Rockbox.org home
release
dev builds
extras
themes manual
wiki
device status forums
mailing lists
IRC bugs
patches
dev guide



Rockbox mail archive

Subject: Re: rockbox on a Sandisk e280?

Re: rockbox on a Sandisk e280?

From: erik burggraaf <rico3_at_mnsi.net>
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:13:11 -0500

Hi Paul, I have to provide training on the stream. That's the
primary one I'm using for comparison. The plextalk pocket and book
sense cost about the same, more if you want the booksense xd, quite
alot more actually, but I have one here for training and demo
purposes, and it looks like a really nice unit. Booksense XD has 8 gb
internal btw, not 4 but it's the only player in it's class that offers
internal memory. The others usually throw in a card for free, but
that's not really the same thing. I'm rong about the price of the xd
though. $599 is the Canadian Dollar price from Aroga. It's only $499
in US$ terms.

Stream is built cheep. I'm glad if you have one and like it. Many of
my clients do. When you see 10 or 20 of them over a year though, and
you have batteries dropping all over the place, earphone jacks
collapsing, partially deaf users complaining that their music sounds
like crap on their player compaired with listening over the same head
set plugged into a computer, you begin to get the big picture. I
could wish the companies I work for would switch to the ptp and leave
the stream behind. As far as the voices go, from my own experience,
and based on What Ive read, each player comes with only two voices.
In north america stream and ptp come with realspeak Samantha and an
option on realspeak tom. Voices are totally subjective, but I hate
both of them. Book sence comes with neospeech paul and kate, who
sound much more comfortable to my ear. Personally, I prefer rancid
sounding plastic voices though I realize I'm increasingly in the
monority. With rockbox though, I can use any sapi engine that's
installed on my computer. I could have acapella heather or ryan, or I
could have neospeech, or realspeak, or lord help me, I could have
microsoft sam if I were bent that way. Rockbox offerers a lot more
choice in this arena than any of the proprietary models.

My E270 records in stereo from the built in pickup. I haven't played
with it too much , but was reasonably impressed with the couple of
sample recordings I made.

Also, your exchange estimate is a bit off. It's only about 5 more
cents on the Canadian dollar right now. Well it's jumping around like
crazy, but on any given day it could be as low as 3 or as high as 10
cents. So, for $79 US, I got my player, preloaded and tested, and a
lether case, and the exchange put it up to around $85 or so. Then I
had to pay $15 US, but I got two players shipped for that $15, with
tracking and insurance and they were at my door from Florida in about
5 business days. All in all, about $95 per player.

His accessories are a bit pricy, $20 or more for an 8 gb nini-sd, but
I work for computer stores and I can find a local deal on those when
I'm ready.

So, unless you really need daisy book reading features, I don't see
any comparison between the proprietary stuff and a player like the
sansa. The sansa blows the proprietary stuff away on cost vs
features, even if you decide to pay more for the convenience of having
it preloaded.

Best,

Erik
On 2009-11-08, at 3:19 PM, Rocker wrote:

