Open Pandora As An Mp3 Player?

[transmition]

How well would the openPandora function as a substitute for a portable mp3 player such as an iPod? Battery life, usability?

 

[danielliu88888]

apparently it gets over 100 hours. (thought i'm not exactly sure...)

however, it's certainly better than the ipod. (i despise apple)

 

[Tom`]

How well would the openPandora function as a substitute for a portable mp3 player such as an iPod? Battery life, usability?

In terms of battery life, it should easily beat any iPod - potentially up to 100 hours, but that would require a heavily optimized player. Easily better than ten hours, though. It will also be able to play just about every audio format you might have (excluding DRM'd formats, and maybe highly-compressed Monkey's Audio without a DSP codec), and most videos (non-HD, although some 720p videos might work depending on available codecs). Additionally, sound quality should be very high (probably better than an iPod, but no one has any Pandoras to do a comparison yet).

On the other hand, it's a lot bigger than any iPod, and with it closed you're limited to using the shoulder buttons for controls (although it's still better than the latest Shuffle in that area!). All in all, if you're in Apple's target audience (i.e., you want something small, good-looking, and without any advanced features to get in your way) you probably won't like it, but if you want something extremely versatile and don't care as much about size or looks, the Pandora will handle all the media-playing functionality of the iPod and more.

 

[lulzfish]

The battery life won't be as good, watt-hour for watt-hour because the Pandora doesn't have a dedicated MP3 decoder chip, but its battery is considerably bigger, and it should be able to play audio for much longer than the 8 hours it's already been tested at.

I would say maybe 24 hours of audio playback.

But, that's not just MP3. Since the Pandora is not a piece of crap, you can also play Vorbis and FLAC on it.

So, yes, it is FAR better than any audio player, but also a bit bigger and more expensive.

 

[Consequence_9]

The battery life won't be as good, watt-hour for watt-hour because the Pandora doesn't have a dedicated MP3 decoder chip, but its battery is considerably bigger, and it should be able to play audio for much longer than the 8 hours it's already been tested at.

I would say maybe 24 hours of audio playback.

But, that's not just MP3. Since the Pandora is not a piece of crap, you can also play Vorbis and FLAC on it.

So, yes, it is FAR better than any audio player, but also a bit bigger and more expensive.

The 100 hours figure comes from using solely the DSP chip to decode audio. I dunno about 100 hours exactly, but at least 80 could be expected with a program using the right resources.

 

[greenmikey]

Honestly, it would work well.

However, and this is a big however, if you are only looking for an mp3 player, this thing is huge in comparison to most 'media players'

If you want just media played get something else frankly, it's too expensive for its worth as just that.

 

[bzar]

I'm gonna carry this thing around anyway, so I will probably also use it as an mp3 player. If for some reason I need something more portable (for jogging etc), I'll use my phone (which I would have anyways).

My guess is 80 hours of uninterrupted playback is possible with a well optimized player.

 

[Alpha2]

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=44969

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=46093

 

[PoisonedV]

I don't think it would be that great. Sure, it has SUGGESTED 100 hours, though I assume it will be far less. It's also much pricier than almost anything (especially when coupled with the huge sdhc cards for memory that most other mp3 players have), and it doesnt have a screen while closed and its huge, so its much more cumbersome to use. People list the great sound quality as a plus, but it's probably about on par with some of the other audiphile mp3 players, and it's not like you're breaking out your 400 dollar custom fitted embyotic canal phones to listen to some music on the subway.

 

[eksasol]

It has a burr brown op amp and pretty powerful headphone output so I think it should drive some high impedance headphones better than the ipod without having to use an amp. It will be largely based on what software you use as the audio player. Since OpenPandora is a full featured operating system you have many choices.

 

[borgqueenx]

i hope the media player will have a function to make playlists, and a timer. (for if im listening to music while trying to get some sleep)
If the media player can power down all stuff that is not used during media playback and downclock the processor to about 50mhz(psp uses 40 without media engine), then we can maby get a cool 100 hours of music. But the standard player, with nothing modded or optimized...i'd say about 24 hours of music.

