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See this page for details of other
portable players that are compatible with Ogg Vorbis.
Disclaimer
This information is published in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Computer hardware manufacturers are notorious for changing the specification of their products, whilst
keeping the same part numbers. What has worked for me might not work for you - proceed at your own risk.
Audience
This article assumes reasonable familiarity with the GNU/Linux operating system and operations such
as downloading new firmware to devices.
Update
2006-06-09 - Add notes on audio recording and another photo.
Introduction
The iRiver iFP-790 in the supplied case with carry strap, and a pair of the lightweight
headphones that I prefer to earpieces.
Two things have remained fairly constant throughout my life: a love of nearly all types of music, and the need to
travel. This means I have always looked for ways to take music with me on my travels. When I was young, one was
limited to the wireless (as it used to be called) until portable reel - to - reel tape players became available
in the late sixties. I had a Philips machine, that took 9 cm diameter reels of tape, and ate through a set of
four C - size cells at an alarming rate. Later on, portable compact cassette players became available. I had
one which was a player only, and the size of a telephone directory. Battery life was still a problem, and
rechargeable cells were still not commonplace. Later came the compact disk revolution, and soon afterwards the
first generation of portable players. Fine if you kept still, but otherwise a nasty tendency to skip. I had an
anti - skip model, and tried with only limited success to use it in my car. Weighted platforms, foam insulation,
elastic suspension - you name it, I tried it, but the rutted roads in the south west of England would always get
the better of it.
Meanwhile, at home, the digital revoloution was progressing nicely, and I had transferred most of my music
collection to digital form, using the Ogg Vorbis compression system which had the advantages of being
an open system, better sound quality and better compression compared with proprietary formats. As an IT
professional, I was an early adopter of
the GNU/Linux operating
system, admiring both the openness and stability that this system gave me.
The first digital music player I bought was not an unqualified success. It worked well enough, but required music
files in a proprietary format. At least a driver existed so that I could load files into it from my
GNU/Linux systems. Also, the 32MB of memory available was a bit limiting. The demise of this player started when
the belt clip broke, and the unit took a trip across the tiled floor of the toilets at Hong Kong airport. After
that episode, the battery compartment would not close properly, leading to loss of programme (and battery) if
anything strenuous was attempted.
The search for a replacement was on. The main requirements were:
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Ogg Vorbis playback
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Enough storage for several audio CDs of programme
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Easy file transfer from a GNU/Linux machine
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Reasonable battery life
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Reasonable price
Eventually I happened upon
the iRiver iFP 790. This device
could handle Ogg Vorbis files, as well as several proprietary formats. Battery life was quoted as 40h for
a single AA cell. The only problem was that the unit came with file management software, and this was only
available for proprietary operating systems.
I contacted iRiver to see if they were going to produce a GNU/Linux version of their file management software.
They said they were not, but that the firmware in the player could be changed to make the unit behave as a
UMS device, in other words the storage in the device behaves exactly as
the memory in a USB key drive.
Pricing
The first iFP-790 I aquired was for
the USW project
in June 2005. At that time I paid 139.00€ for the device. The price has now fallen considerably, and
the unit I bought for myself in December 2005 cost 78.90€ from one of the computer shops in
the 12th district of Paris. For people within travelling distance of Paris,
the current best
price can be found here.
Manufacturer's Specifications
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Memory
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Flash
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256 MB
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Data Interface
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USB
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USB 2.0 (High Speed)
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Audio
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Frequency Range
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20 Hz ~ 20 kHz
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Headphone Output
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18 mW into 16 Ω
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S/N
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90 dB (MP3)
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FM Tuner
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FM frequency range
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87.5 MHz ~ 108 MHz
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S/N
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60 dB
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Antenna
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Headphone Cord
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File Support
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File type
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Ogg Vorbis, MPEG 1/2/2.5 Layer 3, ASF, WMA
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Bit Rate
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Ogg: 44.1 kHz, 96 kbit/s ~ 225 kbit/s
Other: 8 kbit/s ~ 320 kbit/s
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Tag Info
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ID3 V1, ID3 V2 2.0, ID3 V 2 3.0, ID3 V2 4.0
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Encoding
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11.025 kHz ~ 44.1 kHz, 8 kbit/s ~ 320 kbit/s
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LCD
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Full Graphic 4 line with backlight
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Language
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40 Languages
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Voice Recording
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Approx 72 hrs (8 kbit/s, 256 MB)
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Battery Life
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Approx 40 hrs
(128 kbit/s MP3, Vol = 20, EQ normal, Alkaline AA 2400 mAH)
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Dimensions
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87 mm x 32 mm x 27.6 mm
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Weight
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37 g without battery
62 g with battery
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Battery
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1 x AA alkaline
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Operating Temperature
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-5 °C ~ 40 °C
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Changing the Firmware
The initial change to UMS firmware
must, at the present time, be done using the iRiver device management software, and this means borrowing a
machine running a proprietary operating system. The procedure is quite straightforward, and
is described in detail in the iRiver web site.
