From: Neon John <johngd_at_bellsouth.net>
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2003 14:40:58 -0400

On Thu, 18 Sep 2003 23:31:17 +0200, svante t <svante_at_demonbox.com> wrote:

>could some one explain the difference between a database-based mp3
>player like ipod and a xx-one like archos (what ever the definition
>is, fill it in) for me?

I don't know the specifics of the Ipod but in general a database-based system
plugs the songs into a database with fields like title, group, genre and so
on. The plus is you can re-arrange the presentation by, for example, genre,
instead of whatever hierarchy you have them arranged on your hard drive. The
minus is that you have to run all your music through some sort of host-based
software. That software is where Apples does such evil as DRM. Neuros
doesn't (see their mission statement).

A file-based system works just like, say, WinAmp on your PC. It plays files
that contain MP3 sound data. The plus is, of course, that you only need copy
the files to your machine to have them available to play. The minus is, they
present in the file tree hierarchy you've specified. Most of the minus is
overcome by playlists, particularly in conjunction with a program like
MusicMatch that can build playlists according to genre or other ID3 info.

I about a zillion times prefer the file based architecture. No PC (or other
host) software is required. The database-based architecture is the one
glaring bad point of the Neuros that I can see. Not yet having received mine,
I believe that the hardware will make up for that deficiency and that being
open source, someone (maybe me) can hack out the database and convert it to a
file-based system. As I've learned the hard way with Archos, no matter how
good the software (rockbox) if the hardware is crap, the system doesn't work.

In answer to a question, Neuros did tell me that the unit mounts as a hard
drive just like the Archos. Songs can be copied over directly but the sync
manager must be run against them to include them in the database. Maybe on a
future firmware update they'll include the ability to build the database into
the firmware.

John

---
John De Armond
johngdDONTYOUDARE_at_bellsouth.net
http://bellsouthpwp.net/j/o/johngd/
Cleveland, Occupied TN

Received on 2003-09-20