I totally agree, and I've since retired my two Zen Stones in favor of a Sansa e280 running Rockbox. However, a Zen Stone is going to be easier to use and work right out of the box. If you're looking for the simplest and cheapest off the shelf product to listen to music, audio books or DRM protected files then I'd still recommend the Zen Stone, if you can find one.
I don't find any of this hard to do with Rockbox on the Sansa e280, but here are the steps you'd have to go through to get a truly accessible portable media player: 1) Make sure you get a v1 version of the Sansa e200 series. The v2 versions won't work with Rockbox. Note there are other players supported by Rockbox. I also have an iRiver H20 running Rockbox. Check out rockbox.org for the list of supported players. 2) Download and unzip Rockbox to your Sansa e200. To do this you need to make sure the Sansa attaches to your PC as a mass storage device. You'll also need to update the Sansa's boot loader. This is all pretty well documented in the Rockbox documentation. 3) Download the voice file and unzip it onto your Sansa to get the menus to be spoken to you. 4) Download the Voice Box utility to create audio clips for the files and folders on your Sansa. 5) Use something like Sound Taxi to convert your DRM protected files into MP3 files that you can play on your Sansa running Rockbox. None of this is particularly hard, and if you do this, you'll end up with a much more accessible and featured rich portable MP3 player, but it is going to take a little time and a bit of work. -- Christopher chalt...@gmail.com -----Original Message----- From: pc-audio-boun...@pc-audio.org [mailto:pc-audio-boun...@pc-audio.org] On Behalf Of Laz Mesa Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 12:38 PM To: Pc-audio Subject: Re: zenstone versus the ipod Well, I can say that I've tried the Zen Stone, which was a screenless one; I've tried Rockbox on a Sansa; and I've tried a 4th generation iPod Nano. IN the past, I had also tried a Samsung Pebble and a chinese-made mp3 player, both of which were screenless. I have to say that the Rockboxed Sansa was most impressive to me. It definitely has more bang for the buck, and I found it to be the most-accessible option for under $100.00 for 2, 4, 6, or 8 GB, expandable memory, FM stereo, voice notes, recording from FM, and playes many different file types, while speaking the menus and being able to set up your folder and file names to be spoken as well. >From personal experience, i must say that the learning curve on the iPod side seems a lot more complicated when compared to Rockbox on the Sansa players. Also with the iPods, you have to get used to using iTunes as well! With the Rockboxed Sansa, all you have to do is to copy and paste your files onto your player and off you go. If you'd like to check out what a Sansa can do, you can check out a demo I did which can be downloaded at: http://www.sendspace.com/file/vwwyy8 You can also check out the links in my signature below for more information on how to get a Sansa MP3 player for yourself at an affordable price. Regards, Laz -- Need an accessible talking portable media player? We have several models available! Play MP3, WMA, OGG Vorbis, AAC, FLAC, AIFF, WAV, and more. Record from FM radio or built-in mic. Expandable memory. Great book marking capabilities too! * SanDisk Sansa E260 media player with 4 GB http://www.accessibleelectronics.com/sandisk.html * SanDisk Sansa E270 media player with 6 GB http://www.accessibleelectronics.com/e270.html * SanDisk Sansa E280 media player with 8 GB http://www.accessibleelectronics.com/e280.html * Get some accessories for your player here: http://www.accessibleelectronics.com/Accessories.html * Check out a special temporary offer here: http://www.accessibleelectronics.com/Specials.html To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: pc-audio-unsubscr...@pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: pc-audio-unsubscr...@pc-audio.org
