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2009-01-14
, 06:32
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Posts: 4,930 |
Thanked: 2,272 times |
Joined on Oct 2007
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#2
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Originally Posted by lerker
Battery life shouldn't be an issue for just music. I get over 6 hours battery life playing music over earbuds at a reasonable volume, and I'm using a libMAD-based player, which decodes MP3 on the CPU. Most of the popular media players offload decoding to the DSP, which yields even longer battery life; I've heard over 8-10 hours. But I rarely use it only for music, and especially if you can get on university wifi, neither will you.
Well, my current iPod is about kick the bucket within a short time; so I've been considering my options.
I was debating on a 16 gig touch (~$300), 32 gig touch (~$400) or a 80 gig classic (~$250ish). The 8 gig is just way too little; it's out of the question. My current 30 gig is nearly full of music alone - I love my music
Then I found out about the n8x0 series, and my jaw dropped. As an advid fan of computers/computer systems, and a current undergrad univeristy student in Computer Science the tablet is really appealing. In addition, I truely do not like apple. I love the iPods; Apple as a company, not so much. The open source aspect of the tablet is definately a plus. And of course with the n800, 2x removable flash memory is just beyond comprehensible for me :P
I commute approximately 3 or more hours per day for school, which brings up the question of battery life. The nokia site advertises 3.5 hours browsing battery life. Using this thing as a more or less strictly music player, what could I expect in terms of battery time? Obviously I'd be using it plenty more than just music in reality, I'm just concerned it may not make it even using it soley for music.
TL;DR
Main question: How would the n800 function as a media player alternative? Keeping in mind I commute about ~3 hours or more in a day. My main concern is battery life.
It's a sweet note-taking machine, too. I can't really say it has all-day battery life with the stock battery.You don't describe the nature of your commute, but if it's in a car, a 12V charger would be in order; if not, you should consider some sort of extended battery. For the N810, you can get an aftermarket battery with over twice the capacity. For the N800, you can use an external USB battery pack with a 2.5mm adapter. (There's also an extended battery that fits the N800, but it's not sold for the N800, and comes with a bulged battery cover for some phone, not the N800; I got one, but haven't made a custom cover yet, which is my plan. It ran over 12 hours playing music and doing some light web surfing.)
Some people also get a second stock battery and swap them, but of course you have to reboot for that; I prefer to keep the primary battery topped up with an external charger, but swapping does work, and I do carry a second battery (the jumbo one) for emergencies.
Depends what you're after in non-music stuff, but if you're buying now, I'd strongly recommend picking up an N800. The N810 is in some ways (transflective screen, slide-out keyboard) a step up, and in some ways (no FM tuner, d-pad concealed on slider, 1x fixed 2GB + 1x miniSD instead of 2x SD) a step down; internals (CPU, etc.) are practically identical, though. The N800 is cheaper, and is not likely to drop much lower for waiting.
But Nokia is releasing the successor (code name RX-51, should be a dramatic improvement: next-generation processor, 3d acceleration, 3G data connectivity, probably TV-out, and more.) sometime the first half of this year, so if you find the N800 doesn't cut it, you can either pick up an N810 dirt cheap this summer, or shell out whatever they want for the new tablet.
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2009-01-14
, 19:58
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Posts: 46 |
Thanked: 36 times |
Joined on Sep 2008
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#3
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if you are a computer science major, then get it already. I was going to warn you away if you were less technically inclined, but how can you turn down weekend bash scripting, vim, nethack, javascript, etc. along with a fully functional web browser with flash?
Regarding the music player: the media player that came with it is perfectly fine, it does everything you would want it to do. I actually spent some time writing a vim resource file so that vim would be a front end for the media player. But, yeah, tons of fun for the weekend scripter.
Oh... btw I have an n810.
Regarding the music player: the media player that came with it is perfectly fine, it does everything you would want it to do. I actually spent some time writing a vim resource file so that vim would be a front end for the media player. But, yeah, tons of fun for the weekend scripter.
Oh... btw I have an n810.
