Rio S50 - question

Greetings!

Reading the firmware upgrade information, it refers to the fact that the S50 has been tested with "SD Cards up to 512MB". What kind of cards are these, and where can I find them? The only thing I have seen are the MMC cards (up to 128MB) for this player.

I feel strangely limited by only having 256MB...

Why am I not surprised that you are the first to ask this?

ROFL

Size does matter...

I mean, 256MB isn't bad, but if the firmware tests with cards up to 512, that means I might be able to get one of these cards and have about 640MB on the player - almost enough for a full MP3 CD. Or the first Harry Potter book without having to re-encode it down to squash it in.

Normally, I would have gone for a hard drive player if I needed something that was more portable than the empeg. But I needed something nice & small, that would also handle a lot of abuse, dropping, getting lost, etc. The flash players are idea for that, because it is so compact and because there is so little that can be damaged.

Ah. I have found some info. Tracing... Nice!!! Definately more space, and tested with the latest firmware!!! Now if I can only find someone who has them in stock...

Okay... It looks like I will have to add the 512MB flash card to my "list" along with the 80GB hard drives... Everyone I have checked has them on backorder.

I got Harry Potter book 1 into 137M, and it sounds perfect...

OK, so iPods, Nomads are a bit bulky, but what about this?

For the price of 512MB memory you can probably buy one of these outright...

Ah. Still hard drive based. I like the concept of solid state for this kind of thing. Very light. Plus, I already have the S50...

But isnt the HDD on this unit solid state ?

It uses a type II PC card as its HDD, which is solid state according to a reference at http://www.sandisk.com/oem/pc_card2.asp

But isnt the HDD on this unit solid state ?

What makes you think that the Toshiba player uses solid state storage ?

All it says is that it uses a 5Gb type II PC card HDD.

The solid state card you referred to doesn't even come in a 5Gb size:

http://www.sandisk.com/oem/pccard-specs.htm

Even if it is, it is a moot point. I already have, and am quite happy with, the S50. Even if it is a little small right now. I intend to correct that over time. Meanwhile, I have loaded the first 9 chapters in. That should be enough for now.

I did give some thought to re-encoding it, but I just didn't want to loose the quality, and I know that I will be lucky if I get four hours of listening time anyway. This will work for now.

The website reference http://www.sandisk.com/oem/pccard-specs.htm I used purely to say the HDD was solid state.

This website http://www.meritline.com/newtos5018in.html shows it is also available in 5GB. Maybe a coincidence, but its also made by Toshiba

Just gotta wait now till a 60GB card becomes available, and I will buy

edit : Having had a closer look at this 5GB unit, although it says its a Type II PC Card its not solid state ... Now im confused ...

I still don't understand why you think there is any connection between the Toshiba player and the SanDisk solid state PC Card ? What did you see on the Toshiba site that told you it was using the SanDisk card ?

The 2Gb SanDisk card must include 2Gb of flash RAM, meaning that it must cost at least $800 (based on 512Mb compact flash cards costing $250). A 5Gb version would probably be $2,000 or more...

I doubt if 5Gb of flash RAM would even fit in a Type II PC Card, at least until the next set of increased desnsity chips appear.

P.S. I managed to find the prices for the SanDisk cards:

http://www.synchrotech.com/products/ata-flash_02.html

$1,900 for the 2Gb card !

Greetings!

Well, I received my 512MB SD card in the mail today, plugged it in, and now I have more space again!!! Well, some more space. The card only registers as 492MB in the Rio Music Manager. Probably round off again, or the byte counters vs marketing. Still, a little more space to work with - about 620MB nominal space. Very nice!!!