please reply in the news group >> Tongue in cheek mode <on>: Maybe we should add a voice mail option when >> put on hold "press STAR to turn off music!" [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > Seriously, a very good idea. Makes everyone happy! How often can you do > that for ALL your customers? If you want to make ALL your customers happy then just answer the damned phone. Signature--John to email, dial "usenet" and validate (was jclarke at eye bee em dot net) > Can anyone list actual models of solid state (no hard disk) players > (ipod suffle, creative muvo, etc) that can PLAY WHILST CONNECTED TO A [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > luck. > Any help greatly appreacited! Was wandering around CompUSA yesterday and when I passed the display of solid-state voice recorders I thought about your question. Why not just use a solid state voice recorder? Sure, the sound quality is not the same as for a purpose-made music player, but if it's going to be heard over a phone system the phones will degrade the sound quality far more than the recorder would. Signature--John to email, dial "usenet" and validate (was jclarke at eye bee em dot net) Apologies to anyone who has read an earlier response by me - my email is somewhat buggered. I am suggesting using SanDisk Photo Album Model SDV2-R. It accepts 8 types of media cards (Compact Flash, SD, MemoryStick, Smartmedia, etc. and also flash drives (USB keychain drives). It is powered by an AC wall wart and will play music in a loop from media card. It is controlled by a supplied infrared remote. Following is from Readme file: "You can also play music without a TV. Connect the A/V cable to the Left and Right Audio In connection of an audio system. Select the input source on the audio system (if necessary). Insert a card or UFD with ONLY MP3 files into the SanDisk Photo Album, turn it on and wait until the LED stops blinking. Now press play and the first music file will start playing. At the end, the next music file will start according to the music settings." I tried it following above instuctions and it works O.K. Removable media will make it easy to have seasonal mixes, along with "Please continue to hold, your call is very important to us...." Does you phone setup have an uninterupptable power supply? You would want to plug player into that, because most won't restart after power out. Main purpose of device is to show pictures from camera cards on TV, with sound if desired. Also works as an 8 in 1 media reader (USB 1.1) I did a slide show for a patient seminar at the hospital where I work and it did fine. barnes_jude@yahoo.com wrote:> Can anyone list actual models of solid state (no hard disk) players > (ipod suffle, creative muvo, etc) that can PLAY WHILST CONNECTED TO A > POWER SOURCE? Seems like a simple thing, but I've yet to find a player > that can. We have an application for hold music on our phone system > that we'd like to hook an ipod or other device to, but not having much > luck. > Any help greatly appreacited! iRiver's IFP-990 has an ac adapter, and very reasonable on ebay as iRiver prepares to launch it's new product line in August. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5789292189&category=48683&ssP ageName=WDVW&rd=1 I'm looking into this model (THANKS BY THE WAY!!) and also the creative travelsound. It seems your simple query has gotten out of hand debating whether to have MOH or not! Well to get to the point: The Ipod shuffle works great for MOH. I have a Panasonic TAW-848 phone system hooked up to an IPOD shuffle. For power it is connected to an iPod USB Power Adapter (available from Apple for $29). Plug it in and it keeps on running. No problem. I too contemplated playing with multiple units and soldering DC power to the case, etc. But the Ipod is plug and play! I suggest you get the 512MB model as it holds 120 songs and then do a shuffle. =hg > Can anyone list actual models of solid state (no hard disk) players > (ipod suffle, creative muvo, etc) that can PLAY WHILST CONNECTED TO A [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > luck. > Any help greatly appreacited! Hey thanks so much for your input.. I would love it if you could answer one more question. No matter what computer I plug our IPOD shuffle into (MAC OR PC), the charging light blinks continuous amber, which in the documentation it says this means the unit is acting as a disk? Why this would be I'm not sure becuase I formatted it properly and moved music onto it with ITUNES, and the unit works fine while disconnected from usb. Bottom line is I cannot get the thing to get solid amber and/or solid green while charging, from what you are saying if I can get it in solid green state it should operate fine while plugged in. Any thoughts? >Hey thanks so much for your input.. I would love it if you could answer >one more question. No matter what computer I plug our IPOD shuffle [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] >get it in solid green state it should operate fine while plugged in. >Any thoughts? Unless you have a multi-threaded OS on the iPod, if it's acting as a disc, the playback capability of the unit should halt. I don't know what the OS on the iPod is like, so YMMV. |
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