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2009-01-14
, 21:48
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Posts: 7 |
Thanked: 1 time |
Joined on Jan 2009
@ Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
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#4
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Originally Posted by Benson
Yeah I guess that's makes quite the difference...
You don't describe the nature of your commute...
I take public transit. About ~40 minute train ride downtown to my campus, depending on the day another good 30+ minutes bussing to the station (for a less than 10 minute drive, go figure). If I had a vehicle I don't think I'd mind so much.. but especially taking public transit I need my music for entertainment hehe...
Originally Posted by Benson
If (more likely when) I get one, I'm certainly thinking the N800 over the N810. The lack of significant improvement from the N800-N810 I've seen really doesn't make the 810 seem worth it. Not to mention 2x SD slots... that pretty much sold it for me right there over the 810.
I'd strongly recommend picking up an N800. The N810 is in some ways (transflective screen, slide-out keyboard) a step up, and in some ways (no FM tuner, d-pad concealed on slider, 1x fixed 2GB + 1x miniSD instead of 2x SD) a step down; internals (CPU, etc.) are practically identical, though. The N800 is cheaper, and is not likely to drop much lower for waiting.
But Nokia is releasing the successor (code name RX-51, should be a dramatic improvement: next-generation processor, 3d acceleration, 3G data connectivity, probably TV-out, and more.) sometime the first half of this year, so if you find the N800 doesn't cut it, you can either pick up an N810 dirt cheap this summer, or shell out whatever they want for the new tablet.
Really, the battery and media player were my main concerns.
Up here in the land of igloos, moose, beavers and excessive beer drinking (or so they say) the winters like to butcher your portable electronics batteries... the -22ºC/-30ºC windchill (-7.6ºF/-22ºF wind for you Americans :P) this morning definitely backed that up... 30+ minute train delays due to frozen switches are always fun as well
Originally Posted by q335r49
No kidding
how can you turn down weekend bash scripting, vim, nethack, javascript, etc. along with a fully functional web browser with flash?
Last edited by lerker; 2009-01-14 at 21:55.
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2009-01-14
, 22:01
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Posts: 961 |
Thanked: 565 times |
Joined on Jul 2007
@ Tyneside, North East England
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#5
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I got an N800 christmas 2007 and 2 16GB cards. Canola has been ran every day since then, and it's still uber-cool, and the best thing I own.
If storage is the key for you, and it sounds like it is, then pick up an N800, and 2 32Gb cards. The flexibility will crush stuff like apples, archos's into the ground. Oh, and if that's no enough then you can also plug in a usb hard disk....
There are at least 5 different mainstream media players I can think of of the top of my head, so there should be one to suit your tastes, although for my music on the 800 (about 28GB) I find Canola is the best performing, and easiest to control in the car. It also has enough eye candy to make apple lovers green!
I use wayfinder, Canola, and Carman daily for a couple of hours a day, and canola has ran more or less continously for 17 hours today. I keep the tablet plugged in on my desk at home and work, battery life is never an issue for me. As it uses a standard Nokia phone charger, you could always by an emergency phone charger and keep that in the bottom of the bag.
Gaz
If storage is the key for you, and it sounds like it is, then pick up an N800, and 2 32Gb cards. The flexibility will crush stuff like apples, archos's into the ground. Oh, and if that's no enough then you can also plug in a usb hard disk....
There are at least 5 different mainstream media players I can think of of the top of my head, so there should be one to suit your tastes, although for my music on the 800 (about 28GB) I find Canola is the best performing, and easiest to control in the car. It also has enough eye candy to make apple lovers green!
I use wayfinder, Canola, and Carman daily for a couple of hours a day, and canola has ran more or less continously for 17 hours today. I keep the tablet plugged in on my desk at home and work, battery life is never an issue for me. As it uses a standard Nokia phone charger, you could always by an emergency phone charger and keep that in the bottom of the bag.
Gaz
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2009-01-14
, 22:04
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Posts: 961 |
Thanked: 565 times |
Joined on Jul 2007
@ Tyneside, North East England
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#6
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I also stream recordings from my mythtv box, ssh into it to hack about with it, VNC into it. The web browser is great. Gmail over imap in the std email client works great too these days.
