Home MP3 player

Tell me what you think about this home MP3 player.
I might have one available. It's also a semi-discontinued product.

http://members.ispwest.com/willinsky/digitaldec1.htm

That product has been discussed here before.

but this particular comment in the specs would make me seriously not consider buying such a product:

In reply to:

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20 GB custom drive**

** The de200c hard drive is not compatible with PCs or other systems nor is the de200c compatible with off-the-shelf PC hard disk drives

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This comment means that the hard disk is a custom model - probably with internal encryption to stop the files being copied off the hard disk except via the inbuilt software.
It also means that when the hard disk in it breaks [the part most liklely to break and probably the hardest to replace in this product] you may not be able to find a replacement - and even if you could, the price may be far more than you want to pay and you have little choice.

This is totally unlike the Rio Central (a similar product to that one above), and/or the empeg/rio car - which all used industry standard drives, thus even if the product is EOL'ed you can still upgrade and repair them without needing expensive non-standard parts.
The Rio Central can have its internal drive upgraded - some folks on the Rio Central BBS have done exactly this.

All In all I'd look elsewhere unless this product was ridiculously cheap and you were willing to live with the distinct possbility of only ever having a 20GB disk for storing your music.
Which for me would be a serious limitation.

the biggest things I don't like about it are you have to use the special music cdr's and you pretty much have to use the tv with it.

it might be worth it if the price was cut enough.

I've been told that they are going to have an upgrade to 120GB for it.

And how does $200 sound? At least it might be interested to hack around in it to see if it's hardware or software driven.

I'll get it if there's one left. The 40GB one is $299.

It's a linux PC in a box, running software from Real. Allegedly it's quite noisy (as it's a normal pc - cpu fan, box fan, etc)

The "custom hdd" just means it's specially formatted, I suspect; I really doubt it is any different from any other hdd as that'd crucify them on price.

I'd be quite interested in one at $200 just to have a close look at a competitor - most jukebox makers kept EOLing their products before we could get our hands on them

Hugo

where do you get one for 200 I would probably buy one for that

although if the software is from real I wonder if the unit even works

Hewlitt Packard is selling them to employee's as a special EOL rate. Actually, I think it's postponed instead of EOL. I really don't know the jist of it.

Still waiting on my HP contacts to see if they're sold out.

They do work. A couple of friends of mine got one. The internet radio worked well for them too.

let me know if there are any extras

(the not working because of real was kind of the joke because I can't get any of their software to work on my computer.)

Hmm sounds interesting depending on the price.

Check this out from the HP website
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/31oct01a.htm
The price of this version is $999 with a potential market of 20 MILLION units by 2005 according to the marketing hyperspeak.
Ho Hum,...
{Edit}
Just found this from Compaq
http://athome.compaq.com/showroom/static/ipaq/music_center.asp
The price seems to have fallen already.

I'm sure a lot has changed since that has printed, but 20 million units? Pa-leeeese

Just been doing some more digging.
The Compaq thing is the same hardware with Real, it uses OpenGlobe www.openglobe.net
Interestingly, looking at the openglobe site, they have a list of other partner projects.

They do have more. Just ordered mine from my contact at HP for $200 shipped to my door.
I'm actually going to play with it and see if I like it. I'll keep it if I do otherwise.....eBay.

can you order another one for me ? one of these for 200 would be great.

Thats just what i was thinking.

"the market potential for these products is predicted to exceed 20 million units by 2005"

These devices being "Internet Access Devices of the Future", aka anything in your home with an ethernet port or other form of network access.

The merger seems to have vaporised most traces of the HP version on hp.com.

Yeah, maybe they thought that compaq ipaq was a better brand, although the openglobe software does look better than the Real version anyway.
Even then, do you think it is worth the $400 from Compaq? Looks like it is being EOLed with a 60% price drop like that.
I checked out the Kenwood unit, the want (and you need to be sitting down for this) $1800 for a 20G unit !!
Twenty units by 2005 at those prices.

I'm sure it's possible for me to get another unit, but I have to go through my contact at HP where he buys it and I re-imburse him.
I'd ask for $ up front from anyone that would request one (it would be shipped to your door) but I really doubt people would have the trust dealing with this on a personal level rather than straight from a business.

If you're serious about wanting one I will inquire if there are more available.
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EDIT

More are available. Cost is $209 (includes shipping cost).

I would like one I wouldn't have a problem paying upfront (paypal ?) you can email me at the address in my profile.

Thanks

Im interested in one as well, let me know how where to paypal the money. Email me at the address in my profile.

Thanks,

Sean

Can you SEND files to this via the ethernet jack? Or can you only rip?

http://k0lee.com/de100c/

From that FAQ:

The de100c doesn't use the information in the ID3V2.x tags.

The fact that they didn't find it necessary to spend the fifteen minutes to implement this doesn't bode well for the rest of the product, in my mind.

If you can get more I'd be interested in one too...

I have no problem paying up front.

if you do get more, I would really, really, really appreciate it if I could buy ne too...I would pay upfront as well via Paypal.....