OGG/MP3 player

I know this has been discussed before, but it was sort of dropped early, so here we go.

I was wondering what type of OGG or MP3 player you would reccomend for a computer running SUSE 9.1 (for now). I have $160 to spend, and I'm hoping to get at least 4 gigs.

OGG file compatibility is preffered, but I can always change the file type of my files, though it would take time.

If an mp3 player is not compatible with OGG, where can I get a program to, uhh, translate my OGG files to MP3? I already have a program that will change them to WAV, but, if I remember correctly, then MP3 files are smaller. Is that right, or not?

The only thing I can find in my price range is a Creative Zen Micro, but they aren't OGG compatible. I'm willing to buy used.

all help appreciated.

I like Kaffeine. If one backend doesn't work, try another. You might want to install KPlayer then run kaffeine -w to get Kaffeine to detect the new MPlayer backend for use.

EDIT: I thought you were looking for software :oops:

For conversion look here. If quality is really important then convert MP3 to FLAC, since MP3 and Ogg Vorbis are both lossy so you'd loose quality.

iRiver is what you're looking for :). Optimum quality, ogg support, great with Linux. I heard many positive stuff on Linux & iRiver, and I can only second that. I have an iRiver iFP-899 myself and it's just great. But I don't know how much you will find with 160 dollar for 4 GB...

Yeah, I looked into the iRivers, but the only one I liked was the h320, and it is too expensive, and maybe too big. I'll look into the h110s, though, they aren't OGG compatible. I forgot about those.

thanks everyone.

any others?

Yeah, I was gonna mention that the new iRivers don't support Ogg. Damn shame. I personally have the iRiver H320, which works beautifully and has OGG support.

A Google search for "MP3 player ogg" returns:

http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/sho....asp?model=261
http://www.atruereview.com/mp3player/index.php
http://www.cowonamerica.com/

There are others, which you can look at.

Let it be noted that these are simply OGG-supporting players: I do not know about Linux compatibility, price, or size. But hopefully it'll give you a start.

Beware that converting from one lossy codec (ogg vorbis) to another (mp3) or vice versa loses some of the sound in the process. So you're best off finding one that supports both ogg vorbis and mp3. Though most people probably won't notice the loss of sound so it might not matter.

I've converted from mp3 to ogg and I can certainly notice a difference, especially listening on headphones. Some files it doesn't seem to matter, but the one's that are affected are affected a lot.

Jeremy

I'm thinking of going with either the Zen Micro, iriver H10, or the Cowon x5. The x5 is a little more than I want to spend, so it's last on the list. I've heard of problems with the zen micro's, so right now the H10 is on top. I'm still open for suggestions, however.

Would I lose sound quality if I converted my ogg files to WAV?

Is there a difference between ogg and ogg forbis or whatever it is?

thanks.

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Originally Posted by Solorebellion

Would I lose sound quality if I converted my ogg files to WAV?

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I'm not an audiophile, but I would say most definitely. Think of it like this. An audio CD stores data in WAV files, which are enormous and contain many varying frequencies of sound, both those audible and inaudible by most humans. To create an OGG or MP3 (or any other lossy codec) file, something gets stripped. Once it's stripped, it's gone. When you expand an MP3 or OGG back to a WAV, you can't add those stripped frequencies back, so in my head that means you'll lose fidelity. That being said, I've never noticed the difference in sound between an MP3->Audio CD and WAV->Audio CD track.

Quote:

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Is there a difference between ogg and ogg forbis or whatever it is?

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Ogg-Vorbis is the full name. Some people just refer to it as Ogg since it uses less syllables, I guess. As for players, I don't personally care about the format. I have an iPod and mp3 files.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Solorebellion

Would I lose sound quality if I converted my ogg files to WAV?

Is there a difference between ogg and ogg forbis or whatever it is?

thanks.

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With OGG most people usually refer to ogg vorbis, but many people use the full name since OGG is just the container format. You have Ogg Flac lossless audio format, ogg vorbis lossy audio format, ogg theora video format...

I don't think you would lose sound quality with ogg --> wave since wave doesn't strip anything, just raw sound, however as techiemoe said you might expect a ten times bigger audio-file...