USB does take a while, not the fastest interconnect in the world.

Ethernet is a lot lot faster, and you should concentrate on getting that working.

The player by default tries to obtain a dynamic ethernet address from the network via DHCP. I've turned that off by setting manual override on the Player Configuration settings, and specifying an IP address on my network. Resynced the player, and then Emplode picks it up.

Remember that the player is only 10mb ethernet, so if your lan is 100mb you wont see the player.

Good luck