 

[WizardStan]

As an MP3 player, compared to an iPod, it's crap. It's larger, heavier, significantly more costly. No, if you're looking for an MP3 player, there are excellent ones to be had for less than $100.
Of course, the reason it's larger, heavier, and more costly is because it's full of all kinds of other goods. Asking if the Pandora is good for MP3 is like asking if a helicopter can take you to the grocery store; technically yes, but if that's all you're doing it's a bit unwieldy.

 

[AireTamStorm]

As an MP3 player, compared to an iPod, it's crap. It's larger, heavier, significantly more costly. No, if you're looking for an MP3 player, there are excellent ones to be had for less than $100.

Not ones that can play every codec on the face of the planet. Linux + mplayer = you can play more formats than any player on the market. The codecs becomes nigh completely irrelevant, which is a luxury not available on other player platforms. Sure, it is much higher cost, and larger, but it'll play anything. I'd say its a decent tradeoff.

Asking if the Pandora is good for MP3 is like asking if a helicopter can take you to the grocery store; technically yes, but if that's all you're doing it's a bit unwieldy.

To translate my argument to your analogy: Sometimes the between you and the grocery store is a mountain (format), large rapids (processing power), and angry bears (patents preventing the codecs from reaching your platform). You can get beyond all of that (by transcoding) and going through work for each grocery visit (for each track), or you can take your helicopter and turn a few heads in the process.

 

[Bosbeetle]

confirmed: pandora can fly

 

[WizardStan]

Not ones that can play every codec on the face of the planet. Linux + mplayer = you can play more formats than any player on the market. The codecs becomes nigh completely irrelevant, which is a luxury not available on other player platforms. Sure, it is much higher cost, and larger, but it'll play anything. I'd say its a decent tradeoff.

The question was if it was a decent MP3 player. A decent MP3 player plays MP3s. The extra formats it can play falls under the "all kinds of other goods" I mentioned. Your analogy fails because the original request was "to go to the grocery store over there" *points*
Now, it's entirely possible that the grocery store that was meant is not the closest one in that direction; maybe there are some mountains and rapids in the way, but based on the original post, all we know is that there's a grocery store right over there and we need hot dog buns. Now, do we fly, drive, or walk?

 

[lulzfish]

It's decent, but it's kinda bulky.
Imagine listening to MP3s on a Nintendo DS. Not something you would do while biking, but some of us do listen to music while stationary. The Pandora is great for that.

 

[Bosbeetle]

In the train I used my laptop as a mp3 player so this will be an improvment for me

 

[mindlord]

The question really boils down to intent. If the OP's only intent is to listen to MP3 music, great, get a el-cheapo MP3 player. If the OP can justify the Pandora's extra features vs. it's cost, get a Pandora.

Myself personally, even if I were walking to the grocery store, and my Pandora or my Ipod was sitting on the table, I'd probably still reach for the Pandora. Because, well, you never know how long the lines are going to be, or when that urge to play [insert random game name here] will strike, or whether or not you're getting the best deal on [insert random food item here] and you would like to check the online sale ads, provided you have a wireless connection or 3G dongle.

I plan on listening to a lot of music on my Pandora, and don't see why in addition to it's other great features, it won't make a fine portable music device as well.

 

[GuSec]

Audio quality is a great plus for me since I only have a crappy laptop and iPod in my possession. Also it's a nice batterytime, great formatsupport and cuts down on number of items in my pockets. If I'm going to bring the Pandora along for Internet/gaming, why not listen to music with it?

 

[Trip]

Audio quality is a great plus for me since I only have a crappy laptop and iPod in my possession. Also it's a nice batterytime, great formatsupport and cuts down on number of items in my pockets. If I'm going to bring the Pandora along for Internet/gaming, why not listen to music with it?

Same here