> You wrote:
>
> Well, of course they do if you are living in the states. Ebay Canada
> had boatloads of accessories, but not a single player when I looked.
> Look again man. US sellers will also ship to canada.
> Besides, none of them are going to come preloaded with rockbox. I've
> never done an install of rockbox,, but you're paying for the guy's
> time to set up the players, test the instalations and make sure they
> go fine. And youre paying for the convenience of getting a player
> that's
> already hacked out f the box with no research and very little
> effor on your part.
> Convenience?
> $120 CAD with shipping just for convenience?
> Dude. If you can't install rockbox then maybe you shouldn't be
> using it.
>
> It's a good deal. I don't need daisy book features enough to pay
> exorbitantly for them, but the meanest dirt cheep portable talking
> mp3/
> daisy book reader for the blind is going for about $350. It's about
> 3x the size and double the weight of the sansa, only has half the
> battery life, comes with deplorable and highly inconfigurable speech
> Another incorrect and speculative assumtion on your part! I have
> played
> with them all, VR stream, Plextalk Pocket and Book sense XT.
> I own 2 of the above mentioned and I can assure you that one can
> configure
> the speech. Moreover, The current RB default speech voice is no
> better or
> no worse on any of the above-listed platforms.
> Please tell me how you figure that the speech synth on Rockbox is more
> configurable then the above? I would love to hear it!
> is built out of plastic and walmart quality componants that you'll be
> luckey to get a full year out of, and only record in mono from the
> built in pickup. It doesn't come with any built in memory, or an fm
> radio receiver. If you want those features in a talking mp3 player
> designed with the blind in mind, you have to pay $600.
> Another out right ly sir!
> Which rock box player do you own that records in stereo with a built
> in
> mike?
> The Book Sense products come with 2 or 4 gigs of internal memory,
> the XT has
> a built in FM radio of which you can make two channel recordings
> in .wav or
> mp3..
> So for people who need it to talk and don't want to be bothered, this
> guy is offering a super good deal. I would have been tempted to do my
> own hack if I could have fount an E280 for $40 or so, but to be
> honest, I spend so much time looking at other peoples computers all
> day that when I get home I don't really feel like doing to much with
> my own. This was great. I just took it out, copied over my newest
> audiobook purchase, and had something to keep my mind occupied on the
> 4 hour round trip to work on Fiday. It was worth it. :)
> Good for you man! I cannot dispute the price difference between the
> E280
> and the dedicated players I listed above. What I can argue is your
> Irronious facts. The price of the preloaded E280 compared to doing
> the work
> yourself.
>
> Rock on...Paul!
> Ooops! I mean rocker
> Just kidding Paul (grin)
> Best,
>
> On 2009-11-07, at 10:36 PM, Dave wrote:
>
>> Argh. eBay has a bunch of Sansa e280s on sale right now for about
>> half that
>> price.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: rockbox-bounces_at_cool.haxx.se [mailto:rockbox-
>> bounces_at_cool.haxx.se] On
>> Behalf Of erik burggraaf
>> Sent: Saturday, November 07, 2009 8:20 PM
>> To: Rockbox
>> Subject: Re: rockbox on a Sandisk e280?
>>
>> Dave. I just bought two of these, and I'm going to buy at least two
>> more, if not 3 or 4.
>>
>> Have a look at this page.
>> http://www.accessibleelectronics.com/e280.html
>> I'm surprised he's not here. It's a pretty good deal.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> On 2009-11-06, at 11:54 AM, David Mehler wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>> I'm trying to get ahold of a Sandisk e280 for rockbox, the clip i
>>> was
>>> given is not working at all and won't work with rockbox so i'm
>>> looking
>>> for an alternative.
>>> I've checked locally no one seems to carry it, i was wondering
>>> online
>>> places and the best prices? Also, i remember vaguely about a 280v1
>>> and
>>> 280v2 how do i differentiate between them?
>>> Thanks.
>>> Dave.
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Unsubscribe: http://cool.haxx.se/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rockbox
>>> FAQ: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/GeneralFAQ
>>> Etiquette: http://www.rockbox.org/mail/etiquette.html
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Unsubscribe: http://cool.haxx.se/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rockbox
>> FAQ: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/GeneralFAQ
>> Etiquette: http://www.rockbox.org/mail/etiquette.html
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Unsubscribe: http://cool.haxx.se/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rockbox
>> FAQ: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/GeneralFAQ
>> Etiquette: http://www.rockbox.org/mail/etiquette.html
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> Unsubscribe: http://cool.haxx.se/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rockbox
> FAQ: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/GeneralFAQ
> Etiquette: http://www.rockbox.org/mail/etiquette.html
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> Unsubscribe: http://cool.haxx.se/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rockbox
> FAQ: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/GeneralFAQ
> Etiquette: http://www.rockbox.org/mail/etiquette.html

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe: http://cool.haxx.se/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rockbox
FAQ: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/GeneralFAQ
Etiquette: http://www.rockbox.org/mail/etiquette.html
Received on 2009-11-10

Page template was last modified "Tue Sep 7 00:00:02 2021" The Rockbox Crew -- Privacy Policy