I love my N800, going to buy a spare one in case mine breaks, as I would be absolutley lost without it.
I love my N800, going to buy a spare one in case mine breaks, as I would be absolutley lost without it.
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2009-01-14
, 22:48
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Moderator |
Posts: 7,109 |
Thanked: 8,820 times |
Joined on Oct 2007
@ Vancouver, BC, Canada
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#7
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If you're interested in watching video, you need to get mplayer for the tablet and make sure you transcode your videos to XVID 400x240, 600-800 kbps (depending on the amount of action -- the more high-action scenes, the lower you should set the bitrate). For the best quality, I recommend doing a two-pass encode. I suggest resizing the video to 240 height, and then cropping the width to 400. The results will be spectacular and will have everyone in the train looking over your shoulder.
And yes, N800 is great for audio/video playback, but using the console and VNC viewer can be a bit of a pain with only a virtual keyboard.
Last edited by qole; 2009-01-14 at 22:51.
And yes, N800 is great for audio/video playback, but using the console and VNC viewer can be a bit of a pain with only a virtual keyboard.
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Please don't send me a private message, post to the appropriate thread.
Thank you all for your donations!
Last edited by qole; 2009-01-14 at 22:51.
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2009-01-14
, 23:04
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Posts: 1,137 |
Thanked: 402 times |
Joined on Sep 2007
@ Catalunya
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#8
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Originally Posted by lerker
It must be real light browsing they're talking about.
The nokia site advertises 3.5 hours browsing battery life.
I've never got more than 2 hours of use from my n800.
OTOH additional batteries are cheap on ebay.
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2009-01-14
, 23:06
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Posts: 2,535 |
Thanked: 6,681 times |
Joined on Mar 2008
@ UK
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#9
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Originally Posted by qole
So, that'd be:
If you're interested in watching video, you need to get mplayer for the tablet and make sure you transcode your videos to XVID 400x240, 600-800 kbps (depending on the amount of action -- the more high-action scenes, the lower you should set the bitrate). For the best quality, I recommend doing a two-pass encode. I suggest resizing the video to 240 height, and then cropping the width to 400. The results will be spectacular and will have everyone in the train looking over your shoulder.
Code:
tablet-encode -2 -p mplayer some_input_video_or_dvd /media/disk0/Video/rip.avi
__________________
Andrew Flegg -- mailto:andrew@bleb.org | http://www.bleb.org
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2009-01-14
, 23:19
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Posts: 169 |
Thanked: 38 times |
Joined on Jul 2007
@ Brooklyn, NY
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#10
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Originally Posted by qole
Even IM can be a pain -- when I was using an N800 I found the full-screen to modal and I'd miss new IMs while I was typing a reply to an old one. (And I didn't want to chat with the stylus keyboard.) Muuuch better on the N810... for me, anyway. But yes, using X Terminal is much nicer when you have a physical keyboard as an option.
N800 is great for audio/video playback, but using the console and VNC viewer can be a bit of a pain with only a virtual keyboard.
I was debating on a 16 gig touch (~$300), 32 gig touch (~$400) or a 80 gig classic (~$250ish). The 8 gig is just way too little; it's out of the question. My current 30 gig is nearly full of music alone - I love my music
Then I found out about the n8x0 series, and my jaw dropped. As an advid fan of computers/computer systems, and a current undergrad univeristy student in Computer Science the tablet is really appealing. In addition, I truely do not like apple. I love the iPods; Apple as a company, not so much. The open source aspect of the tablet is definately a plus. And of course with the n800, 2x removable flash memory is just beyond comprehensible for me :P
I commute approximately 3 or more hours per day for school, which brings up the question of battery life. The nokia site advertises 3.5 hours browsing battery life. Using this thing as a more or less strictly music player, what could I expect in terms of battery time? Obviously I'd be using it plenty more than just music in reality, I'm just concerned it may not make it even using it soley for music.
TL;DR
Main question: How would the n800 function as a media player alternative? Keeping in mind I commute about ~3 hours or more in a day. My main concern is battery life.