I5 Slow Startup Time?

[Vince]

Following the "480 file limit" revelations, I cancelled my order for the I5 2 GB model, but I am still considering the 1 GB model. I like the look of the U2, but I am concerned about the inevitable deterioration over time of the built-in lithium ion battery. I gather that the battery performance of the I5 falls short of the advertised 20 hours, but 15 hours or so from a single AAA battery still seems pretty good to me. I am more worried about the lack of gapless playback, but that seems to be an unavoidable fact of life with the current generation of flash players.

Anyway, to cut to the chase, the deal breaker for me right now is the slow startup time. I have read before that the I5 takes around 10 seconds to turn on, and now I see the same observation made in the recent review on Tom's Hardware Guide:

http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20050513/

I am wondering how much of this startup delay is due to the logo animation? If the logo file is deleted, how long does the I5 take to start up?

[bya]

I have the logo deleted, it's annoying.
Upon pressing play:
4 sec to hear an on beep
another 4 sec to hear music
But really, it doesn't feel all that long.

[David H]

I've got the I5 1 GB and I'm very happy with it so far. Start up time is 8/9 seconds max. Playing LAME MP3s the track gaps are barely noticable.

If 10 seconds is too long for you to wait I personally think you need to go and have a lie down and chill out. I doubt you'll find a flash player that's much quicker and I'm willing to bet that HD players are an awful lot slower. The I5 is a wonderfully versatile little player and sounds great. You could do MUCH worse...

[Vince]

Thanks for the info guys. Actually the MuVo TX takes about three seconds to start, and that's including the two seconds that the power button needs to be held down before the player turns on. According to eXity's review, the U2 takes about three seconds to turn on. I can't understand why the I5 has to take so much longer given that it's based on the same underlying hardware.

Regarding gapless playback, if you have tracks that run together, it doesn't really matter how long the gap is. Either there is a gap or there isn't.

[Tempus]

I think it all depends on how many files you have loaded, and perhaps what kinds. Doesn't it have to scan the entire directory tree under /MUSIC on startup? If you only have a few files, that scan shouldn't take long, but with more files in more directories it should take longer.