New cheap portable player in the market

[pmp4]

thank you for trying pmp4! i have bookmarked this thread, ill keep my eye on it if you guys find a good player to rockbox! that would be super kewl! any idea how long each of these no brand players are manufactured then discontinued? if they only make them for 1 year then its almost like none of these would make good players to rockbox! thanks

In Spreadtrum players you can see the date of the firmware if you dump the flash (see the posts of this thread, in the file kern.bin), and my players firmwares were not more old than 1 year from the firmware date until the buy date.

Anyway, it's a good news if it appears new and cheapers players.

A 2.4 inch touchscreen player for $12 was unthinkable just a few years ago.

[speachy]

thank you for trying pmp4! i have bookmarked this thread, ill keep my eye on it if you guys find a good player to rockbox! that would be super kewl! any idea how long each of these no brand players are manufactured then discontinued? if they only make them for 1 year then its almost like none of these would make good players to rockbox! thanks

They're usually "discontinued" as soon as the initial production run is complete.  Or they exhaust the supply of cheap parts, whichever comes first.

[pmp4]

thank you for trying pmp4! i have bookmarked this thread, ill keep my eye on it if you guys find a good player to rockbox! that would be super kewl! any idea how long each of these no brand players are manufactured then discontinued? if they only make them for 1 year then its almost like none of these would make good players to rockbox! thanks

They're usually "discontinued" as soon as the initial production run is complete.  Or they exhaust the supply of cheap parts, whichever comes first.

I think the case of the spreadtrum players is a little special.

These mp3 players of 1.77" inch it seems to be the only that use that SoC from Spreadtrum manufacturer.

But there are a endless amount of brands of cheap feature phones that use a similar SoC (but with GSM comm).

The common in brandless mp3 players is Actions Semiconductors as SoC manufacturer, and now this other company, that it's similar and I dont know the exact name, it seems a little clone from Actions, but it's another different.

And a lot of models from Ruizu/BenJie/AgpTek I think it use also Actions Semiconductors SoC.

[saucell]

thank you for trying pmp4! i have bookmarked this thread, ill keep my eye on it if you guys find a good player to rockbox! that would be super kewl! any idea how long each of these no brand players are manufactured then discontinued? if they only make them for 1 year then its almost like none of these would make good players to rockbox! thanks

In Spreadtrum players you can see the date of the firmware if you dump the flash (see the posts of this thread, in the file kern.bin), and my players firmwares were not more old than 1 year from the firmware date until the buy date.

Anyway, it's a good news if it appears new and cheapers players.

A 2.4 inch touchscreen player for $12 was unthinkable just a few years ago.

do you think it means we are getting closer to having a cheap player that would make a great rockbox device? sooner or later it will become powerful enough with enough ram that its a perfect device for rockbox?

[saucell]

thank you for trying pmp4! i have bookmarked this thread, ill keep my eye on it if you guys find a good player to rockbox! that would be super kewl! any idea how long each of these no brand players are manufactured then discontinued? if they only make them for 1 year then its almost like none of these would make good players to rockbox! thanks

They're usually "discontinued" as soon as the initial production run is complete.  Or they exhaust the supply of cheap parts, whichever comes first.

how long does it take for you guys to port rockbox to a new player? if it takes 6 months and the mp3 player is only available for 2 years is it still worth it for you guys?

[saratoga]

thank you for trying pmp4! i have bookmarked this thread, ill keep my eye on it if you guys find a good player to rockbox! that would be super kewl! any idea how long each of these no brand players are manufactured then discontinued? if they only make them for 1 year then its almost like none of these would make good players to rockbox! thanks

They're usually "discontinued" as soon as the initial production run is complete.  Or they exhaust the supply of cheap parts, whichever comes first.

how long does it take for you guys to port rockbox to a new player? if it takes 6 months and the mp3 player is only available for 2 years is it still worth it for you guys?

Unless the device is really similar to an existing one, often a very long time.  Very common that devices have been discontinued for a while by the time there is a working port.  As for what is worth it, usually people pick a device they like to work on.

[saucell]

thank you for trying pmp4! i have bookmarked this thread, ill keep my eye on it if you guys find a good player to rockbox! that would be super kewl! any idea how long each of these no brand players are manufactured then discontinued? if they only make them for 1 year then its almost like none of these would make good players to rockbox! thanks

They're usually "discontinued" as soon as the initial production run is complete.  Or they exhaust the supply of cheap parts, whichever comes first.

how long does it take for you guys to port rockbox to a new player? if it takes 6 months and the mp3 player is only available for 2 years is it still worth it for you guys?

