Am I missing something?

[fundamentalman]

I have been looking for an MP3 player for some time that had UMS support (drag and drop - and the ability to play what has been dragged and dropped) and I am realizing that my list of available players is very small. Am I being unrealistic in looking for a player with such a feature? Why are the manufacturers overlooking such a feature? Is it because of DRM? Thanks.

[CrowdAds]

[Vince]

No idea sorry!

OT:
Sorry for goin off topic, but is your nickname somehow related to the Pet Shop Boys new album Fundamental?

[Don]

Yeah, I believe that it is largely because of DRM that there are fewer players coming out with UMS support now. I'm fairly new to shopping for DAPs, but in the last 5 months that I've been researching, I think that DAP makers want to align themselves with online music services. From what I can tell, it's possible to have both DRM *and* UMS support. But DAP makers may be dropping the UMS support in order to make it appear easier for the average consumer to load music onto their players. Giving user only one choice makes it look "simpler"

[MusicOnly]

There seem to be a number of players that will support UMS (or at least that you can connect the player to a computer and treat the player as a USB device--there may be more to full-fledged UMS support for all I know), but don't admit it. (That's "support" in the sense of "there's a way to make it work, but the company may not admit it and probably won't tell you how.")

See, e.g., the UMS discussion on the Samsung Z5 board.

I've come to the conclusion that UMS support (or at least being able to treat a player as a USB device) is an absolute requirement for me, simply because it avoids a lot of potential compatiblity problems, particularly given that I'm still using Windows 98. ("Built-in firewall? Back in my day we had to make our own firewalls out of paper clips and leftover bytes from the Recycle Bin.")

[baitykris1]

I had a Sandisk 512 DAP. I could drag and drop my stuff into. I usually used it to listen to podcasts so I didn't have any DRM issues. I have now upgraded to the Sandisk E260. Great device which also has this option. I find it better to sync it up though as it organizes by songs and albums for me.

[aaronw]

Originally Posted by fundamentalman

I have been looking for an MP3 player for some time that had UMS support (drag and drop - and the ability to play what has been dragged and dropped) and I am realizing that my list of available players is very small. Am I being unrealistic in looking for a player with such a feature? Why are the manufacturers overlooking such a feature? Is it because of DRM? Thanks.

I started a topic on this already: http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...hread.php?t=19

Mods - please move this topic to there.

[fundamentalman]

Originally Posted by aaronw

I started a topic on this already: http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...hread.php?t=19

Mods - please move this topic to there.

I disagree. Your thread is about what UMS players are available. This is about why UMS is important.

[dfkt]

It wasn't very clear in your original post if you wanted to have a list of UMS-DAPs, or a general opinion about UMS vs. DRM/MTP...

Actually, there are as many UMS-DAP manufacturers as there are evil-corporate-DRM manufacturers... they're just not as well-known as the big companies that suck up to the RIAA, Sony, Apple, Microsoft and whatnot...

[fundamentalman]

[QUOTE=dfkt]It wasn't very clear in your original post if you wanted to have a list of UMS-DAPs, or a general opinion about UMS vs. DRM/MTP...

Yes, I see your point and agree. Sorry for the confusion. I guess that what I am driving at is - do I really need UMS? I always thought that I did because I have my MP3s organized in very logical folders and I know where everything is. So using some flackey piece of software to get my MP3s on the player (that will change things around) scares me a little bit. Am I right in my fears?

[dfkt]

I'm definitely with you on that point. I want my files ordered my way, not the way iTunes/WMP/whatever thinks it should organize my music. For me, UMS is the main point if a DAP is worth further consideration or not (besides sound quality, of course).