From: Theo Markettos on
Martin Gregorie <martin(a)address-in-sig.invalid> wrote:
> If the player only has a Windows support program you can check the WINE
> applications database - http://appdb.winehq.org/ - to see if WINE can run
> it under Linux.

Depends whether it needs a driver or not. The Windows driver won't work on
Linux.

Another way is to try to find out the USB vendor ID/product ID (pull apart
the Windows drivers, for example) and then google them. Or google the model
number with 'lsusb' and see if anyone has posted any lsusb output which, if
it's verbose, should tell you what kind of classes it supports. Or at the
very least find you techie Linux discussions about the device.

Theo
From: Folderol on
On Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:44:46 +0100
Bruce Stephens <bruce+usenet(a)cenderis.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> TheOldFellow <theoldfellow(a)gmail.com> writes:
>
> > It surprisingly difficult to find out if Real Physical MP3 players
> > (e.g. Sony Walkpersons or Idiotpods) with USB connections will work with
> > Linux. Googling just gives a selection of Linux software MP3 capable
> > players no matter how hard I try.
>
> I agree. It's annoying. For specific devices wikipedia's pretty good.
> My reading suggests Sony's not likely to be a good choice. Maybe
> there's something on Ubuntu's wiki somewhere? It feels like the sort of
> information that ought to be easier to find.
>
> > In general do USB MP3 players appear as USB storage?
>
> No. Some do, some don't.
>
> > I've never owned nor wanted to own one, but now I have a use for one,
> > and I need to know before I buy.
>
> IIUC there are four categories: mass storage devices, those that use MTP
> (which are likely to be supported, though not equally well), iPODs, and
> those that use other proprietary protocols.
>
> <http://libmtp.sourceforge.net/> has information about compatibility
> with a large group of players (those that support MTP).

FWIW iRiver players are mass storage and multi-format, including ogg

With any device it is worth having a look on the rockbox website.
http://www.rockbox.org/

--
Will J G
From: Bruce Stephens on
Andy Cap <Andy_Cap(a)nosuch.co.uk> writes:

[...]

> That's my experience. I've got a couple of cheapies and an MP3/4
> touch-screen player, all of which are recognised by my Centos
> setup. Reading that Sony might be a problem is a concern as my wife
> has one about to be delivered.

That's true of the Archos media player thing I've got. It's not true of
any of the Creative Labs players I've had. One support USB mass
storage, but you had to say on the player how big the partition ought to
be. The more recent flash-based ones I've got have SD card slots, and
they can act as SD card reader/writers, but the builtin flash has to be
accessed via MTP.

I believe the cheaper ones (especially some you can get that basically
rely on SD cards for storage) are mass storage devices (and if they're
not then presumably you can just access the SD card through a reader).
From: Bruce Stephens on
Folderol <folderol(a)ukfsn.org> writes:

[...]

> FWIW iRiver players are mass storage and multi-format, including ogg

That's true, I had an iRiver device a while ago, and it was a mass
storage device.
From: Daniel James on
In article <wT%vm.362838$Lm6.117058(a)newsfe21.ams2>, Robert Billing
wrote:
> My experience is that the ones which are advertised as "also works
> as USB memory stick", in other words they are supposed to be usable
> for general file storage as well, tend to work straight off.

That, unfortunately, can't be relied upon. Some players can partition
their storage to give you the convenience of a USB MSD for file
transfer, etc., but can't play music from the MSD part of the storage (I
believe the iPod is one such).

I've found that the specs given by some of the specialist online vendors
are usually pretty reliable when trying to find out what supports what.
advancedmp3players.co.uk, for example, often lists linux support
explicitly on the site for those players that offer it (disclaimer:
never bought from them, just used the site as a reference library).

Cheers,
Daniel.