Unless the device is really similar to an existing one, often a very long time.  Very common that devices have been discontinued for a while by the time there is a working port.  As for what is worth it, usually people pick a device they like to work on.

if it takes a very long time then now im losing hope LULZ!

[pmp4]

thank you for trying pmp4! i have bookmarked this thread, ill keep my eye on it if you guys find a good player to rockbox! that would be super kewl! any idea how long each of these no brand players are manufactured then discontinued? if they only make them for 1 year then its almost like none of these would make good players to rockbox! thanks

In Spreadtrum players you can see the date of the firmware if you dump the flash (see the posts of this thread, in the file kern.bin), and my players firmwares were not more old than 1 year from the firmware date until the buy date.

Anyway, it's a good news if it appears new and cheapers players.

A 2.4 inch touchscreen player for $12 was unthinkable just a few years ago.

do you think it means we are getting closer to having a cheap player that would make a great rockbox device? sooner or later it will become powerful enough with enough ram that its a perfect device for rockbox?

I dont know it yet, I dont know the processor/ram specs of this 2.4 inch player.

But screen is great, and sound is ok (Spreadtrum DAC is crappy, the DAC of the 1.77 inch player of the start of this thread).

A couple of years ago and still today, a Ruizu player of this features of 2.4inch touchscreen had a price of 30 - 50 USD. Like the Ruizu M17 http://www.ruizutek.com/m17_81236.html

This 2.4 inch player cost is $12 and it does almost the same things, so that is good news.

I think price is important to make mp3 players popular again, if you can't achieve a good player for less than $50, then people always will choose a second cheap smartphone as mp3 player instead a mp3 player.

[saucell]

please keep us updated pmp4! this is exciting stuff! rockbox is the best thing ever!!!111

[pmp4]

please keep us updated pmp4! this is exciting stuff! rockbox is the best thing ever!!!111

I contacted the aliexpress seller asking them all the information they can give me about the mp3 player, they previously sent me the video converter for the player (that I didnt found it anywhere in internet), so if they give me news, I'll post it here.

If you or another reader of this thread buy a mp3 player I recommend too to ask all the information available to the seller and post it here.

[pmp4]

I forgot to say something.

2.4 inch player has a USB connector Type C.
i.e: it's not a old stock that's cheap because they can't sell. It's cheap because his pieces are really cheap and cheap to manufacture.

[bahus]

The internal name is "YP3"

The Usb information is:
ID 301a:2801 SmartlinkTechnology USB2.0 Device

The same manufacturer of my 1.77 inch player: https://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,54269.msg250949.html#msg250949
Functionality looks very similar to Actions SoC based players. Can't say anything nice about it.

[pmp4]

The internal name is "YP3"

The Usb information is:
ID 301a:2801 SmartlinkTechnology USB2.0 Device

The same manufacturer of my 1.77 inch player: https://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,54269.msg250949.html#msg250949
Functionality looks very similar to Actions SoC based players. Can't say anything nice about it.

I agree, it's like a Actions clone, but it's not actions.

So it must be a new version, instead a old version, newer than Spreadtrum.

At least this SoC has a decent DAC, unlike Spreadtrum. Although maybe in processor/ram is worst, I dont know yet.

The video format is AVI, is it?

Actions 1.77 inch players video format is AMV 160x128 (MJPEG video+AdPCM audio).
But this Actions-clone use a MJPEG AVI format 128x160 in 1.77 inch players and raw audio s16, 240x320 in 2.4 inch players.

Another good thing: Spreadtrum bluetooth doesnt work well in mono connections (using one earbud), it hangs after 20mins.
But this actions-clone works well with one earbud.

Besides, the battery consumption seems to be lower.

[saucell]

can you fix a bad DAC chip with firmware or will it always be bad because its hardware?

[pmp4]

can you fix a bad DAC chip with firmware or will it always be bad because its hardware?

I guess is DAC, but I dont know 100%.

I know that in any format, even .wav, Spreadtrum players play bad some music, maybe you don't notice in some songs, but in electronic music songs, you can listen how sounds fades out and in every beat.

Of course that is only applied to wired headphones, with bluetooth earphones there's no problem.

Anyway, even the most cheap Actions player has not that problem, and YP3 players neither.

Spreadtrum is a widely used SoC in feature phones, so it's hard to believe that is a hardware issue and it can't be corrected through firmware.

But if a 2.4 inch player 240x360 is cheaper than a 1.77 inch 128x160 player, who would choose Spreadtrum instead YP3?