MP3 player(the physical kind) supporting Unicode or UTF-18?

[LordOfTheFlies]

So I was thinking about getting an MP3-player since I haven't had one in my possession for ages. Now, I was wondering if anyone knows if you can find a non-Japanese MP3-player which supports Japanese characters(Through Unicode or UTF-16 for instance). It isn't that important really but I figured it would be cool since I listen to a lot of Japanese music and the names of artists and titles are usually not romanized. I do realize that it's possible to romanize them but I still figured I'd give it a shot to find an MP3 player with native support. I'm not interested in buying a smart phone, just a plain MP3 player. I don't know how to go on about to find one, since the specifications usually listed are only for memory, weight and things you normally look at. The reason why I don't want a Japanese MP3 player is that I fear for the amount of money it would cost to ship it here, as well as the recharger(if it doesn't use normal store bought batteries) wouldn't work in the electrical sockets here.

I'd appreciate if someone could help me.

[micahcowan]

Not sure if you know this already, but the Japanese wall sockets are virtually identical to US ones, so if you have a way to get a hold of AC converters for US electronics, those should work equally well with Japanese electronics.

I don't know your answer for certain, but I suspect that you either need a Japanese MP3 player, or a smart player (not necessarily a smartphone; I suspect just about any of Apple's MP3-playing products may support Japanese characters).

Are there no niche Japanese electronics stores in your area? Where I am, there are a couple places I can go to get Japanese electronics (limited selection, and I'm not sure the price is better than just having it shipped to me from Play-Asia or amazon.co.jp, but...)

Anyway, good luck!

[Hyperworm]

I suspect just about any of Apple's MP3-playing products may support Japanese characters

I'm pretty sure this is the case as well. My iPod touch supports Japanese, as did my 3rd-generation classic iPod years ago.
Entry of Japanese characters for searching is also possible on iPod touch.

I didn't really want to give this answer because I don't want to make it seem like iPod is the best or only option - I'd prefer to present a balanced general perspective rather than directing you straight to Apple - but unfortunately iPod is the only mp3 player I'm familiar with. ._.

Incidentally, it's UTF-16, not 18.

[LordOfTheFlies]

Not sure if you know this already, but the Japanese wall sockets are virtually identical to US ones, so if you have a way to get a hold of AC converters for US electronics, those should work equally well with Japanese electronics.

I don't know your answer for certain, but I suspect that you either need a Japanese MP3 player, or a smart player (not necessarily a smartphone; I suspect just about any of Apple's MP3-playing products may support Japanese characters).

Are there no niche Japanese electronics stores in your area? Where I am, there are a couple places I can go to get Japanese electronics (limited selection, and I'm not sure the price is better than just having it shipped to me from Play-Asia or amazon.co.jp, but...)

Anyway, good luck!

I'm sure I can find a converter for US wall sockets fairly easy, but that seems a bit roundabout to use a US adapter in Sweden for Japanese electronics ^^ I should be able to find an adapter for Japanese sockets as well, just not as easily. Unforunately there are no Japanese shops anywhere here in Sweden since we most likely have fewer Japanese people living in all of Sweden than only the area you live in. I guess I'll have to ask the manufactors by email or something and if I'm unlucky I'll just have to order a Japanese media player. Thank you

Incidentally, it's UTF-16, not 18.

Of course it is! Silly me, and thanks

[ダラゴスちゃん]

Anything with rockbox on it! Just install the font pack and use a UTF-16 supporting font. There are plenty!

[micahcowan]

Anything with rockbox on it! Just install the font pack and use a UTF-16 supporting font. There are plenty!

Good point, that. Obviously a bit work-intensive, but rockbox (an Open Source media-player firmware) is supported on many different devices.

I actually know the guy who started rockbox (Daniel Stenberg, who also created a popular URL-downloading library called libcurl). Really cool guy.

[ダラゴスちゃん]

Wow! That's pretty cool that you know him, didn't know he made curl.

Anyway, rockbox now has an easy to use installer. It's not too work intensive. It's pretty close to the time it takes to install firefox :p

[aru303]

Well I still got philips Go gear, 4GB and it does support japanese
here is it's picture http://gadgetzone.info/uploadfiles/1279 ... 988548.jpg