Hello,

I am making a list right here for gapless playback compatibility in both devices and software.
Please participate and post any updates. Any field with ?? needs to be tested.
Thanks.

The software section has been removed as a much more detailed guide can be found on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_media_players

A little guide:
First off we start with the name of the player,
then we add a codec: in ex: MP3, and then the version of the codec's Gapless coding in parentheses()

Sony PSP (??)

MP3: ??
ATRAC3plus: Yes
ATRAC3: Yes
WAV: ??

Nintendo DS (Via Moonshell 1.7)

MP3 (LAME): No
WAV: No

Zen Vision:M

MP3 (??): No
WMA: ??
WAV: ??

iPod Classic 6th Gen

MP3 (iTunes): Yes
LC-AAC: Yes
Apple Lossless: Yes
WAV: Yes

iPod Nano 3rd Gen

MP3 (iTunes): Yes
LC-AAC: Yes
Apple Lossless: Yes
WAV: Yes

iPod Shuffle 2nd Gen

MP3 (iTunes): No
LC-AAC: No
Apple Lossless: Yes
WAV: ??

iPod Touch

MP3 (iTunes): Yes
LC-AAC: Yes
Apple Lossless: Yes
WAV: Yes

iPhone

MP3 (iTunes): Yes
LC-AAC: Yes
Apple Lossless: Yes
WAV: Yes

Rockbox Alternative Firmware

Rockbox allows for Gapless playback on various players with various formats

Note: Do not repost the entire guide as this page will be updated.
Last Update: April 2nd 2008, 8:24 EST
Last Update: April 2nd 2008, 8:26 EST
Last Update: April 2nd 2008, 8:36 EST
Last Update: April 5th 2008, 13:16 EST (deleted any players that are not in stores anymore, note: North-America)
Last Update: April 5th 2008, 14:31 EST (completed tests on Lame encoded MP3, FLAC and WAV with Moonshell 1.7 on Nintendo DS)

The Shuffle doesn't do gapless.

Any reason formats like FLAC are missing?

I think it would be interesting to clarify what you mean by "gapless".

Some players analyse the (any/all) mp3 files themselves to do the best gapless playback they can.

Some players can use the gapless info (i.e. padding and length) from lame encoded files.

Some players can use the gapless info written by pcutmp3...
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=35654
...which is the same format as lame files, but can contain much larger values which don't work on all players.

There may be other mechanisms...

It would be nice to know which of these is supported by each player.

Cheers,
David.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of...Audio_players_3

Right. There are different approaches to get MP3 gapless which are not compatible to each other. The most famous around here is probably the LAME tag thingy. Apple's way of doing it is of course different.


As far as I know the Slimdevice models support this now via a current official firmware version.
I think rockboxed players that decode in software (unlike older Archos players) also do support it.

Cheers!
SG

That's right.
I have a rockboxed Sansa c250. Rockbox supports MP3 gapless playback via LAME tags. OGG Vorbis, Musepack and FLAC have containers that allow gapless playback natively, without any special workarounds, and are also suppoted in Rockbox. Another reason why not to use MP3

I think you should also add that every iPod (except the iPod shuffle) plays Apple lossless files gaplessly as well. I think that the 2G and 2.5G iPod shuffle play files gaplessly, they just aren't compatible with Apple lossless. I do know that the 1G shuffle doesn't play files back gaplessly. I sold my 2G iPod shuffle so I can't test it out but I thought it played files back gaplessly, I could be mistaken though. I do not think that any Creative player has gapless playback support either. I have a Creative Zen and it doesn't play the files back gaplessly so I don't think there is a need to list Creative's products.

That being said, you should list every DAP that is compatible with RockBox and gapless playback. There are many SanDisk players that work with RockBox and even the older 3G and 4G iPods. Also, how old are you going to go back? The Rio Karma was a gapless player but that came out around 2002/2003 (or maybe even earlier, I know it competed with the 3G iPod which was 2003).

You could add all Sony hardware players (NW-series and Minidisk) that support Atrac3. Which means mostly old models, except new models released in Japan. Only Atrac3 is gapless, not other codecs that might be supported (MP3, WMA, AAC).

You could also add Pocket PC's with Pocket Player or Pocket Music software. (I have heard that Pocket Music is not perfect, but Pocket Player does a good job with all supported codecs: MP3, OGG, MPC, FLAC, APE, WMA (incl WMApro).)

The Trekstor Vibez should also support gapless with MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV or FLAC.

the psp does play mp3/m4a gapless that was the first thing i tested when i bought it

Alright, thanks for answering everyone,
the reason I am making this is to help myself also, I was aware of the different tagging methods for Mp3, but I do not know how to check this and haven't tested any.

The whole point of this Topic is exactly that: To find out with other people's tests.

As of software, I will simply remove it, I'll concentrate on Hardware Portable Players.
See: Wikipedia for software.

The reason FLAC is missing is because I didn't test it, but it also isn't available on the currently listed players, I admit, I didn't test the iPod shuffle either, but I thought every recent Apple device that are out would be gapless, since iTunes is.
So if anyone can test FLAC with players, that'd be cool.

As of Rockbox, it's an alternative firmware, and I won't put it directly aside players but in a new section under them. The reason for this is simply that I want to find each Hardware Player's current capacity without having been modded.

So how far am I gonna go back? Probably as long as the device can be bought. This is a gapless guide to buyable devices, so older iPods such as a 2nd gen won't be included, they don't need to be in this guide.

And to answer the PSP mp3 Gapless, I would like to know on what version of the PSP Firmware you did this, and what was the famous gapless coding of the MP3s (since my own very recent test turned out negative). And no, I didn't test LC-AAC on the PSP (aka m4a, but I think m4a can also contain HE-AAC so I want to precise).

Thank you


Edit: I forgot the Trekstor Vibez, however, I can't get my hands on one in North-America, and as Trondis said: It should support gapless playback. But "Should" is not enough, can someone test this interesting player that is available in Europe I think.

Edit: I also decided to include any players that can be tested, even those who don't support gapless playback. The simple reason for that is that we obviously can't test every existing player on the planet, so any new tested players will be listed on there.

Regarding Trekstor Vibez, check the Wiki-page here. This page states that it supports gapless. I wrote "should" since I don't have it.

I have a couple of old Sony players (NWHD1 and NWHD3), a HI-MD Minidisk player and a pocket PC with Pocket Player, so I can confirm that they support gapless playback.

Regarding newer Sony players (NWZ-series) I am not sure. Some say they are gapless, others say they are not. So I would welcome a clarification here.

Sony NW-S70x series
MP3: no
LC-AAC: yes (only with AAC ripped by Sonicstage, extension .3gp. AAC .m4a ripped via iTunes is not gapless)
Atrac: yes

The iPod shuffle (any gen) do not support gapless playback. They do not support Apple lossless.