The current UMS firmware (US, English) as of 2005-12-27 is
iFP-790(us)_V185ums.zip,
and versions for other languages and regions may also be found on the iRiver site.
Organising files on the iFP-790 under GNU/Linux
The iFP-790 is very easy to use with a modern GNU/Linux distribution. For example, using Fedora Core 4
and the KDE desktop, the iFP-790 is switched on and then plugged in to a USB port on the computer. A key drive
icon appears on the desktop. Clicking the icon mounts the iFP-790 as indicated by a green arrow on the icon, and
a Konqueror window opens to reveal the device file structure.
Transferring files is a matter of drag and drop or copy and paste from another Konqueror window, and takes less time
to do than to describe.
After transfer, right click the icon and select "Safely Remove". The device will be unmounted, as indicated by
the disappearance of the green arrow from the icon, and the device may then be safely unplugged.
On older systems, one has to explicitly make a mountpoint for the player. For example, using a machine
based on SUsE Linux 7.3, log in as root then make a mountpoint for the player:
and then add the following line to /etc/fstab
/dev/sda /media/iriver auto noauto,user,sync 0 0
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This assumes that there are no other SCSI devices on the machine. If there are, change "sda" to the next available free
allocation.
Once this is done, log in using a user log in. Switch on the iFP-790 and plug it into a USB port. It will now be
possible to mount the iFP-790 and transfer files to and from the device using the standard tools. Alternatively, if
you use the KDE graphical desktop, make a new hard drive icon on the desktop and set the device as /media/iriver.
Clicking the icon mounts the iFP-790 as indicated by a green arrow on the icon, and a Konqueror
window opens to reveal the device file structure.
Transferring files is a matter of drag and drop or copy and paste from another Konqueror window, and takes less time
to do than to describe.
After transfer, right click the icon and select "Unmount". The device will be unmounted, as indicated by
the disappearance of the green arrow from the icon, and the device may then be safely unplugged.
I found that the player does not like some non-alphanumeric characters in filenames, refusing to accept these files.
Bear this in mind when choosing filenames!
Uploading Recordings
The iRiver iFP-790 is able to make digital recordings, either from its built-in microphone, built-in radio or
the line input jack. The recordings become visible in special directories in the unit's file structure,
and may be uploaded in the same manner as any file on a UMS device. The problem is that the uploaded
file is in a proprietary format. When a solution to this problem is found I will post it here!
I thought I would try and make a few recordings with the unit, and examine the file format for possible
hints as to how to convert it to a useable format. I was surprised to find that the player now records
in mp3 format. This format, whilst proprietary, may be played on most operating systems, and can readily be
converted into Ogg Vorbis if required.
Best results were obtained by plugging an electret stereo microphone into the input socket, and setting
the input to 'microphone' by means of one of the on-screen menus. The background noise level was a little too high
for serious recording, but the setup could be useful when a very small recording setup was required. The results
using the inbuilt microphone were not so good, as there was a background 'frying' noise indicative of
some instability somewhere, but still perfectly adequate for voice recording.
Thanks
Endnotes
2006-01-01 - 1st Draft
2006-06-09 - Add notes on audio recording and another photo
The title photo was taken with an Olympus C1400L,
downloaded with gPhoto and
retouched and resized using the GIMP.
 Also available in OpenDocument format.
See my other projects here.
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